I’ve always loved the family photo shown above. It was taken around 1950 on our street in Gardendale.
Gardendale was bounded by Everhart, Holly, S. Staples, and Lexington Blvd. (now SPID)
The Gardendale neighborhood was outside the city limits until annexation in 1954.
We lived in a tiny house on Nelson Lane about a block from Holly Road. The photo is a snapshot of a time when kids had no TV, no air conditioning, and no electronics to distract them.
Kids played outside from sunup to sundown. We rarely wore shoes, and boys rarely wore shirts if it was hot.
The streets, like many in Corpus, were unpaved, and covered with caliche, so our bare feet were as tough as nails.
These were the days when kids created their own fun.
There were games to play and new ones invented to pass the time.
We collected critters of every kind. Lightning bugs, horned frogs (or horny toads as we called ‘em), frogs, snakes, lizards, etc.
When money was needed quickly, a good, old-fashioned lemonade stand would do the trick.
These days, I rarely even see kids outside playing. And I can’t remember seeing a single kid’s lemonade stand in the neighborhood in the last 20 or 30 years.
Childhood experiences have obviously changed dramatically over the last 50 years.
Robert Parks is a special contributor to KRIS 6 News. Parks was a history teacher at Carroll High School for 19 years and is now retired. His knowledge of Corpus Christi history makes him a unique expert in the subject.
