The Flood, Keeping Your Feet Dry, Alligators & Milk Cans.

When 1949 arrived, rain came with it...lots of rain. All that rain led, in turn, to the infamous '49 flood. If you've been watching the films of all the flooding that occurred at the end of July 2004, especially the area south and southeast of Dallas, visualize that scene in Ft. Worth proper. You have to remember that there were no levees containing the Trinity River on the west side of town, the water treatment plant sat down on the Trinity flood plain (just like Don Carter's bowling alley and the subsequent Hope Community Church on the East Side) and there was little if any protection for any of the other low-lying areas. Result? When it started raining…and raining…and raining (NOAH! WHERE'S THAT ARK WHEN WE NEED IT?), the water followed the path of least resistance.

Once the water rose high enough to overflow it's banks, what came next was predictable. What wasn't predictable was just how bad it would get. The near west side of town, essentially meaning from the bluffs on the east side of the Trinity onward, went underwater. Montgomery Ward was a going concern at that time and their building was flooded all the way up to the second floor. Of course, that much water also contaminated the water treatment plant, meaning you had to boil all of your water (bottled water in every convenience and grocery store wasn't an option then) unless you had access to a deep well that hadn't been flooded. And one more thing. Typhoid shots.

How did the East Side fare? For the most part, pretty well. Keep in mind that the East Side is, in general, one of the highest parts of Tarrant County. In fact, the hill that National Farm Life (On the north side of I-30 and about a mile or so east of Oakland.) sits on has actually been identified as the highest point in the entire county. Put another way, if the East Side ever floods to the point of being submerged, you'll be using a boat to travel over Ft. Worth.

Despite that advantage, there were still problems. Sycamore Creek, which runs under E. Lancaster just west of Marshal Grain, was also out of it's banks and over the highway. My father was working for Swift's at the cold storage plant (the T&P warehouse just west of the post office on E. Lancaster) and rode the bus home every day during the flood. According to his stories, the water was so deep over the road that all passengers had to stand up in their seats in order to keep their feet dry as the bus made it's way slowly thru the water. Strange, isn't it, that buses in the 1940s could successfully navigate water so deep that the water would be up inside the bus so far that it was nearly to the top of the seat cushions, yet today you're warned not to drive into water that barely reaches your car's bumper?

And, of course, floods bring out all kinds of strange critters living in close proximity to humans that you normally never see. Cottonmouth snakes for one, though those were pretty well expected. What wasn't expected was a little beastie that followed my father down Morris Street when he was walking home from the bus stop. An alligator about three or four feet long that apparently had crawled out of the Trinity. As he told it, the little fella was just simply following him down the street. They ignored each other and the 'gator finally ambled on somewhere else. My father came on home and didn't tell anyone about it…until a photo showed up in the paper showing a man who had caught this alligator. My mother couldn't believe he missed an opportunity to get his picture in the paper!

Finally, does anyone remember those big aluminum milk cans with handles on the side to make it easier to lift? And the big, screw-off lids? The things probably held twenty or twenty-five gallons of milk. It so happened that Swift's had a deep artesian water well inside the cold storage building (presubably it's still there) that was not contiminated by the flood waters and my father would bring artesian water home in those milk cans. As a result, my parents, grandmother and I had clean, fresh water that didn't have to be boiled before drinking.