Oak Lawn Ave. — Keep on Truckin’ (1971)
by Paula Bosse
by Paula Bosse
This is a great little ad, which includes a bunch of notable Oak Lawn landmarks in the neighborhood’s hippie-fabulous days. I love this artwork — it’s almost as good as a photograph!
The 3500 block of Oak Lawn — between Lemmon and Bowser — is depicted in super-groovy, early-’70s, patchouli-scented artwork (inspired by R. Crumb). Starting at the left, here’s what we see:
- A tiny portion of the sorely missed diner mainstay, LUCAS B & B, 3520 Oak Lawn
- Next, NAME BRAND SHOES (men’s shoes), 3516 Oak Lawn
- Next, R.F.D. No. 1 COUNTRY STORE (clothing), 3514 Oak Lawn, subject of the ad (formerly El Chico, which you can see in the second and third photos here)
- Next, THE FOG (rock club), 3508 Oak Lawn
- Next, SUPERIOR BAKERY, 3502 Oak Lawn
- Next, NATIONAL AUTO SOUND OF DALLAS (car stereos), 3500 Oak Lawn (at Lemmon)
1972 city directory
*
Watch silent home movie footage shot in this block around this same time at the Portal to Texas History, here (unfortunately, there are only glancing images of The Fog, which I would have liked to have seen more of). The Oak Lawn footage begins at 10:34 and continues until the end, with scenes shot at Lee Park. (There’s a guy who looks like he should be someone important — he looks a bit like Harry Nilsson — at 10:59.)
*
The illustration is by Steve Brooks, a 1967 graduate of Sunset High School who has had quite the career in illustration, commercial art, and rock posters. He’s worked extensively with Willie Nelson and Buddy magazine, and… yes, if you saw that drawing above and thought “head shop,” he’s the guy (THE guy) behind all the artwork connected to The Gas Pipe (which deserves a post of its own as a truly iconic Dallas success story!). Read an interesting biography about Brooks here. See some of his work in the collection of his alma mater, UNT, here.
***
Sources & Notes
Ad from the August 1971 issue of the underground newspaper, The Iconoclast.
*
Copyright © 2024 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.
Flashback : Dallas 
Paula, this new comment format does not work in dark mode for us that are disabled with vision impairments, it worked great before. please correct it for us. By the way the term “Hippie” is a derogatory word coined by politicians to label those protesting the Vietnam war, “hippie” is short for hypocrite, please don’t call us hypocrites.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hippie actually was from the term “hip.” Not derogatory at all. I was one of them.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Sorry to hear about any changes to the commenting feature. I haven’t seen any change on my end. I’m afraid I’m at the mercy of WordPress on this.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I miss Superior Bakery…chocolate eclairs…only in the cool months. Best I’ve ever had…even in France.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I worked at the Gas Pipe in 1971 as a bookkeeper just before the owner went to prison for tax evasion and money laundering. I was interviewed by the FBI! I quit the next day. Prior to that, as early as 1967, I was a “Lee Park Hippie” — those were the days.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Can you provide a link to that 1972 directory?
LikeLiked by 1 person
I accessed the 1972 directory through Ancestry, which is part of the paid membership. There are a few publicly accessible scanned directories online, but I haven’t found any beyond 1961. Here are the scanned directories that are available to the general public for free, via the Portal to Texas History: https://is.gd/dsizQg
LikeLike
[…] “OAK LAWN AVE. — KEEP ON TRUCKIN’ (1971) […]
LikeLike
Thank you for giving a shout out to my old friend and fellow Buddy staffer, Steve Brooks. A great guy, talented, and very funny. There are very few of us left.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for the re-introduction to Steve Brooks.
LikeLiked by 1 person
went to the Fog club made a friends during that time.
LikeLiked by 1 person