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Published on 2 Comments on 50th Hits Close To Home

This post originally appeared in November 2013.

I am no different from many other bloggers in that you will see a variety of posts from me this month on the topic of the Kennedy assassination. And why not? Dramatic, compelling, mysterious, with significant political and historical ramifications - it pushes all my History Nerd buttons.

I also have a couple of extra buttons on this topic. I am a native Texan. Dallas is my hometown. I grew up in Oak Cliff, not far from many of the key events that unfolded that day.

We were not living in Dallas in 1963. After bouncing around the Milwaukee Braves farm system for a few years (Boise ID, Lawton OK), my dad decided professional baseball was not going to feed a family of four. We moved to Denver, where my maternal grandmother lived, and Dad got a real job. I was five when Kennedy was killed. I remember being highly annoyed that boring grownup news shows were interrupting Captain Kangaroo. Yes, I am embarrassed about that now, but that's my vivid recollection of that day.

Not long after that terrible day, my folks decided to move back to Dallas. Both had grown up there. They met in 7th grade, were high school sweethearts. The title of this post is not a cliche. After reading a great article in Slate magazine (which btw features my cousin Darwin Payne, author and retired SMU history prof), I realized several of that day's events were literally close to my childhood home as well as that of my parents, especially my mom.

This cheesy screen grab of Google Maps brings things into a little more focus. After Oswald left the grassy knoll, he returned to the community of Oak Cliff across the river from downtown Dallas. At the time of the assassination, he was renting a room in a boarding house on Beckley Avenue (purple pin). Beckley Ave. also happens to be the exit off I-30 one would use to get to the house I grew up in (pink pin). Much has changed over the last fifty years, but on my end of Beckley Avenue, it's still the home of Lone Star Donuts and Ripley Shirts.

Oswald's boarding house on Beckley was about a block from Lake Cliff Park. This park was the site of much enjoyable recreation in the 1950s. It had an enormous public swimming pool (long since filled in), which happened to be my mom's first job as a teenager. According to Mom, much adolescent hijinx occurred there. Part of me wants to know more. The other part has adopted a 'don't ask, don't tell' policy.

The Slate article also says Oswald walked a mile or so south on Beckley from the boarding house to near W. H. Adamson High School (aqua pin). This is the first I have heard of an Oswald connection to that school. That's where my folks fell in love. That's where my dad played basketball and baseball and earned a scholarship to Sul Ross State University. That's where they made some lifelong friends who still get together occasionally for some of that classic Tex Mex you just can't get anywhere outside of Texas. I don't know if school was in session that day. It would have been the Friday before Thanksgiving. The thought of an armed assassin strolling along the sidewalk near a school filled with students gives me the chills.

After passing Adamson, Oswald had his fateful encounter with Dallas police officer J,D. Tippitt at about 10th and Patton (green pin). Reading that really rocked my world. My mom grew up on Patton Street (yellow pin). As the eldest of six, she was married and out of the house in 1963, but some of the family still lived in her childhood home then. They lived a few blocks north of 10th Street, close enough to have possibly heard the shot that ended Officer Tippitt's life.

Oswald's last stop in Oak Cliff was an attempted escape through the Jefferson Blvd. retail district. He was captured in the Texas Theater (blue pin). I don't recall ever visiting it in my 20-odd years living in Oak Cliff. For many years after the shooting, it was considered uncouth as a Dallasite to show morbid interest in anything related to that event. The closest I have been to Dealey Plaza is driving home from downtown through the triple underpass. Never, ever, walked the grassy knoll or pointed with finger or camera lens at the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository. But as Oak Cliff residents, we certainly passed near or shopped at Jefferson Blvd. on an almost daily basis. It was home to many iconic Oak Cliff businesses, including Red Bryan's, the Charco Broiler, Skillerns Drug Store, and the Lamar & Smith Funeral Home (which I mention because the Smiths were our neighbors).

They say times have changed, that Dallas is no longer primarily known as 'the city that killed the President'. During this time of year when we are asked to pause and reflect on our blessings, that is certainly one of the many things for which I am thankful.

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Published on Leave a comment on I’d Rather Have A Root Canal
I guess things could always be worse

Technology is a beautiful thing. Some of the all-time great inventions that we cannot live without: cell phone, Internet, microwave, corkscrew. But what about some of the little things that just smooth things out as we go along? One in particular I am thinking of is so clever, the great glass-screened opiate of the masses. This would be the placement of televisions in all sorts of places to take your mind off the fact that you are waiting, waiting, waiting, interminably and sometimes uncomfortably. Airports are one. Waiting rooms are another. But my personal fave is the baby TVs perched on the equipment next to the dentist chair.

In the days before Chair TV, you would either wait in the eponymous waiting room or sit in the dentist chair all alone. Neither one of these is optimal especially considering none of us is happy to be anywhere near the dentist office, much less near where you get drilled in the mouth (chair) or in the wallet (waiting room).  In the waiting room, they can't take the chance that a bunch of us would band together and either revolt or leave after having to wait too long. In the chair by yourself, the chances are good that you will start pondering your future fate and decide to high-tail it out of there. With Chair TV, both of these risks are eliminated. If the office is big enough, they can shuttle you right in to the chair and let you cool your heels in isolation. They get you out of the waiting room so you think you might actually be seen on time. You are away from the influences of other riff-raff. And the calming drone of the TV takes your mind off of any unpleasantness that may be coming your way.

At my previous dentist office this usually worked great because, to their credit, I rarely had to wait long, and their Chair TV was easy to change the channel. At my new dentist yesterday, sad to say neither of these things were true. It took me 35 minutes to make it past the waiting room and into solitary. Which wasn't too bad because there was a guilty pleasure on the waiting room TV - the dapper-as-always Anderson Cooper featuring a bunch of prostitutes arguing about how they were providing a much needed service, and a bunch of divorcees who begged to differ. It was juicy. All was going well until I got bumped to solitary with my own Chair TV. Unfortunately it was tuned to a politically themed snooze fest. I tried to change the channel but they were too clever for me - they hide the remote better than the day care staff at La Petite.

So I did what I usually do when trapped in an unpleasant situation - I went to my Happy Place and tried to tune it out. This worked fine until the dentist and his assistant showed up and said, "Open wide". As if this was not unpleasant enough, the assistant perked up when the subject of health care cycled through the news hour. And . . . we're off!

Before I know it, the dentist and the assistant are arguing the health care debate like they are auditioning for Ann Curry's old job, all this while I have about $8,000 of dental equipment and three fingers crammed into my mouth. It was Misinformed Neo-Con vs. Patronizing Know-It-All. We went from unpleasant to annoying in 10 seconds flat. Just ask me how much I wanted to bite down. Hard. But who to bite? I couldn't see which of them had the sharpest instruments in hand.

Next time I go to the dentist I will be better prepared.

1) I will not sit in the chair until someone shows me how to change the channel on Chair TV.

2) I will prepare a list of preferred discussion topics for any staff who may be hovering 4-12 inches above my head as follows.

  • Your children's recent cute activities
  • Your pet's recent cute activities
  • Any professional or college sport (NASCAR excepted)
  • Any recent topic featured on Anderson, Maury, Springer, or any other guilty pleasure talk show

Absolutely banned (with legal protection order if necessary) from coming within ten yards of me are any personnel who

  • Feel compelled to discuss politics
  • Feel compelled to discuss religion
  • Had garlic for lunch

Walking out of that refrigerated torture chamber was the happiest 30 seconds of my day. Man, was I glad to get out of there. You know how people are always saying they'd rather have a root canal? I actually think that applies here. I will take fillin' and drillin' over arguing politics every time.

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