Things Just Aren't Right

living.boondockingmexico@yahoo.com

I've been working in Texas most of the last three weeks and this is my last week until hopefully the fall season.  I've seen more than I should have and wonder where we are going as a society.  

I have seen some real wonders while I've been driving Texas back roads.   All of them are two-lane no shoulder Texas highways.  Funny isn't it?  People always wonder how we can have no shoulder in Mexico and I've driven more than 2500 miles in the last month and that's all there seems to be out here in the country.   One good thing is there are no police.  I guess if you don't have a shoulder they can't pull you over.

Some of the great things I've seen are some wonderful sunsets.   Too many that we should head out this way with the rv for a month or two.   It has to be in the winter because it's too darn hot in the summer.   Wild turkeys, two bobcats, deer in abundance, a pair of javalinas and their piglets, not to mention an occasional coyote and pretty big ones.   Also lots of hawks, buitres (sorry but the English word won't come to me right now and I'm not looking it up) and two owls.  It's very beautiful country in the areas of Uvalde, Hebbronville, Encinal, Batesville, etc.   Weird, we used to drive to San Antonio and back via Laredo stopping at the Dairy Queen at the exit for Batesville.  We always thought it was Batesville but it's only the exit and the town is 37 miles away.   

Here's the downside.  Most of these towns and all the smaller ones in between are severely depressed, abandoned or rundown.  Some beautiful old homes, farmhouses and main street buildings dating back to the late 1800s are in terminal decay.   

The schools I am working at on a special project are on the verge of closing or falling down due to lack of funds and maintenance.   You can tell by the kids shoes, clothes and general appearance.   One school on has 224 students in their high school and the principal could seem to care less.  He's from a long line of gringos that run the town.  This particular high school didn't allow hispanics until the mid 1950s.   Where they went I don't know but all the school pictures that line the halls, going back to 1937, are all whites and the last names are few and repetitive.  

Like most public schools, there are lunch programs.  This school is so poor that they bring in breakfast in coolers for some of those that qualify and also offer an early dinner at 4:30.   I have to say, this school only had 38 students in the course but they were the best behaved of all the schools this season.  Good kids all of them.  Times are hard with corporate farming and the oil fields have pretty much closed down and that's where most of them went after they sold or rented out their farmland.  Others have land to go back to but it takes a couple of years to get things up and running again.

This week I am in Eagle Pass and will teach for three days heading back to Edinburg on Thursday afternoon and then home on Friday.

If you haven't heard, we are renting a house to share with Norma and Croft for Semana Santa.  Where?  San Miguel de Allende.  Can't wait, it will be a blast.

As for the election debates, Hillary screams a lot,  Trump is, well . . . Trump, Christie cracks me up and Ben Carson should be come a political whisperer.   Bernie is way to socialist for me and I don't think either side is really interested in fixing anything other than winning the presidency.   End.