| Buckles: Attached some scanned slides I took while visiting Bucky Steele at his place in Seagoville Texas. Just after the Dallas Shrine Show. I was there visiting with Slim Lewis. Albert Rix had come out to Bucky's place and laid over for a few days. So there are pictures of Albert and his daughters also one shot of Bucky, Albert and Jeanette with Slim Lewis. "Isn't this pronounced "Seegerville"? Buckles |
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Seagoville Roundup #1 (From Toby Styles)
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11 comments:
Buckles,
I spent many formative years shoveling TONS of elephant manure on this very property. Haymarket Drive in Seagoville (pronounced see go ville).
There photos were taken around 1973. I do not recall the Rix family visiting so maybe I was away at school.
The property on Haymarket road where Bucky and Mom started their empire and animal menagerie had a tendency to flood at the slightest hint of rain. It was located in a flood plain for the Trinity River in Dallas. Bucky was great at many things but understanding topography was not his ‘strong suit’. The house he built was on cinder blocks and I recall many a winter day when the water would rise up to the back door. We raised the driveway so trucks could access the elephant barn (which was high and dry) but the house sat in a little depression on the acreage where water would 'pool'.
Aside from the floating house issue it was a pretty functional winter quarters with a full tilt work shop where we built semi trailers, fixed diesel engines, and welded many pieces of metal together. In his own words, Bucky was a "jack of all trades and master of none". He could build anything. Between Bucky, Mel Hall, Max Craig and Joe Zoppe (all who lived within 10 miles of each other) they could have started General Motors.
Bucky could improvise and meet any building challenge. I built two elephant trucks with him on that property. The second one was so well constructed it could still be in service today. I was not his favorite student in the class of 'winter quarters 101' but he did impress on me the path that a college education could provide (mainly getting out of Seagoville).
It is with vivid memory that I recall my visit to the Woodcock Ruskin ranch in December of 1972 and discovering the University of South Florida. I remember saying to myself: "Wow, palm trees, nice weather, and no flooded back yard and 1,200 miles from Seagoville. I have found the promised land." I moved to Florida 5 months later.
The Haymarket property passed to my mother along with three elephants (Roxy, Gee Gee and Schell) and the Wilmar ponies when they split several years later. Mom sold the Haymarket property in 1982 and purchased 12 acres in Apollo Beach, Florida to begin a new life.
On a trip thru Dallas a couple years ago I hooked up with young Brad Timberlake (son of Jimmy Silverlake and another shoveler turned promoter) and took him for a tour of the old homestead in Seagoville. The elephant barn was still standing. The house probably floated away a few years back but the driveway was still ‘high and dry’.
After a short walk down memory lane where we both reminisced about our mutual upbringing and similar paths in show business, I promoted Brad to Director of Marketing and Sales for Feld Entertainment’s Texas region…..right then and there standing next to the old elephant barn.
Bill Powell
Bill,
Wonderful story. Thanks for sharing it. Bucky also told me if purchased the property because it had a nice lake in the middle of where the elephant pen was put. He said it was his "brilliance" in all things topography, and now you say it was a fluke!!!!! If "shoveling TONS of elephant manure" is a code word for "cutting up jackpot's" then I did a lot of that on the Seagoville property also.
Best wishes,
Wade Burck
wade,
i am sure shoveling manure has a double entendre here because there were a lot of great parties in that old house during the winter...especially in the elephant room (especially constructed with a sliding glass door so young buke could enter for a beer)....
i have a lot of fond and some not so fond memories of 2612 haymarket road, seagoville, texas
Anonymous,
Those not so fond memories must be tough, you can't even sign your name. Or maybe the fond ones were too fond?
Wade Burck
I to have fond memories of Haymarket Road and the Elephant Room get togethers,as we lived just down the road,but I don't remember any Mr. Anonymous ever attending....
Buckles,
I recall that day in Seagoville vividly. First, I was trying to figure out where the heck we were and why we were there. Being a transplant into Dallas and having never worked the market before, I have to admit that I had never actually been to or through Seagoville and never was aware of the lore that surrounded the place. To say the least, I certainly received some education on that September day. I had always had a great respect for my boss and mentor, but on that day on Haymarket Drive in Seagoville, I truly started to appreciate who I worked for and why. As well, I realized what I could become in this business.
Brad Timberlake
Back when I worked at World of Animals in Mesquite, I was really only about 10 miles or so from Buckys place. I drove by many times but never had the "balls" to go introduce myself to him and pick his brain! Figured he would spot me as a real goof, as that is just what I was! A few years later he made the elephant walk with us when we took the herd to CW from Wqt's.
Buckles,
Wait a minute. I think that is GeeGee posting anonymously. LOL
Wade Burck
Max and Gertie Craig started it all out bthere when they bought their place on St. Augustine Dr. and got Gil Gray to winter there and we moved in and before long Joe Zoppe Family, then Mel Hall family and so on.
But wait a minute. I believe the Ralph [Jelly] Duke family were around there even before.
I got the Warden at the Federal Penn. to send convicts out with a couple dump trucks and pick up the manure ever Thursday ande for doing that Gil agreed to put on a circus at the Pen every March with volunteer acts, etc. Gene Randow was enlisted along with Cleo, the Wongs and act6s that would be with Gil or around. Randow always called it Johnny Herriott's Shit Pile Circus.
Johnny....I believe we moved to Haymarket around 1968? Before that we had lived on Fairport Rd. in Dallas. We lived there when we bought the famous" pink goats" from Mel. I remember because shortly after the neighbors dogs ate the goats,and we had like 2 weeks to break a new act for the Texas dates....LOL
How close was bobby place to bucky place?
D.Powell
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