I'm 58. My bro's best friend in 1964 (high school) was Greg Allen, whose neighbor was Don Meredith over on Hanover St. here in Dallas. I was young but impressionable .. I remember Don pulling up the driveway in his Jaguar XKE convertible afternoons after practice, wearing a sport coat and a "dickie" (anyone remember these - they were a "turtleneck" without having to wear an actual turtleneck sweater - the turtleneck thing you used to put on and it ended about chest-high - you didn't have to put on a tie on if you went to a restaurant then because they were lowering their standards - no more ties but because you had your cool turtleneck/"dickie" thing on you could get in). .. I was stunned here was the great Don Meredith .. So glamorous ..
Don's wife had a big "bee hive" (you can her pix online, as I remember, holding her her new kid in the hospital - and she stilll had a perfect "beehive" dad gum it just seems like women tried harder in those days ...)
So the great Beano Carp and I (he was a year or two older and a leader of men ..) would go up and ring the doorbell (Beano had the courage, not me) and ask if Don could come out and throw the ball. His wife, a very pretty woman as you can guess, would answer the door and tell us in a strong southern accent: "Boys, Don is so tarred, he doesn't even want to see a football .. y'all come back tomorrow, y'all are so cute !!! .." .. I'm still stunned she was so, well pretty. to the 6 or 7 year old me.
So we did next few weeks, she was nice every time, but eventually she didn't answer the door. .. But I think we waited for Don to drive up every day anyway after an afternoon of front-yard football (It is sad to me but I don't think kids run around the neighborhood anymore looking for, trying to get up, and playing a game of front-yard football. Maybe a game of "middleman" if there are only 3 guys. Maybe better as a 12-13-14-15-16 year old you would go up to your local park or elementary school - for me it was Hyer school - and play some touch football - it was even better than YMCA football cause no parents or coaches around ha ha .. .. ) . that is a long parenthetical phrase sorry ..
First game: Boys vs. Steelers, Cotton Bowl, I think 1966, with my great bud David Marlow and his great dad as middleman. A guy named Dick Hoak I remember. I think Steelers won, not sure.
My fav Cowboys game in history is when on a completely muddy field in about 1966 maybe 1967 in Washington - raining like mad but Meredith "hit" (ha ha) Dan Reeves with about 30 seconds left in the game on 4th down on a pass over the middle about a 60-65 yard pass-run, about 50 yards of it was Dan Reeves as I remember .. .. Reeves somehow avoided running out of bounds and scored - we had been behind 4-5 points and so we won the game .. time ran out by the time Dan scored (I think) anyway that was it. .. Those were the wonderful days when Dallas was pretty spare of entertainment, even SMU football was on the wane, we had no other pro teams, and the Cowboys were bringing our spirits up. .. Dallas picked up finally by I think 1970 - when "liquor by the drink" came up and you could go in a restaurant and order a shot. It opened everything up in Dallas - that and the 18-year-old drinking rule.
