Friday Night in Dallas, circa 1997

I've had a roller coaster weekend, emotionally speaking. "What else is new?" you ask. I'm winding down after an evening of dinner with friends, Eleanor's daily "I gotta scream for a few minutes, Mama!" and a marathon cleaning of the kitchen (seriously, it smelled funny in there). Baby Sweet-Cheeks is fast asleep. Jeremy is working on billing. And here I sit, thinking about Deep Ellum.

I like to read a blog by a crafty woman named Suze Weinberg. There is a link to her blog in the sidebar. She always posts a ton of great pictures of her travels and teaching. She mostly works in encaustic waxes, embossing enamels, stamping and some painting. She isn't a scrapper. Her waxed picture frames are amazing and I'm always fascinated by the things she creates. Anyway, she posted about some neat stores she recently visited, and this reminded me of a shop I used to visit in Deep Ellum.

Deep E is a section of Dallas, and you can read more of it's history HERE. I had the great fortune of hitting that scene while it was bustling in the 90s. Now a shell of its former self, DE was a hotspot on Friday and Saturday evenings. You could't get a parking spot within half a mile of the place, and it was so packed with interesting people that there was no need to sit at a bar to see fantastic stuff. There were tattoo parlors and vintage clothing stores (where I purchased my first pair of authentic bell bottoms) bookstores, coffee shops and weird stores that sold all manor of oddities.

Mark & Larry's Stuff was one of those shops. This narrow shop was chock full of trinkets and goodies that ranged from candles that would burn for an entire year to hand carved wooden dolls. I loved their selection of incense. I purchased a mantle clock for my brother there. I'm certain a martini glass or two in my collection came from there. The owners were always on the shop floor (I think they lived upstairs) and were some of the most friendly people with which I have had the pleasure of talking. It was one of those places that you wanted to take your out-of-town friends, along with breakfast at Cafe Brazil, or a coffee nightcap at Insomnia (where Rocky and I used to do our homework on Sunday evenings while watching British TV shows on the tiny lounge TV and going through packs of Marlboro lights. Ahhh....the days when we thought we were going to change the world.).

And so this evening I fondly remember Mark & Larry's and DE in the later heydays. I hear that the area is mostly deserted now, and that's a shame to me. I remember going to see the Reverend Horton Heat at the Gypsy Tea Room, and Mike Roe and the 77s at The Door. Jackopierce used to play there frequently, and I have their recording from Trees. I celebrated my 21st birthday at Sambuca. I ate one skillion slices of pizza at Rocky's. My personal wedding shower was at that Cafe Brazil. Dreams of living in the Adam Hats building. Happy times, happy times.

Here's to you, Deep Ellum, and the fantastic memories.