El Rancherito Meat Market meets its Maker

For years at every #carne asada, before and after every Dallas Cowboys game, El Rancherito Meat Market was my go to place for carne, beer, and chips. I first started shopping there around 1992, but by then it was already 15 years old.

Located in one of Laredo's best neighborhoods, #santobaby, El Rancherito was a southside institution for thousands of people that depended on them Sunday after carne asada Sunday. They were located across the street from another, now defunct, venerable southside landmark, The Movie Palace. These two stores were my go to places for cigs and R Rated fun. Now they are both gone, up in smoke. 

I was unaware of Rancherito's demise until I drove by just last week. I stopped to pay my respects and to bid adieu to the neighborhood store of my youth. This Sunday, when I splash open my can of Schlitz and poke my ribs on the grill, I'll get smoke in my eyes and tear up for that store that is no more.
#GoodbyeElRancherito
You will be missed.

Summer 1992

There are summers that a person can never forget. Maybe they changed your life or altered your destiny in some unimaginable way, similar to the magical summer of 1962 that changed The Sandlot kids forever. Well, as we know, Laredo summers can be brutal and there is no escaping the sun or its death rays. For me, there was no escaping the Summer of 1992. It will forever be the line of demarcation that transcended my life into adolescence.

I was 13 yrs old in 1992 and I believed myself to be like Benny The Jet

A recent tweet from Keyrose sent me down to memory lane. He tweeted how it had been the 21 years since a Gonzalez-Bath had gunned down three people at the intersection of San Dario and Mann Road. Instantly after reading his tweet, I traveled back in time and I could see myself and everything I was doing in the summer of that glorious year.

The reason why that year is so clearly etched upon my mind was because it was the same year that my life was forever changed. My parents moved our family down from Dallas to Laredo and the change of scenery could not have been any worse. I had no friends and it seemed to me, a young boy of 13, as if the entire world had turned inside out.

We moved down here a few days after the Gonzalez-Bath slayings and this triple murder was all over the TV, family gossip, and the newspaper.

Nino Brown from violent New Jack City

"Did we move down to New Jack City?" I pondered to myself after first arriving to Laredo. There was no hip-hop (rap) station in 1992, I could not watch the TX Rangers on Paragon Cable and my mother kept buying some heidious chicken from Golden Chicken ("Pollito caliente, sabor diferente. Dime adonde vas? A Golden Chicken!") In short, 1992 was hell.

I cannot stress enough how unhappy I was that summer. The bowling alley was too far, the baseball Tecos team was having a lousy year, and it seemed to me that Laredo was a violent city right out of a Mexican Mario Almada movie.

It was 21 yeas ago but I can see see it clearly. My favorite show was Married with Children; my favorite Ranger was Ruben Sierra; Shortstop Burger filled my belly; Movie Palace was my favorite store, I rocked my UNLV cap everywhere I went, and I all heard on my cassette tape singles was Pete Rock and CL Smooth along with A Tribe Called Quest

It's strange how one little tweet by Keyrose can open the floodgates to a thousand memories. Memories to a time that will never return. Memories of a time when I was growing up and learning about the strange curves life can hurl at a person. The year 1992 was a tough one, and that summer surely did suck greasy Golden Chicken balls, but with time I began to adjust and acclimate to beautiful Laredo. Now, I can't imagine a time when I did not live in this slice of paradise we call Webb County. It's funny how some things work out.

The Death of Heaven's Scent

It seems as if all the businesses I used to frequent in the 1990s are slowly  shuttering down and giving way to the inevitable, no doubt victims of the WalMart effect.

Over two years ago, I wrote a quick obituary to the video store of my adolescence, The Movie Palace. This business was located close to the Loop and Zapata Hwy. intersection. I can still fondly recall the many times that I perused throw the aisles of this venerable temple, searching for my favorite horror schlock on VHS. Sadly, the Movie Palace closed down several years ago. Now it turns out, another of the locally-owned businesses that I would frequent back in the day, has also shut down its doors, after years of serving customers.

All through the 90s, Heaven's Scent floral shop served many customers throughout the south side. I was one of them. Every birthday, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Graduation Day, or funeral that I had back then, it was Heaven's Scent shop that filled my flower needs. I must have spent over $800 dollars in flowers and arrangements there. Sadly, driving by there recently, I noticed they had closed down. I guess no one believes in love anymore. Heaven's Scent is just the latest casualty. I should by them flowers out of respect, right?