North Dallas High School, The Pre-Beatles Era
by Paula Bosse
Before school, 1962 (click for larger image)
by Paula Bosse
Today, a few random photos from the 1960, 1962, and 1963 yearbooks of North Dallas High School.
The top photo (from 1962) is my favorite, because, had I not known what part of town this photo was taken in, I would never have guessed. I’m still not 100% sure, but I think this shows Cole Avenue running alongside NDHS. The Cole and Haskell Drug Store (Coke sign) was on the corner of … Cole and Haskell, but things have been so Uptown-ified that this area is now almost completely unrecognizable from even 20 years ago. At least the school and Cole Park remain (mostly) unchanged.
So, a few moments in the life of NDHS students in the days just before The Beatles and Vietnam. (All photos are larger when clicked.)
From 1960, majorettes practicing, with batons and headscarves — two things one doesn’t encounter often these days.
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From 1962, cheerleader Gene Martinez with the school’s bulldog mascot, Duchess.
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The rest of the photos are from 1963, when most of the girls had the Laura Petrie flip hairstyle. (Seen here are Suzy DeGaw and Olga Delgado.)
As far as the boys, an alarming number of them sported haircuts like the ones below (although these two seem to be a bit on the extreme side — most were shorter) — it’s a sort of early-’60s version of the ’80s’ Flock of Seagulls hair-do where you look back on it and shake your head in wonderment. I’m not exactly sure what “butch wax” is for, but I’m thinking it’s for this. (Pictured here are Jody Chenoweth and Robert Paul Reid.)
Girls “gabbed.”
Boys loitered.
Girls had beauty pageants (and wore a lot of plaid).
And boys practiced shooting.
North Dallas had their very own rock and roll band — “The Misters,” headed by the enormously popular Jesse Lopez (younger brother of Trini Lopez, who went to Crozier Tech). (Morning sock hops?!)
In fact, The Misters won the high school combo contest at the State Fair several times. And speaking of High School Day at the fair….
And back on campus, I don’t know who you are, Rufus Jara, but I nominate you as Coolest-Looking NDHS Student of 1963. (Caption from the yearbook: “Rufus Jara appears to be bothered by the light in the lunch room.”)
These last two photos leave a lot to be desired in quality (I did my best with yellowed paper and a broken book spine), but I think it’s interesting to see what the street looked like in front of the school, and on McKinney Avenue, to the left. Again, not recognizable today.
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Detail from a 1962 city map
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All photos from The Viking, the North Dallas High School yearbooks from 1960, 1962, and 1963.
More from these yearbooks: see a LOT of ads in the post “Ads For Businesses Serving the North Dallas High School Area — Early 1960s,” here. Several feature NDHS students.
All pictures larger when clicked!
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Copyright © 2016 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.
Flashback : Dallas 
I remember the Cabells, Mom would stop there on the way to school so we could get a “Banana Flip” those were so good. (And we survived the horrible diet and didn’t have ADD) Across the street from Cabells was the Plaza theater.(Blocked by the tree in Picture) I don’t remember the Texaco. We hardly traveled down Cole so I don’t recall any of those businesses. Have you ever come across a picture of the “China Clipper”? It was a Chinese restaurant just North of Haskell on McKinney across from the school. I remember Jesse Lopez, he played at our school too and I was told he lived in the 2 story house right behind the Plaza.
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Still haven’t found a photo of the China Clipper — although I remember seeing it all the time as a kid. I’d never heard of the Plaza Theater until I saw an ad for it in one of these yearbooks. You might enjoy the ads coming (I hope) tomorrow!
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Paula- enjoyed the piece on my alma mater (’68). I have one very bad photo of the China Clipper neon sign here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/mikecochran/7892338636/in/album-72157631316580264/
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I remember that! Thanks!
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Thanks Paula for a trip down memory lane. I know every one of the students in the photos and I even saw Suzy DeGaw last Saturday night. That question you have in the first paragraph about the first photo, “I think this shows Cole Avenue running along side NDHS”, for sure that photo is looking towards Cole Avenue. The students are standing right in front of the school that faces Haskell Avenue. The Cole and Haskell Drug Store was not exactly on the corner. There was a small two pump Humble Service Station right on the corner. The guy on the far left in the first photo is Charles Cervantes, now a well known UT Law School, Washington, D. C. attorney. The second guitarist in the photo, taken in the girls gym at a Friday morning sock hop, with Jesse Lopez is David York, my Vickery Place neighbor and my first college roommate. Lots of history at that school. In 1996 the Texas Legislature and the U.S. Congress proclaimed it the First International School of Texas and the Nation. The school building has a City of Dallas Landmark status and there is a Texas Historical Marker on the front lawn of the school. Nice write up. That’s my alma mater, Class of ’64.
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Thanks, Danny! I actually thought of you while I was going through these yearbooks. I thought I remembered you said you were class of ’64, but I don’t have access to that year. The people I kept noticing over and over in these annuals were Suzy DeGaw (talk about your over-achiever!), Charles Cervantes (with his movie star good looks), and Jesse Lopez, who was EVERYWHERE!
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I lived the next block down at Cole & Blackburn back in 1984, in a stone house that had been there since 1905 we were told. Across the street from us was a mom and pop convenience store, Allen’s, and then a Galligaskins’ Sub Shop (remember them?). We could see NDHS from the house. Thanks for posting.
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This is weird. If it’s the same house I’m thinking of, my parents lived there for a year, and that was the very first house I ever lived in. I was thinking that house had become an antique shop or something by the mid ’80s.
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Wow, that is weird. I should send you a picture. It was a 2-story stone house at the NW corner of Cole & Blackburn, it had a weird 2-story structure in the back that we called the “pre-fab Alamo” and that’s where our bands rehearsed. There were 4 of us living in the house from Feb. 1984- about 1986. I moved to Santa Fe later in ’84; I used to call it ‘Green Acres’.
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My mother said it was the coldest house she had ever lived in — the winter wind whipped in through missing mortar between the stones. Send me a photo and I’ll send you one. I’ve been meaning to write about that house for ages. Email me at flashbackdallas214 @gmail.com.
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Will do. My bedroom there was actually what I assume was the dining room.
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If that is the first house you lived in, what are the odds of that… that someone you’ve never met but found your blog on the Internet decades later, once lived in the same house? BTW, I went to high school with Trip Aldredge – I see you guys are friends on FB.
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My father started working for Trip’s father after graduating from SMU and eventually bought The Aldredge Book Store, which he owned until his death in 2000. My mother also worked at the store, also right out of SMU. When my parents lived in the house on Cole, they had a cat they named Sawnie — named after Trip’s father. So, yeah, coincidences like this are always very strange!
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Yes they are. My mom used to take me down to the Aldredge Book Store so I knew about it long before I met Trip. Also have some descriptions of that house when I lived there from my novel ‘Autumn’ (unpublished). Will have to read some of those chapters again.
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[…] See photos of students and high school activities from these same yearbooks in the post “North Dallas High School, The Pre-Beatles Era,” here. […]
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Butch Wax was THE hair product for boys and men in late 50s and early 60s. It was a thick, jellied wax similar to Vaseline petroleum jelly (but a little thicker.) You’d use your fingers to dig out a ball about the size of a nickel, rub it between your hands to spread it and warm it, then massage it into your crew cut. Your hair would stand up like stalagmites in Carlsbad Caverns. There was no day-to-day hair washing, so by Saturday it was like wearing a jellied helmet and your mother made you wash it out.
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Haha!
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When did ND change from “Vikings’ to ‘Bulldogs’? I was looking at their early 1920(s) yearbooks on Ancestry.com this past weekend and it was all about ‘Vikings’.
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I don’t know. I wondered why the yearbook was called “The Viking” but the mascot was a bulldog!
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[…] “North Dallas High School, The Pre-Beatles Era” had so many great photos from the 1960, ’62, and ’63 yearbooks. The two below were my favorites. […]
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[…] “NORTH DALLAS HIGH SCHOOL, THE PRE-BEATLES ERA” This post, which featured lots of photos from the 1960, 1962, and 1963 NDHS yearbooks, was shared […]
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Thanks for the memories, Paula! was a NDHS graduate in 1963. That first pic included Stan Edwards walking toward the camera. I believe the two girls facing away are Sarah Cole and Suzy DeGaw. I was in Suzy’s grade from Stephen J Hay elementary through North Dallas High.
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Thanks, Rick! I bet that was a really fun time to be a teenager.
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[…] and ads from early-’60s NDHS yearbooks can be seen in previous Flashback Dallas posts here and […]
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Paula, that top picture was Haskell Ave. in front of the school. I don’t remember any businesses on Cole. My friend and I would sneak off school grounds and would eat a really cheap lunch at the China Clipper. We never were caught. That was 1954. I was mid-term class of Jan. ’56, but was married before the fall of ’55 and didn’t go back. Thanks so much for ALL of your Flashbacks!
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Thank you, Joyce!
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[…] mentioned this house a few years ago in a post about North Dallas High School and a guy named Craig Thomas contacted me to tell me that he had lived in that same house in the […]
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Thank you for sharing these. A nice walk down Memory Lane.
Margie Purdy-Upchurch (class of 1968)
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We owened Allens food mart from 1965-1991 My father bought it as a Speediest Foodmart.
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Steve, your mom and dad were the best. I remember you and Audrey well and supporting speedie’s falcons baseball team.shorty and I “racked “ a lot of bottles in the store. All the best, mario garnica
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