News from Dallas Historical Society

I spend so much time looking at photographs that are so stiff and posed that it is easy to forget that our ancestors used to laugh. When photography was still a complicated process, Grandpa would be propped in front of a big scary box and told not to blink for several minutes. Often the resulting image made the old gentleman look like a bad taxidermy job. In reality, Gramps was probably a happy fellow with a winning smile who liked to tell jokes. So when I occasionally find a funny snapshot taken around Dallas I make note of it. Here are a couple.

The first photo was taken in 1876. That was an eventful year. America turned 100 years old. Alexander Bell was granted a patent for the telephone. George Custer was defeated at the Little Big Horn. Jesse James attempted to rob the bank at Northfield, Minnesota, and Dallas had a grand Mardi Gras parade. The quality of the photo is not too bad. You are able to distinguish a couple of wagon loads of people sitting on cotton bales, dressed as the King (or Rex), and his court. Of course everyone in the photo is standing transfixed and looking uncomfortable, but you have to know that gluing all of that cotton on all of those people and their horses had to have been funny as heck. Maybe this was the beginning of Dallas' fashion industry? I have this image of Dallasites finding sticky wads of cotton all over downtown for days afterwards. It is hard to tell where this photo was taken, but the house in the back ground looks a lot like the home of Mrs. Sarah Cockrell. That would put it near the corner of Houston and Commerce Streets, just across from the courthouse.

Fast forward 72 years. It is 1948: The Olympics were held that year. Harry Truman was elected president. The Soviet controlled MARDI GRAS

government of East Germany blockaded West Berlin. Toast of the Town, later the Ed Sullivan Show, debuted on television. In the 100 block of North Peak Street, some people of the Dallas Transit Authority squandered a sunny afternoon by jumping bicycles over each other. I have no idea what was the significance of this action, but if your bus or streetcar was late that day this could have been the reason. Look a little closer and there is a sign for Wyatt Caf�.

I give history talks all over north Texas, mostly to 5th graders, and I am still a little surprised at how many people believe that the world began when they were born. They can not make the connection with someone who has been gone for a long time. It helps if you can add layers to that long gone person, such as a color picture, a recording of their voice, or a photo of them smiling. Get down that old hat box of family photos and smile back at Grandpa, because he is sending that smile through the decades to you. I will end now, I have to go and clean a big wad of sticky cotton off my shoes.