Dallas City Buses. I would earn extra money mowing yards, get on the bus and just stay on it until it had made its entire route. Found out that Dallas had a main public library downtown and made that my summer pilgrimage place. Tried to read every single book in the library.
What a wonderful city back then.
Yes, it was. My parents grew up in Oak Cliff, too, and graduated from Adamson. Every so often our high school football team would play at Cobb Stadium. That was the only stadium in town when my parents were in school (other than the Cotton Bowl). They also used to go dancing at LouAnn’s. Mr. Claret and I did, too, although we didn’t know each other at the time. (He went to Richardson.) My grandmother worked as a telephone operator at the phone company downtown. She met my grandfather, who was a pharmacist at the Medical Arts Building, when she went to lunch there at the pharmacy. Did you go downtown to see the Christmas displays at Titche’s? We did, every year. So magical! I loved downtown.
In the late ‘40s-early ‘50s, I would walk 4 blocks up my side street to catch a street car (trolley). For a 7-cent ride, I’d get off at an old Carnegie library on Jefferson in Oak Cliff.
Completely shaded by large trees, the library wasn’t too hot in the Summers, with large ceiling fans running. The wooden floors creaked, but I spent many afternoons there (wasn’t supposed to be outside in that heat due to polio threat).
I would read lots of books and then check out 3-4 more to take home and read until my next trip.