Archive Record

Images

1 of 1977

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Metadata

Object Name

Reminiscence

Title

Memories (Riding the Interurban): Creekmore, Lefty

Event

2000 Open House at the IRM

Date

2000, 6 February

Scope & Content

History solicited during a 6 February 2000 Open House at the Plano Interurban Rail Museum.

Last Name: Creekmore
First Name: Lefty
City of Residence: Dallas
Photos willing to Share: No
Other Comments: No photo about the interurban - good photo about the TTT members. P.S. By the way - who told you I rode the interurban ?????

1.What city were you residing in at the time you rode the Interurban?
1st - Dallas, Texas 2nd- Vickery, Texas

2.What city did you most often travel to when you rode the interurban?
Dallas

3.Did you travel alone, with family, or friends?
Alone

4.At what age do you first remember riding the Interurban? What memory do you have?
See letter attached

5.What impressed you the most about the Interurban?
Good service - friendly passengers

6.Was the Interurban comfortable? Was it cold in winter? Hot in summer? What was it like in the rain?
no problem - see letter attached

7.Do you remember the style of dress you and others wore when you rode the Interurban?
casual - work clothes

8.Did you travel to Dallas to shop? To eat? Texas State Fair? Sporting Events? Work?
Business - trips to work

9.Did any other family members ride the Interurban for other purposes?
No

10.Did anyone travel with pets?
Not to my knowledge

11.What were the conductors like? How were you treated while riding the Interurban?
friendly - getting on and off only contact

12.Did you have problems with cancellations or delays due to malfunctions or weather?
rarely ever

13.Do you remember any humorous stories about riding the Interurban?
- just short, friendly greetings with passengers

14.What effect did the Interurban have on you when it stopped running?
I moved to Dallas (got married) before the interurban ceased to operate. I often wondered why they did.

15.How did the transition to other forms of transportation effect your life, family and friends?
no response

******************************************* attached letter

January 22, 2000 LEFTY CREEKMORE
12214 Coolmeadow Lane
Dallas, TX 75218
SUBJECT: Interurban Memories

At a very early age I grew up knowing about Plano and Wylie, the reason being my parents had kinfolks scattered around both towns. It was my mother's custom (around 1915) everysummer while we lived in west Texas to visit in both towns, and taking me and my older brother along.

Finally, in 1925 we moved to Plano, and I enrolled in school at Plano High. I became acquainted with a lot of nice teenagers who gave me all the good news about their club - the Twenty Tough Tamales. They offered me an invitation to join, which I did. The club was fairly well established and known by most everybody living in Plano. We had our own caps, T.shirts and belt buckles with the TTT insignia prominently displayed. Quite an outfit for a bunch of high schoolers in such a small town. We were active in all sports, teammates on the same teams, no matter what games we were playing.

Here's where the interurban comes into the picture. I graduated from Plano High in 1927, and I moved with my parents to Dallas (Oak Cliff) shortly thereafter. I did some part-time work at a grocery chain of stores, then enrolled at Dallas Tech High School for post-graduate courses - however, at every opportunity, mostly week-ends - I would ride a streetcar downtown, then walk over to the interurban station and board an interurban headed for Plano to join in the fun of being with my TTT buddies. Chock Beverly owned a filling station just across the interurban tracks from the depot in the corner of the park - and any number of the club members were always there. It helped that Mr. Beverly's son was a TTT member. I continued these week-end trips for a couple of years.

In the early '30s my father purchased a three acre tract of land in an isolated section called Clint Addition between Vickery, Texas and Richardson. He had the abandon house on the property renovated before we moved in. The interurban tracks (rails) were at the back end of the three acres - and in a more remote area was a passenger station called Dannelly Stop, barely visible to anyone that happened to pass by. However, it was a very neat structure, about 10 feet of platform, with a bench and a wooden frame overhead in case it rained. The reason I know so much about this station is because for three years I walked a couple of hundred yards to catch the interurban in the morning going to work - and ride it each evening coming back home. I was working for the Wholesale Druggist Credit Bureau in Dallas in the Insurance Building across the street from the interurban station. Very convenient for me as a passenger.

When I ride in my car these days driving down Matilda street to Bryan street, it always reminds me of the interurban because this was the route it took going out of Dallas and coming in back from their Plano line when I was a passanger. I always enjoyed this mode of transpartation - good service and a chance to meet and chat with other passangers riding along with you; and look at Clint Addition today - no more residential - all tall buildings - and the unnamed street - not long after I moved in with my parents the women in nearby areas met to pick a name to bring it uptodate. Finally, one woman said "Why don't we call it Rambler Road, we are always rambling up and down it." Today Rambler Road ends at the main entrance to Presbyterian Hospital.

In conclusion, with the passing of years the TTT members went their separate ways - jobs away from Plano, marragies, careers, less fun-time to have, much as the same way I did. The March of Time takes it's toll!! Clint Addition - the three acres with a house - my father bought for under $3000.00. After his death years later my older brother sold it for a quarter of a million dollars……………….. And finally - about the Twenty Tough Tamales, they have all passed away - except one. You guessed it - that's me!!

I hope to make it to the OPEN HOUSE on the scheduled date of February 6, 2000.

Lefty [handwritten signature]

*********************************************************
Picture of TWENTY TUFF TAMALES in boats:

Left to Right:
FOUR - on the front row - Bill Graves, John Beverly, Lois Howard and Charlie Lee Graves.
FIVE - on the middle row - Joe Baker, Elzie Carpenter, Conrad Pratt, Willie Carpenter and Lefty Creekmore
ONE - on the back row (with pipe) - Sammy Crockett

Picture taken at White Rock lake, summer of 1927 - TEN members of the TWENTY TUFF TAMALES, Plano, Texas. Picture taken by Claude Creekmore, also a member.

*********************************************************
Picture of TWENTY TUFF TAMALES members playing football:

PLANO HIGH SCHOOL VARSITY FOOTBALL TEAM - YEAR 1926

On the line, left to right -
Cam Cooper - Herb Christian, Winifred Wood, Jack Harrington, Gabe Massey, Doyle Cooper, Claude Creekmore

In the backfield, left to right -
Reedy Dunn, Charlie Lee Graves, Lefty Creekmore (quarterback), Sam Crockett (Total squad - only 17 players)

Won 6 - lost 2 - tied 1 - Picture taken at Rice Field - Players had to buy their own shoes, ////shoulder pads and helmets. Note only 2 players wore helmets.

No school buses - students with cars volunteered to take players to games scheduled in other towns.

*********************************************************
Picture of TWENTY TUFF TAMALES members on country road:

Picture taken in summer of 1926 or 1927 - country road between Plano and Richardson. Road eventually became lay out for present day Central Expressway. Interurban route was nearby. Note abundance of wild flowers decorating open top Ford with broken windshield. We all picked these flowers growing along the roadside.

As usual, my brother, Claude Creekmore, was the photographer and rarely got into the picture(s) himself, but after he took this picture we all gathered up all the flowers, placed him beside the car and covered him with them. He formed an upright pose with a broad smile on his face, holding an enormous bunch of flowers. I don't remember who took this picture but Claude kept a snapshot along with other TTT pictures. He gave me this copy when I visited him at the retirement home in Clifton, Texas several months before he died. His death make me the only TTT remaining of the twenty.

Seated around the car - from left to right - Conrad (Hershal) Pratt, Charlie Lee (Burhead) Graves, Bill Graves. Buddy Carpenter, Lefty Creekmore. Driver of car - Willie Carpenter. Seated next to him, Clint (Mutt) Carpenter
*********************************************************

Search Terms

Clint Addition
Dannelly Stop
IRM 2000 Open House
Memoirs
Oral History
Twenty Tough Tamales (TTT)

Collection

City of Plano Collection

Catalog Number

CP.2000.GC.1-5