Ask anyone with some history in Lake Highlands, and they’re quick to tell you about a favorite restaurant or shop that is no longer, or recall childhood visits to Penny Whistle Park, Deuback’s Skating Rink or Gooney Golf. Some even remember when people were allowed to climb on to the White Rock Lake Spillway to splash in the flowing water. While the neighborhood has changed in many ways, from businesses to street names, Lake Highlands’ focus on community has never wavered. This month, we celebrate that through our readers’ history with a collection of snapshots scrounged up from private family and school collections — even some from former residents who now live out of state. These neighbors shared their memories and mementos out of a pure love of Lake Highlands, past and present. (Feel free to add your own family gems from Lake Highlands of yesteryear in the comment section below)
A teenage Candy Evans at a horse show in June, 1963. The land is now home to the Audelia Road Library. “My best friend and I rode everywhere, including over to Barnes Bridge Road because there was a drive-in theater and we would sit on our horses and watch the movie,” Evans says. “We went to KBOX and made requests to the DJ who would open up the window and talk with us while he was on the air.” (Photo courtesy of Candy Evans).
Below, Rhonda Tucker Seaton-McNeill, Debbie Goodwin Lloyd and Micha Aldon perch on the bridge over White Rock Creek in 1977 or ‘78. (Photo courtesy of Rhonda Tucker Seaton-McNeill).
Gooney Golf
Above, Gooney Golf was a favorite hangout for families at the corner of Plano Road and Forest Lane. Pictured here is Jim Irwin with son Terry in 1972. (Photos courtesy of Linda Irwin).
Above, Gooney Golf was a favorite hangout for families at the corner of Plano Road and Forest Lane. Pictured here is Jim Irwin with son Terry and daughter Karen in 1972. (Photos courtesy of Linda Irwin).
Above, Gooney Golf was a favorite hangout for families at the corner of Plano Road and Forest Lane. Pictured here is brother and sister Terry and Karen Irwin in 1972. (Photos courtesy of Linda Irwin).
Members of the Dahman family in the early 1950s, who owned the land that later became Skyline Park. (Photo courtesy of Cindy Dahman Johnson).
Alice Dahman, whose family owned the land that later became Skyline Park. She’s pictured here with Laddie, “the only dog who could carry the newspaper in,” says relative Cindy Dahman Johnson. (Photo courtesy of Cindy Dahman Johnson).
Members of the Dahman family in October 1955, who owned the land that later became Skyline Park. (Photo courtesy of Cindy Dahman Johnson).
Kids used to hang out at the Cowboys’ practice facility on Forest Lane at Abrams Road, hoping to meet players. Here, John Loveland met defensive end Harvey Martin in 1979. (Photo courtesy of John Loveland).
The teenage band Stone Creek, composed of Lake Highlands High School students, plays the opening of a store at the Northlake Shopping Center on Northwest Highway and Ferndale in 1967. (Photo courtesy of Terry Anderson).
To celebrate America’s bicentennial, Lake Highlands High School students dressed up in traditional Revolutionary garb in 1976. (Photo courtesy of Lake Highlands High School).
painting the railroad trestle over White Rock Trail became a senior class tradition at Lake Highlands High School in the 1960s after the city widened and paved Church Street. Each senior class was allowed to paint its own message. The tradition ended in the early 2000s at the request of the city. (Photo courtesy of Gayle Schultz).
An 11-year-old Terry Irwin chops down a frozen tree during the ice storm in 1979. (Photo courtesy of Linda Irwin)
A Patriotic Parade
(Photos courtesy of the Meyer family).
When young people’s faith in their country was shaken during the Vietnam War, Charles Meyer and his wife Jeanne Hickey Meyer, along with their six children, decided to launch Lake Highlands’ Patriotic Parade in 1968 on the Fourth of July from their cul-de-sac on Robin Hill Circle.
“It started very small, with just a few neighborhood families,” Charles Meyer remembers.
That first year, the Safeway on Audelia Road donated lemonade and cookies, and small prizes were given out to the kids who best decorated their bikes. Later, the Lake Highlands High School marching band would join the effort.
The Lake Highlands High School Marching Band in the parade. (Photos courtesy of the Meyer family).
“We’d begin by all getting in a circle to say the Pledge of Allegiance and the band played ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’,” Meyer says. Over the years, it grew to a neighborhood party that brought together around 100 people each year. Parade judges were given a sash that read “Here comes da judge,” an homage to “Laugh In.” Judges included local veterans like Jerry Singleton in 1975, who spent eight years in a Vietnamese POW camp.
(Photos courtesy of the Meyer family).
“Beyond the patriotism, it was about getting the neighborhood together,” Meyer says. The Meyer family moved to Houston in 1976. “A lady called me wanting to keep it going,” Meyer says. “I don’t know what happened after that, or if the parade ever happened again.”
(Photos courtesy of the Meyer family).
Lake Highlands Elementary School
Members of the 1962 Lake Highlands Elementary PTA put on the show “When Us Girls Come Marchin’ In” as part of the Mt. Idy Follies, an annual talent show. (Photo courtesy of Lake Highlands Elementary School).
Halloween at Lake Highlands Elementary, 1961. (Photo courtesy of Lake Highlands Elementary)
Lake Highlands Elementary students in Miss Wilson’s second-grade class learn about the political process during the 1972 presidential election. (Photo courtesy of Lake Highlands Elementary)
Lake Highlands Elementary students celebrate Thanksgiving together in 1985, a tradition the school still celebrates today. Lake Highlands Elementary students learn about the political process during the 1972 presidential election. (Photo courtesy of Lake Highlands Elementary)
Volunteers post Lake Highlands Elementary School’s new sign in 1985. (Photo courtesy of Lake Highlands Elementary)
