The Fat Time of the Year

The full moon is back, the temperature is going down to "cool" (at least for Laredoans) during the evening, and the night air is full of the aromas of newly opened spring flowers. To celebrate this glorious time of the year, the Texas environment will be the subject of a party next Friday night, April 25, 2008. GATORAIDE festivities will be back at the Laredo Community College Environmental Center. The Center is a jewel of the many historic sites on the L.C.C. campus. Though dating only to the early 1980's, the Center started as a historic U.S./Israel demonstration project to prove the applicability of "drip irrigation" techniques to farming in South Texas. The project also brought innovative buildings and Wind Power to the campus. The Environmental Center has developed into a show case for native animal and plant life, and features a nature trail through historic Fort McIntosh down to the Rio Grande and the border as it's been for centuries. By the way, there really are live "gators" also; so enjoy!

If you do nothing else this month, go outside after dark to enjoy the spectacular spring South Texas sky. The big dipper constellation does point to the Northern Star--in the direction of the snow still falling in Colorado.

Aldo Tatangelo--We Remember!

The last time I saw the "Mayor" was on a beautifully sunny day in September, 2007. I was leaving a meeting at the Laredo Medical Center and there he was sitting in a wheel chair, by himself, on the sidewalk of the hospital entrance. I was very happy that he instantly recognized me, and I walked a few steps to talk to him. I did not know his condition, but the strength of his "Sherwood" greeting, and the smile on his face relieved my apprehensions. Now the "Mayor", over a 26 year acquaintance, never called me "Ed", Mr. Sherwood, or anything other than just "Sherwood." Yet the way my last name was pronounced in his distinctive Italian American accent, it seemed perfectly fitting and agreeable to me.

"Mr. Mayor it is so good to see you", I said. He took my extended right hand in both of his, and his eyes seemed to light up. He was dressed, as he always was in public, in a suit and tie. A brown suit that conveyed authority--even at 94 years of age while in a wheel chair. Then to my utter surprise he said: "Ed, what I miss is not being involved".

I first met Aldo Tatangelo in the early '80's in Laredo. I had moved to Laredo with General Motors, and had been asked to serve on the Laredo Development Foundation's Board of Directors--probably since GM was one of the few national corporations with a "maquiladora" in Nuevo Laredo at that time. Aldo regularly attended the board meetings, and was never at a lost for suggestions as to how to bring industry to Laredo. He also frequently voiced the concern that Laredo needed to promote technical education to achieve his goal of economic development. It was not long before he said to me, and David Leyendecker at the Chamber of Commerce, that he had a job for us. Aldo wanted a "Laredo Manufacturers Association" to welcome industrial prospects (kind of an industrial "Welcome Wagon") and to promote engineering and technical careers for Laredo students. With Aldo's strong direction, Dave and I did as we were told by the Mayor, and the LMA was born in May, 1984.

After winning re-election, Aldo then focused on "beautifying the city." He especially concentrated on making the downtown into a tourist center. My wife, Carol, and her then 700 + member student Youth Council were pressed into service, along with many others, to picking up trash, holding various events, and whatever our energetic Mayor might think of. It was a fun, optimistic, heady time. Laredo National Bank held street parties, the Jalapeno Festival has held by the old City Hall, and tourists flocked to the La Posada Hotel and San Augustin Square. Every Saturday, buses from other parts of Texas would park downtown, discharging there out-of -town passengers to cross into Mexico to shop. In 1985, a race track opened in Nuevo Laredo, adding to available tourist activities, and giving name to the "Tack Room" restaurant at the La Posada.

We miss Aldo, he died this March. I know though, that if only in his mind, and in our hearts, he never stopped being involved.

Elections--Blasts from the Past

Laredo and South Texas take a bad rap for having deceased folks able to vote. Now that would be quite an attraction, if true, for people and their factories or businesses to move here! The potential for economic development would be huge. Every politician would claim it was his support of "second chance" voting that resulted in all those new jobs, more sales at the Mall, and just a bigger economy. Unfortunately, our departed may still appear on voter registrations from time to time, but I have not had one claim to have voted lately. Still, Lyndon Johnson owed his first election to Washington from such a voter turnout.

Laredo does have a deserved reputation for having the country's, or perhaps the world's, greatest political Pachangas. For Yankees, and other strangers to Laredo, a Pachanga is like going to your friend's ranch--shooting guns and drinking beer. Except a political Pachanga omits, mostly, the guns, and substitutes the pols' speeches and pleads for votes.

Election time in Laredo is now through the early summer, so enjoy and let me know if any "old" names do seem to vote one more time.

Laredo & Presidential Campaigns

In 1991, Bill and Hillary Clinton came to Laredo to meet the local folks; they stayed several hours and charged nothing for their presence. Bill Clinton had just started his campaign, and was little known outside of the south. At a morning breakfast, with about 40 Laredoans in attendance, he gave a 20 minute campaign speech, then turned the mike over to his wife, Hillary, who proceeded to give a slightly better 20 minute discourse. Back then you really did get "2 for 1".

Before that, in 1987, a Senator from Tennessee, Al Gore, came to the La Posada on a cold winter morning for breakfast with about 20 Laredoans. He was making his first unsuccessful campaign for President. About a month later, Al Gore held a campaign rally in Cotulla, with better attendance at the school house where Lyndon Johnson had taught.

In the 90's we also saw in Laredo, Jesse Jackson, among some other more forgotten Presidential Candidates.

This past year, prominent national politicians came to Laredo to raise money, and not to meet the folks who did not, or could not, pay to hear them speak. Times change, but they are about to change again! Now the Texas Primary on March 4, 2008 has suddenly become important--especially to the Clinton and Obama campaigns. These Demoncrats are virtually tied for convention delegates, and they now need to win votes in Texas. I have heard they will spend a lot of time in South Texas (maybe Laredo too) as that's were most of the Democrats are. So, we may again be able to have some free contact with our next President if he or she is a Democrat. Who knows, maybe Mike Huckabee, Republican, might come too.

Look up at the sky for those campaign planes.

Birds, Butterflies, and Beautiful Weather

Coming back from San Antonio, I noticed a billboard at the Laredo City Limits. Normally it would say: "Laredo--Home of the Championship Bucks", or advertise some local hotel. Going by at the legal speed of 70 mph, I saw, instead, an invitation to see birds! Not only that, but there are specific dates to do this. So, for those of you not planning to drive into Laredo on IH35 any time soon, let me advise you that you are invited to look at Laredo birds during the first two week of February.

Laredo is geographically neither part of the Rio Grande Valley, nor West Texas. It's not too hilly, but definitely not flat as is, say Mc Allen. Left to nature, birds would be few and far between, except flying over to get somewhere else. However with a large man-made lake (Lake Casa Blanca), and tons of trees planted by the residents over many years, we actually have gracious plenty of birds. Two years ago, some folks with a lot of time on their hands, went out to Lake Casa Blanca and counted over 350 species! That's right, all those different birds right here in Laredo.

So while the Rio Grande Valley has hosted "bird watchers" for years, we are open for the business in February. On a recent visit to the Texas A&M International University's campus, I can attest to the presence there of cardinals, some beautiful yellow breasted and headed species, and some escaped parrots.

If you need more information, I am sure there is more information on the City's or Chamber of Commerce Web Sites. To facilitate your watching, and soon the migrating butterfies from Mexico will be here also, the weather is perfectly mild and sunny--what-a-town.

The Streets of Laredo--Traditional Song

As I walked out on the streets of Laredo.
As I walked out on Laredo one day,
I spied a poor cowboy wrapped in white linen,
Wrapped in white linen as cold as the clay.

"I can see by your outfit that you are a cowboy."
These words he did say as I boldly walked by.
" Come an' sit down beside me an' hear my sad story.
" I'm shot in the breast an' I know I must die."

"It was once in the saddle, I used to go dashing.
" Once in the saddle, I used to go gay.
" First to the card-house and then down to Rose's.
" But I'm shot in the breast and I'm dying today."

"Get six jolly cowboys to carry my coffin.
" Six dance-hall maidens to bear up my pall.
" Throw bunches of roses all over my coffin.
" Roses to deaden the clods as they fall."

"Then beat the drum slowly, play the Fife lowly.
" Play the dead march as you carry me along.
" Take me to the green valley, lay the sod o'er me,
" I'm a young cowboy and I know I've done wrong."

"Then go write a letter to my grey-haired mother,
" An' tell her the cowboy that she loved has gone.
" But please not one word of the man who had killed me.
" Don't mention his name and his name will pass on."

When thus he had spoken, the hot sun was setting.
The streets of Laredo grew cold as the clay.
We took the young cowboy down to the green valley,
And there stands his marker, we made, to this day.

We beat the drum slowly and played the Fife lowly,
Played the dead march as we carried him along.
Down in the green valley, laid the sod o'er him.
He was a young cowboy and he said he'd done wrong.


A sad song from the old west in Laredo, Texas.

Comanche Moon

This past week featured at least two nights of "Comanche Moon". These evenings are almost bright enough to convince you there are some invisible floodlights in the hazy night sky, creating an eerie, yet well lighted landscape. These nights are legendary in novels by the famous Texas writer, Larry Mc Murtry. In his "Lonesome Dove" series of novels, he explains that these noctural events were perfect raiding opportunities for the Comanche war parties that crossed the Rio Grande at Laredo. Ranchers, especially, needed to keep careful watch on Comanche Moon nights, and often they or their cattle might still not survive until dawn. The nature trail at the LCC Environmental Center leads down to the river at one of the most used historic crossing sites.

Today, we can just enjoy these special evenings, especially in the cool, but not cold, Laredo evenings.