Love My Local: East Fort Worth

The truth: You really can go home again. I am living proof. I grew up mainly in East Fort Worth. While I was born in Austin, we moved to Fort Worth when I was about six months old. There was a brief hiatus of two years that my family lived in Arizona, but other than that I spent my childhood in the Eastside.

After high school, I did some exploring. I moved to Austin for school, and moved to Germany and San Antonio with my husband, courtesy of the U.S. Air Force. But 10 years after high school finds me right back where I started, the good old Eastside.

I really love where I live. I believe it’s hard to beat. Our neighborhood, Central Meadowbrook, is full of older houses with big yards and nice neighbors. But, besides my awesome house, here are the top five reasons I love my local:

1. School and church: A big selling point to this area was the proximity to our church and school, St. Rita on Lancaster. It is only five minutes away! My husband and I both grew up attending school and church there and it’s where all of our children were baptized. And, almost nothing makes me happier than being mere minutes away from the homemade Vietnamese eggrolls at our annual International Fair.
2. Highway access: I cannot stress this strongly enough. I am a VERY short drive from 30 and 820, and with those two highways I can get anywhere in the area unbelievably quickly. Hurst for a Chick-Fil-A fix? 10 minutes. Downtown Fort Worth or West 7^th for a night out? 10 minutes. Ranger game? 15 minutes. I LOVE being able to go anywhere quickly! It’s even fairly convenient for my Dallas commuting hubby!
3. East Regional Library: This library is only a few minutes from my house, and my kids adore it. They have three separate story time offerings, including one in the evenings that working parents can take their kids to. We are frequent visitors even on non-story time days. My kids never want to leave. (They have inherited their mother’s love of books.)
4. Independent restaurants: DFW sports some awesome food spots, but a few of my favorites are in my neighborhood. Smokey’s BBQ on Lancaster has pulled pork that I dream about and Italy Pasta and Pizza at 820 and John T White is my favorite Italian restaurant in the area. For breakfast, I love to hit up the Kolache Shoppe in the antique store in Historic Handley. My kids LOVE their sausage rolls!

   

5. Playground at Meadowbrook Golf Course: Meadowbrook Golf Course is just a short walk up the street, and they have a tiny little playground set up outside. It features a slide, four swings, a bench, and lots of trees and grass. My kids love to go outside and play — and it is so close! They collect sticks, run around, swing their hearts out, go down the slide a thousand times, and generally run amok. I love that it’s walking distance, and we often have babysitters walk the kids down in our wagon as a convenient way to get them out of the house without needing to drive!

I’m lucky to live in this area of town and am happy that my kids will get to experience a lot of what I did growing up, including lots of family around. Maybe the number one reason I love my house is that I can call my Uncle Wayne at 10:30 p.m. to come help me change a car battery, and he’ll show up five minutes later. Yup, definitely love my local.

We, at FWMB, love our local so much we created Neighbor Groups for every corner of Tarrant county — and in between. You’ll also find topical groups, like adoptive moms, single moms, food allergy moms, etc. Join a Neighbor Group (or two) today and get connected with other moms in your area.