Hockey in Laredo, Texas

Coach Terry Ruskowski arrived in Laredo well ahead of the first ever hockey game in town. It was October, 2002, when the Laredo Bucks played the Corpus Christi team in the new Laredo Entertainment Center. Other than a few Yankee immigrants, no one in the LEC that night completely understood what was going on. The Canadian players, skated from one end of the arena to the other, with an occasional referee whistle, causing a stop in the action, for some esoteric rule violation. But it was great fun cheering for our home team--like having only one high school in town to root for. There was even an officially condoned fight during the game, with the Buck player throwing the most punches at the Corpus player! (I remember thinking,at the time, that this was not a real fight, only a "staged presentation" so the locals would understand that, yes, fighting during a professional hockey game was cool, if later the cause of penalty minutes in the "box").

That first season, 2002-2003, the Bucks won an unexpected 41 games, and the size and hockey knowledge of the fan audience grew and grew.

With the start of the next season, Laredo fans were ready for their team to go all the way. The Bucks, in 2003-2004, not only won the most games in the entire Central Hockey League, but won the post season championship on a cold rainy night with a capacity 8002 fans, and another 2000 standing outside watching on video screens! The team players were treated like rock stars wherever they ventured in town--seldom having to pay for their meals, etc..
The "3 Amigos" forward line of Captain Chris Grenville, Brent Cullaton, and Jeff Bess were the super stars, and they seemed to be thoroughly enjoying Laredo admiration.

It's 2009, and attendance at the games is down, the players seem less well known, and team success has diminished. Still, every now and then, the capacity crowd returns for another joyous return to the excitement of the early seasons. "Go Bucks Go".

Hunting Season in South Texas

Saturday, November 1, 2008 started this year's deer hunting season in South Texas. While hunting as a sport may be declining in the United States as a whole, it's part of the rhythm of normal life in Laredo. Boys, of course, but many girls also, are taught, before their teenage years, the skills of shooting and the joys of the sport. The best seasons of the year (fall and winter) reward those spending time out of doors, and enjoying the rituals of the hunting life.

First you have to learn the language of guns, ammo, trophy measurements. Next, the firearm skills, the proper setting of blinds, and the necessity of having the proper ranch vehicle--usually old and properly camouflaged. Enjoying campfires, the beautiful star filled night skies, and the listening to coyote howls come easily from earlier fishing expeditions.

Some are squeamish about feeding your deer prey for weeks before with carefully dropped corn. But at least we don't shoot them from helicopters as they apparently do in Alaska!

After the hunting season, Laredoans would gather for an annual "Fiesta Caseria" --a wild game dinner and dance. This event would raise money for the Santander Museum, and later the Children's Museum. Our overly protective "nanny" City Health Department decided, in the 1980's to shut the Fiesta down--for some esoteric health reasons. So now we can take our changes eating our own wild game and to heck with---. Well, real Texans still eat venison, quail, and some rattlesnake.

So, aim well, enjoy the South Texas Brush Country, and eat well afterwards.

Back To School

My favorite time of the year has always been the fall, especially September. Not for the change of leaves (not yet in Laredo), but because it is the season for change in daily life. A new "grade" or "school year" for students, a change in routine for parents, and a fresh start for many. I know it's mostly psychological, whatever that means for you, but this time of year has always represented to me a new start at something. It's another chance at a winning season for your football or hockey team, a chance to make your personal "dean's list", or to start a college class no matter what your age. So regardless of terrible hurricanes, personal disappointments, and the falling economy--it's September and that's good.

Vacation

Yes I did miss an entire month without posting a blog! As a good Laredoan I did "head out of Dodge" when the opportunity for visiting a colder clime arose. We, that's me and part of my family and some good friends, spent several weeks in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. People live in Laredo (when they could move elsewhere) for its' "small town" feel, and that great weather from September to May. It's difficult to go to a restaurant in Laredo without seeing someone you know enough to exchange more than "hello". Friends, relatives, acquaintances are always popping up in Laredo public venues. That said, it's great to be able to escape for a while to Oregon, Washington, Colorado, and other downright "cool" summer destinations.

While I've been gone we have had two election winning sheriffs--which one was the winner at any specific moment depended on their most recent election recount or court decision. Also, some four lane streets where turned into two lane chicanes(that's a road racing term for the part of the race a driver turns right then left then right again to avoid barriers). While some two lane avenues are widened to four lanes just in time to squeeze back to two? But then again this the Laredo summer season of avoiding heat exhaustion and other debilitating disorders.

It's good to be back, however, and hope to be in contact with you, or anyone out there, more often.

Summer is Here!

There are only three really dreadfully hot months in Laredo--June, July, and August. Even so, if you are going from your air conditioned house to your air conditioned pickup to your air conditioned place of work--well? You might also be fortunate enough to have a pool to enjoy; it's amazing how cool 90 degree water can be in 105 degree air temperature. Of course, there is also the constant daylight sun to keep your spirits up--no cloud induced "cabin fever" here.

Going to the beautiful South Texas gulf beach is, of course, out of the question. Too hot, leave that for May, September, and especially October before the hurricanes.

Why am I talking weather again? That's what the natives do here all summer; did I mention the drought?

On the other hand, the flowers somehow seem to endure the hot months, and except for maybe two weeks in December, flowers are always blooming.

School is out, the traffic is much less as a result, and as Porgy and Bess said: "summer time and the living is easy".

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.