Category Archives: Community
WABAC Machine, Part 2
Copyright 2012-2023 Susan Burneson. All rights reserved. Kindly talk with us before reproducing any website content. We begin our WABAC trip with selections, old and new, from our neighborhood history exhibit and booklet, with links included for more info. (What’s a WABAC Machine? Find out here.) ABOUT 500 B. C. • The Greek poet Theognis is among the earliest writers to describe Athens, Greece, as the City of the Violet Crown. By the 1890s, Texas writers … Read more
“Sherman, Set the WABAC Machine!,” Part 1
Copyright 2012-2023 Susan Burneson. All rights reserved. Kindly talk with us before reproducing any website content. In the 1960s, Mr. Peabody and Sherman, cartoon characters on The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, traveled back in time to visit famous historical events through Mr. Peabody’s WABAC (“wayback”) machine. This week’s blog is an intro to our local WABAC trip, beginning next time. We include excerpts from our history exhibit and booklet, with new info, too. You might … Read more
A Voice of the Violet Crown
Updated December 4, 2024 I had a friend, Coleen Grant Hardin, who was fascinated with genealogy, just as I am. She once told me the story of her great-grandmother, Dr. Elizabeth Durbin Irby Crow Smith, one of the first woman physicians in Northern Louisiana. As Elizabeth passed away at age 73, she said to those around her: It’s a shame for me to die and take all this knowledge with me. Few of us will … Read more
Fun in the Neighborhood, Part 1
Here we are, in the midst of Dog Days and halfway through school summer vacation—a perfect time to kick back and look at a few of the ways kids of all ages have good times here. Whether it’s today (Part 1) or more than 50 years ago (Part 2), we found it’s not all that much different. (Photo, right, courtesy of Crestview neighbor Louise Cooke.) Ryder “Red Ryder” Schwartz learned how to juggle on the sidewalk … Read more
Moving Beyond, Part 2
Honestly, I didn’t think much about our neighborhood’s history until I had lived here more than 15 years. About 2002, I visited with my longtime neighbor Billie in the shade of her then-towering magnolia tree (it unexpectedly fell in April 2017). She said when she moved to Crestview in the mid-1950s neighbors could see the Violet Crown Hills to the west, where Far West Boulevard is today. Looking up at her amazing magnolia and all … Read more
Moving Beyond, Part 1
Four years ago, we knew we wanted to do a website for our community/history project, Voices of the Violet Crown. When we launched it July 5, 2011, we envisioned having maybe a year’s worth of stories to share with neighbors, both near and far. Since then, we have filled up our corner of the blogosphere with posts, features, videos, photos, and community links and news. In 2003, we began our project with exhibits—history, maps, community … Read more
Houses Sing, Part 2
Our two-part series, inspired by the Danny Schmidt song “Houses Sing,” concludes . . . Former Crestview neighbor John Carlson took great pride in the home at 1508 Princeton Avenue that he and his wife, Judy, had built in the mid-50s. At the time, he knew the best tradesmen in the area, since he helped maintain rental properties for Crestview developers A. B. Beddow and Ray Yates. The tradesmen promised him that the Carlsons’ home … Read more
Sense of Place, Part 2
More good stories from our neighbors who add to our sense of place here . . . WANDA AND EMORY MUEHLBRAD, whose grandparents were born in Germany, looked at each other and chuckled when we asked them to tell us their full names, during our interview with them in 2008: Wanda: My name is Wandalie Wilhelmine Hohertz Muehlbrad. Emory: I’m Emory Emil Wilhelm Muehlbrad. We come from German stock! BEN PETMECKY probably led a more … Read more