Z-93, Thrift Stores, video camcorders and the years before Tik Tok (pt. 1)

 No other activity gives me as much pleasure these days as rummaging through used piles of media that I come across as I scour through second-hand stores and auctioned storage units. The main reason why I enjoy finding old videos and photographs is because they piece together a past, a Laredo that is gone and mostly disappeared but reassembled only through forgotten footage and long-lost snapshots. 

One such day occurred last September. There was a box full of yearbooks and home recordings of VHS tapes that I happily bought for 10 dollars. It contained dozens of pictures of strangers I had never met. While this did give me a pause to reflect on the fickleness of our earthly possessions, I took it as a moment to rescue snapshots and images of Laredoans that would otherwise be lost, as a sort of digital Indiana Jones. 

There was one such VHS tape that caught my attention. It was titled "Melissa singing 1991". 

What drew my attention was the year, 1991. It was a memorable year, the Gulf War, Clarence Thomas hearings,  Jeffrey Dahmer, and Marky Mark has us feeling his vibrations.  But locally, the triple-ax murders rocked our city of 122,000 led by then-Mayor Saul Ramirez. The radio stations of the time might have been Y95 or Energy 98, but my personal favorite was Z93. Known mostly for Tejano and cumbias, it was the radio station of choice for many of the local youths of the time. I remember many Friday nights during this time period when my neighbors held their weekly Friday night carne asada ritual and the obligatory Tejano Z93 music blasting from their lowrider mini-truck. It never failed. The elders would be outside reminiscing of the 1960s and swigging Shaffer Light, the younger kids running around playing tag, while the teens huddled and recorded themselves singing and dancing on their Panasonic camcorder. 

When I saw the year the tape had been recorded was 1991, I immediately popped it into my Magnavox VHS player and uploaded the footage to my Twitter feed. It turned out to be analog gold! In it, a young girl, about 15 or 16, is seen  singing and dancing as if auditioning for Star Search. She takes turns with her friend singing Tejano and pop melodies. No doubt, if the scene played out today, the teens would be going live on Tik Tok in the hope for instant likes and shares. In 1991, there was no such pretenses. The best you could do was share the tape at school or at a family carne asada and await your fame to spread, days after it was initially recorded. Or worse yet, wait 25 years for some fool to find it in a long forgotten bin and upload it to social media.

 In the video, one of the young ladies is named Melissa while the other goes unnamed. But its this anonymous singer that captured my attention due to the fact she is wearing what has to be the greatest Z93 sweater ever made. I remember that sweater very clearly because a couple of classmates had a similar one in the early 1990s. So if you remember the days of lowrider minitrucks, constant Z93 Tejano, running around with a bulky camcorder eternally joined at your shoulder, then enjoy the video below and keep alive the memories that should not die. 

Things I learned about Laredo 1984'

I was scavenging and old box full of mementos and old documents and I came across an old newspaper someone had given me years ago. It's the April 17, 1984 LMT edition and I could not help but peruse through it in search of some interesting tidbits. Here below are 5 things I learned about 1984s Laredo.

1. Apparently, in 1984, Cigarroa's Silver Roses helped to trim beards for contestants that wished to enter a beard growing contest that was sponsored by Laredo Noon Lion's Club. The 5 dollar entry fee donations were split between Sacred Heart Children's Home and a "Crippled" Children's camp in Kerrville. The winners of this hairy contest enjoyed such prizes as a paid weekend at the Encinal Holiday Inn, a one year free front row pass to Laredo Council meetings, or a "prominent position in the snakepit" for the Frontier Day Celebration. Oh joy! Just delightful. (by the way I'm not making these prizes up. Read it for yourself.)

2. It seems that in 1984, newspaper reporters sat around at the post office to interview people that waited till the very last minute to file their income tax. In this piece of hard-hitting journalism, writer Sam Yates notes that things got "mean and ugly" right before the midnight deadline. Read the interviews below.

3. Students and clergy opened up academic discussions at Laredo Junior College with a hearty rendition of "Kumbaya". It seems that the spiritual song was not cliche in 1984.

4. Gaby Canizales's supporters wanted his hometown to support the esteemed boxer during a nationally televised bout. The problem was the lack of venue large enough to accommodate such a large quantity of spectators. At the time, Shirley Stadium was "the only logical and possible place for the event". However, the LISD board, with their old-fartsy and dickhead regulations, "did not permit the private use of the stadium for private profit".  The question was simple! Would the LISD board cave for hometown hero Gaby Canizales and his legion of supporters? Well, if you were around in 1984, you COULD HAVE BEEN COUNTED by sending in the form below. Anyone know how this turned out?

5. On a side note, right next to the Gaby Canizales piece is the showtimes for 1984's "Footloose". Ironically, it too features a similar scenario. Local people attempting to defeat an city ordinance for the benefit of the townsfolk and in defiance of rigid authorities. Classic 1984!