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Grandpa's teeth pocketed by fellow visiting
Grandma
By Bill Whitaker
Come Sunday afternoon, hundreds of Abilenians will go on this
year's Abilene Preservation League "Fall Home Tour,"
during which they're supposed to fawn over admirable architecture
and highfalutin furnishings.
Bosh. Here are the real goods.
I'm going to mention a few things you'll still be talking about
long after the tour, including that fancy silver service at Charles
and Candy Scarborough's stately home -- the tea set that Charles'
granddad lost his teeth over.
Last week, while staff photographer Gerald Ewing and I were
previewing the quaint homes on this year's APL home tour, longtime
attorney Charles Scarborough happened to let slip what should
be one of the dark secrets of the Scarborough clan.
This slip came while Charles and Candy were showing us through
their home, a grand abode that features furnishings of museum
quality. For instance, the 1800s dining room table, I'm told,
belonged to Charles' great-grandparents.
Charles' grandfather, Dallas Scarborough, joined his future
father-in-law in building the home in 1908 for his Dallas' bride,
Jewel, who ultimately had much to do with the home's look. For
instance, she purchased the turn-of-the-century light fixtures
around the house.
Apparently, the father of our own late Mayor Elbert Hall knew
well of Jewel's passion for the finest in furnishings. Once he
presented the Scarboroughs with a baby grand piano as a legal
fee. The piano, which Jewel played often, continues to sit in
the living room.
Jewel obviously knew how to bargain for things she really wanted,
which gets us to the real heart of the matter.
Or maybe I should say "teeth."
PUTTING THE BITE ON
Sitting on the buffet in the dining room during my visit, the
Scarborough silver service is perhaps the most curious family
heirloom in the neighborhood.
Grandma Scarborough wanted that silver service so badly she
bartered for it using her husband's gold teeth.
True to custom early this century, the neighborhood was occasionally
visited by a gold man, who'd go door-to-door, seeing if people
had any gold objects -- teeth included -- they might be interested
in selling or trading.
Family history has it that one day early this century the gold
man came to 726 Amarillo, where Dallas and Jewel Scarborough then
lived and where Charles and Candy now live. That's the day Grandma
Scarborough -- always a strong-willed woman -- traded off her
husband's gold teeth for a silver set. Her hubby knew nothing
of it, at least at first.
"All Dallas knew, he went looking for his gold teeth one
day and couldn't find them," Charles told me. "Then
he found out she had traded them to the gold man for that silver
service set. I don't know if he got mad, but I assume he did.
"Of course, it made perfect sense to her. She wanted that
silver set, and he wasn't using his teeth."
Not at that moment, anyway.
SHOW ME YOUR SCAR
Incidentally, while at fellow attorney Larry Robertson's home
at 2201 S. 10th, get Larry to show you his tracheotomy scar. Family
lore has it Larry was the first person in Abilene to have an emergency
tracheotomy when, at age 2, he stopped breathing at what was then
Hendrick Memorial Hospital.
Although Larry, now 50, didn't get to keep the "pocket
knife" supposedly used on him, he does have a piece of baling
wire his dad, much-decorated World War II veteran Zerk Robertson,
twisted into Larry's name while waiting for Larry to be born at
the very same hospital two years earlier.
"The way it's told, his father was waiting to find out
whether it was a boy or a girl," Larry's wife, Christy, told
me. "He was obviously hoping it was a boy, because he already
had it twisted into the name he wanted. Larry's mom later said,
ÔHe probably would've died if I hadn't had a boy!' "
The baling wire is framed and under glass along with some baby
pictures of Larry.
It's too bad no photos exist of Larry's painstaking efforts
to restore their home during the 16 years the Robertsons have
been living on South 10th. The one picture that would be worth
having would show Larry the day he was in the attic putting in
some insulation and accidentally stepped on the sheetrock.
"I was just sitting on the bed, reading the Sunday paper,"
Christy said, "when all this sheetrock suddenly fell down
from the ceiling along with two legs."
The legs just hung there amidst the cascading dust.
Probably Christy doesn't need a photo of that spectacle. The
image she has engraved on her mind is likely quite enough.
Bill Whitaker, who guesses Larry Robertson's do-it-yourself
home improvement techniques explain why it took 16 years for the
Robertsons to restore their home, can be reached at 676-6732.
Incidentally, Sunday's home tour is 1-5 p.m. with an $8 fee.
You can begin your tour at any of the five homes on tour, but
we recommend you start at either of the homes mentioned above
before the owners become overdosed on questions about gold teeth
and tracheotomy scars and close up early.
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1997, Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps. Publications
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