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"Dave in backyard - 3510 Gannett Street, Houston, 1953." Dave, in addition to watering, you need to fertilize. The grass is greener on the other side of the banana plant. Our latest from the "Linda" series of Kodachromes. View full size.
This pic was taken a good 15 years before I was born and my parents moved to H-town. Mom and dad would have still been in school up in Ft. Worth.
I've lived in various neighborhoods in Houston and its suburbs, but not where this was taken. At first glance of a map, I expected it to be in a really bad area, but looking at that street view, it's not too bad. Quite nice, actually!
The area south of the med center is kind of a patchwork of crime ridden ghetto and somewhat decent older hoods.
I, too, have lovely memories of the 50's and 60's, when I was a little girl--but those decades weren't great for everyone. Few African Americans lived in the same suburban calm I did, and I'd much rather be a woman of any race now than then. I can wear 1950's retro now when I want to be stylish, but I don't have to put up with 1950's rules, limitations, and girdles. It's also been a long time since I had the urge to make a salad of cottage cheese in a canned-peach half on a limp lettuce leaf. But my nostalgia for my childhood persists, and I'm fine with that.
I grew up very close to here and in the same time period and yes it was a good more tranquil time as long as you were a middle class white family. The world of separate but equal didn't have the same meaning for others.
This neighborhood was where many of the workers of the Texas Medical Center settled in. A couple of minutes from the med center which was just beginning its phenomenal growth and close to Rice Institute (now University) made it a popular place.
The Shamrock Hotel, opened in 1949 by wildcatter Glen McCarthy and used by Edna Ferber as the model for the hotel Conquistador in her novel Giant, was about a mile away.
Current view across the street. Wow, what a sore thumb.
Could this possibly be the one and only, famous (or perhaps infamous?) Dave, of Shorpy fame?
[This photo of a 40ish man was taken 60 years ago. Do you think I'm 100 years old? - Dave]
Did I forget to include my smiley face? ;-D Remember, you're only as old as you feel.
Thanks to Street View, we can see that Gannett Street hasn't changed much in 60 years - it's a well-maintained, charming, midcentury 'hood. Well, except for the monstrous McMansion plopped down amid the tidy little houses.
I'm guessing "Dave's not here" any more.
In 20 years or so, this will all be mine. Home sweet home! Get off my lawn!
But I almost feel sorry for folks who have no recollection of this country, especially suburbia, during the period of about 1950 through 1964. Life in the postwar suburban baby boom was really something else! I remember it to be as pleasant and tranquil as the photos always show.
Today's view of the house and its neighbors shows just how much trees will grow in 60 years.
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