The Munger Mongrels and Friends

Munger Place was a great place for me and my friends to grow up and come of age. We never thought of the late forties as the beginning of the end of walkable communities with grocery stores, drug stores, parks and movie theaters just around the corner. These were the things that brought us together and were instrumental in developing bonds that have lasted a lifetime.

By 1948 our neighborhood group consisted of the Michell’s, mainly Kay, David, Craig plus Dale McClendon and Carole who Joe and I had known since 1941. Carole seemed to magnetically pull classmates to her house overnight and weekends who became fixtures in our neighborhood. Barbara Dillard, Gwen Brister, Gretchen Wendelborn, and Reba Seale were often at Carole’s house and on the Michell porch as well. Near the Boulevard were Janet and Charlotte Ann Enochs that we knew as well. Sandra Lunsford visited both Carole and Kay and was always around. LaQuata Johnson was Jerry’s step sister.

The Girls in Munger Place In Front of Carole's & Rudi's House

The Girls in Munger Place
In Front of Carole’s & Rudi’s House

The Girls in Munger Place On the Boulevard

The Girls in Munger Place
On the Boulevard

In 1947 Raymond Stammire became a part of our group, followed by Earl Anderson in 1948 along with Jerry Grubbs and Travis Mayo. Some of the others who joined with us were Phillip Prescott, Jim Smreakar and Sonny Orrill.

We played sports on the Boulevard, hide and seek games in my yard and basketball in Joe’s backyard. At night we would walk around and talk, often sit on the porches and go to Blackie’s Ice house by the park on Junius. In the spring of 1948 our last kick the can game ended up as a kissing party.

In late August we finally organized the neighborhood team that we had wished for and failed to accomplish so many times before. The first team we organized was football but we later formed a baseball team and played a little basketball as a team. Joe was our leader in planning and numbering our plays. We would run through them under the street light at Tremont and Munger Blvd. We practiced on the boulevard across from the Michell porch and played our games at Junius Park across from the ice house.

The Mongrels

The Mongrels

The Mongrels
Joe was the coach and leader in all endeavors.
Earl was the thinker with an alternative opinion on things established as facts, often when they were not.
Jerry was the team man holding things together.
David & Phillip were the golden boys, some three years younger, destined for greater things.
Jim was the practical one sizing up the situation in his slow drawl.
Raymond was the artist with up to date ideas in our rather provincial group.
Travis was the multi-talented one, ferocious in football, yet a poet, writer and would walk miles anywhere living off of berries in the woods.
Sonny was the one with polish, always knowing what to say, his dress was immaculate and his car was always clean.
Rudi was the ladies’ man with curly hair and rosy cheeks.
Bill was the chronicler, remembering things and keeping records.

 

Sometime during the hot summer of 1948 an old mongrel dog showed up in the neighbor- hood in Munger Place. He was quite friendly, with light yellow matted hair and a red nose. He must have had a little bloodhound in his background. During the heat of the day he would follow Jerry around – both of them moving at a snail’s pace. Jerry said he always joined Jerry and David on their paper route. On the way back to Tremont and Munger Blvd., the old mongrel dog would gobble down a few donuts with them at the store or the ice house across from Munger Park at Junius and Henderson.

We needed a nickname to go with Munger Place. While discarding lesser monikers, Jerry said, “What about Mongrels?” The name stuck and we carried it for the two years or so we played football, basketball and baseball. Yet somehow the name persisted beyond those years and spread to the social life that grew around our group.
As we separated and then met again through the years we referred to ourselves as the Mongrels – and always with great pride. What happened to the namesake hound no one remembers – at some point in time he was no longer there – much like change itself – you just realize it is not the same anymore.

The old lovable dog never had a name of his own but today some sixty years later in Munger Place there is a plaque The Munger Mongrels that bears the name he gave to us.

Few mongrels are remembered as well.

The Esplanade on Munger Boulevard

The Esplanade on Munger Boulevard

The Esplanade on Munger Boulevard

For several years almost every day we would gather on the esplanade to play some sport, game or just to talk. With the Michell porch (just a few feet to the left in the picture) we had a convenient place to rest, talk, and flirt with the girls.

Kay Carole and Gwen were leaders in bringing us together in a social group. Carole brought many people into our neighborhood, Gwen organized numerous parties at her house and Kay always had groups on her porch by the boulevard. Gwen to this day has gathering with friends in Dallas in spite of living in Las Vegas and attends meetings with the Munger Mongrels when she can.

Munger Park 1948

Munger Park 1948

Munger Park 1948

The Mongrels played their games at Munger Park because the boulevard was too narrow. The second building on the left in the above picture is the ice house where we spent much time. A likeable old fellow named Blackie ran the ice house and we loved to tease him as he was always teasing us. The third building on the left was the bakery. Today it is The Garden Café, a meeting place for the Mongrels and others who grew up in the area.

While Munger Place was a small community of its own, I believe for the youth growing up sub-communities existed within. I think this had to do with the close proximity of the many stores that existed at that time. Also, the dividing line of the school districts crossed through the area.

The Mongrels shopped at stores on Collett and Columbia like Fronk’s Grocery and Moore’s Pharmacy. Roy Bandy on Collett cut their hair. The guys we played near Munger Park (The Alley Cats) shopped at the stores across from Munger Park.

There was a group on the 4800 block of Tremont we knew but seldom gathered with. They shopped at a nearby small shopping area at Worth and Prairie. They had their hair cut at a barber-beauty shop called Pinkies and their pharmacy was on Fitzhugh and Gaston. The elementary schools were divided by Fitzhugh at sometime and Collett at another. Fitzhugh also divided the junior high schools.

Steven Fulda, who Joe and I played with as kids moved the few blocks over in the 4800 block area. He then lived near Doug Stocks, Hugh Farrell,

Paul Parker and others who formed a group like the Mongrels and they are again close at this time like the Mongrels. Thanks to Hugh’s efforts, the two groups meet today and wonder why we were not closer as teens.

In 2009 the Mongrels and the Tremont group discovered they shared the exploration of the giant sewer under Tremont that was made for runoff water from what once was Peak Creek. When Munger Place was developed, a giant culvert was placed under the alley between Tremont and Worth. It was not sufficient to handle the overflow so, a decade or so later, another was built under Tremont.

The Tremont Kids discovered the giant sewer first, probably around 1943 or 1944. They dropped through a manhole cover just west of Prairie (see arrow on map) and found it so large they could walk in it standing up. Hugh, Paul, with Big Jim and Little Jim, by means of Paul’s rope, dropped a wagon down, put a candle in it then started to explore. This took them in somewhat a southwest direction all the way to some railroad tracks near Fair Park. (The map shows Peak Creek before it was channeled underground and while we don’t know the exact route of the sewer it is likely it closely followed the creek)

The explorations lasted until their parents became aware of it.

The Mongrels were less adventurous. Jerry, David and Travis discovered the giant water drain in 1949 and walked one block from Munger Boulevard to Collett. However, Travis was known to have explored the sewer wandering somewhat on his own much like he did above ground. I never had the courage to venture into such depths even to go after the many baseballs we lost in it.

victor1948

By 1948 in post war Munger Place, the Columbia – Collett shopping area improved to some extent. C. V. Carver opened the new Avenue Theater at 4923 Columbia. It was much larger with better seats and a balcony. A 7-11 drive-in market replaced the old Magnolia #76 gas station. These two improvements were about the only ones. A part of the 7-11 was a waffle shop for a short time and then many other shops failed in the little corner of the store. The former Ladies Exchange and Tea Room building was in decline and a café and bar was operating in its place. Maybe something else similar followed but it was not long before the building became vacant. Eagle Pharmacy became Lindy’s Café & Bar with ‘Bar’ having the greater emphasis. It would not be long before the exodus to the suburbs would begin.

teamroom1948

By 1948 the once relatively nice Tea Room was looking more like the drawing to the right. Although I passed it many times, all I can recall from the late forties were the lights strung up at night. It is hard for me to picture it as the prestigious place it was in the twenties. It no longer had the nice landscaping and gardens and potted plants that were there in Clara Murray’s days.

Earl Anderson remembers having hamburgers there with his father in the later forties when it was still busy but business didn’t last much longer as it became vacant in a few years. Some thirty years later in 1978 I photographed it when it was a depressing ruin.
Views of 5003 Tremont in 1947

Living Room 1947

Living Room 1947

Pop in the backyard Late 1940s

Pop in the backyard Late 1940s

Mom in the front yard--Ted’s car

Mom in the front yard–Ted’s car

The sun and rain took its toll on the porch on the west side.

The sun and rain took its toll on the porch on the west side.