Before Texas Changed: A Fort Worth Boyhood

Chapter 5

5. Something about our family seemed small and self-contained. I knew other people with aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents who were a regular part of their lives. Not so with us. Oh, I had other family members, but our lives rarely seemed to touch. My father had two brothers, Lavon and Frank, different as night and day. Lavon was the oldest and maybe the one most influenced by their wandering, oil-field existence. He had gone through high school and, all the years I knew him, ran a gas station on Fort Worth’s east side. Short, with sandy hair, Lavon had an easy disposition , a high-pitched voice, and a laugh that I can still hear. He, his wife Lucille, and their three children lived in a small frame house not far from where Lavon worked. I rarely saw them. Our worlds seemed far removed. Frank, the youngest of the three, reminded me of early pictures of Frank Sinatra—thin and wiry with dark hair and prominent cheek bones. He married a wonderful New York girl named Roxane, whom everyone called Rocky. He went off to sea in World War II; then, like my father, he enrolled at the University of Texas where he received not only his undergraduate degree but also a Ph.D. in fields about which I knew next to nothing—accounting, statistics. and international trade. Frank and Rocky also had three children. He became a professor and taught at Texas Christian University for years. Frank loved classical music. I never knew enough about it to have a decent discussion, just that he had a room filled with records in his house near the campus and that this music was a major component of his life. He shared with his brothers a not-to-be-forgotten 72 laugh, one of those loud ones that broke suddenly, bared his teeth, shook his body, and could be heard in adjoining rooms—maybe houses. Frank treated me like an adult and was someone who, even though I did not see much, I always enjoyed being around. My mother’s brother and sister were also dissimilar. Dalton was full of surprises. Handsome, with wavy hair, he was high intelligence, high energy, and always had something going—a story, a project, a plan. He possessed a scientific, curious mind that, combined with a mischievous nature, created a lively persona. Apparently Dalton had been that way forever. My mother told tales about him as a child creating some electrical device, with live wires connected to chickens, that produced wing flapping and agitated chicken sounds. She and Pearl even got shocked with this machine until parents intervened. Dalton had also built his own roller coaster with tracks extending from the roof of the house down over part of a pasture and up over some peach trees. Something about him was always experimenting, always pushing at the edges. In addition to his other adventures, he got to know some of the early airplane barnstormers and even did a little barnstorming himself. In some ways Dalton became my window to the larger world. After college he had gone to California and landed a job in the aircraft business. He and his wife, Betty, made California home. When the space program got into full swing, Dalton was involved and became a regular commuter between California and Cape Canaveral. These trips brought him through our part of the world. His arrivals in Fort Worth were great events, because he always had tales to tell. “You just wouldn’t believe how beautiful it is in California. There are fruit trees everywhere. More than you can name. Why, the other day I was standing on a hillside looking out across that country and couldn’t believe my eyes—one row after another of flowering trees in perfectly arranged orchards. And the temperature—just the way you want it. Y’all are going to have to a f o r t w o r t h b o y h o o d 73 come out and see us. Who knows? You might decide to stay.” On and on he went. In addition to telling tales, Dalton was usually tinkering with some new project. One day he took us outside to show us the air conditioner he had made for his car. He had actually created this thing all by himself. A bag of water hung on...