Posted on by Phil Strawn

Nostalgia for 50s Texas: Memories of Fort Worth


I’m a 50s kid. That means I was born in 1949 at Saint Josephs Hospital in Fort Worth, Texas, and grew up in the lean and mean Eisenhower years. My hometown was different back then, as most of our hometowns are today. But, change is inevitable, and it happens at the oddest times; while we sleep or mow our lawn. Progress is sneaky.

First, it’s a few new buildings downtown, then a slick freeway cutting through quiet neighborhoods, and maybe a landmark building demolished to make way for a new hospital. Then, out of nowhere, a train full of people from the West or the East is arriving, and the pilgrims try to make it “not so Texas.” It’s a gradual thing, and most of us are too occupied or young to notice until it bites us in the rear.

My grandfather was old-school Fort Worth from the late 1800s, a cow-puncher who rode the cattle drives and sang cowboy songs to the little doggies. He loved his city to a fault. The word “Dallas” was not to be spoken in his home or his presence. Violaters usually got punched or asked to leave. The old man was a tough Texan and a supporter of Amon Carter, the larger-than-life businessman that put Fort Worth on the map and started the rivalry between the two cities.

In the 1950s, if you asked Fort Worth residents what they thought of Dallas, they would most likely tell you it’s a high-on-the-hog East Coast wanna-be big-shot rich-bitch city. We didn’t sugarcoat it. That rivalry was always in your face and at times vicious. My father was a country musician, and when his band, The Light Crust Doughboys, had to play in Dallas, his extended family heaped misery upon him for weeks.

In October, Dallas has the “State Fair of Texas,” and Fort Worth has the “Fat Stock Show” in February. I didn’t attend the State Fair until I was ten years old, and even then, it was in disguise, after dark, to the fair and back home, hoping no one in our neighborhood noticed we had crossed enemy lines. Unfortunately, I let my secret visit slip around my buddies, and they banned me from playing Cowboys and Indians for a week. Even us kids were tough on each other.

Three things got us kids excited: Christmastime in downtown Fort Worth, Toyland at Leonard Brothers Department Store, and The Fat Stock Show. But, unfortunately for us, the rest of the year was uneventful and boring. Summer was pickup baseball games, old cartoons on television, and blowing up the neighborhood with cherry bombs, our pyrotechnics of choice.

60 years ago, the winters in Texas were colder and more miserable. February was the month we froze our little gimlet butts off, and of course, that is the Stock Show month. Wrapped up in our Roy Rogers flannel pajamas under our jeans, boots, and cowboy hats, we kids made the best of it as we visited the midway, the cattle barns, and animal competitions. The rodeo was for the real cowboys, and it was too expensive; the free ticket from our grade school only went so far. We were kids and had not a penny to our name. It wasn’t the flashy affair that Dallas put on, but it was ours, and we loved it. I still have a round metal pin I got at the Stock Show, a lovely picture of Aunt Jemimah promoting her flour, something that would get me canceled, or worse, in today’s clown world. I’ve often thought of wearing it to my local H.E.B. grocery store to see the reaction. Maybe not.

For those of us who were born and grew up there, Fort Worth, Texas, is where the west begins, and Dallas is where the East peters out. Nothing has changed.

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17 Replies to “Nostalgia for 50s Texas: Memories of Fort Worth”

  1. Loved it, Phil. Top notch writing … makes me look forward to your next post.

    I read your story to my British wife, and she couldn’t stop laughing after — “In the 1950s, if you asked Fort Worth residents what they thought of Dallas, they would most likely tell you it’s a high-on-the-hog East Coast wanna-be big-shot rich-bitch city. We didn’t sugarcoat it.” So, for putting a smile on both our faces, thank you!

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    1. Aww, thanks Mustang, makes my bones happy to know she got a good laugh out of it. My father, played in the house band at the Big D Jamboree, which was located in that eastern city of Dallas. The extended family refused to speak to him for a long while because of his betrayal to his hometown. Believe me, that rivalry is still strong. It’s something the new FW residents from other states don’t understand, but they eventually get it. God Bless Texas.

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  2. Fort what it’s Worth, I really enjoyed this blog post. It reminds me of the Kansas City – St. Louis rivalry. Baseball fans might remember the so-called I-70 World Series between the Kansas City Royals and the St. Louis Cardinals back in 1985. The Royals came back from a three-game deficit to beat the Cardinals. Beyond that, St. Louis has always been seen as an Eastern city, whereas Kansas City has always been seen as a Western city. That’s a bit ironic, since the Gateway Arch in St. Louis was built as a tribute to westward expansion. And, by the way, the Pony Express was out of St. Joseph, just 30 miles north of Kansas City. And St. Joseph is also where Jesse James was shot to death.

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    1. I’ve heard that about Kansas City, but I didn’t know about that World Series game. Amon Carter, the father of Fort Worth growth and preservation and all things western, started this rivalry back in the 1930s. It was real, and folks in Fort Worth wouldn’t dare venture to Dallas, even to deliver goods. The Fat Stock Show was and still is the rival of the State Fair in Dallas. I grew up in FW and appreciate it as where the west begins, and believe me, the town, although metropolitan and wealthy, is pure Texas western culture.

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  3. Ah, the fifties! I was born in ’43 at Jamaica hospital in Queens New York (same hospital where the current occupant of the White House was born. Our paths diverged immediately thereafter.) To us, everything west of New York was country. Even New Jersey was considered rural. I was a free-range kid. walking or biking from sunup to sundown in the summer. After moving to Wisconsin in ’65, I sighed a great sigh of relief to be out of that city. I’ve been to Houston and San Antonio (and Dallas, but only the airport), but never had occasion to visit Fort Worth. I’ll put that one on my bucket list. I’m enjoying your lessons in all things Texan.

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    1. Thanks, Bob. I’ve been to Wisconsin a few times, when I was living in Bloomington working on The Mall of America. Beautiful state and nice folks. You should visit Fort Worth if you want the ultimate Texas experience. Glad you like my lessons in Texan.

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  4. It seems odd that there’s a longstanding rivalry between Fort Worth, a cow town, and Dallas, an urban jungle.. I’ve never been to Texas, but your stories sure make it sound like a place where one can have a hoot and a holler of a good time. 🙂

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    1. The rivalry is still intense. Momo and I lived in Dallas for quite a while, but we don’t tell anyone unless we have to. She is now a Fort Worthian, even though we live in Granbury, which is 40 miles southwest. Her daughter and family live in FW, near TCU. We go to FW a lot, especially during the Stock Show and Rodeo season. I’ll be posting a story about my great-grandfather, who was a deputy and worked the Hells Half Acre part of FW during the cattle days, and I’m still writing it, so it takes a while. The series 1883 was shot in Granbury and Fort Worth; that is precisely how it was then.

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  6. Good writing! I never knew about the feud, and I was in both places to visit my cousin, who is a Eastern transplant. He’s totally lost his New York accent; it’s all Texas. Took the bus down from Tulsa for spring break, to Dallas, we drove to Fort Worth, and nobody mentioned the rivalry, not even his Texan wife. I was amazed at that slick highway with the lights in the lane lines.

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  7. Thats really interesting Phil. We have Nashville vs Memphis… and I’ll take Nashville anyday of the week. Memphis is one of the most dangerous cities I’ve ever been in…now it’s better because of the guard there.

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