Deep in the heart of...

Texas!

For quite some time now, my mom has mentioned taking a trip back to Dallas. She wanted to go back, see the old house, the neighborhood, the church, etc. Well, she realized that she would be in Oklahoma visiting Angie this weekend, and that Gina and I could hop on a plane... so kind of at the last minute, a trip back in history was planned.

-------------------------------------

First, some history (by way of a bunch of photos. In fact, this whole post is heavy on photos. Hope you aren't attempting this over a dial up connection...)

Boy meets girl...


Girl meets boy's parents (and gives father-in-law bunny ears...)


Boy's dad grabs girl's rear (I have no idea why my grandpa is spanking my mom in this photo, but I laughed so hard when I saw it that I knew it was going in this post...)


Boy and girl get hitched, eventually move to Dallas, buy house, and then have an adorable, obedient, never-up-to-mischief little boy (that would be mw-ah...)


Little boy is the highlight of his parent's lives, and delights in all of their attention...


Little boy's mom dresses him kind of funny...


Or not at all (geeee, think that one runs in the family?)


Parents have a little girl. The little boy is not altogether pleased, and declares that he is still #1 in this family...


But he soon grows to like his little sister and even gives her kisses...


Little girl also gets dressed in clothes with her name on them (Apparently this was the fad in the '70s, until people started getting paranoid about stranger danger...)


Little boy pretends to be a trucker. This is also the same car where I discovered the cigarette lighter, and how pretty it glowed. And thought it would be a good idea to shove the pretty glowing part into the palm of my hand...

Ouch...


Little boy and little girl ride on hood of the car. This is also the car we rode when we moved to Phoenix. With our pet hamster. Who didn't survive the trip. And was later discovered in the door panel of the car. Which never smelled quite the same after that...


Little boy loves his Big Wheels, and rode it until the front wheel was completely worn through...


Little boy and his buddies try not to cross the streams...


Little boy and little girl grow more adorable by the day (and wear really cool '70s clothes!)


Little boy and girl make lots of good memories growing up in Dallas...


Dad gets a new job in Phoenix and family sells house, packs up, and moves...


-------------------------------------

We moved from Dallas in the summer of 1982. I was almost 6 (the exact same age Ella is now) and Gina was just turning 4 (the same age as Levi and Noah.) Twenty seven years later, we made our first trip back, curious to see how many of our slightly vague childhood memories were accurate.

Gina and I hopped on a plane in Phoenix on Friday afternoon, while my mom and Angie were driving down from Oklahoma. While in the airport, were were treated to the lovely musical stylings of fruity tambourine girl, and her hippie boyfriend...

It was amazing how annoying this quickly became. They sat on the floor, with the tambourine between them, randomly thumping, shaking, or clapping. Notice the guy behind them, also looking at them wondering just how socially inept someone could be. Gina was also not impressed...

The next morning in Dallas, we headed out for the first stop, the apartment complex we first lived in (before Gina was born.) Other than a coat of paint, some minor updates, some vegetation growth, and newer cars, it was still looking very much the same...

I was obviously just a wee little thing, and remembered nothing of the apartments. My mom could recall them though.

Then it was off to find the old house. We were kind of wondering if it would still be a nice neighborhood, or if after 27 years it had taken a turn for the worse. It turned out it was still an adorable neighborhood, nicely maintained, and still looking very similar to 27 years ago. Here is the street we grew up on...

And our house, then and now...

(the tree on the right has grown a bit!)

No one was home, so we snuck into the backyard and snapped a photo...

The old swingset was no longer there, although the fence and vines still are...

One of the neighbors was also home. Jeff is standing next to Gina, and still lives next door. Gina and I didn't remember him at all, but my mom did and had a good time talking to him. The other guy is the current owner of the house, who showed up while we were standing out front talking.

While Gina and I didn't remember Jeff, we both have very fond memories of Susan. In fact, she is one of only a few people we remember from Dallas. She was our "babysitter" when we lived in Texas. She didn't really babysit us, as my mom didn't leave us alone, but she came over and helped out my mom and played with us, and lived next door with her parents.

My mom called her parents before the trip, who still live next door, but no one answered so she figured they must be on vacation. I'm not sure why she didn't call Susan. Because, frankly, I think Gina and I really were on the trip with the hope that we would see her.

So for the most amazing coincidence of the trip...

We pulled up to our old house in the car. Before we were even getting out of the car, another car pulled up behind us. We all got out at roughly the same time. I think Susan just kind of stood there while her brain tried to figure out why she recognized us, while we did the same, until suddenly it clicked and Gina said "Susan?"

Turns out her parents were on vacation, and she was stopping by to feed their cat. Had we arrived 5 minutes later, or she got there 5 minutes earlier, we would have totally missed each other. We hung out on the lawn and reminisced for a while, and she gave us a quick tour of her parent's house. She said that literally the day before she had been looking at old photos of us and her from when we still lived there. How weird.

Susan did tell us one funny story that I don't think even my mom remembered. I guess my mom had a cactus on the side of our house that was special to her (Tucson girl transplants a cactus to Dallas... go figure.) Well, at some point the cactus was somehow damaged, and my mom was sure it the neighbors cat that did it. I guess she came over pretty hopped up, saying that cat was done for if it was ever over at our house again.

When she came back to the house, I sheepishly told her that I had "hatcha hatcha'd" her cactus (imagine karate chop movements here.) Whoops. I guess she headed back over to the neighbors to tell them that it was her mischievous son, and not their cat, that had mangled the cactus!

Seeing Susan was by far the highlight of the trip. I think she was touched that we remembered her so fondly, and I know that we were touched that she remembered us. Funny the things that stick with you from when you were five. At one point, she said (in an adorable Texas drawl)... "I cain't believe y'all remember me!"

I said that a 5 year old boy never forgets his first babysitter, who he had a crush on...

Paige even knew this, because when I talked to her later and told her that by a total coincidence we had run into Susan, the first thing she said was "So, was she as cute as you remembered from when you were five?"

Yup...

After not really wanting to leave, but having to, we headed off to the next stop... our preschool. The only thing I could remember, which I was curious to see if it was accurate, was that the school had some kind of sloped hallways, with a library with glass windows by it. For whatever reason, the memory of walking down that hallway got stuck in my head as a little tyke. When we got there, by another coincidence, the place was open (on a Saturday) because they were doing a major remodel. And the first door we walked into was right next to this...

A sloped hallway...


leading to a room with glass windows...


and although the books were gone, this sign still remained...

The pastor of the church gave us a tour of the whole place. We even met the husband of our preschool teacher (who had since passed away) as he was working on the remodel.

As a total aside (it hadn't even been built when we were there) the church had some beautiful stained glass inside...

Although Angie refused to be photographed, as she "never lived in Dallas," I did manage to sneak one of our lovely chauffeur.

The driving around town was occasionally, ummmmmm, interesting...

(Now updated! If you saw the original, just skip to 2:30 to see the new part after the credits.)

(FYI, I now own two Lady Gaga songs, as I had to buy them to make this video. I'm not sure how I feel about that, or the fact that the tunes are rather catchy, or that my mother appears to know the words...)

After a drive through downtown (which appears very nice) we headed over for a tour of the museum at the Texas School Book Depository (very interesting.)

Then swung by our old church (which my mom could barely remember, and is now owned by a Chinese congregation.)

That night, we headed out to dinner with my Uncle Dale and his wife, Alyona, who live only five minutes from the hotel we stayed in. We also got a tour of his company and hung out for a while.

The next morning, my mom and I headed out to hear Matt Chandler preach, while my slacker sisters attended Bedside Baptist with Pastor Pillow.

Ahem...

I've heard a few sermons online from Matt Chandler, and said that if I was ever in Dallas I would head to his church. It was a great service, and a great sermon. The sermon from today is worth listening to, but isn't up online here yet (Update! Sermon from that day is right here.) But if you want to get the flavor of his preaching style...

Then it was off to lunch with Dale and Alyona, a quick tour of their apartment, and a flight back to Phoenix.

It was a great trip. I was amazed how accurate little snippets of memory from my 5 year old self were. Things I recognized, having not seen them in 27 years. A very odd feeling, but a good one...