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Border Town, Texas


Boris

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the "no parking illness" sign is interesting... what does it mean exactly?

from this link

Another ambiguous courtesy is the "No parking illness" signs often found in older neighborhoods.

Like the mom spaces, there is no legal backing to the illness signs intended to assist residents requiring home health care, City Parking Superintendent Robert Esparza said. A homeowner can get the free sign installed if he or she presents a letter from a doctor.

Police can ask a motorist to move if blocking such a space, he said.

and i offer my condolences about your brother :(

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I am sorry for you loss, Boris.

Those are some nice shots. That "Edlesteins" sign brings back lots of memories...and for the true hardcore ex-border types on this forum, they would prouncouce it with the first letter "J. Edelsteins".

Some other random border memories:

"El Pato" (still my reference model for best carne guisada tacos!)

"M. Rivas"

"la llorona"

"laguna vista"

"chile del monte"

"Las Milpas"

"es maton" (this was always a scary thing to hear regarding some person)

"un hogado" (a ubiqutous phrase if you REALLY lived close to the Rio Grande...my first 10 years were spent literally 2 blocks from the river.)

"Reynosero" I always liked that phrase for some reason.

"Caliche"

"curendero" (yea, I had THAT done to me on many occasions. I had no choice.)

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"El Pato" (still my reference model for best carne guisada tacos!)

As I believe you're already aware, I didn't care for much for my 10-year bordertown experience. It is a great place to visit, but for no more than three days at a time. Ten years was overkill, though. Many years later, I still haven't gone back and would prefer not to if I can avoid it.

...but El Pato was a redeeming quality, I must admit. Somebody needs to bring that chain north!

[mouth waters]

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I am sorry for you loss, Boris.

Those are some nice shots. That "Edlesteins" sign brings back lots of memories...and for the true hardcore ex-border types on this forum, they would prouncouce it with the first letter "J. Edelsteins".

Some other random border memories:

"El Pato" (still my reference model for best carne guisada tacos!)

"M. Rivas"

"la llorona"

"laguna vista"

"chile del monte"

"Las Milpas"

"es maton" (this was always a scary thing to hear regarding some person)

"un hogado" (a ubiqutous phrase if you REALLY lived close to the Rio Grande...my first 10 years were spent literally 2 blocks from the river.)

"Reynosero" I always liked that phrase for some reason.

"Caliche"

"curendero" (yea, I had THAT done to me on many occasions. I had no choice.)

M.rivas was a weird grocery store i used to live in Edinburg, We lived in San Juan before, there was carls (grocery store)
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I love seeing old towns like this.

Such interesting architecture as well.

Its always interesting to me, to see the bleed over of Mexican American culture into border towns. I mean, if the signage was in spanish, it would look very similar to a border town in Mexico, and would be hard to tell what side of the border you were on.

Another time, I was riding the Amtrak through El Paso, and Ill never forget at how I was riding the train right along the border (border was 50 feet away) and to my left was Mexico, and to my right was El Paso. On both sides of the border, there was essentially the same race of people, Mexicans, and Mexican Americans, but the difference in lifestyle and living accomodations was mind blowing. Hand made shacks to the left, recently built brick buildings to the right. Absolutely stunning the difference among the two peoples, and they were only seperated by 1/10th of a mile at most.

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I love seeing old towns like this.

Such interesting architecture as well.

Its always interesting to me, to see the bleed over of Mexican American culture into border towns. I mean, if the signage was in spanish, it would look very similar to a border town in Mexico, and would be hard to tell what side of the border you were on.

Well, that's because in the history it dated back to when it was the same place. My great grandmother was born in 1886...she was alive until 1979, so I actually got to talk with her until I was 14...well, maybe 13 (all she did in her last year was generate a series of continous grunts.) Anyways, she had all these stories of her husband and her parents...who were around while the border wars were still fresh. It's kind of weird because from her parents generation, they may have been both Mexicans and Americans during one lifetime. One day they instantly switched nationalities, yet they never moved.

There is some weird law that is in place because I know some of my older relatives, who decided to make thier life in Monterrey, always had a choice to become Americans if they wanted to, they just had too many roots in Monterrey, so that is where they stayed. I am pretty sure now a days you dont get that choice. But at some point in the past, you could decide to move to Texas and become American, even if you were a Mexican citizen up to then. Two of my great aunts did just that....they lived in Monterrey, then became Americans and lived till thier death in Texas as American Citizens. I never was able to identify just what in the US law allowed that, but I always presumed it had something to do with family lineage dating back to those days or something, and the fact that half of the familiy stayed in Texas after the wars. It's just a theory, I really dont know why.

Anyways, it is no surprise that south Texas looks like Mexico...there is history in Texas that dates back till it was the same nation....and the inhabitants are still around.

Still, I grew up with AC/DC, Iron Maiden, and baseball, so even though the Mexican culture is alive and well, it changes quite a bit on this side. There is a name for "us", that is, Americans with Mexican heritiage....its called a "pocho", but it is only used in Mexico to describe us. I think the phrase is slightly derrogatory.

It doesnt bother me anyways, I think our Tex-Mex cuisine is actually better and more interesting!!

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