Cowtown Art

Well fine. Evidently everyone in Fort Worth knew that the Kimball Art Museum entry was half

Top L to R: Monet poster, Child drawing, Court Lady
Bottom: Assistance dog

price on Tuesdays; we didn’t. So we joined the rest of the grey-hairs and the bus loads of school students to view the early works of Monet. At this time in his career, the waterlilies were only buds. However, there were some other amazing pieces to be enjoyed. If you click on the Monet link just above, you’ll be able to see some of these paintings. All of these pieces came from other museums. The picture of Monet’s son asleep in his bed came from the Glyptotek in Denmark (See Går rundt Copenhagen del to), and we’d actually seen it there this summer. While we couldn’t take pictures in the Monet exhibit, we were allowed to photograph the Asian Collection. This is a permanent exhibit with some lovely pieces that caught the attention of one young patron. She positioned herself in front of a vase and proceeded to draw a fairly good representation of it. I was surprised that there were no rabbits gracing any of the screens since they are such a prominent animal in Asian cultures. There was, however, one animal that was attracting attention: one of the visitors had with her an assistance dog.


Quite near the Arts District is the suburb of Ridglea. When I was a child this was one of the closest places for us to go to see a movie. Movies were a really big treat, partly because of the distance to the theater and also because of the cost. Back then movie houses had a

Ridglea Theater

single screen and were artfully decorated. The Ridglea Theater has a Mediterranean facade and 70-foot stone tower. Opened in 1950, the first movie shown there was Pretty Baby; of course I didn’t see anything there until the 1960s. Since it’s such an historic building, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2011. The Ridglea area, including Ridglea Hills and Ridglea West was one time used to graze cattle. As portions of the land were sold off for houses and businesses, the pastureland diminished, but one section remained rather open. This expanse was the Riglea Country Club and golf course; the incursion of population has caused the club to move about five miles from its original location. However, some things don’t change. Gordon Boswell Florist was one of the early businesses that opened in about 1952; it’s still in the same location, providing flowers to the folks in and around Fort Worth. Another landmark that I grew up with was the Western Hills Hotel. This was a dazzling place that many schools chose for their dances and my senior class looked forward to doing the same. However, our dance was held in what we thought was an even better place, the Green Oaks Inn. This hotel replaced the Western Hills because of a change in the traffic patterns around Fort Worth, making Green Oaks Inn more accessible and every bit as popular a gathering place as its predecessor.

Three Carrots

After our time with the arts and the walk through memories, it was time for something to eat. My only condition on our food choice was we had to try a restaurant we hadn’t eaten in

Top L to R: Zeke's menu, Lunch special, Slaw and Hush puppies
Bottom L to R: Cod snack, Brownie

previously. Dave chose Zeke's (with a backwards k) Fish and Chips (5920 Curzon Ave, Fort Worth, TX 76107, 817-731-3321). This small eatery has been a mainstay of the Ridglea Hills area of Fort Worth almost forever. One of the diners was heard to say that he had gone to school about 40 years ago with the wife of the owner; another diner remarked that she remembered coming here in high school and standing in line outside until there was a space to come up to the window and order. Not much has changed. You still have to go up to the counter to order, and with only 13 tables in the small dining room so you may have to wait for one. My first recommendation is don’t plan to eat before about 1:30PM if you want to have a leisurely meal; also, parking is limited, so go around to the back door to park. This place specializes in fried foods; I wish I’d tried the fried eggplant after listening to the diners around me. We had a basket of hush puppies to snack on until our meals arrived. Although you order at a counter, a waitress brings your food to the table and keeps an eye on your drinks. She also brings extras to the table such as additional sauces. Dave chose the Lunch Special which was two pieces of cod with fried okra, mushrooms and hush puppies. I had the Cod Snack: one piece of cod, slaw, fries and a brownie. Dave and I agreed that the okra and fries were only okay, but that the hush puppies, fish, and mushrooms were really good. The slaw was good, also. Although the place was very busy, the one waitress made it around to all of the customers in an efficient manner and did have some help clearing tables from one of the owners. Prices were reasonable and we’d go back. (For information about my rating system, see Reading the Reviews.)

Oscar Meyer Winermobile - another blast from the past

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