She looked out over the Fair Park Esplanade, at the grand Centennial Building and its majestic statuary, and in her mind Dorothy Johnson was 10 years old again.
"Oh," she said. "That's what I wanted to see."
This was Fair Park as Johnson last knew it -- in 1936, the year of the Texas Centennial Exposition, the six-month celebration marking 100 years of Texas' independence from Mexico. The Hall of State and other art deco-style architecture and features, as well as the lagoon and nearby museums, were constructed in the furiously busy year leading up to the event.
"I recognize this part of it," the 90-year-old said as the bustle of the ongoing State Fair of Texas billowed around her. "I remember this as being the major part. Those buildings are beautiful."
She raised her Canon Powershot and snapped a few photos.
Johnson, a retired high school teacher who's lived in Houston since 1951, was in town to visit friend Phyllis Cralle, who moved to Dallas two months ago.
The two visited Fair Park as guests of the Friends of Fair Park and State Fair officials, who were tickled to learn of Johnson's childhood experience.
She was a young girl when she and her parents left their Hannibal, Mo., home to board a train from St. Louis to visit Dallas for the event, arriving in the thick of a summer heat wave.
"We hurried from one hot dog stand to another to get a frosty root beer to try to stay cool," she said.
It was so hot that her mother took scissors to Johnson's dress, cutting off her sleeves and collar.
"Why did my family think it was so important to come?" she wondered as she took in the State Fair sights. "We didn't live in Texas."
But people came from throughout the U.S. to attend the exposition, which ran from June to December and was equally intended to highlight the growing Southwest. More than 117,000 showed up on opening day alone.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt himself paid a visit during the six-month run, while musical guests included Duke Ellington's Orchestra and the Salt Lake City Tabernacle Choir.
Attendees oohed over a pair of 70-foot dinosaurs, while the Cavalcade of Texas, an elaborate show of state history featuring covered wagons, longhorn cattle and 300 performers, drew more than a million spectators.
Overall, Johnson's memories of the event are few and occasionally sketchy. She remembers seeing Art Linkletter, program director for the onsite radio station built by Gulf Oil, and can vaguely recall a Japanese drummer performing at the Street of All Nations exhibit.
But mostly what she recalls is the glorious architecture, which inspired a lifelong love of art deco.
"You can imagine how impressed a little girl from northeast Missouri was," she said.
Her parents allowed her one souvenir; she chose a hand-carved back-scratcher. "I still use it to this day," she said.
The women's tour Tuesday, aboard a State Fair golf cart, included stops at the Auto Show, Big Tex Circle and the Hall of State. They also took a break to enjoy a Smoky Bacon Margarita, the frozen concoction that earned the "most creative" nod at this year's Big Tex Choice Awards.
"This is wonderful," Johnson said between slurps. "I can't believe it's happening. I never dreamed I'd be back here."
