Teen Angel · Mark Dinning · 1960

  Play the song.  

I have lived most of my life in the southwestern part of Dallas County, Texas. There is a road that runs east/west for many miles through the area. Camp Wisdom Road—named for an nearby Boy Scouts camp—runs through south Dallas and westward into Duncanville. From there, as you drive west, there is a very hilly, and potentially dangerous section of the road that runs down the Cedar Ridge escarpment toward the city of Grand Prairie. On one particularly dangerous curve there is a little memorial cross at the side of the road—a testament to a fatal teenage roadside accident. I remember when my younger daughter received the call from a high school friend informing her of another girl’s tragic car wreck at that spot.

Back in 1960, my grandmother received a similar call. Our family was preparing for Thanksgiving Day dinner when the phone rang with a call for my grandmother. On the other end of the line her sobbing granddaughter was informing her of a similar automobile tragedy. I could see the shock on my grandmother’s face as she tried to understand what my cousin was telling her.

What happened was this: Without telling his mother, my sixteen year old cousin had “borrowed” his mom’s car and had wrecked out near the intersection of Camp Wisdom Road and Houston School Road. The car was mangled, and my teenage cousin was dead. We were all in shock. I was just nine years old.

Of course, there is nothing unique about Camp Wisdom Road. Similar accidents and memorials are scattered on roads and highways throughout the country.

And the theme of teenage motor tragedies has been common in our popular music.

One of the most familiar of the songs topped the singles chart in February of 1960. The singer was Mark Dinning. The song was “Teen Angel“.

Later in the summer of 1960, another teenage tragedy tune peaked at number seven. The song was “Tell Laura I Love Her.”

  Tell Laura I Love Her · Ray Peterson · 1960
 

Tell Laura I Love Her