Mystery Photos, courtesy of Don Pyeatt

Old photos that surface unexpectedly tend to be both fascinating and mysterious. Fascinating because they help to shed light on days gone by. But mysterious at the same time since so much of the information in the photos cannot be positively identified. This problem applies to all aspects of the photos....locations, vehicles and people. All you can do is make your best guess based on careful analysis of the photos, a guess that may be completely wrong. Once you’ve gone as far as you can, your only remaining option is to publish the photos and ask for help from those who see it.

Don Pyeatt acquired these photos from an estate sale here in Ft. Worth. Absolutely nothing is known about them beyond what can be discerned from an analysis of the photos themselves. So, I’m going to be posting these photos one or two at a time, along with the information that was gleaned from them. And I’m going to ask your help in obtaining as much additional information as possible. Anything you can provide will be most welcome. Do you recognize the location? The type of vehicle? How about identifying the individuals? Time period? Any information, even an educated guess, can be valuable.

With that said, the first photo for your consideration is a four-door convertible (they were called touring cars in the 1920s) with three adults and four children that were obviously posing for the photo. This photo raises more than a few questions, starting with the type of car. Due to the wood wheel spokes, removable all-weather top and the suicide doors (The front and rear doors latch at the center post. If the rear door is opened and encounters an obstacle such as a telephone pole, fence post or another car, the door will be ripped of it’s hinges.), it’s obviously a touring car, circa the 1920s.

An enlarged view of the wheel hub reveals a very fuzzy but legible pair of letters, DB, intertwined like a pair of chain links. Since Dodge was doing business as Dodge Brothers in the 1920s and 1930s, the inescapable conclusion is that the vehicle is a 1925 Dodge Brothers Touring Car. Fairly expensive for it’s day, old ads show it as selling for somewhere between $800 and $1,000.

It’s one thing to identify the car, but all remaining questions concerning the photo are unknown. The questions that need answering are:

1. Where was the photo taken? Obviously in the country, but that raises another question because of the fact that the car is sitting on a paved road. In the 1925 – 1930 time period, paved roads weren’t that common, particularly in the country. Is it possible that the road is Highway 80? That has to be considered since the pavement is definitely poured concrete instead of macadam.

2. Who are the people? There’s absolutely nothing to aid in their identification.

3. Since there are two women, one man and four children (with all the children very close in age) who belongs to whom? And what is the relationship of the man to the women? He isn’t wearing a wedding ring, so could he be a brother? Uncle? Friend?

4. Who was the photographer? One of the women's husbands?

As you can see, a single old photograph can produce multiple mysteries.

Headlines From The Meadowlark, May 4, 1951

There was a lot more in The Meadowlark besides ads and a photo of the graduating class. It was a newspaper and the students took their job seriously. First, let’s see who’s listed on The Meadowlark Staff. After that, we’ll work our way thru the paper headline by headline. In line with that, the newspaper staff is as follows:

Editor: Cynthia Seacrest

Assistant Editor: Jackie Tackett

Make-Up Editors: Mary Lou Oliver, Charlene McBrayer, Richard Hollingsworth, Montie Mauldin

Circulation Managers: Jerre Jean Power, John Irby

Business Manager: Kay Spurlock

Advertising Manager: Bob Franks

Exchange Editor: Bill Oglesby

Advertising Staff And Special Reporters: Cecil Davis, Monell Holden, Madelon Mathieu, Jackie Simpson, Barbara Wellman, Alma Netherton, Cathryne Barnett, Charlene McBrayer, Xanthia Macy, Mabell Rainey, Carolyn Rice, Betty Tripp, Mary White, Nancy Fawver, Annelle Northcut, Eleanor Armstrong, Marian Bickle, Jean Hiett, Lanny Ham, Carmen Baltasar, Ella Jane Faris.

Sports Editors: Ted Stuart, Sandie Gordon

Principal: Mr. Charles M. Berry

Dean And Sponsor: Miss Flossie Green

In case the name of Charles Berry sounds familiar, it’s because he was the principal of Meadowbrook Elementary during the 1949 – 1950 school year. Apparently he was appointed principal of Meadowbrook Junior High for the 1950 – 1951 term. They were fortunate to have him. He was a good man.

Now to the headlines. The front page carried only one, once you got past the half page photo of the graduating class. That headline read:

Scrapbook Memories (Class Prophecy) and was written by Xanthia Macy, Mary Oliver & Nancy Fawver. Taking up the lower half of the front page and a third of page three, it was a fictionalized report of a chance meeting by Mary Oliver & Xanthia Macy in New York and their decision to take their vacation together by returning home to Ft. Worth. Along the way they run into all their old classmates with descriptions of what they are doing now.

On page two, the next headline reads Apologies In Order and is essentially a thank you to the teachers they’ve had in their time at Meadowbrook Junior High. DAR And American Legion Winners is self-explanatory, particularly when the box just below announces the Meadowbrook Junior High School Awards Day Program. Considering the atmosphere that exists in school today, along with all the rules, regulations and political correctness, just reading the program order is educational. To that end, here it is:

Processional........................Aida; Grand March
*”America”.........................Boston Pops Orchestra
* Invocation.........................Rev. W. Fred Swank
Pastor, Sagamore Hill Baptist Church
Platform Guest.....................Mrs. George M. Connor
President, Board Of Education
Vocal Solo – “Jerusalem”................Henry Parker
Roberta Murphy
Mrs. Strickland, Accompanist
Remarks........................................Mr. Joe P. Moore
Superintendent of Schools
Special Octet – “My Hero”...................Oscar Staus
Eight Ninth Grade Girls: Soprano, Jackie Simpson,
Ella Jane Faris, Mary Jo Einstein, Gene Fricke;
Alto, Montie Mauldin, Marilyn Swayze, Marian
Bickle, Jerre Jean Power.
D.A.R. Awards......................................Mrs. M.H. Crabb
American Legion Awards...............Mr. Buster Kirkpatrick
* School Song.......................................”Alma Mater”
Recessional..................................”War March of the Priests”
* Audience Will Please Stand May 4, 1951

The next headline on that page says Good Luck, Champs! and, as you’ve probably guessed, it deals with the annual Press Spelling Bee. Finally we have Student Council At Work which is simply a listing of the members of the student council and an accompanying photo of the group.

That’s it for this post. Next time around we’ll start with page three.

Tarantulas & a dead pilot.

According to my mother, along with photos I have to support the fact, we first lived on Ash Crescent, literally at the top of the hill about a block and a half south of an elementary school on Vickery Blvd and a block east of Riverside Drive. Despite my mother's intentions that we were going to stay there so I could attend that school when I got old enough, it didn't work out that way.

Though we didn't remain on Ash Cresent that long , there were a couple of interesting events told by my mother that I'll relate for you. While living there (probably during 1946), a light plane crashed into a gulley that was maybe a block away, I believe, killing the pilot. Essentially, the location was a couple of hundred feet from the southeast corner of Riverside and Vickery. Remember, there was no TV news or instant media coverage in that time period, so it made for a little bit of excitement for those living in the immediate vicinity.

As for the other event, we've all gotten used today to the idea of hardly ever seeing any critters in or under our houses. Today people get upset if they see a roach in the house or a harmless spider in the garden. It wasn't always that way and a case in point was the Ash Crescent house.

My mother was a consummate animal lover, willing to do just about anything to help an injured, starving or trapped animal. Cats, especially. Anyway, she kept hearing kittens crying under the house (pier and beam foundation). No way she could ignore them and they wouldn't come to her when she called. What'd she do? You guessed it…crawled under the house to find the kittens and bring them out. Consider that there was precious little light under the house, so she couldn't see what else was under there with her. What there was would qualify for a modern episode of Fear Factor.

After she had extricated herself and the kittens from beneath the house, a neighbor came over to her to see if she was alright. When she assured the neighbor that she was, the neighbor asked her is she knew how much danger she had been in. "What danger?" my mother asked.

"Tarantulas." the neighbor replied. It so happened that tarantula spiders (You know what I'm talking about. Big. Black. Hairy. Experts also say they're non-poisonous and totally harmless. Yeah, sure. If you believe that, I've got some waterfront property in Arizona I'd like to sell you.) were quite common all over Ft. Worth at that time, but you'd usually see one or two at a time. They could even be spotted crossing streets. Turned out that the little buggers were apparently breeding under many of the houses on Ash Cresent…including ours. Despite the fact that my mother was deathly afraid of tarantulas, she had crawled thru dozens if not hundreds of them to rescue those kittens. Why none of them crawled on her while she was under the house no one ever figured out. Good thing, though. If one of'em had crawled up her leg or she could've turned on a light, she would've created a new entrance into the house by standing straight up thru the floor!

By early 1947, we had bid goodbye to the tarantulas and bought a house at 4928 Morris Street. This was on the East Side, one block south of Meadowbrook Drive and halfway between Queen Street and Tierney Road. My father was working for Swift at the Cold Storage Building on East Lancaster (I'll explain that one later), I would soon have major chest surgery, the East Side was a very desirable place to live and the 1949 flood was still two years down the road.

Except for 8 1/2 years in El Paso, I've been on the East Side ever since. This part of Ft. Worth has ranged all the way from a highly desirable location to a virtual combat zone and everything in between. Where it's going now is still to be determined, but if you don't know where it's been, you won't be able to figure out where you want it to go.

If you've managed to find this installment vaguely interesting, stick around. You may learn some things about the East Side, as well as the rest of Ft. Worth, that you didn't know. And if y'all happen to have information that'll fill in some of the gaps in my memory, don't hesitate to let me know.