Vickery Park

Courtesy of www.clker.com

Before there was Six Flags there was Vickery Amusement Park. Built sometime in the late 40's besides the State Fair is was about the only place go except for an occasional carnival or circus that would come close by.

If I remember right it was Vickery Amusement Park where our 6th grade class decided to go for our graduation outing. The park had a swimming pool, minature golf course, amusement park rides and some amusement park games. The only one I remember is the one with the floating ducks that you paid a nickel. to pick one out of the water to see if you won a prize. I never did.

Also Vickery if I remember correctly was one of the only places that was considered "wet" and had several bars.  Before the Central Expressway was completed we'd have to drive through the area to get to downtown Dallas. My dad would always tell us to be careful going through that area.

I don't think Vickery Amusement Park is still there. I noticed on the internet when you call up Vickery Park you get pictures of a bar. I guess that fits pretty well with the area I once knew as Vickery.

Memories of Downtown

Towns can really change as they grow. Buildings that were once iconic are raised to make way for parking lots and newer buildings. Stores that hold memories are renovated and modernized. Streets are widened, routes changed and facades added.

With each change comes the loss of memories that we try to hold on to in times of our youth. However, life goes on and what were our memories fade away to make room for the memories of those who come later.

Plano has slowly become much like that. However, it has moved slower than most towns that have grown. The brick street is still there, along with much of the old building look. The old theater is gone that sat on the corner of Avenue K and 15^th Street. All that is left is memories of Saturdays there with friends. The billboards with what was coming the next week are gone and the road has changed but every time I travel down that street I can see the theater in my mind.

My memory fades as time travels but I still remember Allen’s Drugstore and the soda fountain; at least I think it was Allen’s. Time does funny things to your mind. Was it Murrell’s Hardware Store across the street?  That’s where my dad bought me my first baseball glove some fifty plus years ago. It seems like there was also a pharmacy on that side .The barber shop run by the Campbell family was down from Allen’s. I believe it was Dickey who usually cut my hair. There was the Five and Dime store across from the barbershop, if memory is right I think it was called Mott’s. There was a small hobby store next to the drugstore and Harrington’s furniture store on the other end. Didn’t Nathan White have a department store in there somewhere? I remember them taking your money, putting it and the ticket in a cylinder tied to what looked like a clothesline and pull a cord. The cylinder would zip up the line to the balcony, which was the business department. A few minutes later here would come the cylinder on its return trip with the receipt and change.

The water fountains and restrooms were in the back of the store. There were two water fountains; one for whites and one for “colored”. Those were the fifties and early sixties and Plano was still segregated.

Although the tenants in the buildings have changed and some are gone forever the memories of walking the streets of downtown are still in the far corners of my mind.  There’s still enough there to jog a few nostalgic cobwebs loose and remind me of the little town I grew up in so many years ago. I may have gotten the names wrong, but those times of yesteryear still bring a smile.

905 21st Street

We moved into this small home in Plano in January of 1954. It was blue then and the left side was a single car garage. Plano had less than 2000 residents. We were on the West side of town. I could stand in my yard and overlook the fields where a short distance away the North Central Expressway was still under construction.

Down the street lived the Murrays, Stouts and Dents. Across the alley lived the Smiths, Rapers and Walls. Next door to us lived the Capellas. I remember that he opened up a convenience store in Dallas called it Capellas but bought a sign that looked like Cabells. Remember the old rainbow signs? This way people would think that his store was a Cabells.

To a small child our house was huge. As I look at it now either I’ve gotten bigger or the house shrunk. The Mimosa tree (or maybe it’s a Bird of Paradise tree) in the front yard is still there, planted by my mom over 50 years ago. In the backyard are buried, Toby Joe, my faithful Cocker Spaniel and Mickey our Parakeet.

I’d walk down the block cross, the railway tracks and down the back road to Mendenhal Elementary School. The daily stop was Skaggs’s grocery just over the tracks. My mom never seemed to be concerned that we had to cross the old Highway 75 (K Avenue).

We had to be in by dark and spent many an evening running around catching fireflies in an old pickle jar in which we had punched a half dozen holes in the top with an old rusty nail. On a cool fall evening we could hear the sounds of the Plano High School Wildcat band practicing before the games at Rice Field.

I parachuted from the tree a block over. We canvassed the entire neighborhood at Halloween. I sold the neighbors “Grit” newspapers to make extra money. It was a simple time of youth; a time when life was carefree and there were few worries in life. Growing up in a small town may not have had all the limelight of big city living, but the memories will stay with me forever.

I’ll never forget the little house at 905 21^st Street in Plano.

The Jungle Gym

As far as I can remember noone ever died or had a catastrophic injury on the Jungle Gym in Elementary School. They were made of Iron Bars, could hold 100 kids at the same time without breaking and were firmly planted in rock hard ground trampled by thousands of feet. There was no cushion on the ground, no teachers to tell you not to rough house and was basically a free for all event.

If I remember right the boys jungle gym had one cube tower on top and the girls had two. There were separate ones in those days because little girls wore dresses to school.

We alternated the slide and merry-go-round between the boys and girls morning and afternoon.

My first day there I went down the slide during the girls time. I was quickly corrected and never made the same mistake again.

Remember Those School Plays

Sometimes things stick in our minds that we'd like to forget. I remember a couple of school plays. One I think was in the fourth grade. I played a pilgrim complete with black costume, cloth covered cardboard hat and shiny tin foil buckles on my shoes. I don't think I had any lines to say in this one. If I did it was probably "here come the Indians" or something like that.

But I guess the one I really hated was I think in the second grade. I played Humpty Dumpty. I stood on the stage with a cardboard egg on a wall in front of me and recited the "Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall..." nursery rhyme. I don't know why I was embarrassed, but I was just the same.

Besides reading a little ditty about the high school lunchroom at graduation assembly, my acting career had come to a close.

The Ride to State

Next year it will have been (are you setting down?) 45 years since since the 1965-66 Plano High School Wildcats took the road to the state AA football championship. It was a journey I imagine most of us remember fondly.

I watched a movie the other day entitled "Vantage Point" where the same story was told over and over but from the eyes and actions of different characters. It made me think about how life is the same way for all of us.

Each of us had a different view as the school headed to the state title. It was just the football team that enjoyed the trip. The band, cheerleaders, teachers and student body all were a part of this moment in our history.

Take time to share your memories from this time from your vantage point.

Revisiting Old Plano

What do you remember about places to go and things to do in the Plano in which we grew up? Share your thoughts. I've thrown a few in the first comment to get you thinking.