Another Laredo Downtown Postcard

As you've prolly seen, I have a thing for vintage Laredo postcards. Too bad I wasn't around during the "golden age". Oh well! Nimodo.com

Jenny was a friend of mine

Jenny was a friend of mine, until she to told me the cold, hard truth.

“What’s your blog about?” she asks with a puzzled face. “Is it about you or about Laredo? You talk about this, you talk about that. Sometimes, it seems to be all about your own personal life. It seems like your blog doesn’t have a focus.”

As she talks she moves her hands incessantly. Every so often she picks at her plate with her fork as she avoids eye contact. She sits across the table from me at the TKO tapping her fingers annoyingly on the table, as if awaiting an answer.

“I guess your not a fan of my blog” I finally answer trying to suppress a grin. “Not too many people are, and I don’t mind if it stays that way.”

I’m a bit hurt inside, but I’m not going to let Jenny see that.

“You’re right”, I continue, “my blog is unfocused. I want it to be about me. I happened to be from Laredo. Soy de Laredo and I write things that I encounter as I live in this city. My life is unfocused, hence my blog is just the same..”

“Oh come on…that‘s such a canned answer”, she cuts me off. “But, well, maybe you are right”, she says almost apologetically. “Hey its your blog; do what you want with it. Too bad its not as good as the BorderTown one” she says at the end.

I turn away in inner pain as if someone has just given me ten paper cuts simultaneously.

“I can’t compete with BorderTown”, I utter as I began to look for the waitress and ask for my check. “No dessert for her” I whisper to myself.

“All you need is to focus and decide. Is it going to be about you or about the city of Laredo”, she goes on and on like Elaine from Seinfeld. Her lips continue to move and I began to see that she is a littler chatterbox. “But your blog has potential” she tells me as she finally looks straight into my eyes.

I smile wide. Maybe Jenny is right. Maybe the blog does have potential. But the only thing I know for certain is that I won’t be seeing Jenny again. I don’t like the truth being so brutal. I prefer it in small doses.

“What does Jenny know anyway”, I think to myself as I leave TKO and walk out into the hot Laredo night. I turn up my Zune to some random 80’s beat as I drive down San Bernardo looking for trouble.

Laredo Chat

There are several local chat rooms, some better than others. Today I ran across MyLaredoChat.Net and it has a few regular chatters in there that keep the page interesting. Stop by if you get a chance and say hi.

Jay St. John

Love him or hate him, Jay St. John is back on the radio. The controversial, but always entertaining radio personality, has bounced from station to station, but now you can catch him at 4pm on 1550 AM. Or you can follow his twitter here.

This is why I don't smoke.

Great anti-tobacco ad. I saw it when I was a kid back in 85' and I never picked up a cigarette because of it. It still haunts me to this day.

Random lyric del dia

Por el amor a mi madre
voy a dejar la parranda
aunque me digan cobarde,
a mi no me importa nada.

Aldo Tatangelo Parkway

Anytime I speak with someone that can recall the late 70's and early 80's in Laredo, the name of Aldo Tatangelo always brings a big, warm smile to their face. He is touted by many as the "chosen one", a golden and heroic figure that "brought Laredo into the twentieth century". His local legacy is that of a hard-working man that helped to modernize Laredo and break up the stronghold of the "Old patron Party". To really understand how backwards Laredo was in the mid 70's, one simple tidbit can suffice. According to Time Magazine and a Wiki Article, up to 75% of Laredo's streets were unpaved, dusty mudroads as recently as the early 80s. Talk about WTF moments! It makes you wonder how the citizens of this city put up with the bullshlitz and shenanigans of Mayor Martin and his poltical croonies.

Hanging out downtown by St. Agustine Cathedral this morning, I spotted the parkway named in Mr. Tatangelo's honor and it made me realize that I do not know much about the history of my fair city, so I decided to do some reading and learn as much about the "Old Patron" party and the events that led to their mayoral defeat in 1978. I began to try and track down a book by Fernando Pinon titled, "Patron Democracy" and I want to also get a video copy of CBS News Reports 30 minute segment by Bill Moyers on the scandal of JC Martin. It is sad but interesting learning so much about the history of my border city. As long as we keep going forward Laredo, progress is just around the corner.