Euless HPC

Margie Neely Massey

Conducted by David Massey & Betty Fuller
January 27, 2006 10:15 a.m.

Margie Neely Massey

Euless, Texas was first settled in about 1867 as a small farming community in North Central Texas.  The City is located midway between Dallas and Fort Worth Texas, just west of DFW International Airport.  It was incorporated in 1953 and at the time of the 2000 U.S. Census had a population of 46,005.  The City of Euless encompasses approximately 16.3 square miles. (42.1 KM2)

Margie Neely Massey was born in Euless, Texas in 1922 and has lived in this City all of her life.  Her recollections of life here are recorded in the following narrative that describes the years between 1922 and 1960.

David Massey is a life long resident of Euless, Texas.  His mother died when David was 13 and his father subsequently married Margie Neely Massey.

Betty Fuller is a long-time resident of Euless, Texas.  At the time of this interview, she was the Chairperson of The Euless Historical Preservation Committee

David
Margie, tell us when and where you were born and who your parents were?
Margie
I was born in Euless, Texas on April 3, 1922 and my parents were John Neely and Kate Neely.
David
Tell us anything that you know or remember about your grandparents.
Margie
Well, I only had one grandparent that I knew; the other grandparents had already passed away before I was born.  I lived with my grandparent,Louisa P. Neely, and she was a wonderful person, I always called her Mama. (24)
David
Tell us any stories that you remember that your parents or grandparent told about earlier times when they were younger.  Wasn’t your grandmother raised by a lady who had been a slave?
Margie
(36) Well, she was certainly superstitious, I don’t know, I don’t remember if she was raised by a person who had been a slave, but she had a lot ofsuperstitions, I know that.
David
She was married to a Civil War Veteran, is that right?
Margie
That’s right and she drew a Civil War pension as long as she lived.
David
And what did your parents and grandparents do for a living? What were their jobs? (47)
Margie
My Granddaddy Neely was a County Commissioner and my Daddy was a car salesman.
David
He was a County Commissioner for Dallas County, isn’t that right?
Margie
That’s right.
David
And when the Hwy 80 went where it is now, called Chalk Hill, he was in charge of that?
Margie
He was; and at one time it was named Neely Pass. (57)
David
Yes.
David
Ah, tell any interesting facts about the role of housewives in the days of your mom or Grandparents.
Margie
(64) Well, of course they did everything; they washed everything by hand in a tub and used a rub-board1.  They baked the bread and cooked everything from scratch.  We had our own garden and we cooked our vegetables, the garden just provided the food and it had to be prepared all the time.  That pretty well took up their day with house cleaning and laundry and cooking.
David
Do you remember about the schools, stores, churches and transportation in Euless when you were very young?
Margie
I remember the Fuller Brothers grocery store.  Now I do remember that there was a store that a guy name Deb Cruz ran and it was there for a while.  It had originally belonged to my Grandfather, T.W. Fuller but when he passed away Deb Cruz took it over.  The store that I remember most though was Fuller Brothers grocery.
David
(92) There was a store called Fitch’s Grocery, wasn’t there?
Margie
It was in Bedford.
David
Well now, in more recent years it was Tolbert’s.  Wasn’t that a grocery store originally owned by a Fitch then by Leon McGinnis?
Margie
Oh yeah, Reece Fitch but that was...
David
That was later?
Margie
That was much later.
David
Okay.
David
When you needed a doctor where did you go? Who was the Doctor? (102)
Margie
Well, we either went to Grapevine or Arlington, however, doctors made house calls in those days.  Dr. Perkins was the doctor that delivered me and he came to our house.  There was also one named Dr. Rhodes in Tarrant and he (110) made house calls.
Betty
Tell us about Dr. Rhodes Margie; because we have a picture of him at the Fuller House with the Fullers.  Where did he live? Did he deliver you?
Margie
No, no, Dr. Perkins delivered me (112) but Dr. Rhodes was also a doctor. I don’t really know anything about him to tell you the truth.  I just know that he was a doctor and the thing you know is that they just made house calls so that they came to us, we didn’t have to go to them.
Betty
And he lived in Tarrant2 I understand?
Margie
I think so; I think he lived in Tarrant.
David
Can you tell us about some of the families you remember that lived in Euless when you were growing up?
Margie
Warren and Jesse Fuller stand out more in my mind than anybody else because they were so good to help anybody to do anything they needed help with. They were always there and they were so good to me when mymother passed away and I just always thought so much of Warren and Jesse. 
David
And you were related to almost all the family in one way or another, weren’t you?
Margie
Well, at that time I was related to them... nearly everyone in Euless was kin to the Fullers and I was (laugh) a removed cousin from the Fullers so...
David
When did electricity and telephones and water come to Euless?
Margie
Well, electricity came to our house when I was in High School.  Uncle Steve Huffman had electricity in his house and he ran a wire from his house to our house.  We had one light in our house just above, straight in the ceiling.  That was the first electricity that we had and water didn’t get here until the 50’s.
Betty
What did you do for water, how did you get water Margie?
Margie
Oh, we had wells, everybody had wells and we just didn’t have any running water.  Well, we did finally get to where we could pipe it in, pump it out of the well and pipe it in to our homes but that didn’t happen till after I started teaching.
David
But the wells had a pulley, a rope and a bucket.
Margie
That’s right.
David
To pull the water out one bucket at a time.
Betty
Do you know who dug the water well?
Margie
Uncle John Fuller dug the well that I got water from.
Betty
Was Uncle John a relative? 
Margie
My Mother’s brother.
David
Troy Fuller the other night told about letting watermelons and various things down into the well to cool em off.
Margie
That’s the way we cooled them.
David
Ah, how did you dispose of garbage back in those days?
Margie
Well, we either hauled it to some place where they had a gulley3 that they let us put it in or we burned it.  That was until in the 50’s I think was when that black man started a trash collection service; that you were talking about.
Betty
Did he pick up your garbage too, that black man?
Margie
Um hum.
Betty
Okay.
David
You would have been in a lot of trouble with the environmental protection agency for the way you disposed of garbage.
Margie
Yes I sure would, but it was after Heorger and I married that the black man picked up our garbage; that was in the 50’s.
Betty
When did you and Heorger marry? (183)
Margie
1952.
Betty
1952.  That was when I was in college.
David
And what did people do for entertainment in those early days in Euless?
Margie
Listened to the radio.
Betty
You had a radio
Margie
We had a radio, we listened to the radio or I’d read.  Sometimes they were so busy doing all their house work they didn’t have time for entertainment. We kids just played games and stayed out in the yard and played with each other. (193)
Betty
You said you had a radio; you got electricity so that you could listen to radio at about what year?
Margie
In the 30’s.
Betty
In the 30’s.  So before that, did you have a radio that was battery operated or...?
Margie
Oh, we had a little old transistor thing but it never did work very well.
David
Crystal Radios 4...
Margie
Yes, it never did work very well...
David
Some of those early radios had little wind generators that charged batteries.

David
Did you have summer jobs?
Margie
My summer job was culling5 tomatoes for Sam Mills.
Betty
And where did he have those tomatoes, where did he raise them?
Margie
Well...
Betty
Was it close to you?
Margie
Yes, pretty close, part of it was up there on his home place, which was there on Huffman Drive (212)
Betty
On Huffman Drive, was his home there?
Margie
He also rented some land over kind of behind where Buddie’s6 (later Winn Dixie) used to be and we culled some over there.
Betty
Was Sam Mills living in Euless when you were young or did he come later?
Margie
Yes, I went to school with his daughter, Juanita...
Betty
Juanita...
David
And, didn’t Sam own the house that had originally been owned by the Huffman’s?
Margie
Yes, but I found that out just recently. 
Betty
Who was that?
David
Well, Bill Byers’ grandfather and my great-grandfather T.W. Fuller owned the house originally...and when they built the big house which...
Betty
Yes
David
(on) Aransas
Betty
Yes
David
Well, I guess they sold it to Sam Mills, the old house...
Betty
And I know, I remember Sam Mill’s house...
David
It’s down on south Vine Street right now, that house is.
Betty
I took a photo of that one. Okay, and did Sam have a lot of acres?  Did he raise anything else other than tomatoes?
David
Well, he was a Dairyman.
Betty
We didn’t say that.  He had a dairy.
Betty
Were there a lot of dairies around Euless in those days?
Margie
Oh yes...
Betty
Tell us something you remember about people who had dairies.
Margie
I don’t really remember too much about the dairies but there were quite a few of them that had dairies.  They had this Tennessee Milk Plant thing up here in Euless and people would milk their cows and take it up there and had it taken care of.  I don’t remember too much about it.
Betty
And I guess he milked by hand, I don’t guess he had milking machines?
David
Well, they had milking machines as far back as I can remember...
Betty
Did they?
David
Yeah.
Margie
We had our own cow, of course we just had one and we just milked it by hand.
Betty
You had chickens?
Margie
Yes, had chickens, had eggs (laugh).
Betty
Did you raise any veggies or anything?
Margie
Oh yes...
Betty
Tell about it...
David
True, they had a garden.
Betty
Tell us about what you raised...
Margie
We always had a garden, we had potatoes, onions, green peas, black eyed peas and that’s where we got our food, we just ate off our garden.
Betty
In the winter time, did you can7 veggies?
Margie
Oh yes, my mother canned everything she could get her hands on andif she had enough for the winter after she had such supplies for the summer then she just canned those too (268) and that lasted us all winter.
Betty
I remember my mother-in-law, Annie Fuller, and Horace; Horace dug a cellar.  Annie kept her jars of food down in the cellar...
Margie
We had a cellar.
Betty
Did you keep any food down in there to keep it cooler or not?  Where did your canned goods stay?
Margie
Probably in the cellar, I don’t remember, the only thing I really remember about that cellar was that every time a cloud came out, my grandma thought we ought to go into the cellar8.
Betty
Do you know who dug your cellar?
Margie
No I don’t.  It was just there, I just remember it being there because I had to go so much.
Betty
I think a lot of people, Ross Cannon had a cellar and Horace Fuller had a cellar. People filled them up during tornado time.
David
Where did you go to college Margie?
Margie
Well the first two years I went to what is now the University of Texas in Arlington.  At that time it was North Texas Agricultural College in Denton, Texas and was part of the Texas A&M system.   After my two years there I went to North Texas State Teachers College in Denton, Texas, now The University of North Texas.  I graduated there and began my teaching career.  I did my graduate work, earning a Masters Degree at Texas Christian University in night classes and the summer.
Betty
What year did you start at North Texas Agricultural College?
Margie
1938.
Betty
"38".
Margie
The school in Euless didn’t have enough credits so I had to take tests from the heads of the departments before I could even get in to the college.
Betty
So you passed them?
Margie
I passed everything except Spanish.  I made a 69 on it and the Spanish teacher said that anybody that hadn’t had Spanish in two years and can make a 69 deserves to be in college.
Betty
My stars alive, how wonderful.  Well how did you know enough Spanish to do that?
Margie
I don’t know, I guess the good lord just really helped me.
Betty
That’s wonderful.
David
Tell about what age you were when you learned to read and what grade you started school at.
Margie
Well, I was three years old when I learned to read and my grandmother was the one that taught me.  My Aunt Eula had been a teacher.  She wasn’t at that time, but she had all these cards9 and everything that she had used. My grandmother got them and she’d give me a pan of water and a bottle and I would pour the water from the pan to the bottle and all the time I was doing that she was teaching me to read.  She was showing me thesecards and that’s how I learned to read.  I started school at age 7 in the third grade.
Betty
Wonderful, tell me, now Aunt Eula, who was Aunt Eula?
Margie
That was Aunt Eula Neely Fuller.  She was Uncle John’s wife.
Betty
John Fuller’s wife?
Margie
John was my mother’s brother and Eula was my father’s sister.
Betty
Okay, now John Fuller’s daddy was?
Margie
T.W.
Betty
T.W., Thomas W.  Wasn’t he a post master in Euless? Can you tell us anything about the stories you heard about him being postmaster? (326).
Margie
No, I didn’t even know it till I read the history of Euless and I saw hispicture in there and saw he was the first postmaster.  I thought Robert Nail was the first postmaster.
David
When you were in college; part of the time you lived on campus didn’t you?
Margie
I lived in Denton but it really wasn’t on campus.  It was just a private home and they rented rooms for college students and there were about six of us who lived in the house.  It was about two blocks from the campus.
David
What was the University called then? (336)
Margie
It was the North Texas State Teacher’s College I think.
Betty
When I went there.  When I went there, tuition was very nominal and so I’m sure when I came from Euless, we didn’t have a lot of money around here then, so we could afford the tuition.  Did you have to do anything to supplement your income in order to pay for college or your room and board?
Margie
No, no I didn’t.  My mother provided that for me.  At that time my tuition for the whole year was $72.00.
Betty
$72.00 for the whole year?
Margie
And in Arlington it was $50.
Betty
Cheaper than North Texas?
Margie
Yeah, but it was just a Junior College.
Betty
Now when my husband went to school there, I never went to Arlington, he had to wear a uniform. He had to be in the corps10.  Was it that way in 1939 when you went to school there, did the guys have to be in the corps?
Margie
Well, we wore uniforms the first year...
Betty
You did?  I did not know that.
Margie
Um—hum, blue chambray with white collars and heart cuffs and our dress uniform was navy blue, wool (357), or kind of silk, not really silk but something that was cooler than wool.  We had to wear it when the weather was hot.  The first year I went there we wore uniforms and then the second year, they cut them out for the women.  The men wore uniforms all the time as long as they were in that ROTC thing.
Betty
(364) Do you remember, what your room and board was when you were up in Denton, in school?  Was it expensive?
Margie
No, as I said we lived in this home and we did our own cooking.  They just let us live in this, they had a big old two story house and they rented out the top story.  There were three rooms up there and we had six people up there; two to a room.  We had a great big, huge kitchen and we did our own cooking.
Betty
How marvelous!  Do you remember anything about any of the courses you took at North Texas or in Arlington?  What were your favorite courses?
Margie
The psychology courses were my favorite thing because I really did enjoy that professor. I liked government real well too. I enjoyed all my courses really but those were the two most interesting ones.
David
(180) Margie where did you first teach?  What grades?
Margie
Well the first year I taught was at Minters Chapel.  It was a two teacher school and now, I would say it’s somewhere in the DFW Airport area but I don’t know where.  I taught the first, second, third and fourth grade. The other teacher was another Margie and it was both our first year to teach. She taught fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth I guess, I don’t know for sure.  The eighth may have gone into Grapevine but I think she taught the eighth.  That was my first year, then the next year I started in Hurst and I finished up my career there.  I taught 39 years in H.E.B.11 so that made a total of 40 years teaching.
David
And what age were you when you started your career?
Margie
I started teaching when I was 20.
Betty
Was Minters Chapel a two room wooden school?
Margie
A wooden school.
Betty
Do you remember what the other Margie’s last name was or where she came from?
Margie
No I don’t, but her parents lived in Grapevine.  She was married but I don’t know where they lived before.  Anyway, she was a sister to the daughter, Hermalee, that eventually married James Himes, so they were from Grapevine.
Betty
The Himes’ farm yes.  Some of them were here and some of them were there.  Do you know anything about how much money you made when you first started teaching?
Margie
Yes! I made $90 a month and was paid till the end of school and we didn’t get another paycheck until October after we taught a month then we got another paycheck.
Betty
So school did begin in September, you didn’t have to wait for the cotton picking to get done.
Margie
No, no we started the day after Labor Day but we didn’t get paid until the first of October.
Betty
Now that was what year?
Margie
1942
Betty
During the war did you have savings programs like those war (418) stamps.  I remember when I went to Sowers School we had spelling bees and if we won we got stamps.
Margie
We didn’t have any at Minters Chapel.  After I started teaching at Hurst they had what they called banking.  Some bank came out there and some of the kids would save money that way (423).  Just little old banking accounts, but we didn’t have any kind of war stamps that I remember of in school.
Betty
You taught grades, one, two, three and four at Minters Chapel.  Did you say how many students you had all together in those four grades?
Margie
I don’t remember for sure but it couldn’t have been over twenty five.  Of course, I had more in Hurst than I did in all four grades at Minters Chapel.
David
Margie if any of these questions remind you of other things that would not be a direct response to the question, feel free to talk about those (428).
David
Do you remember what your grandparents or parent did?  Did they have jobs?
Margie
Thought we’d already covered that.
David
Well, I may have missed that (440).
Betty (Speaking to David)
When did they die?
Margie
When they died?
David
Yes, when your mother died?
Betty
You said you remembered one of your grandparents.
Margie
Oh, my grandmother was 96, almost 97, when she died in 1960.But mother died in 1950.
Betty
That was Kate.  I interviewed Kate when I was in High School. Remind us of your grandmother’s name again, the one that, died...
Margie
Louisa Pethenia Neely (446).
Betty
Can you spell Louisa Pethenia?
Margie
I can spell Louisa, L-o-u-i-s-a but I can’t spell Pethenia.
Betty
Was it Pathenia ?
Margie
I guess it’d be p-a-t-h-e-n-i-a...
Betty
Was she a Fuller? She married a Fuller?
Margie
No, she was a Neely
Betty
She was a Neely.
Margie
Um hum, she was my daddy’s mother.
Betty
Your dad’s mother.
Margie
But we’ve already covered that, her husband fought in the Civil War and she drew a Civil War pension as long as she lived.
Betty
Was it very much?
Margie
No, I’ve forgotten how much it was.
Betty
Was she brought to the house or did she stay at the funeral home?
Margie
She was brought to the house; she was brought to Aunt Annie and Uncle Steve Huffman’s house.
Betty
People sat all night long?
Margie
Um hum
David
(467) Do you remember much about Mosier Valley?
Margie
I don’t remember much about it but I had visited the school and they had the neatest, cleanest school.  The teachers were all, you know, so sweet and nice and Vada Johnston was the only teacher that I remember.  I do remember that Mr. Reddick was the Principal (474) at that time, when I visited there, I do remember him. Wasn’t that his name, Reddick...?
Betty
Yes, Reddick. I know that he came to the HEB District when they closed the Mosier Valley School.  When you visited there was it a cement block school or was it the old two room wooden building? Do you remember which one it was?
Margie
(480) No, I don’t remember that, but it was not too long after I started teaching at Hurst that we went over there for some kind of a teacher’s meeting or something.  When we visited that school it may have been the old one.  I don’t know.
David
Betty, do you have anything in your archives about the racial incident?
Betty
I do know that Pryor Reeves was in charge of transportation.  He was (488) Hattie Cribbs’ brother.  Hattie was married to Louis Cribbs and she owned all the Sotogrande property.  Pryor lived across the street from her. He took that old wooden Mosier Valley School and put it in his pasture when they built the new school.  He stored hay in it.
Margie
I remember that...
Betty
One of our teachers in our district, (494) Gordon Doggett, was looking for it because he had heard it was still surviving and I told Gordon it was over in Pryor Reeves’ back pasture...He went over and got it, cleaned it out and moved it to Bedford.  The building is now on Bedford Euless Road just west of Central Drive.  It’s still there in the back yard of a house. I also know that in 1913 the Mosier Valley School originally was part of the (500) Arwine School on Pipeline Road where Morrisdale is.  In the 1800’s and then after that it went to the Evatt School.  Evatt School was supposed to be somewhere on Hwy. 157.
Margie
I don’t know anything about that...
Betty
Willie Byers knew about that school.  It was somewhere close to where the Baptist Church is down in that area now.  It was called E-v-a-t-t, Evatt School.
David
I remember granddad telling about a school he attended down in that area.
Margie
Oh yeah, I remember my mother called it the Crossroads School.
Betty
The Crossroads School...
David
That’s right, that’s right...
Betty
That’s where Willie Byers went to school; well do you know where that Crossroads School was.
Margie
No, I sure don’t know where it was but I just remember hearing my mother talking about going to the Crossroads School.
David
It was probably right in the area of the Huffman Drive and 157.
Betty
That’s where I thought maybe they were trying to tell me where it was. One other question about schools if you don’t mind.  I know that in 1913, apparently there was no more Evatt School.  The Tarrant County records show it was part of the Arwine School (519) first.  Mosier Valley was assigned to Arwine School. Then it was assigned to the E-v-a-t-t School and then in 1913, I guess that’s when Tarrant and Euless combined.  They built that two storied school in Euless.  It was originally two stories, so Mosier Valley was   assigned to the Euless Schools.   I know the fall after I graduated from Euless High School in 1950, Mosier Valley students came to enroll in the Euless School.
David
I was still young, but I remember it was a pretty major incident.  Theirschool was very dilapidated. They came up to enroll their children in the school on South Main which was at that time Euless Independent School District.  News reporters stirred things up.  The Superintendent of Euless Schools punched out a reporter.
Betty
Who was Superintendent?  Not Johnny Edwards.
David
O.B. Powell.
Betty
Mr. Powell.  He was Superintendent when I was there.
David
He punched out a reporter.
Betty
He hit somebody? I’ve never seen the man loose his temper in my life. Mosier Valley took their case to court and won. A new school was built.
David
The people from Mosier Valley wound up being satisfied.  Their children went to the new school in Mosier Valley and the High School students were bussed to Fort Worth.

***taping stopped then restarted***

Betty
Margie, we were talking about Mosier Valley School, and you said you started at Euless School when you were six or seven years old.  Tell us some things about the school.  Was it two stories or was it one story?
Margie
Well I’m pretty sure it was two story.  They built a new building while I was in school and by the time I graduated they had an entirely different thing but I’m pretty sure that when I started it was two stories.
Betty
I know that when I was in school we had that cement brick gym (551).  I know it was built because the state would not accredit a school district that didn’t have a gym.  They had to build it. (Speaking to David...Was that gym there when you went to school?)
David
(speaking to Betty...No, it was built while I was in school)
Margie
(550) The first year I went to school was in Arlington because it was time for Jewel and Louise (a cousin) to go to High School so Uncle Steve and Uncle John rented a house, a big two story house, and we lived in that.Louise and Jewell lived with us and went to High School in Arlington so I started school in Arlington. Mine was right across the street and down four or five houses from where we lived. That’s where I first started school.
Betty
Was that downtown Arlington or out a bit?
Margie
Well it was close to the First Methodist Church.

(Tape #1 end 569)

(Tape #2 Start 000)

Margie
I remember that real well.
Betty
I have seen a document written by a lady who came to do a survey for the Euless Community and she was a friend of the Methodist Church minister at that time...
Margie
That must have been that thing Weldon has.
Betty
Yes, I have a copy of it.
David
She was one of the ones that interviewed...
Betty
Yes, she interviewed everybody in Euless at that time.
Betty
That was in 1931 when my mother-in-law was pregnant with my husband, James Fuller.  Annie Fuller, Horace Fuller’s wife was pregnant.  She was living next door to Amp Fuller, his dad.  Miss Posey did the survey; she surveyed all the people in the community.  She mentioned prohibition12. She said that there were some stories about prohibition. Do you know anything about; have you ever heard any stories about Parris Cox?
David
I’ve heard some, when I was very young.  (043) My father Heorger Massey had a small engine repair shop. Parris Cox used to come by to get things repaired.  He would spin yarns (050) while he was there.  He told about how during prohibition, he was a pilot and he would go to Mexico and buy pure alcohol.
Betty
Parris?
David
Parris.
Betty
I didn’t know he was a pilot.
David
He would buy alcohol in 5 gallon tins.  He would stuff it in the airplane with him and the last time he even had one sitting on his lap.  He said he could bring that pure alcohol up here and put some caramel color in it.  That was an agent and then he’d sell it.  The last time he did that he had the airplane so over loaded he didn’t think he was going be able to get up to take off speed.  He said, if I ever take off, I’ll never do this again and he didn’t.  This was 100 proof alcohol and if he’d crash he’d a been one big flame... (chuckling).
Betty
(074) I know that the lady who was doing the survey for her master’sthesis at SMU said she was down in Tarrant where they made alcohol. She wasn’t too "peachy keen" about going down there because there was a "still" down there somewhere but she did interview those folks.
David
That’s right.  One of the stories I remember was about a revenue officer who was trying to arrest somebody and there was a little grocery store down there.
Betty
Do you remember who had the grocery store?
David
(090) I don’t remember the name of the grocer but this revenue officer chased this person he was trying to arrest into the store and the person ran in the front door and out the back door.  The revenue officer came out with a gun and the store keeper didn’t know what was going on, so he shot and killed him.
Betty
Was it the revenue officer who was killed?
David
The Revenue Officer was killed. It was justifiable homicide; I guess they thought because all the storeowner knew was a guy with a gun running into his store.
Betty
Aunt Ethel Fuller, James’ aunt, told me that they moved a house, just before she died and they moved a house to Main street.  She said that was the grocery store from Tarrant and its still there today.  They’ve remodeled it, sided the outside.  I wonder if that’s the one you’re talking about.
David
Do you have anywhere in your records that at one point Tarrant had a train station?
Betty
Yes.
David
That’s important.
Betty
Yes, I saw it, it was there when I was still in High School. It was near Ben Reeves place in Tarrant.
Margie
I remember that Mr. Fitzgerald, from our church, First Baptist Church, went into a pool room to witness to Ben Reeves to try to get him to come to church and our people at church didn’t take to it at all.  They almost turned Mr. Fitzgerald off of the Deacon Board.  They really reprimanded him for going in to that Pool Room.
Betty
I know when I graduated from Euless High School in 1950, we weren’t allowed to dance.  I did hear that some people in Euless went off to other places to dance, but I didn’t.  We had Junior and Senior Banquets and I remember Jewell Huffman Massey, David’s mother, being in charge of the food for our junior and senior banquet.  My mother helped .  I have a picture of the two of them helping serve.
Margie
That was probably when she was PTA president.
Betty
Yes, she was PTA president.
Betty
Do you have any thoughts about prohibition?
Margie
I don’t know any stories or know anything about prohibition. I don’t remember there being too much said about it here in Euless because all these people were church people.
Betty
They’d used to say that everybody in Euless went to one or the other of the churches.
Margie
That’s right, we were right across the street from each other and we had church at the Baptist Church on the second and fourth Sunday and we had church at the Methodist Church on the first and third Sundays.  If there happened to be a fifth Sunday, then we all got together and sang.
Betty
The songs were wonderful. I just remember that there was a Fundamentalist Baptist Church.  Do you remember much about it? I was a Baptist, but I can’t remember anything about that Fundamentalist Church.
Margie
Those were the people that weren’t satisfied with our church and theybroke off from the First Baptist Church.
Betty
I didn’t know that...
David
They were disciples of J. Frank Norris.
Margie
I was so young I don’t remember.  I just remember that most of them had been members of our church and they just broke off from our church and started that one.
Betty
That’s good to get that into the history of Euless.
David
Betty, do you have the Aurora Borealis story anywhere in your history.
Betty
No, you want to tell that to me?
David
Well, Margie’s the one that...
Margie
Okay, I was at an ice cream supper at the Methodist Church, First Methodist here in Euless.  I don’t know for sure how old I was, probably five or six.  These beautiful Northern lights showed up and everybody was scared to death because they thought the end of the world was coming.  That’s the thing I remember more than anything else but I do remember that it was beautiful.  Of course I’d never seen anything like it before or since, but it was spectacular.  I remember it quite well.
David
It was about 1928?
Margie
I was about 5 or 6 years old. I just asked "Tookie" the other day if that happened before Aunt Pearl died or after. I was four when aunt Pearl died. She said she doesn’t remember.
Betty
Who is Tookie?
David
Florine
Margie
Florine
David
Huffman McGinnis Lee.
Betty
Who is she?
David
My mother’s sister.
Betty
Your mother’s sister?  How old is she?
David
She’s 90 now.
Margie
Turned 90 last year.
Betty
I interviewed her, she is sharp as a tack. I didn’t know that she was Took.
David
She’s the first one I was talking to that mentioned the Aurora Borealis; then I asked Margie and she remembered also.
Betty
Margie Massey, I only remember you as Margie Massey I guess, well no that’s not true, because I remember I went to interview Kate Neely.  We appreciate this interview with you and we had a delightful time.  We thank you for coming.  You are wonderful.  Your memory is superb.  Thank you so very much.
Margie
Thank you Betty and I’ve enjoyed it...

***Note was attached in Betty Fuller’s handwriting: "Grandmother, Annie Huffman, was operated on at home on the kitchen table.  Her doctor was Dr. Rhodes".***

This narrative history was produced through the efforts of The Euless Historical Preservation Committee with assistance from the staff of the City of Euless Parks and Community Services Department. - June 2006

End Notes

  1. Rub Board: A board having a corrugated surface on which clothes can be rubbed in the process of laundering
  2. Tarrant, TX: A small town southeast of present day Euless. Tarrant was located on the Rock Island rail line that ran between Dallas and Fort Worth.
  3. Gully: A deep ditch or channel cut in the earth by running water after a prolonged downpour
  4. Crystal Radio: The crystal radio receiver (also known as a Crystal Set) is a passive radio receiver consisting of a variable LC circuit tuned circuit, a diode detector, and audio transducer. These are the original and simplest type of radio receiver in existence. This device was in very wide use during the early part of radio's history and is still in limited use today.
  5. Culling: To pick out from others; select; To remove rejected members or parts from (a herd, for example)
  6. Buddie’s A grocery chain that once operated in the north Texas area.
  7. Can (or Canning): To seal in an airtight container for future use; preserve; As in canning peaches.
  8. Go to the Cellar: The best protection from deadly tornados was below ground in the cellars.  When the weather appeared threatening, people would go into the cellars as protection from potentially deadly storms.
  9. Cards: As in flash cards, a card printed with words or numbers and briefly displayed as part of a learning drill.
  10. Corps: Student Military Cadet Corp at North Texas Agricultural College, then affiliated with Texas A&M University
  11. HEB: Hurst Euless Bedford Independant School District
  12. Prohibition: The forbidding by law of the manufacture, transportation, sale, and possession of alcoholic beverages. The period (1920-1933) during which the 18th Amendment forbidding the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages was in force in the United States.