BYGONE DAYS

Sometimes, memories are all we have to remind us of bygone eras. In the case of Bill Mott, he had a lifetime of memories and took the time to write them down in a book of memoirs that highlights Dallas, and more specifically White Rock Lake, Lakewood and Deep Ellum.

“My husband had a most remarkable memory, and he remembered everything,” says Mott’s wife, Barbara.  “He was a second generation Dallasite, born and raised in Dallas, and he watched the city grow along with himself.”

The book, “Looking Back,” is a compilation of vignettes telling stories of things Mott did as a child and then as an adult in Dallas. Places such as J.L. Long Middle School and Woodrow Wilson High School held a special place in his heart, as did White Rock Lake, where Barbara says the family had three speedboats before boats were banned in the ’50s.

Some especially colorful memories include his telling of East Grand Avenue and how the cotton trucks used to come in from the fields. As they drove down East Grand and headed toward the cotton mill, the cotton seeds would blow on both sides of the street.

The Great Depression was a difficult time in Dallas’ history, and Mott remembers people trying to make a living however they could. One of his memories is of a woman who would buy a box of doughnuts and sell them one at a time. Or the neighbor lady who turned one of her bedrooms into a schoolroom and taught preschool children to make extra money. 

Mott himself had a morning paper route and sold magazines. He heard one day about a friend who was also selling magazines and whose mother was making candy he could sell to customers. Mott decided to emulate his friend’s business practices, only his mother made orange marmalade instead.

Though gas was rationed during World War II, Mott had a friend whose father was a Ford automotive and tractor dealer and could get all the gas he needed since it was not being rationed for agriculture. Mott’s friend would bring a five-gallon tank of gas to White Rock Lake, and they would go riding in his boat.

Printed and produced by Lone Star Productions, the books are $17.95, which includes shipping and handling, or $14.95 if you contact Barbara Mott at 214-553-5559 to arrange to pick a book up from her.     

Mott didn’t have a chance to see his book project completed because he died last April. After he became sick, he didn’t feel like writing anymore, so Barbara stepped in to help. 

“He would sit in the office and dictate, and I would write it down on the computer,” Barbara says. 

Finally, Barbara and her son who took over the project to see it through to completion. 

“The book is factual and humorous,” Barbara says, “Everyone who has read it said they can’t put it down. It is just one of those that you keep turning the pages to see what he is going to say next.”