It’s a small-town phenomenon: Parents raising kids on the same block where they grew up — with grandma, aunts, siblings and cousins all right around the corner. And it has been that way in small towns just about as long as anyone can recall.
But it’s also common in the Sparkman neighborhood, with some families three or four generations deep, making Sparkman feel more like a village and less like a big city.
Here’s a look at what’s bringing neighbors back home generation after generation, and a candid discussion about what it’s like having your in-laws living across the street.
Everything changed when Jeanne Culver’s oldest daughter, Katy, was born. Her then-home in Santa Barbara, Ca., was just too far away, and she wanted Katy to grow up around relatives.
So she placed a call to childhood friend David Mount, who was still living in Sparkman, the Dallas neighborhood they grew up in together.
“I asked him what it was like living back in the old neighborhood, and he said it was great,” she says.
That proved to be all the endorsement she needed. Thirteen years and two daughters later, she and her husband Ken are certain moving back home was the right move for their family. And Culver says she’s not the only one who has had this idea. Several of her childhood friends have returned to Sparkman to raise their own families there.
“It validated our choice for coming back because it’s such a great place to grow up and bring your kids,” she says. “It’s also just so nice to be close to extended family.”
Culver’s mother Cosette McGee, who lives a few blocks away, echoes those thoughts.
“I was incredibly happy when Jeanne came back,” says McGee, who never passes up the chance to pick up her granddaughters from school nearby. Every Thursday for the past year, McGee and her granddaughter Caroline have sat and sewed together. They recently finished their first project: a large quilt, although McGee says her granddaughter did most of the work.
“I supervised while she cut out all the pieces,” McGee says. “I’m proud of her because she did an excellent job of placing the color.”
Culver says it’s that kind of regular interaction between generations that makes living near her family worthwhile.
“They have a much stronger relationship than if their grandmother was in a different part of the city. I think it’s great for the children to be around different generations and learn that respect.”
For Culuver, being a Sparkman resident — or, a Sparkmanite as they call themselves — is like having “a small-town experience,” where many neighbors have similar upbringings and several generations live nearby.
For example, Jack and Marie Johnston, the couple that introduced Jeanne and her husband, also live nearby.
“I grew up with [Jack and Marie] in church,” Culver says. “It’s nice to see them regularly and for my kids to know them.”
When McGee moved to Sparkman 45 years ago, she was the first person to occupy her house on Camelot Drive. Neighbors now tell her that she should downsize, but McGee says she’s staying put.
“Old-timers just like to plant their roots,” McGee says. “I can’t imagine my life without this family. They give me so much.”
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Jackie Mavor and Gwendy Finks are twins, and much like their daughters Melanie and Natalie, they give a whole new meaning to the term “inseparable.” These twins are each raising their families here in Sparkman. And as if that isn’t enough of a sibling bond, get this: Their younger brother Robert Tapia is also raising his family here in Sparkman.
The migration of three siblings to Sparkman began with a simple party invitation. About eight years ago, some friends invited Mavor and her husband Greg to Sparkman’s annual Halloween party. The rest, Mavor says, was history.
“That experience sold my husband on the idea of moving here,” Mavor says. “All the kids have to do is walk out the door, and they have five friends to play with. It’s automatic.”
Almost two years later, Finks followed her sister and relocated to Sparkman with her husband Mark, who also just-so-happened to grow up in the neighborhood.
“We decided that we wanted this environment back again,” Finks says, as opposed to commuting from her previous location in Carrollton. “Not many people realize this is here. It really is a phenomenon.”
As twins, Mavor and Finnks are accustomed to sharing experiences simultaneously — cheerleading, pregnancy and, now, regular family bike rides around the neighborhood. And when it’s warm enough, all the cousins take swim lessons at the Sparkman pool, where Mavor serves as neighborhood parent coordinator.
The siblings like to remember the time when, as children, they were required to be home before the streetlights came on — and how things are still this way for their own children at Sparkman.
“Sparkman is kind of old-fashioned that way because there aren’t a lot of places where kids can just take off and ride their bikes,” Finks says.
Now that all three siblings are here raising their families side by side, Finks says they all agree this will be their last stop.
“We always say that we’re planning on growing old right where we’re at.”
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Joyce DeHaven has lived in Sparkman nearly half a century, and she has a theory about why the neighborhood club remains so active.
“The multigenerational family element here has made a big difference,” Joyce says. “It’s fabulous because it gives some unity and a sense of history.”
Joyce’s son Kirk DeHaven and daughter Jana DeHaven Van Voorhis also live in Sparkman, within minutes of each other.
“I can see my sister’s house from my front door,” Kirk says. “Our kids benefit the most, I think, because they’re able to relate to their cousins on a different level.”
Jana says she feels blessed to have her family nearby, but she’s honest about the challenges that come with it.
“With our situation, you have to learn to live together and balance those boundaries,” Jana says.
But she also appreciates the little things her mom does for them, like stopping by to feed her cat and her brother’s cat.
“My daughter has an incredible relationship with my mother,” Jana says. “As my daughter grows, so does that bond with her grandmother.”
Given the unique atmosphere of Sparkman, Joyce says she’s not surprised her children — or any other children, for that matter — return to this neighborhood as adults.
“I expected Kirk and Jana to come back because they enjoyed growing up here, and they knew their kids would enjoy it too,” Joyce says.
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Ken Barth still remembers the day he stepped out of his mother’s front door, walked down the street, stopped at the first house that was for sale, knocked on the door and said, “Whatever you want for it, I’ll pay it.”
“There is so much vibrancy in Sparkman,” he says. “It has a great mix of public and private schools, families and singles. I couldn’t get the whole package anywhere else.”
And he should know. He grew up in this neighborhood. But it was his wife Carolyn who proposed the idea to settle in Sparkman.
“She just fell in love with the neighborhood,” he says. “Being close to my mom and seeing how active the people are — it’s very similar to when I was growing up here.”
Living near his mother worked out so well, in fact, that his brother Paul decided to follow suit.
“It just made more sense to raise kids near family,” he says. “And the community atmosphere is tremendous; a lot of people have migrated back.”
Today, brothers Paul and Ken are raising their families across the street from each other. And although their children are of different ages and attend different schools, Barth says they enjoy a “familiar bond” they otherwise wouldn’t share. Once a week, for example, the cousins all visit grandma’s house for dinner.
Paul and Ken’s mother, Carol, offers up different recipes each week to please the tastes of all seven grandkids she feeds — everything from enchiladas to baked salmon.
“It has been such a gift in my life to be so close to my grandchildren and see them grow,” says Carol, who arranges the dinners by texting all of her grandkids to get a consensus.
She also believes that Sparkman is conducive to multiple-generation living arrangements because the neighbors are tight-knit, but not intrusive.
“Sparkman is a place where people look out for each other,” she says. “I love that everyone is so close, yet maintains their own independence.”
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Living so close to your mother-in-law is not quite what people imagine it to be, says Alisa Mount, whose husband, David, has lived in Sparkman all his life.
“If I had a meddling mother-in-law, which I don’t, then I could imagine it would not be very pleasant,” Alisa jokes.
David’s mother, Dorothy Mount, still recalls when it came time for her son to find his own house.
“Lucky for me, he didn’t stray very far from home,” Dorothy says.
In fact, David only strayed across the street. In 1994, the newlyweds bought the house across the street from David’s mother.
“It’s not at all like ‘Everybody Loves Raymond’,” David teases.
Whenever Dorothy needs to get something from the attic, she calls her son. Likewise, when David needs his kids picked up from school, his mom is the first person he calls.
“He is always around to help with the little things, and I am always here for the children,” Dorothy says.
Summers are particularly bustling for Dorothy because the kids aren’t in school, which means more time for horseplay.
“We hardly see our kids during the summer because they’re always at my mom’s, and she lets them sleep late,” David says. “We pick them up for dinner and then send them right back.”
Alisa says she quickly grew accustomed to having her mother-in-law always nearby.
“Multiple family generations is something I didn’t grow up with,” says Alisa, who moved all over the world with her father in the military.
“But our children know that a lot of kids don’t have this luxury. It adds so much stability and that feeling of really knowing your neighbors.”
