Carswell Base Housing

Our family lived on Straley Avenue, off-base (but in base housing) near White Settlement. The photo to the right shows much of neighborhood. Although it was taken many years later, it shows the neighborhood pretty much the way it existed when I lived there in the mid- to late-70s.. The image is from Microsoft's Terra Server and is labeled the "Naval Air Station" since the base had been turned over to the Navy at the time imagery was produced.

In the 80s, the base was turned over to the Navy. Over the course of time, Willis-Cartwright Elementary school was razed. Much of the housing in both off-base housing areas was sold and moved out so that the property could be commercially developed.

The image below shows my neighborhood as it appeared after all of the houses and most of the streets had been removed. The photo is taken from Google Earth's satellite imagery. I guess "progress" makes its own way in the world and nothing is exempt from the laws of change.

Fortunately, no one can take away the memories I have of that neighborhood and my childhood years spent there. And when my memory itself starts to get fuzzy, I do have photos that can help out in a pinch.

More Details

My original post attracted the eyes of at least one reader. So, I thought I'd post some more about my years at Willis-Cartwright/Theodore Willis in hopes of attracting some more wandering eyes.

I attended the school from the fall of 1976 through the end of the 1977 school year. In third grade, my teacher was Ms. Pascal. In fourth grade, I had several teachers. My main teacher was Mrs. Hudson. Language arts was with Mrs. Bray. I don't remember the name of my math teacher that year. Mrs. Goldman was the music teacher.

Mrs. Foote was the art teacher. I remember that one day a friend and I were cutting up in her class. She drew circles on the chalk-board, about nose-high, and told us we had to stand with our noses in the circles. Of course, we thought that was pretty funny and probably didn't learn the disciplinary lesson she would have liked.

Prior to starting at Theodore Willis (the 1975-1976 school year), I was bused to George Washington Carver Elementary School in downtown Ft. Worth as part of the city's desegregation plan.

In 1977, I was offered the opportunity to go to North Hi Mount Elementary School, one of Ft. Worth's magnet schools. That lasted only half of a year. My dad was assigned a new duty station at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska.

One of the wilder moments in school in Nebraska came one day when I ended up seeing a school friend from Texas in Nebraska! Michael Espinoza (I think that's the right spelling) wound up on Nebraska when his dad's duty station had been changed to Offutt as well.

Here's a list of friends I remember from the Willis-Cartwright years: Melissa Leighter; Kim Ballard; Denise Brewer; Theresa Torres; Mark Blackmon. Some other friends I remember, but only by first name, were Gene, Rudy, and Chester.