Tag Archives: dallas heritage village

Blacksmith

Posted on by Bill Chance

“ARMOR, n. The kind of clothing worn by a man whose tailor is a blacksmith.”
― Ambrose Bierce, The Unabridged Devil’s Dictionary

I walked around the Dallas Heritage Village during the Jazz Age Sunday Social. I always like seeing the blacksmith shop. It was the same, with the same blacksmith as it was when I saw it almost two years ago.

I never have taken lessons there like I wanted to. Something I need to think about. Looks like fun.

Blacksmith forging a cross, Dallas Heritage Village (click to enlarge)

Blacksmith forging a cross, Dallas Heritage Village
(click to enlarge)

In this world a man must either be anvil or hammer.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

It is better to be the hammer than the anvil.
Emily Dickinson

If you only have a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.
Abraham Maslow

Are You Lonesome Tonight?

Posted on by Bill Chance

Last Sunday I met some friends for a nice bike ride to the Jazz Age Sunday Social at Dallas Heritage Village. We packed picnic lunches on our bikes and it was a glorious day to sit around and relax.

The point of the event was to dress up in costumes from the roaring twenties (with various degrees of success) and dance to tunes of the time. I enjoyed the music a lot – there is something about a live band…. The first group – The Singapore Slingers were an especial bunch of fun.

The Singapore Slingers

The Singapore Slingers

The Singapore Slingers

The Singapore Slingers

The Singapore Slingers

The Singapore Slingers

The Singapore Slingers

The Singapore Slingers

A lot of people don’t realize this Elvis Song Are You Lonesome To-Night was written in 1926.

Old School

Posted on by Bill Chance

Renner School House, Dallas Heritage Village

I was wandering around, looking into the historic buildings that have been moved from all over North Texas into Old City Park, now Dallas Heritage Village. Some kid walked into the Renner School House at the same time I did.

“Can you imagine going to school in a room like this?” I asked.

“I’ve been here before, I think. I think it was a field trip,” he answered.

“Look at how each chair holds the desk for the person behind them. Oh, do you know what the little holes are for?”

“For the inks!” he said.

“It’s a shame we can’t go upstairs or play in the playground,” the kid said. “Do you know what all these cans hanging on the wall are for?”

I said, “Those are what the kids brought their lunch to school in. See, they are little metal buckets. They called them lunch pails.”

I kept running into the kid as I walked around the place and he would leave his family, walk up to me and point out something. In the historic barnyard he was looking around, trying to find the rooster that was crowing.

“I think it’s a recording,” I said. “They are playing that sound over and over.”

“It sure sounds real,” he said.

The historic Renner School House, in Dallas Heritage Village, with the skyscrapers of downtown rearing up in the background.

Lunch pails hung on the wall pegs at the Renner School House.

Daily Reader.

Renner School House desks.