May 20-21, 1995: A Trip to the Wichita Mountains
	April 19, 1995: A Visit to the Dallas Arboretum
	Return to the Index for 1995

Lowery Evans is one of our closest friends; I have known him for about seven years, having first met him when Grant was alive. A couple of years ago, Lowery partnered with Ron Drew, and they moved from their place in Garland to a house closer to both their workplaces in 1992- a house in Grand Prairie. Today, we'll be joining them and some of our other friends for Lowery's birthday.

It is about a half-hour trip from my house to Lowery's; there are a couple of ways to go. The most direct is to head south on Inwood, go under Stemmons Freeway and then across the Trinity River. Inwood turns into Hampton at that point, and Hampton continues south to intersect with I-30 west to Fort Worth.

We take I-30 west for about eight miles past Loop 12 and into the northern part of Grand Prairie.

Eventually, we find the exit for Carrier Parkway, and this road takes us off the expressway and northwest almost to the border between Grand Prairie and Irving.

On the map at right, I-30 is out of the view to the south, but you can see Carrier Parkway coming up from the southeast. One note about this map, though. When Lowery and Ron lived in Grand Prairie, the President George Bush Turnpike (Texas Highway 161) had not been built this far south. In fact, there was some ongoing controversy about what the route of this expressway would be. One possible route had it coming quite close to Lowery's house, and I think the uncertainty of that was one of the reasons they eventually decided to move up into Hackberry Creek in Irving.

Anyway, when we get to Westfield Road, we turn off Carrier Parkway and wind our way back into the neighborhood where Lowery lives, eventually turning north on Bishop Drive to get to their house.

You can also get to Lowery's house from the north; the decision on which way to come is usually determined by the time of day, for at rush hour, I-30 can be extremely congested.

Lowery and Ron have a very nice house on the east side of Bishop. There were, if I recall correctly, four bedrooms, a very nice living area and kitchen and a garage around back with a side entry. (In addition to not liking cheese on anything he ate, Lowery didn't like houses with front-facing garages- something quite common around here.)

Lowery and Ron like to entertain, either for birthday parties or something like that, or to have me over for a Wednesday night dinner and TV session- something I looked forward to each week.

Lowery planned an "Easter bonnet" party for Easter Sunday at his house in Grand Prairie, and we were all told to wear an Easter bonnet, or some kind of colorful hat. I didn't have one, so Fred lent me one from Crump's Garden, the greenhouse where he works.

In this first picture, that's Greg on the left (not wearing a hat, of course, as he doesn't tend to do that sort of thing, being all seriousness most of the time), myself, in the hat I borrowed from Fred, and Larry in a hat that he decorated. We have just returned from an Easter egg hunt.

Lowery hid a number of plastic eggs in the back yard, each of which contained a small chocolate egg and a "fortune." We were instructed to read the fortunes aloud. Most of them were quite funny, and all of them on the risqué side.

Fred

(Picture at left) Here is Fred on the deck out back at Lowery's house. I tried to give him a copy of this picture, but he said that it made him look silly. Fred, however, is good-looking enough, and manly enough, that even pictures that might make most of us look a bit funny really don't have that effect on him.       (Picture at right) Lowery has done a great job with his back yard. There is that small deck where the swing and some wrought iron chairs are, and behind that a small "nature walk," along which he has planted a variety of plants and flowers, many of which came from his mother's house in Garland.

Sherman Carter

Lynne came, along with her friend Carol, and as it turned out, Lynne and I tied for most plastic eggs collected; this earned us a party favor.

That's Larry on the left, then Brad, Barry Skiba, and Lowery.

Here are Lynn Richardson, Ron Drew, and Carol.

Lowery and Fred are kindred spirits in that they both like plants. Lowery has quite a few pots all around the house, inside and out, that have odd plants that he has seen and liked. You can usually find Fred sharing information about the plants with Lowery.

Since we have introduced Prudence and her sister Nancy to Lowery and Ron, they are routinely invited to gatherings like this.

I believe (my faulty memory being what it isn't) that Fred had been at Prudence's on Sunday morning, and that he and Prudence joined us about lunchtime. I recall that I rode out with Greg and back with Fred.

In most of the pictures I have of Fred he looks just as good as he does here, in this picture with Prudence and him.

Towards the end of the afternoon, Fred and I got everyone to come together for a group picture. It turned out very well, particularly since Fred got out his panoramic camera to take it:

In addition to the traditional Easter festivities, Lowery and Ron supplied some noshes for the afternoon, and everyone had an excellent time.

You can use the links below to continue to another photo album page.

	May 20-21, 1995: A Trip to the Wichita Mountains
	April 19, 1995: A Visit to the Dallas Arboretum
	Return to the Index for 1995