Dallas / Fort Worth and Me

At the corner of East Randol Mill Road and Stadium Drive in Arlington, Texas, roughly midway between Dallas and Fort Worth, stands this monument to the Metroplex’s love of baseball. It’s had several names, but since March 2007 it’s been called the Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. That’s because it’s where the Texas Rangers play their home games.

As you can see, I took these sucky photos during the off season, when the place was shut down for repairs. Here’s how it looks from a distance, on a brighter day than the one I visited on:

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Beyond having to constantly weave my way through neighborhood street games populated by erstwhile young Peles and Beckhams, I don’t have much to do with soccer.

Apparently, however, I’m an exception to the local rule.

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While Texas Christian University is a charming place, it’s hardly your typical tourist attraction. Nestled in a quiet neighborhood in central Fort Worth, TCU is known more for its attractive campus (and girls) than anything else.

Don’t expect a sports powerhouse here: the Horned Frogs try, sure, but I get the impression that the school’s more concerned about the education of its students than about athletic bragging rights. Frankly, that’s a real breath of fresh air, but it doesn’t make this tranquil campus an overwhelming draw for the average vacationer.

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On the northwest side of the DFW metroplex, just a few miles from downtown Fort Worth, you’ll find what’s left of Niles City. Back in the second decade of the Twentieth Century, Niles City was, briefly, one of the richest towns in the world, which was rather remarkable given its size: it covered no more than 1.5 square miles at its largest. Among other things, it included a petroleum refinery and pipeline, a cottonseed oil company, several grain elevators, two meat packing plants — and the Fort Worth Stockyards.

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Deep inside Dallas, just west of Fair Park and a mile or so east of the West End, you’ll find a historic district called Deep Ellum.

Exactly why it’s called this no one really knows, except that “Ellum” is a corruption of “Elm” perpetrated by the jazz and blues musicians who used to congregate here ninety years ago. The name itself probably comes from one of the streets than passes through the district, since there are no elm trees here now, and probably never were (trees are plentiful, but they’re mostly live oaks). One thing I do know is that Deep Ellum has been there since 1873, because that fact is proudly included on all the sign posts.

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Ahem:

Dah, duh-dahhh, duh-dah-duh-dah-dah-dahhh, dah-dah-dah, dah-dah-dahhhhh!

Unless you’re a complete cultural Philistine, you’ll recognize that as the opening bars of the theme song of that most epic of Texan TV series, Dallas. (Now, don’t tell me it was indecipherable; I can hum with the best of them.) And no excuses if you’re not from the USA either, because I happen to know that the series was syndicated all over the world. There may be some nomads in the wilds of Outer Mongolia who’ve never seen an episode or two, but I doubt it. Good Lord, the show lasted for 14 seasons. So did its California-based spin-off, Knots Landing. There were three or three Dallas movies, too.

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