Digging on the Swine Building and Other Notes After Spending the Weekend at Fair Park

The boy and I wound up spending several hours wandering Fair Park Saturday and yesterday, and he came away from the experience obsessed with a single building: the so-called Swine Building. It's the lone structure from the Texas Centennial Exposition in 1936 that hasn't been retouched whatsoever, according to Nancy McCoy -- in other words, that "pumpkin" color George Dahl favored for Fair Park is the very same coat of paint put on the building way back when. Restorations are one thing. But, as my 6-year-old son said, "If things aren't old, they don't really have a history. If they got painted over, they're not historical. But if they're kept the same and they look good, that's historical." I love that kid. I also love the sign he found inside. Jump for that.

We came back with plenty of pics from Fair Park, but, for some reason, the one at top is a favorite of his. And mine.

One further item of note: No, the city has no money to run the fountain in the Esplanade except during the most special of special occasions. But if you show up at 1 p.m. on a Saturday, well, let's just say park employees need to "test" the thing to make sure it works. A genuine treat.

And: Best idea ever, turning Fair Park into a studio back lot. We stumbled across a Dallas Police Department Forensics van that's bound for prime-time FOX in May, if the slightly altered DPD logo's any give-away, not to mention rows of trailers and trucks, and crews converting Fair Park buildings into sound sets just in time for cameras to roll on Code 58 beginning tomorrow and lasting through July. So get ready for that.