Dallas Daze

EULESS CONDO This was the living room of the condo in Euless I moved into with my friend, Doy, after my wife and I separated for the last time before we got a divorce. It was really a pretty nice place, especially with a fireplace to gaze into in times of need. All the furniture on the left is mine.

TWIN TREE LANE ROOM In 1983, after Doy and I went our separate ways, I moved into the back room of my sister Lyn's home on Twin Tree Lane in Dallas, near White Rock Lake. This was basically all my stuff. Boy, what I'd give to have just this much now.

KATRINA After I moved out of Lyn's house, I got an apartment of my own at The Corners on Northwest Highway. When my wife called one day and told me that if I wanted my cat, Katrina, back she would bring her to me, otherwise, she was going to get rid of her (I'd left her in Karen's charge when we divorced), I told her to bring her on. I got this beautiful and loving feline during the first separation Karen and I went through, and she was my best buddy. Once the apartment management found out I had a pet, though, they told me I'd have to get rid of her. I offered to pay a pet deposit, but they then told me they didn't allow pets at all and that she would have to go. I scrambled around and found an apartment at Timbercreek Apartments on the other side of Northwest Highway, and that was that. Nobody was going to make me give up my cat again.

TIMBERCREEK LIVING ROOM - EARLY DAYS Even though there are no leaves on the trees, this is one of the earliest photos of my new bachelor pad at Timbercreek. (I'd moved here in late summer.) It sure looks like a bachelor lives here, doesn't it? The balcony you see overlooks the creek and when the trees are leafed out, it's like living in Tarzan's place -- or the treehouse at my grandparents' house in Lometa. The painting on the wall was done by an ex-girlfriend. I never did really like it.

TIMBERCREEK FIREPLACE With a vaulted ceiling, creek view, and this nice little fireplace, this was the perfect apartment for me. I sure put a lot of wood through this thing. Fire is good.

KATRINA STATUE You wouldn't believe how many times I've seen this particular pose. For some reason she loved it up there, and always on the right side of the set.

KATRINA MUSING Katrina doing what I could spend hours doing -- staring down at the creek trickling along its merry way.

CLEANING THE GRILL Here we see Katrina helping me out in the cooking department by cleaning off the grill for me. She was very efficient about it.

RACCOON VISITOR One of the varmints in the area, along with hordes of squirrels and wood rats. Squirrels in the trees during the day, rats in the trees at night. (My friend, Danny, and I used to shoot at the rats with my BB pistol, until we tried to put our own eyes out with a ricochet.) The sticker came with a package of album sheets, and I thought this one said it all for this guy.

TIMBERCREEK ENTERTAINMENT UNIT My apartment has grown now, along with a new entertainment unit and plants galore. The wood sculpture's name was Clyde, and was a project I did for a sculpture class in college.

TIMBERCREEK LIVING ROOM - LATER ON And here we have the other side of the room, complete with couch now. The director's chairs have been moved out to the porch and the nice easy chair has gone to Goodwill. Katrina's laying where I usually sat, as you can tell.

CAT-IN-THE-BOX Just what is it about a box that so fascinates cats? I don't know, either, but Katrina loved them.

KATRINA AT PLAY One of the things that has always intrigued me about a cat at play is the way the irises of their eyes widen so. I wonder what that does for them?

CAMERA SHY Well, okay, if you're going to take my picture, to heck with it.

COWBOY CHICKEN This is a shot I did for a restaurant called Cowboy Chicken as a free-lance photographer. It later showed up on a billboard. (see next shot)

COWBOY CHICKEN And here we have the billboard for Cowboy Chicken that the previous photo was used for. The store at Shady Brook and Park Lane was the first one (est. 1981) in what has become a very popular franchise in Dallas. I think the store is just to my right. I can't remember now.

RAILROAD TRACKS AT SUNSET Not having transportation during this time, I walked the two miles to work every day. This was my treat on the way home some evenings.

KERA PLEDGE DRIVE VOLUNTEERS And even though I lived ten miles away from the KERA studios, I didn't let that stop me from volunteering there. All that stopped the night I got mugged on the way home. I bought a 10-speed bicycle after that and rode to and fro. That was a much better solution all the way around.

KERA 90.1FM RADIO STUDIO This is Darlene and Mike waiting to go on air during one of the 90FM pledge drives. I started my volunteering here at the radio studio answering phones.

KERA TV13 TELEVISION STUDIO I later gravitated to the TV side of operations and became the talent coordinator, responsible for making sure the on-air talent were in the studio on time and with all the materials they would need. It was great fun, but sometimes challenging, depending on the talent. I wasn't on duty this night, so I was free to prowl around the studio, making good use of the overhead catwalks. No one seemed to mind.

KERA TV13 CONTROL ROOM Due to my diligence as a talent coordinator, I was later asked if I would be interested in working in the control room, as the woman who ran the teleprompter was needed for other things. "Absolutely!!!" I said. Here we see the director busy at work during a pledge break.

KERA TV13 TELEPROMPTER And here is where I would spend the remainder of my volunteer days at KERA, rolling and editing the script on the fly for the on-air talent. Between pledge breaks, it was my job to completely revise the script for the next break using -- get this! -- a Wang word processor. The Wang was hot stuff back then, but people snicker at the mention of it these days, if they even know what one was. It was great experience.

DOUG WITH KERA CUTIES Speaking of great experiences, there was no shortage of cute young things to party with during these pledge drives, as you can see here. This was taken during Gala Night, which is why everyone is so dressed up.

DALLAS SKYLINE AT NIGHT At this time, I owned a remarkable little rangefinder camera called a Canon QL-17, which had a fantastically bright and extremely sharp lens and was virtually vibration-free, thanks to its leaf shutter (as opposed to the moving, clacking system in an SLR). So, while I was walking home from the studios at night, I stopped a few times and took some night shots. The fact that the images are so sharp despite the lack of a tripod is a testament to the camera's abilities, not necessarily mine.