Skip to main content

A grill and an accordion

Image
By
Last night, we had a little get together outside the apartment. A friend was able to get fajitas and some Modelo beers. Another friend from the RGV plays an accordion, which he brought with him. We can't buy fajitas in Rice Lake, WI, so this was a great occasion. They fired up the grill and put the fajitas on. The accordion came out and the singing began. The songs included favorites from Ramon Ayala, Los Tucanes, and other Norteño bands. In other towns, like Wautoma, where Mexicans are well entrenched, there are frequent dances and local bands that play music in Spanish. In fact, my mom was going to a dance the night I was born. In other areas, like where we are now, migrants are not as well established as a community. We are still outsiders, to some extent. Consequently, there is no Mexican entertainment around. A while later, we had some of the local girls join our mexley crew. They danced to the songs, even if they had no clue how to dance to the music. It didn't take long for the fajitas to cook. We wrapped it up and had a fajita taco fresh off the grill before going to bed.

This weekend, we are planning a UMOS employee get together at a local lake that is good for swimming. I don't know why anybody has illusions about swimming. I know from experience that the lakes up here are damn cold, regardless of the heat wave. Just a point of comparison, when you turn the shower on to COLD in the RGV, it's tolerable. Within the initial cool sensation, you grow accustomed to the temperature. On a hot day, it's welcome relief. Up here in Wisconsin, if you turn the cold water on and dare to get in, the water is so cold you stop breathing. Once you resume breathing, it's shallow breaths all the way. If you can utter any words, it will probably start with, "son of a...!"

I suppose that it's natural for people to take some of their culture with them and to adapt to their new environment, somewhat.

**UPDATE**
I managed to record some of our hanging out. I made a playlist for you to hear. One MP3 will play, followed by a pause, and then the next. There will be 5 recordings, so there are 4 pauses in between while the new mp3 reloads.


Comments

Post a Comment

Affiliate Links

Popular posts from this blog

Cleaning Mold and Mildew From Your Window Air Conditioner

By
I don't think cleaning mold and mildew from your window air conditioner is a problem specific to the Rio Grande Valley. After all, there are plenty of other places with high temperatures and high humidity. However, given that there are so many of us who rely on window units to cool our homes, allow me to share some experience in cleaning these things out. Why I'm Cleaning My Own A/C Obviously, our window units grew some black stuff on the blower and its enclosure. This generated allergies in my little one, who is sensitive to such things. Not having my own laboratory, I couldn't tell you if it is mold or mildew. It matters not. What I've Tried Other than replacing the window unit every couple months, I've tried washing the unit with Clorox products. I figure bleach kills everything; but, I guess it doesn't. We still had to use cotton swabs to wipe and scrub surfaces on the blower and enclosure, which is almost impossible on some models. You can't d...
1 comment
Read more

Fall 2024 in the RGV

By
It's that time of year again when Winter Texans start to make their way south from the northern states. I have already had phone calls with a Winter Texan client who is getting ready to come down. I think it is fascinating that we can make friends from people who are visiting only seasonally.  Looking at the blog stats, I seem to get a peak in traffic every year. So I suppose it must be partly due to many of our friends coming back from up north.  Image generated by Gemini 1.5 Pro AI Speaking of seasons, we still have a couple of months to go before the end of hurricane season for 2024. We have been fortunate this year, compared to other parts of the USA. Although, south Texas could use the rain.  This time of year makes me happy as we finally have nights that are below 78F like we had all summer. This week we have had mornings in the 60s. While we still have hot days in the 90s, we at least get some respite in the evenings, leading to cool mornings.  Returning to RG...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Mad Mexican

By
Years ago, there used to be a DJ at B104, a local radio station. Until recent years, B104 had a large audience. They played pop music. The Mad Mexican used to do the morning show with Gary Rodriguez, who is now involved in McAllen politics. Well, the Mad Mexican is still working, but on a national level. I heard him this morning on Aguila, XM 92. Aguila is the Mexican music station on XM Satellite Radio. It's great to hear from him again. He's still pretty wild. Gary Rodriguez? He worked for 107.9 for a while before going to KURV and then entering politics.
2 comments
Read more