Fort Worth
February 7, 2011 (Monday)
Yesterday I watched the Superbowl pregame interviews, etc. that were broadcast from Fort Worth. The stage was set up in Main Street, with the Tarrant County Court House (constructed for the third time in 1893) in the background at the end of the downtown street. As I looked at the scene at the upper end of the street, memories came rushing back.
To begin with, the court house. It was there in 1953 that I went to get the marriage license for Wanda and me. The fee was small. I gave all the information verbally, and they took my word as the only proof needed. The reason we got the license in Fort Worth was my being a student at the seminary there.
As I looked down the several blocks in front of the court house, I remembered the Everybody’s Department Store was in the first block. We bought some living room furniture there when we were living at Briar, north of Azle and south of Boyd. Wanda was teaching school at Azle, I was pastor of the church at Briar and a student at the seminary. It was cheap furniture, and the couch and chair didn’t survive long but the end tables were made of wood and plastic and are still around, 55 years later.
In the next block, just south of Everybody’s was Leonard’s Department Store, where we bought a kitchen range. We were still at Briar when the old stove exploded as Wanda tried to light the oven one day. I heard the wh-o-o-omph of the sudden happening, and called out, “What was that?” to be answered by Wanda appearing at the door from the kitchen with a smoking match and curly hair. She was not injured and there was no fire, but we got a new range the next day. We used that stove until we moved to Oak Terrace in Rockport where there was a slide-in already installed in the house.
We bought a lot of things at Leonard’s through the years.
In the next block was a furniture store named, “Fakes.” I always thought about going in there and asking about the name but I never did. Surely they were related in some way. But we were very young and interest in genealogy doesn’t seem very strong until we get older. I don’t know why.
Across the street was a clothing store, but I can’t remember the name. We never went in there unless they were having a sale. Their clothes were expensive, but a lot of money could be saved at their sales.
Somewhere around the T.V. stage in the middle of Main Street, there was the Fort Worth National Bank. I went there for a small loan to pay a dental bill, but they told me I had to have a cosigner because I had no assets. A coworker of mine at General Motors in Arlington came to my rescue. I’m glad to say I paid off the loan. The man who signed my note was a genuine friend.
Farther on down the street, where the convention center is now located, I bought a butcher knife soon after Wanda and I married. The store sold only cutlery. And it was a very nice knife. In fact, we still have it, although my sharpening skills have not been very great and the blade is now narrow.
It was hard to listen to the interviews, etc. because I was thinking about days gone by. I seem to do more of that with each passing year.
