Our two-part series, inspired by the Danny Schmidt song “Houses Sing,” concludes . . .
Former Crestview neighbor John Carlson took great pride in the home at 1508 Princeton Avenue that he and his wife, Judy, had built in the mid-50s. At the time, he knew the best tradesmen in the area, since he helped maintain rental properties for Crestview developers A. B. Beddow and Ray Yates. The tradesmen promised him that the Carlsons’ home would be solidly constructed, and it was. It served them well until they put their home up for sale 60 years later.
John also worked at the post office and held other jobs, and he restored and built furniture, display cabinets, and other handcrafted items, many of them projects for his church, Crestview Methodist.
When we interviewed John and Judy in their backyard in September 2009, we asked them about the thriving plants that were everywhere. John, who grew up on a farm outside Georgetown, Texas, told us:
That comes from a love of farming. You look at a plant and see what it needs. My dad was a good farmer and taught us everything. He was my hero, and I wanted to follow in his footsteps. We didn’t own the land, though, so there was no way I could return to it after I served in World War II. I was a good farmer, and if I had owned the land I could have made a good living. I knew all the aspects of farming, and I had new ideas about how to do it.
After the war, John married Judy, and they bought their first home at 1205 Piedmont Avenue in Crestview, with a lot on one side where John grew a large garden and fruit trees. At their Princeton Avenue home, where we interviewed them, his gardens were smaller but still verdant and well cared for.
One Saturday in December 2014, we drove by the Carlsons’ house and saw an estate sale sign out front. We stopped to find out about John and Judy. A friend told us John was doing well in his new home and still attending Crestview Methodist; Judy was recovering from a fall. As we left their backyard, we noticed an old rural mailbox attached to the fence with the name Henry Carlson, John’s father, hand-lettered on it. It once had been at the Carlson family farm outside Georgetown.
A few days later, we sent John and Judy a Christmas card, and John called to thank us. “It warmed my heart,” he said in his kind, unwavering voice. He told me how he was adapting to his new home—the latest of many changes in his 90+ years. “You just never know what life will bring,” he had told me years ago, as he spoke of his and Judy’s challenges at the time. I nodded silently, knowing how especially true that was for me then, too. Judy died March 26, 2015. John died July 13, 2019.
After sheet metal craftsman Bill Williamson created the eight-foot-wide star (right) for the Texas Capitol rotunda about 1958, he added stars in all sizes and materials to his home and yard on West St. Johns Avenue in Crestview. They remained there until his house was sold in 2011, and he moved to the nearby Retirement and Nursing Center, where he died in November 2013.
Bill told us how his mortgage payment was $55 when he bought his home in 1952, and he wasn’t sure if he could swing it. The video clip below gives you an idea of what he and other people typically paid in the late 1940s and early 1950s, when new homes were being built here.
Of course, around 1950, minimum wage was 75 cents an hour, a new car cost $2,635, and a gallon of gas was 29 cents!
Appearing in the video clip: Kay Swenson Ramsey, interviewed January 2008; Bill Williamson, interviewed October 2007; Beverly Lester, interviewed February 2008; Sylvia “Scooter” Rushing, interviewed February 2008; and Wanda and Emory Muehlbrad, interviewed February 2008. DVDs of their videotaped interviews are at the Austin History Center.
Join us next week for more Voices of the Violet Crown.