Does Dallas Have Personality? (rail, town, downtown)

[DTXman34]

Originally Posted by ThomasCrown

It used to, though. It started waning in the 80's I'd say... Dallas was just as much of an "oil" town as Houston. It was still somewhat common to see horses being ridden around downtown, not just by cops either, by people with cowboy hats. Now, you'll have to go to Ft. Worth for that.

Hat racks in downtown office buildings. Yes, these were in every lobby... for your Cowboy hats of course. You'd see lots of large belt buckles too. The "jeans, boots, belt buckle, sportcoat" look was alive and well.
It was more "upscale" than Ft. Worth, but every bit as authentic. That was the blend of oil money and ranching. Ft. Worth was just ranching. Now, Dallas is just money.

I can maybe see the "rich cowboy look" in Dallas back in the 80's, but people riding horses in Downtown? Do you mean the 1880s?

[mm4]

Originally Posted by DTXman34

I can maybe see the "rich cowboy look" in Dallas back in the 80's, but people riding horses in Downtown? Do you mean the 1880s?

And they wore cowboy hats. Seriously. And to work. And all that oil. And ranching.

[Katana49]

Originally Posted by DTXman34

I can maybe see the "rich cowboy look" in Dallas back in the 80's, but people riding horses in Downtown? Do you mean the 1880s?

I remember seeing horses being ridden around downtown, usually there was some function going on though. But yes, it was fairly typical seeing them walking around the West End area, or in various parade routes, taste festivals, etc. People didn't ride horses to work, my father used to work in Lincoln Plaza back in the 80's, commuted by car.

Don't remember hat racks in the lobby LOL, but there were quite a few people in the building that wore cowboy hats, most of them were either working for Halliburton or Great Southern Life.

[Katana49]

You know, thought about this some more... Don't know if anyone is into tennis, but back in the 80's they used to hold the WCT Finals in Dallas every year. One of their promo posters sums up the "personality" of Dallas for me back then, they had a tennis player (probably some model actually) lounging with his feet up in a convertible Cadillac, holding a tennis racket while wearing a cowboy hat, in black and white.

We went to the finals that year to watch, I think it was between John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors, and were given that poster. Anyway, that promo poster pretty much summed up what Dallas was then, I think.

[tcualum]

I totally disagree. I'm a Dallas native born at Medical City. Even in the 80s people in Dallas assumed you were a tourist if you wore a cowboy hat and when you weren't going to a rodeo or Western bar. We used to laugh about how inaccurate the show Dallas was.

[TXNGL]

Originally Posted by lepoisson

Dallas definitely has personality, but it definitely does not have a unique personality like Charleston, New Orleans, NYC, Chicago, San Francisco.

Originally Posted by lepoisson

I've always said that you could pick Dallas up and drop it in the middle of Oklahoma and you wouldn't be able to tell any difference. In Dallas, you don't really feel like you are in Texas. It just feels like any other American city.

And it will never have that same sort of personality because those cities are much older. Disagree about not being able to differentiate between Dallas and cities in Oklahoma. Perhaps if your experience with Dallas is limited to suburban areas.

[TXNGL]

Originally Posted by ThomasCrown

It used to, though. It started waning in the 80's I'd say... Dallas was just as much of an "oil" town as Houston. It was still somewhat common to see horses being ridden around downtown, not just by cops either, by people with cowboy hats. Now, you'll have to go to Ft. Worth for that.

Hat racks in downtown office buildings. Yes, these were in every lobby... for your Cowboy hats of course. You'd see lots of large belt buckles too. The "jeans, boots, belt buckle, sportcoat" look was alive and well.
It was more "upscale" than Ft. Worth, but every bit as authentic. That was the blend of oil money and ranching. Ft. Worth was just ranching. Now, Dallas is just money.

Dallas was never an oil town. Banking and business from the very beginning. Having said that, growing up in North Dallas (within the LBJ ring not what is considered North Dallas now) there were folks in my area that had enough acreage to own horses and we did see people riding on the streets from time to time. That was during the 1970s.

[turf3]

Originally Posted by DTXman34

I wasn't here for either the old Deep Ellum

Few of were, since it was paved over by Central Expressway (replacing Central Ave.) about 1947, leaving only Honest Joe's as the last remnant.

I am not old enough to remember anything but Honest Joe's which my father took me into more than once (he seems to have known everyone in the lower middle class of Dallas at the time, which maybe isn't surprising since he lived there from about 1930 on).

[turf3]

Originally Posted by ThomasCrown

It used to, though. It started waning in the 80's I'd say... Dallas was just as much of an "oil" town as Houston. It was still somewhat common to see horses being ridden around downtown, not just by cops either, by people with cowboy hats. Now, you'll have to go to Ft. Worth for that.

Hat racks in downtown office buildings. Yes, these were in every lobby... for your Cowboy hats of course. You'd see lots of large belt buckles too. The "jeans, boots, belt buckle, sportcoat" look was alive and well.
It was more "upscale" than Ft. Worth, but every bit as authentic. That was the blend of oil money and ranching. Ft. Worth was just ranching. Now, Dallas is just money.

I'm sorry, but that's just plain nonsense. I was here.

In the late 70s/early 80s, the giant belt buckle/cowboy hat worn indoors/total "urban cowboy" look got nothing but guffaws from actual real live Texans.

If anyone rode a horse around downtown Dallas after about 1920 it was done as a stunt and the horses were brought to town in trailers. Exactly where do you think the horses came from? Highland Park? Come on.

Downtown office buildings have and had hat/umbrella racks everywhere in the US. Believe it or not, men used to wear hats all the time. Not just Texan men but men in Chicago and Seattle as well.

Dallas' economy in the 50s-70s was typically more based on cotton, finance, and insurance, with a significant admixture of manufacturing. Not primarily oil, though there was a component of oil.

[Jameson999]

I like how this thread has turned into an argument about what Dallas looked like 30-40 years ago.