Remember this guy?

Yuk! When I was a kid I thought he was so gross, I think he still is. First caught Slim Goodbody on Captain Kangaroo. My little brother and I also got grossed out by the Zoom opening (here's an earlier version but similar to what they did later). It had these kids all dressed the same with their striped shirts and jeans but barefooted. That icked us to death for some reason. Once I happened to wear a similar shirt and jeans and ran after him barefooted saying I was a ZoomaZZZZZZZZZZZZooma kid out to get him. Chased him but we both stopped cause we were laughing too hard. We liked Zoom but something about the intro that season they had striped shirts.

Zoom and Sesame Street, all those PBS shows had kids from the East Coast and I was always fascinated by them. I'd ask my mom why they were so different, never met kids around me who spoke like they did, I really dug their accents. My friend Rodney and his brother came to Del Rio, Tx from Pennsylvania in 1979 or so and I remember they had those accents. Later he told me they thought we all spoke like we were out of a Deputy Dawg cartoon and couldn't stop laughing at us.

Oh yeah, The Letter People! In kindergarten we had the blow up dolls and the record. After nap time the record was played and Mrs Wall, who assisted Mrs Eckles, would come in dancing with the new letter person. After those 26 days of fun the Letter People were strung from the ceiling and soon after that, kindergarten was over.

Did anyone ever learn to read from Theodore Clymer's books? I can only recall:
One Potato, Two
Helicopters and Gingerbread
Duck Is a Duck
The Dog Next Door and Other Stories
Fish and Not Fish
May I Come In?
Seven Is Magic
How It Is Nowadays

And what set off this nostalgic minutiae? We watched Swingtown last night and I saw Tupperware. Vintage Tupperware always catapults me back to the 70s and my childhood.

Escape

Went to visit my family in Del Rio. We enjoyed escaping from Austin and into another world. There was lots of space, peace and quiet. You could hear birds singing. Butterflies and hummingbirds flew by. You could see all the stars at night and hear roosters crow in the morning...

There was a breeze that would catch the scent of my Grandmother's roses and sweeten the whole porch. They are reaching above the rooftop.

I met Junior, my Grandfather's Bantam rooster who was learning to crow. Actually, he learned to crow two weeks ago, but still, tres cute. He is only 1/4 the size of a regular rooster. Also got to see the goats with their new babies and the longhorn named John Wayne.

Time traveled a bit downtown.

We had fun. I miss it.

Hello, you're on Tradio

Tradio where you can buy , sell trade or giveaway. I thought for many years that Tradio was a Del Rio invention and exclusive to the town. I was so wrong. There are still stations with Tradio around today! I remember it aired everyday for only about an hour then on Saturdays for maybe a bit longer? It was free and it worked! We would take down the phone numbers and addresses for free puppies or $50 Chihuahuas and beg to be taken to see them. No such luck. However, my Grandparents made a living out of buying old antique furniture, restoring it then reselling it and Tradio played a huge part.

One year, when I was eleven or twelve, I wanted to be Harpo Marx for Halloween. I needed an over sized, brown, men's suit and tie. My mother and I had been all over town and couldn't find one. I thought I'd call Tradio and explain what I was doing and what I needed and leave our phone number. Seconds after I hung up the phone started ringing. People had suits, they had huge blue, black, grey and brown suits, they had tuxedos, they had the tie and they had comments. I remember being asked ,"Why Harpo Marx?," and ," How old are you?". My mom didn't know what I had done and after the 3rd call in a row she came into the room. Our number was private and after I told her what I did she was irked. Tradio could on occasion encourage prank callers and my classified was one of those that was just begging for stupid calls.

My Grandmother, being a loyal listener heard me and called our house laughing. Apparently the announcer made a couple of jokes and said, "Call this young lady and help her out, she needs the largest three piece men's suit in Texas!". Finally, the calls ended and we did find a suit that day for $5 at a thrift store we found through Tradio. Oh, I won the costume contest at school. By the way, the costume, was as accurate as could be: horn and rubber chicken. I also made my little sister go as Shirley Temple and my brother was Charlie Chaplin. We all won some mall costume contest where we entered as a group. Ugh! Such a dork.

Spring in Austin has always been a sweet time.

*There are plenty of memories like when I painted La Virgen de Guadalupe for Lady Fest a long time ago. I enjoyed building and painting the altar, Milagros y Lagrimas. I painted this to go inside of it.

*Most of my girlfriends and my two Grandmothers and I all celebrate our birthdays. XOXO to all my Aries and Taurus girls near and far:Parisa, Eugenia,Bonnie,Sylvia, Cousin Lilliana, Aunt Cristi, Claude and Christine!
*Memories of wedding bells and the Caribbean *winkwink* I had no idea year #2 was China or Cotton.
*It's a great time to sit outside and enjoy pleasant weather without mosquitoes. Just too early for them.
*Then there are the plans: watching a ton of 8mm films in the new yard under the stars, BBQs and tea parties! Smelling roses.
* Spring is time for new Kino Sandals
*I've now lived in Austin as long as I lived in Del Rio. I still miss what will always be my hometown but each Spring I have spent in Austin has made me felt like this is where I want to be. The first hint of the sweet scent from the Mountain Laurel makes me happy. I can remember being in a dorm room when I first smelled it. I thought it was the suite mate's shampoo or something. I once made the mistake of clipping the flower and putting it in my bedroom to make everything smell like Spring. I fell asleep for hours, unable to wake up. I would pick up my head and feel so extremely and severely drowsy that I just couldn't open my eyes and wake up. I finally woke up to my Grandparents knocking at my door, hard and loud. My Grandmother told me of Mountain Laurel's narcotic effects and how dangerous they were. She was right! Sixteen years later I finally looked up the facts. At the time I asked her where she found that out and she said her Grandmother had warned her. I figured my Great-Great Grandmother knew what she was talking about, she was Native American and I had grown up hearing her wise quips through my Grandmother. My Grandmother still quotes her to this day. It's always something I never heard before too. To be my age with two Grandmothers, both spry and with it and one who can remember everything her own Grandmother ever told her...I'm truly blessed and forever thankful for them.
*Springs at our house are our future good ole days. The way the kitchen window lets light in on a Sunday morning. The way things look and feel with the screen door open. The view of the yard from the bedroom window with one of the kitties sitting and purring close. I am most thankful for such a cute and easygoing Sweetie who makes anything and everything poetic and memorable by just being present. Spring and Bill are alike that way.
*I love Spring!

Note: I often capitalize what's important to me when writing in my blog. I am well aware of the rules for capitalization. No rules here.

Recharged

Returned from a quick trip to Del Rio and feel recharged. I think the drive is what does it, all that space between stops, all that land. UGH! If it is to be developed one day, I hope it's after I am gone. People need places to go where they can just drive and see nothing but open space, just land in it's natural state or fields of dirt awaiting seeds.

We discussed gnosticism, listened to Gene Vincent and had yummy goodies from Haby's while en route. I do enjoy driving that stretch of 90 Castroville-Del Rio.

My grandmother always sends us back with yummy food: taquitos de chorizo con frijoles, chorizo con papas, calabazita, homemade tortillas and green salsa. My husband loves Mexican food, yay!

Each time I am in Del Rio it is like I never left and I do love that feeling. It is like a hug. Now I am back where I live and feel claustrophobic again. This town is just collapsing in on itself. Thank goodness for a big back yard with a wild chili pequin plant, lil bit of home!

Valente Lane Candles

It's always awesome when someone from my hometown creates something really cool.
This Christmas I was given a candle made by Valente Lane Candles. I followed the website and was happily surprised to find that Charlena Cavender and her wonderful handmade candles were based in Del Rio, TX! The scents we received are luscious. They don't overpower the room with a synthetic scent, all natural. Because they are so polite we are able to enjoy them longer than other scented candles we tried in the past. They are tres classy and I highly recommend!

Historical Value

The other day I was pondering the historical value of things. People on the Antiques Road Show are always so disappointed that there knick-knack has no historical significance or value. In my collection in my world there are several pieces that are of significant historical value. Shall I list?
Don't be jealous:

1. The mirror from the ladies room in Quack's when it was on the drag. I took it before they closed and turned it into a boutique that has recently closed. It is where my best friend and I saw ourselves being who we always wanted to be for the first time.

2. The mechanical bow making machine from The Guarantee Store. This lil machine made bows for countless wedding, graduation, birthday and Christmas presents at the store in Del Rio. A gift from The Guarantee meant a carefully picked bauble to mark a special milestone. The bows were always so pretty and perfect. When I heard the store was closing I heard that Heywood Wakefield furniture was used to furnish the whole store and was now up for grabs, that there was gorgeous deadstock apparel but I was on pins and needles trying to get the bow making machine, for it's historical value, you know.

3. The punch bowl from Sacred Heart Academy. This punch bowl is old, tres old. It belonged to the nuns at Sacred Heart Academy in Del Rio back when they actually lived at the school and wore habits. After they moved in the mid 70s, they left behind a few sundries in what became the teacher's lounge. The punch bowl with all it's lil cups was left behind and used in classroom parties. I remember this punch bowl at the Valentine's party in the first grade, then at the Christmas party in the second grade, it was at my first dance in the 6th grade... When you are always picked to help do the punch and not pass out the cupcakes, you learn to recognize the same ole punch bowl. A few years ago my mother showed up with it and I was amazed it had lasted so long, but it is most surely the same tired ole punch bowl, the cups are in great condition but you can see over forty years of wear from parties on the bowl when you hold it up to the light. How cool is that?

Hood Minutiae

Seems that Paz Dhody did offer the owners of Brentwood Taverns a fair deal but they claimed it was too little too late. BLEHK! That's just being...the word in Spanish is caprichudos. In the end they didn't sound as invested as their hood clientele. I am sure whatever replaces the Brentwood Tavern will become a gathering place once again. I think if any of the other plans and developers had been picked for this venture there most surely would have been way more unhappy people. For the most part the Farmer's Market development seems a pleasant and welcomed distraction from the Wal Mart development. If only Paz Dhody could have purchased that piece of land. I'm sure he would have had more creative and culturally lucrative plans for the place. Social value just doesn't have the clout economic value has when it comes to development, tres triste.

Clean up in the creek area near Dart Bowl is in order. ICK! Litter all over the place. Very ugly. Now that the weather has changed this is the plan. Creeks scare me a bit. In Del Rio they bring cotton mouths and they are scary: The Cottonmouth snake is related to the copperhead but more dangerous. Venom is highly toxic with severe tissue destruction. Bites are fairly frequent in the southern United States. Color dark or nearly black, especially in adult of the species. Average length 3½ feet, maximum length 6 feet. Possums eat snakes so I am hoping Pepper the possum takes care of the snakes, if there any.

Seems like chili pequin grows all over this neighborhood. I find that so comforting for some reason. I like using it in pico. Very hot pico.

I wish our hood would have a sign up sheet for the homes participating in trick or treat. Our house always gets passed up. Actually, seems everything south of Koening does. Poop.

The day could not have been more perfect or memorable

Wm and I went to Del Rio,TX for the Fiesta de Amistad Parade. The few times I have tried to attend this parade it was cancelled due to rain. This year my Grandmother wanted my Grandfather to ride in the parade and my brother and I to ride with him in his own car not a float. Her reason was he is in his 80's and has never been in a parade so why not. It became more and more important to us both as the plans went on.

The theme was Military Order of the Purple Heart. My Grandfather is a Purple Heart recipient and WWII veteran. I was more than happy to make this happen for them both. Since late August I have been making arrangements and ordering supplies to decorate this vehicle. I would not be able to decorate it until I got to town the evening before the event. I knew nothing of decorating cars for parades but there are websites dedicated to parade supplies, much to my amazement.

What was required to be in the line was to display the American and Mexican flag in keeping with the theme of amistad between the two countries. I didn't want to mess with homemade signs and tape or glitter, that sort of thing. After much shopping around online I came up with some flags, ribbon, made Mexican style paper flowers and ta-da.....


My Grandparents were happy with the results. This was all for them. I was very happy to have the car pass the grandstand and have the MC introduce him to cheers and applause from the bleachers. After that it was a forty five minute ride at 5 miles an hour down Main St waving and smiling. That is an experience. The street is narrow and the car open on both sides and you can hear everything everyone says. Thankfully it was all kudos on the decor and people who knew my Grandad saying hi, clapping, some cheering......

After the parade we went to the arts and crafts/ food festival. What was missing were all the craft booths they used to have. I thought for sure, with this whole crafty fad, there would be a few more but maybe Makers Faire took them. Maybe Del Rio is just to far off in the sticks. However the food was great! I was truly surprised at the choices, really good food. The corn tortilla nopalito quesadillas were awesome! I tried my first funnel cake ever and now I want one every Saturday. I was never one for carnival food except cotton candy when I was younger and that went icky after five minutes. Actually I was never one for the lines, just too impatient. But I'm never passing on funnel cake again. I'll wait.

The photos look so patriotic, and my Grandfather is. My loyalties are with my Grandad who was one of the Blue Devils. He did return from war with a terrible wound and endured countless surgeries. I have always looked up to him. He has never let me down.

Kress Building, Del Rio,TX

Del Rio has a lovely old Kress Five and Dime building being used as...last I checked, a banquet hall. Since I was a kid I wanted that building. I wanted to take it's floors and dedicate each floor to something creative. First floor, lobby and cafe (coffee shops were not the rage in 1980, even now I'd prefer a cafe to a coffee shop), this would help generate money for the place and organization (loved that noun as a kid). Second floor, art gallery, show space, dancing space (where I used to think I could showcase my ballet. Hey, I was nine and had just seen Isadora). Third floor, art studios so everyone can go and practice or paint or whatever. Fourth floor community radio station. This was where I wanted to be as well. I pictured a cute transmitter atop the Kress building.

All this dream building and idea making was before I even stepped foot in Austin. It was my Lilliputian Utopian dream as a kid. Now too. For some reason I wanted to call it Downtown, Under Ground. At twelve I pictured me and my group of Sidewalk Social Scientist (both a band and movement, taken from the Blondie song 11:59-a B side. I know, I was only twelve though so cut me some slack), hanging out at the cafe thinking up new ways to make Del Rio purty and then going upstairs, via the old restored elevator, to rock out. I was going to release a line of clothing and sell it in a boutique. That would be the old Texas Theatre. I wanted to buy that place and turn it into a store where you could buy everything my friends and I made: clothing, furniture, movies, music, paintings...special place for my grandparents antiques.

When I see the building all the momentum still builds and wells up. UGH!
If it happens that would be awesome, I guess, even if it wasn't me instigating it. Still, it's the only ongoing dream I have had, along with raising chickens. As an adult I could see how perfect it would be to have an art building in an old Kress store, he was an uber patron of the arts. I can also see how something like this could revitalize the town. The place needs a more dynamic community. Del Rio needs more art, new ideas and new people coming in and out. This is me talking? This is me talking....

Alamo Village:A Movie Set in Texas?

Ever been? I recommend. It's great for photos. This is where the 1950's version of the Alamo was filmed.

Del Rio schools used to take students there for field trips. Once at Alamo Village I got into one of the horse drawn carriages with a couple of 12 year old dummies who shot cap pistols, scared the horses resulting in a mad ride at super high speeds and all of us flying and bouncing in the carriage. It was tres scary, the carriage was shaking violently back and forth, one kid threatened to throw up, two others were laughing their asses off until the doors flew open (just a lil chain holding them), I was pissed that I had picked this group to ride with. We could hear the driver going crazy cursing us and the horses then saying, "Dear Jeeeezus" in a terrified way that made me realize, this was serious.

Later, much later, took awhile to get the horses to calm down, the driver yelled at THEM (cap pistol dummies) for endangering his life and those without cap pistols (just me). He said we could have all been killed. I wondered at the time why nothing was said about spooking the horses. I mean you sell cap guns, kids and teens come here all the time, what were the chances? Why didn't they have better trained horses...aren't movie set horses expected to take snaps and pops?

On that same trip I got into my first ever fist fight, cat fight, hair pullin, girl fight. Before I got into the carriage I named names and said she was a bitch. When I got back, having a root beer and a hamburger at the cantina the girl asked if I said such thing. I emphatically declared that not only did I say it but from my point of view it was nothing but true. She left, we heard some chick named Linda sing and then we all went outside. It was there that I was confronted again.

Classmates gathered in a circle because me (the quiet one) had suddenly started cussing out loud. I got slapped! Remembering moves I saw on Happy Days once (Fonzie) I grabbed her collar (Fonzie never got further than that so I was at a loss) and then it got jumbled up. I remember being slapped, pulling hair, slapping back, knocking her to the ground, being on the ground and then it was over when two teachers pulled us apart. I do remember kicking and swinging and cussing after that. All of a sudden I was overcome by huge waves of deep embarrassment. What the hell had I done?

The ride home was with the cap pistol guys and they had no tact so I heard the gamut of point of views, true confessions and opinions regarding me, the day, the fight, the other girl and how fun that carriage ride was. UGH! What was my mother going to say I wondered? She worked at the school. So when we arrived the teacher told her and I got this stare of complete disbelief. I had cracked, I came out of my shell. The cutest boy in class walked by and with a smirk said, "You're the fighting girl", nodded and then walked away. What was that about? What had other people been saying on their rides back? I had not even thought of that. UGH!

The next day I had to stay in during PE for a "talk". The teachers and nuns thought that because I had always been so quiet and mild mannered that the outburst indicated I needed a talk. After all, the other girl had come from public school and all public schools were trouble to them and was not their concern but me..what set me off was the question that year.

What set me off was just a twelve year old girl being mean to twelve year old me for an entire car trip to Alamo Village and a bad carriage ride, nothing more. Things were awkward for a number of weeks and eventually the event was absorbed into my past. By eighth grade it was funny. Anyway, I digress.

Weekend Minutiae

Listening to Roxy Music this morning before I head off to work and creating this entry. I woke up too early. So this past weekend was somewhat eventful.

We finally made it to the AMOA where I got to see Robert Frank's US 90, en route to Del Rio, Texas It was pretty awesome being able to finally see it. It was like meeting someone you have long admired.

Later we stopped by to see Gabe Kaplan at Book People. I haven't been to one of those book signings since Harvey Pekar. I stood in a fast moving line waiting to get my book signed and formulated a few questions. I was last. However when the time finally came I stood sort of speechless. It was Mr Kotter. I faintly asked if it would be okay to have a photo taken and said thank you then managed to utter, "Big fan", as I walked away. This reaction was completely unexpected.

His book:Kotter's Back: E-Mails from a Faded Celebrity to a Bewildered World is tres funny. Sort of Jerky Boys meets Punk'd meets Borat but done Kaplan style via e-mails. Reading in between the lines it really says a lot about American culture today in regards to celebrity, reality shows,e-mail and the internet. The story I enjoyed most was Wilma.

Dropped by to see Mr Gage. Finished the weekend with White Heat at the Paramount with the infamous Bonnie. We couldn't wait to hear, "Made it, Ma! Top of the world!"

Souvenir

Back from Del Rio.

Burlesque

Funny Face and Gypsy are my favorite musicals. Audrey is untouchable and I love Natalie Wood but remember Faith Dane?
Faith Dane was in the Gotta Have a Gimmick number and played Mazeppa (looks like a young Tony Curtis in drag). It is one of my favorite scenes ever because it is burlesque and because of Faith Dane.

When I read Chateau Marmont it was written that she would annoy everyone with her bugle, often. The part of Mazeppa was a stroke of luck for the thirty something who had been trying for years to make it in show business. She played the part during the entire run of the musical and then the movie but after all that was Gypsy was over, she was out. She married a politician and "took off" with her bugle in politics. I love her!

Speaking of burlesque one of my travel destinations is the Exotic World Burlesque Museum since I read about it in 1995. I always thought it was cool that burlesque made a comeback of sorts but after seeing a few of the shows it just isn't what it was. How can it be? People now cannot capture the essence or be like people then, generations ago, no matter what. We are all a result of our time and our era is written all over our gestures, movement, gaits etc....However, it's still tres cool, of this time, popular and a refreshing alternative to the pole dancer.

When I wanted to know more about anything I went to the library. In the days pre Internet, finding information on old burlesque dancers wasn't easy. The names I looked up in the card catalog and even periodical Guide(serious research) were Lili St Cyr, Ann Corio (taken from an encyclopedia entry)and Gypsy Rose Lee. All I could find was the book The G String Murders more encyclopedia entries. The day I found the LP How to Strip for Your Husband at the library, I thought this is it, maybe this will clue me into more. I was twelve and the librarian didn't want to let me hear it but I kept telling her it was only music secretly hoping, somehow, there would be more.

The attraction had been the costumes I saw in Gypsy then the dancing, it was glamorous. What I wanted to know was who were these women, where and how did they grow up, how much more was there to burlesque and was the woman up the street with the feathered fans on her wall and the fluffy robe and all the make-up once one of them? She was old, old,old to me and I felt she was tres interesting but too shy to ever ask her if she was in show business. Turned out she was involved in carnivals and that's all I ever found out. I was in ballet and Lili St Cyr had been a ballet dancer per the encyclopedia entry. Ann Corio was Catholic and so was I. Costumes, dancing, glamour, all appealing to tweens.

Here It Is Burlesque was a book published in 1968 and was missing from the San Antonio Public Library holdings in 1983. UGH! Del Rio would do inter library loan from the San Antonio Public Library. In 1979 a video based on the book had been released but no dice. It wasn't until I came to Austin that I was able to procure a book on Minksy and the burlesque. That started a collection of burlesque music, books and cds and at one time costumes.

Now Funny Face I saw when I was eight and that started the entire facination with Beats, beatniks and existentionalism but that's another post.

Side Note: Now they even have Shimmy Magazine!

Boredom at Work Inspires Memoirs

So the work software is down for the next few days and until a committee gathers to designate "busy" work we have nothing to do. I may be posting dozens of boring memoirs from now until 4/29. For some reason I am getting a flood of memories from when I was kid. Maybe it's because I have a birthday at the end of the week, in any case, humor me:

One of the things I remember in Catholic school was the snort stuff up your nose fad. Really interesting comment on society at the time. Kids were snorting Kool-aid, ground up Tylenol, sugar, flour even chalk up their noses. I wasn't one of them because I had common sense enough to know better. That lasted maybe a month before we had the principle come in and give us a talk. This was the early 80's.

Some of those same kids, a few months later, had gross, bloody, gangrene looking scabs on top of their hands playing a game called man or mouse. It was a guy game. Basically a boy would let some other kid (rarely female)scratch the hell out of his hand until it bled and there was no skin left to prove he was a man not a mouse. The mice were females or males unwilling to participate, probably neurosurgeons now having possessed so much intelligence, common sense,backbone and conviction at such a young age. That ended up in a lecture with just the principal, just the guys.

There was carry a horned toad in a shoe box and bring him to school fad. Again, I didn't participate since I wasn't about to touch anything not flufy and cute. Wow, when I think of how they are extinct today and how some kids seemed to have a new one in a box for a full two years straight, YIKES!

After Grease was released on VHS the kids at my school had this join a club fad. There were several all girl and all boy clubs. Everyone had a decorated index card with a top secret club name and their favorite color, favorite this or that...primitive myspace if you will. Being the non joiner that I was (still am), I didn't participate. I think at the time I was digging a hole behind the coke shed where the asphalt had parted. I had found some trinkets there so there had to be more. I managed to engage a few in this, I wasn't totally alone. The nuns came down on the whole club thing. The hole we dug reached two feet before it was discovered and cement poured into it.

Hard to believe we still played marbles in the schoolyard from Kinder until 3rd or 4th grade. This was the early 80's, that was an ancient game. Wonder if it was just a Del Rio thing. I got to use marbles my grandfather had used when he was a kid in the 30's. Never lost one either.

There was the bring your boom box to school fad. I remember playing marbles and hearing Another One Bites the Dust and Devil Went Down to Georgia. That didn't last long, imagine every kid in school with music blaring at recess, from Kenny Rogers to Kiss (the nerd I was, I brought in Elvis, Connie Francis and the Beatles). Other fads I participated in were the Chinese jacks, regular jacks and Chinese jump rope fads.

Since the school yard sat under pecan trees we had pecan picking and eating season (you'd smash the pecans with your dirty old shoe on the dirty old asphalt and then eat the bits, yeah, from the ground) that coincided with drinking more cokes (had a coke shed with two coke machines, a quarter! and a nail to punch the coke can on so you could drink it from the side. Yikes, rusty old nail polluting your drink. Well, we had TAB there so, lose, lose situation for some). Coke cans all over the schoolyard attracted bees so there were tons of bees (I hear these insects are on their way out too, sux.) and tons of kids with allergic reactions from being stung. For awhile those kids weren't allowed outdoors ever then they got wise and got rid of the coke machines.

Because it was a Catholic school it attracted all sorts of religious cooks and we'd have Chick Tracts thrown at us and into the school yard. Hey Comics! What's this 666 on the forehead thing, creepy. Those would get confiscated and we'd get a lecture to calm down the freaked out kids.

I remember we were all into playing every record backwards not just the Heavy Metal stuff and while stuck indoors when it rained kids would take the class turntable (those heavy grey ones) and put on a record and play it backwards and we'd swear we heard all sorts of devil messages. Teachers didn't know what was going on. Once they caught on, week long lectures by the religion teacher and a visit from the principle. There was even a book on the subject or what looked like one and we all had to sit through that. Rodney? You probably remember more.

For some reason people walking by the school would hand out candy to us kids in the school yard (chain link fence near downtown area and an HEB) and we'd take it. YIKES! Then again we had a jungle gym over asphalt, a bunch of old wood boards with long nails sticking out of them behind the coke shed where everyone like to hang out (only 2 feet of space, if that, between this shed and the back wall of HEB, nice place for rats and scorpions and bats that was the attraction), and huge, old, splintery see saw that sent more than one kid home with a 3 inch splinter in their belly when they tried to slide down it.

Remember:

Skylab?
I was eight but I remember hearing about it being unstable and debris hitting the earth. I would ask my mother if it would fall in Del Rio and would imagine it crashing on a field near my grandparent's home. My lil sister was born in June and I forgot all about Skylab falling until it did in July in Australia and over the Indian Ocean.

I had found a few pieces of what was probably welded lawnmower parts but it looked cool enough for me to pretend it was a part of Skylab. I'm sure plenty of kids had their share of believed Skylab pieces.

Three Mile Island?
I remember my mom being freaked out because she was pregnant with my sister and wondered what the impact could be. She was a rather large sized baby and is the tallest in the family but that's about it.

PattyHearst?
I remember the news being on all the time (small black and white tv) and my mom telling me what could happen if I didn't hold her hand and about kidnappings and brain washings and cults (topic of cults and brain washings and cults came up again with Jim Jones. I think this is why I am not a joiner.) something about not licking stickers or stamps not even the Green Stamps I enjoyed licking and putting into the books,and being too rich and on and on...I was only UGH! I was only three (four when she was arrested)! Obviously made an impression on me because I went into kindergarten knowing what brainwashing was. I remember some lil girl repeating the same sentence over and over and telling her to stop brainwashing us because we had not had lunch yet.

I also liked wearing an old Vietnam War beret I picked up somewhere and a toy machine gun. Although I think that was more influenced by WWII movies and documentaries I would watch (Grandfather a WWII Vet so all this was around me at a very young age) and maybe even That Don Rickles Show-C.P.O. Sharkey, for some reason I really dug that show. Anyway there is a photo of me somewhere with me wearing my school uniform a beret that is way to big for my head and a belt of toy bullets for my toy machine gun. How did that happen? I really was a doll and tea set girl, must have been someone elses.

Wide World of Sports?
I remember the sport's commercials that would run, gymnastics, figure skating and surfing. I also remember Dorothy Hamill, got my haircut to look like her. Didn't work if you had curly hair. It was cut and style perfectly at the salon but it was a wreck after I got home and napped. Until it grew out there were a few times my mom was told, "Oh you have two boys?".

End of March Minutiae

In
Vintage embroidered Mexican dresses and shirts
Watching old Bewitched shows
Exercise
Itunes(Yay! Finally music at work. The Cd player gave out long ago)
Uploading trip photos and video
My House

Out
Inertia
Infarto (watching this show once was enuff): Had nightmares after watching this and eating spicy Thai food after midnight.

The weather this weekend sucked. I missed Little Richard because it was crowded beyond belief. Oh well. I appreciate cloudy, grey days during cooler months otherwise it works to make me nervous. Those sort of days during the Spring and Summer have always ushered in bad news or bad times. In Del Rio it used to mean a tornado was brewing. If it's raining that's different. It's those stagnate, grey, muggy days with low barometric pressure that are perfect for all that is dismal. However, nothing too terrible managed to happen, it was quite social. Mental note, leave past anxieties about grey Spring days in the past.

#998

I watched End of Suburbia (2004) last night. It was a better documentary than I thought. Basically we have peaked in oil supply and are now on the decline and the words du jour are sustainability and density. However the density described in the doc refers to modern urbanist's plan to return to the old fashion grid system not bringing big box stores into old neighborhoods and creating $400K duplexes.

A 55 story high rise with $500K condos is not keeping with the modern urbanist plan for density. What they have been planning for Mueller, for what seems like eons, seems to be. Density seems like it may be easier to accomplish if people could cut back on their wants and needs and cannot live withouts (mentioned in the doc). A good grocery store is always needed in a hood, not so much an art gallery/jewelry store or a Chicos. That's just me. I grew up with a grocery store, bank,library, pharmacy, hardware store, furniture store, stationary store, five and dime, dept store, movie theatre, park, city hall, church and school all within walking distance from my home. It was that great, old fashioned grid system in place and it worked wonderfully until Wal Mart came to Del Rio. Growing up in this setting for so long really influenced me, can't you tell? I still find "city" life uncomfortable and so much retail redundant and useless. If it was not in town, it was not needed and I did without okay.

I thought the Internet was going to do away with store fronts but it didn't. I thought it would be a good thing if it did offering space for more necessary things like residential areas, parks and such things. Parks are necessary. Can you imagine a place of just concrete and buildings with a tree and 4x4 patch of pathetic ground cover and what it does to a person to only have that? Parks are necessary. I would have gone nuts when I lived in apartments if there had not been a park or weekly excursions to a nearby park, Pease being my all time fave.

This morning was the protest against the Northcross Wal Mart. I was not going to join after I read weeks ago that it was a losing battle due to the fact that the property was already leased to Wal Mart, all T's crossed and I's dotted. The reps from both Lincoln Property and Wal Mart have yet to show their faces at any meeting to discuss what the surrounding hoods want and don't want. I decided to attend the protest and was #998. I went to show I don't like what they have decided to do.

A friend of mine thinks the whole thing is rather stupid because, "What else are they going to put there?" At the very least, the protest could make them show at meetings and agree to not make the store so large or 24 hours. A whole lot could be put there that would really contribute to density and fulfil the needs of the surrounding area but it's not money making. I listed these things in a previous post: library, community center, condos (not 55 stories) that are affordable.... I saw who the people living in the surrounding areas are today too. Most are older people, young families starting out and mid age singles and couples. No twenty somethings in my area, I also noticed, at least where I was standing that there aren't many Hispanics who showed or live there? Hearing things they were saying I realized many grew up in small towns or were in Austin before the population explosion and were wanting mixed use. So to my friend: Mixed Use!

There was a traffic jam, friendly one, after the protest. We were all pulling out of the old mall at the same time on all sides. It took me twenty minutes to get on Anderson , past Burnet. So much for the arterial roadways being helpful. A Wal Mart will be more traffic than that because this was all going out, imagine in and out and this was all friendly, imagine the parents returning home with less money and kids screaming or just the average Joe with the need to get into Walmart and home asap. It was a good preview of what will come if something so massive is built that will be open 24 hours and offer everything under the sun.

There is such a thing of just bad location. I have seen some Austin corner commercial areas and infills change hands and facades over and over and wind up empty each time. That could happen in that location, even with a Wal Mart the size of Cabellas, and it already reaks of payola, and opposition it is possible that it could fail in less than 3 years.

Side note:
I wish America would get over the fear of stay at home jobs. Seems the techie world were the only ones to embrace this. The rest of working America seems rather closed minded to it and regards it as a joke. Who can really work at home tempted by snacks, television and sleeping in etc... Close minded. Vending machines, online movie sites, youtube.com, loud conversations and such already distract the average office worker. Imagine what could be saved in gas and sick days and not to mention the improvement in office relations, no need for ergonomic and new office furniture or other spending. Personally,I could work better from home because I could do without the distractions of the office and my home computer is situated in a quiet corner in a room without a television but a window. I need this because I do work from home on my One Tough Monkey business. Days would have to be set aside for in office work but I wouldn't need a cubicle and that saves space. State, city and university jobs would be last to follow this model.

Watch The End of Suburbia, be forewarned, it could make you want to scale down.

Just wondering whatever became of

I attended a private school until the 8th grade and high school at a public school. I had heard the stories, they'll beat you up because you are coming from private school etc... Since I had my first real "fist fight" (there was a fist thrown, mine, but it turned to slapping, scratching and hair pulling and profanity) in 7th grade I was no longer afraid of a fight. Still, I really wanted to continue private school elsewhere (out of town, state or a European boarding school) but yeah right....

My first day I met up with Angela, a tough girl exiled from New Jersey because her parents could not control her so they sent her to Del Rio to see if her grandmother and a small Texas town out in the sticks would help. We were in the same boat, new. Angela claimed to be from a rough hood in Jersey, gang girl, she had the extra big hair, the long nails and wore her face scars well. She had long scar across her cheek she claimed was from a knife fight. I didn't know how much of all this was true, I mean I read this 50's novel called Gang Girl in the 6th grade (our lil library was full of these early 50's teen novels), saw Westside Story, but uh, Del Rio was a long ways from urban and I had clue what living in the inner city was like. We had some tough cholas but no organized gangs that I was aware of.

Angela was cool! She came off as really level headed, however, bored, and was in a few of my Ap classes. She taught me how to do my make-up, hair and how to dress for public school. I had no clue, I had been wearing a uniform ever since I started school and had the complexion of a nun. She taught me how to tease my hair into various shapes, she sported "the claw" herself. Yeah you can imagine what I looked like.

Angela met the love of her life a few days before school started. His name was Freddy and he had been held back three years in a row. A month into their courtship Freddy was arrested because Angela's uncle called the cops when Freddy wielded a knife at him on their front porch. It was all in the name of love. We would call each other after school and discuss her "problems". Freddy was temporarily indisposed and she was falling in love with a "flyboy" on base and had several crushes on others she had met while at the mall one weekend. She had been sneaking out of her grandmother's house every night to hang out with them at a local club. "Do you think Freddy will get mad?","What do you think Freddy would do?" UGH! She became a bore pretty early on. All I could think was, this was a girl in AP math and in some of my other AP classes (I was not AP math), I figured she had to be a brain or our school system sucked. I didn't know how she kept an active social life that ran into the early morning and got her homework done. She managed great grades until November.

One day at lunch about two months into public school, I met up with this girl who, like Angela, was new to town. She was pretty cool, carried a 12 inch, black marker and an 18 inch can of hair spray in her purse, was into cool bands and the Bogies catalog. We have been friends ever since. Angela's life got more complicated and she ended up having a one night stand with a substitute teacher, got pregnant and dropped out in the middle of tenth grade. We had stopped hanging out early in the semester because she started skipping out, got a lot of detentions for being a smart ass to our Spanish teacher and tended more and more to her personal life. She had no time for hanging or phone calls. Those phone calls got boring anyway. I do wonder what became of Angela.

Missing Ollie

I used to have the best dog in the world. His name was Ollie and he was a black/brown/white spotted Rat Terrier mix. I got him for Christmas when I was 20. I had told my Grandfather that I wanted a dog now that I had an apartment and so we drove through some neighborhoods in Del Rio until he spotted a small herd of Chihuahua-esque dogs. You use to see this a lot in Del Rio, someone would always have a mess of dogs (almost always Chihuahuas) they'd keep around, always looking healthy, always cute.

So we got out of the car and he knocked on the door,the man comes out and my Grandfather asks if he had any pups or dogs for sale. The man took a look around and said that he had been thinking that maybe he had five too many dogs and would sell 1 or 5 of them to my Grandad. He loved them all but felt he could part with the pups and would only sell them to a good home. They were all Rat terrier mixes from the same litter and were now 4 months old. I looked at them and they were all so cute but of course one stood out, the one that came up to me and sat in my lap.

After answering a series a questions and told to bring him right back if it didn't work out, my Grandfather paid the man $50 and I named my dog Ollie. He was already housebroken and fat and healthy and so cute with his huge pointed ears. He looked like he could use them to fly. We took him to the vet that afternoon and he was given a clean bill of health. My Grandfather was afraid he might have worms.

Ollie came back with me to Austin and we had a great life together for only a few years. He was always on a leash, always indoors but by a freak accident caused by my stupid and careless roommate at the time, he was killed. I found him not breathing,gums blue, on the street, picked him up and prayed through loud tears and got in the car to get to the vet though I was sure he was dead. He came back for a moment, eyes alert, gums red and I became hopeful, stopped the car and told him I loved him and glad he was back then he died in my arms in an instant. It may have been seconds or five minutes, I don't know, I lost all track of time and space at that moment but he was so real and alive just before he died. I buried him under an oak in this park near the rental house. I was depressed for a year, an entire year. To this day I still miss Ollie. I dream of him often and feel that he is still around somehow. It's been 14 years since he's been gone.

Synchronicity

When I look back on things I saw in my childhood, the more and more Del Rio seems like a rare place and maybe I just happened to be at the right place at the right time. I haven't seen the Monarch butterflies descend on Austin the way they used to when I was living in Del Rio. In fact it is rare that I ever see a butterfly just bouncing along the landscape. It has been less than 8 or 5 times in the past 18 years. When I did see one I did stop to watch it.

I remember being out at recess in October and there were so many Monarchs you'd step on them if you moved too fast. They were in the trees in the schoolyard, on the building, jungle gym, flying all over. Not many kids would pick them up, we were all taught not too. Of course there were those few who couldn't resist, same kids that kept the horned toads in shoeboxes until they died. Those are gone too. Horned toads were everywhere, again, in my own backyard you had to watch it over the summer or you'd step on one. Never knew of anyone who ever did. I guess by high school the MOnarchs started to disappear, then again, I wasn't paying attention to much in high school. I do remember being reminded it was October though, because the Monarchs were in the neighborhood fluttering around.

There were also times when all these toads would just come into the neighborhood in large herds. I remember crickets, cicadas and birds doing the same thing. Mini plagues? So what happened? Changing climate, end of the world soon? Do I just happen to remember a few hundred more Monarchs than there actually were? Just like to think that I was at the right place at the right time, it isn't often that one finds oneself in a perfect spot.

Minutiae

It was chilly this morning and even into 10am it was chilly. Nice! It was also cloudy, NICER! As much as I love the beach and the sun, a chill in Austin is always nice because usually you get is sun, heat and humidity and ther is no beach and I can't take sun sans beach all year.

I am so hungry. The cruise ship got me used to eating at all times. How did I get into that habit after one week? But I am now hungry 9am-3pm non- stop. Nothing can make it go away. I thought my mega avocado and spinach sandwich, candy bar and soup I brought and thought that would really keep me feeling full until at least 2pm but it was gone by 10am! All three were my breakfast.

Because I am hungry I am thinking of Sarcone's again in Philadelphia. UGH! Wish they could ship me a large Sinatra Hoagie. How many times have I mentioned that place and Seeger's Bakery (South Main Street in Del Rio,TX) on this blog....But those two places really had heavenly eats. Seeger's sighyummmmmmmmmm

Did I mention their Boston cream pies? During the summer they were so cold and light and fluffy and just sweet enough. Their cream puffs, not a place in Austin can hold a candle to those yummy, perfect lil cream puffs always sprinkled with powdered sugar. The creamed horns yummmmmmm the cookies and lil carton of milk and they'd fit it all in a lil bag for you to carry out. I wish I could just walk into the place right now.


Obscure minutiae:
Note: Why not take little metal bottle tops and nail them to your living room floor. It gives you the impression that you are walking on little metal bottle tops.

Fashion Forecast:Necklines are plunging lower every year. This year the V will go down to the tummy in something of a peek-a-boo effect. Keep this swing of fashion and sort of have your own personal navel observatory.

*Wink*Wink*

Loquats

The loquats are ready to be picked in west campus. I love these!!!!!
they look so pretty this year and always bring back memories of Mexico, Del Rio and early 90's Austin with C&C.

Ahem, sorry about that.....

It has been brought to my attention that I haven't said a word about crafty,d.i.y., fashion,Sinatra (not true) or crochet, Kerouac (not true), music, nostalgia (c'mon that's all this is), thrift or vintage. I write what comes to my mind. It's all over the place:

Crafty Well I have just about sold out of most of my stock and have started re-stocking but those photos won't be uploaded until this weekend along with work by other artist. Busy weekend ahead. As for crafty, I have a few ideas but NO TIME! I wish I could quit my day job but the insurance is a pretty good perk, so is the pension plan. I have been quite busy with paperwork (car wreck 11/28)and insurance companies, settlements etc.....Then I am getting married in April, just around the corner. I'll be moving just before I get married, UGH! Collecting boxes at the moment and will start boxing soon which means some of my tools will be boxed up as well. I'll be taking a sabatical (short one) from my site I'll say from April-June. During that time, other artist will be posting their stuff.

On Fashion Lucky magazine this month listed a few ensembles I've been talking about and wishing would become more available: cigarette pants and cute 60's tops with flats. I have been wearing more striped tees (think four year old boy looking ones) to cover my chest from the sun. I don't want a camisole tan before my wedding since I'll be wearing a strapless dress. The sun doesn't seem to have moved far from the earth from my location. Yes I know it's winter, somewheres else it's winter, not down here Bub.
Oh yeah, I can show you my wedding dress:

It's an ivory on ivory, that is: ivory organza over ivory satin and trim. Simple and floaty for Spring. Just what I wanted. The veil is ivory with a 1/4 inch ivory ribbon all around and really makes the dress. Will wear with Liz Tayloresque, ivory, 2 inch slides.

Music It's been schizo: Bowie and Webb Pierce only. I play Life on Mars over and over and over, Starman too, okay everything he did, I can never tire of LOM or Starman. Webb Pierce and Bowie keep me euphoric for right now.

Thrift and Vintage Well, I did find a cute, 100% wool, grey , pleated skirt in excellent shape for $2. It is the perfect length and shade of grey. Also scored a vintage Pendelton robe in excellent shape for under $15! Man, it is perfect as can be and like wearing a snuggly throw or blanket everywhere I go. It isn't scrtachy and it's a cranberry and blue plaid and tres cool for mornings in a wood frame house.

So that's it. Last night I went on a long drive after 12am. Drove down Burnet 25 mph and sometimes it turned into Tropicana Rd and Paradise Rd in Vegas,
other times it was just like Ave F in Del Rio, other times it was the same old Austin and other times Route 66.

It gets weird when it's empty and just the neon is out. I turned on the radio and Roger Miller was singing about the little green apples. I happened to flip it on just as it started. That was a perfect moment and I won't find it again the right soundtrack with the right visuals and the right thoughts and that was just the trip I needed.

Del Rio and Robert Frank

The new blog header is a photo of Mary Frank and the children, with their daughter turned away. The title is "US 90, en route to Del Rio, Texas". WOW! Robert Frank actually went through Del Rio? That is exciting. Just as exciting as when I read in Kerouac's Lonesome Blues Traveler that he had picked up El Debate to read. That was and is the newspaper in Los Mochis, Sinaloa, Mexico. My great uncle founded and ran that paper until the early 90s. He was printing it at the time Kerouac picked it up. When I read that I got chills. That's the closest I'll get to Kerouac somehow and thought it was cool.

I am hungry

I am very hungry right now. My mistake was chomping on an Altoid because it made me even more hungry and now my tummy is growling. Right now a batch of cupcakes sounds good. Canned meat even sounds good. Those frozen bags of chipped beef in a cream sauce that you would plop into hot boiling water in the 70s and serve over rice...sounds great cause it would be warm. Wonder if they still make those things. I hated them as a kid.

My tummy is remembering a trip to Philadelphia when I ordered a salad before my main course of some sort of fish. I was there for the music at Zanzibars and though I was in the culinary capital, didn't really think much about what I was ordering. The salad was a warm spinach and had berries and goat cheese. I didn't finish my main course what with the bread and butter and rice. I'm dying to know what I had now and wish I could eat what I couldn't eat then. The Sinatra hoagie at Sarcone's and the bakery down the street from that in Bella Vista! YUMMY! I loved Bella Vista, loved, loved, loved it. Also so close to 1st Street.

In Vegas I hardly ate unless it was at the Peppermill. I would clean my plate then. Breakfast and brunch were the best! I had a fruit salad and got loads of fruit served in a half a pineapple. Very pretty and tres yummy. Their pancakes and waffles and club sandwiches were so yummy. Again, another culinary capital and nothing. I'm not a food connoisseur though I do recognize a good dish when I taste it. Trying to think... but I don't believe I ever went to any fancy schmancy place in Vegas. Carmelo's is a personal fave though, more for their muzak and customers than anything. All locals, all older, older locals who dressed tres cool and spoke Italian with raspy, smoke damaged voices. They did a fried zuchini thing I loved and have the best sauce.

Elsi's I love ELSI's with my man on a Sunday or Saturday 11ish. I could eat there every day.
Fonda San Miguel! Where we got engaged and it is a very important place because of that. Their mole is divine as are those chile rellenos! I wish I could dine at Fonda right at this very second but no dice, it's 9am and I'm at work. But I love that my guy loves Mexican food so much. Makes things copesetic. I do wish there was a good Greek food restaurant cause i do miss the Greek food.

La Victoria Bakery, Mrs Johnson's Donuts, kolaches. So hungry. My fiancee and I have built up quite the repertoire of yummy meals. Tilapia Tacos with Guacamole and sausage with fresh cabbage I think are the faves. Come fall...I make great cornish game hens in an orange sauce served with asparagus and rice/walnut/mushroom pilaf or sorts. Kerouac ate pea soup. I have that same pea soup back in 1994 and that would even hit the spot right now.

Vienna sausages...that's what I meant when I wrote canned meat but couldn't think of the specific product. Oh, acreamy smoothie would hit the spot right now. Denny's would hit the spot right now. You have to tell them to make your bacon crispy though or they won't. Ramada Inn in Del Rio did serve the best waffle last time I was there. The bestest breakfast tacos are in Del Rio off North main. They are huge, fresh, generous and $1.60 each. IHOP, haven't been there in ages but that would hit the spot. Jester across the street would not hit the spot so I'll remain hungry until I can think of some place around here to go.

Anais Nin claims she did her best work starving. MFK Fisher I am sure would not, could not. Artichokes come to mind when I think of MFK Fisher. Love her writing. Then there are the tummy memories of The Peachtree in Fredericksburg. So delicious and with the best teas and company is the only way I have known it. I am hungry and it makes for nice thoughts even if I lack the epicurean slant in life. One day I'll turn into a food snob but I'm not at all near that now. Audrey Hepburn would only eat the tiniest one serving of anything. I felt like that when I bought a brie wheel recently and would slice lunch, dinner and a snack from it for a few days. Took one modest slice to do me too. Well towards the end I got crazy and took a huge chunk but it served me well as a light dinner.

I am hungry.

It's the place I know best in the world

Took a trip back home to Del Rio because I was homesick for the sounds and the space, the canned fig preserve my grandmother makes, the peaches from my grandfather's trees, the thick green grass in their yard and the chickens. I got to hear the sounds I don't get to hear in Austin like sheep, goats and chickens.

Everywhere I went- long stretches of land between houses and neighborhoods and even behind commercial property. At night you can see the stars and hear nothing when you are in bed. It was 103 and dry but under the shade of my grandfather's pecan trees the heat was lost in the grass and there was even a strong breeze to help. Signs for the 25 mph speed limit in some parts of town reminded why I don't like freeways. Stucco homes all over my neighborhood, huge palm trees, the old irrigation canals in front of homes, the winery, Rose Ave.

I miss the place and many don't understand why or how but it's unlike any other place and that is good (and bad) but it's the place I have known best in my life. Maybe you have to be born there, grow up there, maybe it's just nostalgia for what it was but wasn't when I was there or vision for what it could be but has never been. I haven't lived there since 1989 but it is always what I expect it to be the moment I drive in.

Not to say it hasn't changed , it has changed over the years. The mid 90's were probably the darkest times I had ever seen for the town but now things seem more at where they were when I left in 1989. This time there seems to be more of a need and drive to improve the business district and downtown. I hope it happens.
My fiancee enjoyed it and now he knows from where I speak when I say the things I say. It is a place that always fueled my creativity and I come back with tons of ideas. Will be working on these post Del Rio trip projects starting today.


PS: A place I wish would go back in time is the former Fun-A-Rama skating rink which is up for sale. Hope someone will buy it and open it again. Who knows, rollerderby even?

I loved radio once

I was born and raised in Del Rio,TX and grew up with the stories of border radio and all of XER's incarnations. I was told Wolfman Jack rented a house down my street while he was employed at the station. Paul Kallinger still lived in Del Rio the entire time I was there. I wanted to be a DJ really bad and would broadcast through a walkie talkie to an FM station (cause in the late 70's early 80's there were no FM stations reaching Del Rio) that I would hear through a transistor radio I would put out in the yard. I had pre-recorded a station ID on my tape player with "commercials". The music came from my toy turntable. I played 45's and whatever albums I found at garage sales with my grandparents. The future looked bright and my goals in life were set. Radio deregulation hit and ruined it all. I made it as far as KVRX, the student radio station on the UT campus, and that was the end of the line. Radio is no longer in the hands of the audiophiles but corporations and I'm not interested.

PS: Paul Kallinger used to sit in front of us at church sometimes and when he'd stretch out his arm over the pew you couldn't help but gaze at the enourmous gold nugget ring and bracelet set he always wore. At his store was a photo of him receiving those as a gift from Elvis. The man was a legend and it was awesome to hear him give the sign of peace in his still deep, "Good Neighbor Across the Border", DJ voice. He was a very tall man, huge voice and a good person and I feel lucky to have met him.