Year-End List: My Favorite Posts of 2023

by Paula Bosse

Volleyball in suits and fedoras…

by Paula Bosse

2023 is finally pulling to a close. Personally, I’m happy to see it fade into the distance. 2023 is kind of a blur, filled with “challenges” (those “challenges” seem to increase every year!). But we’ve made it through. One of the highlights of this past year is creating a Patreon page. I appreciate the patrons who support me there — it’s been 9 months now, and I’m amazed that I’ve gotten into the habit of posting something there every day. The financial help has been something of a lifesaver! Thank you, patrons!

And thank you to everyone who reads posts here. I love reading about, writing about, and researching Dallas history. It’s hard to believe, but I will have been doing this for TEN SOLID YEARS come February. When I last checked, there were something like 1,400 posts here. That might be too many! I’ve loved every minute of it, and I look forward to 2024 and embarking on Year Eleven.

Below are some of my personal favorite posts of 2023. The first one is probably my favorite, and the rest are in chronological order. Click titles to see the original post.

1. “DAD’S DAY AT HOCKADAY — 1947” (June)

Whenever I imagine living in another era, I seem to gravitate to the post-war 1940s. Always. And the photographs in this post really fan the flames of pure escapist, rose-colored-glasses nostalgia for a time I never lived in. The photos (by Cornell Capa) are from a LIFE magazine article about a day in which fathers spent time with their daughters at the Hockaday campus and escorted them to a fancy dinner that night at the Baker Hotel. I love all of the photos, including the wonderful ones above (on the Lower Greenville campus) and below (at the Baker Hotel).

2. “THE BULLEN STORE, EXPOSITION AVENUE — 1896-1936” (January)

I really enjoyed looking into the history of this little (still-standing) building in Exposition Park, a too-often overlooked part of town.

3. “EL CHICO FOODS/CUELLAR FOODS” and “TEX-MEX IN A CAN (WITH BONUS CHILI-BURGER RECIPE) — 1953/1954” (both posts from February)

I wrote these two posts at the same time. I knew about the El Chico frozen dinners of my childhood, but I never knew about the line of canned foods — and I certainly never knew about canned tortillas! This was a lot of fun to write. (And if you are an enterprising state-fair-food-developer, I highly encourage you to “borrow” the excellently weird “Chili Burger” (no burger patty involved!), the recipe of which is in the second post above.

4. “BLACK WOMEN’S EQUESTRIAN COMPANY K (AMERICAN WOODMEN) — 1920s” (March)

A lot of what I write about is spurred by seeing a photo and wondering what it is I’m looking at. Like this one. Almost everything I wrote about in this post was new information to me. It was really interesting to write.

5. “MUHAMMAD ALI VISITS GRAHAM’S BARBER SHOP — ca. 1967” (April)

While browsing through a 1967 Lincoln High School yearbook, I was surprised to stumble across an ad featuring a photo of Muhammad Ali sitting in a barber chair (below). It was so unexpected. I loved it! I looked into why he might have been in town and found an interesting story about an appearance he made at a mosque near Booker T. Washington High School on Easter Sunday (I later — somewhat serendipitously — came across photos of that appearance and included them in the post). So, basically, what I’m saying here is: always take the time to flip through the advertising pages in old high school yearbooks — there’s a lot of good stuff hiding there.

6. “TABLETOP JUKEBOXES — 1940” (May)

I don’t even know how I came across these photos, but this was a topic I ended up learning about because I needed to pad out the post with more than just photos!

7. “LOVE FIELD AVIATION CAMP, WORLD WAR I” (May)

I’m a sucker for photos of World War I-era Love Field. There are some great ones in this post.

8. “GRITTY DALLAS — 1969” (July)

Who would expect to find cool footage of the “grittier” areas of Dallas in a film produced by students attending SMU’s Perkins School of Theology? I leave no stone unturned! I’m glad those theology students made this film, because it’s full of shots of Dallas you just don’t see on postcards.

9. “DR PEPPER BOTTLING PLANT, SECOND AVE. & HICKORY — ca. 1938” (August)

Lots of photos from inside the DP bottling plant before it moved to the better-known location on Mockingbird. My favorite photo was the “sugar storage” room.

10. “SOME-CONTEXT CHANNEL 8 SCREENSHOTS: 1971” (December)

I just wrote this a couple of days ago, but there are so many things in here that really make me laugh that I’m adding it to the “best of” list. 2023 (or even 1971) wasn’t a total loss! Below, Roger Staubach hard at work, training the low-tech way.

Those are my Top 10 personal favorite posts for 2023. Coming next… the most popular (clicked, linked, shared, etc.) posts of the year. Stay tuned….

Flashback : Dallas