The year was 1948. Mahatma Gandhi began his fast in India. Warner Brothers showed the first color newsreel. The Hells Angels motorcycle gang was founded. Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Ronnie Van Zant was born. And readers of the Fort Worth Press read these ads:
On movie screens around town you could see Tyrone Power at the Belknap drive-in, John Wayne at the Bowie Boulevard drive-in, Margaret O’Brien at the Tower Theater, and Gregory Peck at the Worth Theater. The ads don’t list the phone numbers of the theaters.
In 1851 German-born Valentin Blatz opened Blatz Brewery in Milwaukee.
The Cromer family began selling bicycles in Fort Worth in the 1890s.
Operator Marvin Barnes died in 1972. He was the husband of domestic relations judge Eva Barnes.
The war had been over for three years. Barracks were still being disassembled to reclaim the lumber. Telephone numbers still had a single-digit prefix.
“Always open”—all two of them. The chain was started by North Side grocer Burrell Lee (“Buddie”) Markum, who had owned a grocery store at the 3220 North Main location since 1937. In 1956 Markum sold the modest chain to J. C. Pace, who as chairman of Kimbell Inc. expanded the chain to forty stores but retained the “Buddie’s” name. Winn-Dixie bought the chain in 1976. By 2003 Winn-Dixie had one thousand stores nationwide. But in 2005 Winn-Dixie filed for bankruptcy and closed its Texas stores.
1948 The year my folks were married.