Friday, March 17, 2023
Sunday, May 1, 2016
Weeping Oak Tree destroyed in storm
During the night of April 30th, 2016, the weeping oak tree finally met its match when one of our frequent spring thunderstorms rolled through. As reported in the De Leon Free Press, neighbor Larry Holland and Cody Sherrod quickly cut the tree up and hauled off the wood and started a money-making enterprise selling items crafted from the wood.
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| Only a stump remains of the old weeping oak. |
Thursday, March 21, 2013
Weeping Oak concession stand torn down
I've noticed that the last standing remnant of the old Weeping Oak Drive Inn has been torn down. In a few years, the earth will swallow up the few scraps that are left. Below are the last Google satellite pics, which will disappear from Google maps after the next update.
Thursday, November 8, 2012
The "Weeping Oak" tree on highway 16 just south of De Leon, Texas, is sort of a local landmark, even though the stories surrounding it are myths. The tree is actually a post oak (Quercus stellata), which is very common in the De Leon area (check out the ones in the city cemetery) and most of Texas. It supposedly got its name from the branches "weeping" or hanging down. In the first pic below, the limbs weep much less so than most other mature post oaks I see. It had probably been trimmed by TXDOT prior to this picture. Actually, all mature post oaks have weeping lower limbs, so the "Weeping Oak" is nothing unusual whatsoever.
It has been said that the Weeping Oak tree was referenced by Ripley's Believe It Or Not as the "only oak with all its leaves pointing downward". This was supposedly in a 1937 syndicated newspaper article. It's very possible this is true but to this day, no one has been able to find a copy of it. Even if Ripley did feature the tree, it shows how easily he could be duped since a minimal amount of research would have shown that all post oaks have downward pointing limbs.
You can view the exact location of the Weeping Oak tree here in Google Maps.
Copy and paste the following coordinates into the search box of Google Maps or Google Earth and go right to the tree. While in either one, you can drag the little man over to the highway in front of the tree and view it at street level: 32.082038,-98.538334
The Weeping Oak Drive-In
Across the highway on the east side, there was the Weeping Oak Drive-In movie theater. Owner Leonard Scales (who previously owned the Leon and the Texas indoor downtown theaters) opened the Weeping Oak on March 1, 1951 with a fireworks show and movie. The capacity was around 150 cars but as many as 200 squeezed in for the grand opening. Edgar Brinson purchased the Weeping Oak in the mid 1950s. The screen was damaged by a storm sometime in the 1970s but I believe it was patched up and the drive-in continued to operate until it closed in 1982. It was great back in the day. I saw many spaghetti westerns on that screen. It had a covered outdoor concession stand and a swing down in front of the screen for the kiddies who would rather play than watch a movie. The long-time projectionist was named Bear and young boys standing too close to him would get their private parts "accidentally" touched. Bear was also a school bus driver in nearby Gorman. Imagine that. We were too young and dumb to know what was going on. I don't think old Bear would get away with that kind of thing these days, eh?
The Weeping Oak had great food - the usual drive-in fare. Or at least it tasted good back then simply because we were hungry. Anyone who ever attended a movie there can recall the dirtiest, urine-smelling bathrooms around. But not cleaning the restrooms probably kept the ticket prices cheap, so it was ok.
When I was a kid, Edgar Brinson was the owner. It must have gotten boring after the main crowd had arrived so old Edgar spent the rest of the night drinking beer in the ticket booth at the main entrance. We used to climb up on the high metal fence and peek at him. We (me and my friends) once went into the large storage area under the screen and were amazed to see thousands of empty beer bottles.
When the movie was over, there was quite a cloud of dust when the cars started leaving.
Lots of kids sneaked into the drive-in, either in car trunks or by jumping the back fence. And lots of them were caught. Old Edgar was pretty slick and had help from some of his family on enforcement. I don't recall actually ever sneaking in without paying but if I did, I'm sure I got caught. The side dirt road on the north side of the property was a great place to "park" and possibly even watch the movie for free without sound.
It has been said that the Weeping Oak tree was referenced by Ripley's Believe It Or Not as the "only oak with all its leaves pointing downward". This was supposedly in a 1937 syndicated newspaper article. It's very possible this is true but to this day, no one has been able to find a copy of it. Even if Ripley did feature the tree, it shows how easily he could be duped since a minimal amount of research would have shown that all post oaks have downward pointing limbs.
You can view the exact location of the Weeping Oak tree here in Google Maps.
Copy and paste the following coordinates into the search box of Google Maps or Google Earth and go right to the tree. While in either one, you can drag the little man over to the highway in front of the tree and view it at street level: 32.082038,-98.538334
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| Weeping Oak 2010 |
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| Another "weeping" oak, a couple hundred miles from De Leon. |
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| The berms aren't really visible anymore. The entrance and exit drives are still faintly visible. The large partially bare spot on the left is where the screen was. |
The Weeping Oak Drive-In
Across the highway on the east side, there was the Weeping Oak Drive-In movie theater. Owner Leonard Scales (who previously owned the Leon and the Texas indoor downtown theaters) opened the Weeping Oak on March 1, 1951 with a fireworks show and movie. The capacity was around 150 cars but as many as 200 squeezed in for the grand opening. Edgar Brinson purchased the Weeping Oak in the mid 1950s. The screen was damaged by a storm sometime in the 1970s but I believe it was patched up and the drive-in continued to operate until it closed in 1982. It was great back in the day. I saw many spaghetti westerns on that screen. It had a covered outdoor concession stand and a swing down in front of the screen for the kiddies who would rather play than watch a movie. The long-time projectionist was named Bear and young boys standing too close to him would get their private parts "accidentally" touched. Bear was also a school bus driver in nearby Gorman. Imagine that. We were too young and dumb to know what was going on. I don't think old Bear would get away with that kind of thing these days, eh?
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| The Weeping Oak Drive-In concession stand and projection room today (2012), in the middle of a coastal hay field. In front of the large plate glass window was the outdoor covered seating, which was the coolest place to be for a kid. The projection room is on the left end in this picture. |
When I was a kid, Edgar Brinson was the owner. It must have gotten boring after the main crowd had arrived so old Edgar spent the rest of the night drinking beer in the ticket booth at the main entrance. We used to climb up on the high metal fence and peek at him. We (me and my friends) once went into the large storage area under the screen and were amazed to see thousands of empty beer bottles.
When the movie was over, there was quite a cloud of dust when the cars started leaving.
Lots of kids sneaked into the drive-in, either in car trunks or by jumping the back fence. And lots of them were caught. Old Edgar was pretty slick and had help from some of his family on enforcement. I don't recall actually ever sneaking in without paying but if I did, I'm sure I got caught. The side dirt road on the north side of the property was a great place to "park" and possibly even watch the movie for free without sound.
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