Green Street Kid: Growing up by the Chacon Creek and Other Memories

Copyright © 2013 Ricardo D. Palacios.

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ISBN: 978-1-4808-0308-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4808-0310-7 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4808-0309-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013918239

Archway Publishing rev. date: 11/6/2013

Dust Cover Photo.

At the entrance to the Dripping Cave in the Chacon Creek Canyon.

Front row, from left Ricardo Palacios, Diana Sanchez, middle row, from left, Alfonso Leyendecker, Jr. , Maria Estela Leyendecker; back row, from left, Tom Sanchez and Angela Palacios

Contents

Preface

Chapter 1   Birth at Laredo, Texas, November 13, 1943

Chapter 2   Mom and Dad

Chapter 3   Immediate Family Geneology

Chapter 4   Move to Laredo

Chapter 5   Green Street

Chapter 6   Beloved Chacon Creek Canyon

Chapter 7   More Green Street, School Starts

Chapter 8   More on Green Street

Chapter 9   Hi Goodwin, A Special Guy

Chapter 10   Boy Scouts and Summer Camp

Chapter 11   Summer Visits to Grandmas

Chapter 12   Another Try at Boy Scouts

Chapter 13   Football, Football, Football

Chapter 14   St. Joseph’s Academy

Chapter 15   First Car and Other Memories

Chapter 16   Off to College

Chapter 17   First Real Job

Chapter 18   Transfer to UT, A & I, and Graduation

Chapter 19   Post Graduate Jobs

Chapter 20   Dad Passes

Chapter 21   St. Mary’s University, School of Law

Chapter 22   Law Practice Begins

Chapter 23   Meeting Spouse, Death Claims Law Partner

Chapter 24   Then the Babies Came

Chapter 25   Ranch Life

Chapter 26   Life at San Judas Ranch

Chapter 27   Tio Juan and Tia Bertha

Chapter 28   Salt Lake City Exit

Chapter 29   Family Alcoholism

Chapter 30   Reading and Writing

Chapter 31   Law Practice Stories

Chapter 32   More War Stories

Chapter 33   A Brief Departure from the Private Practice.

Chapter 34   Back to Private Practice for the Duration

Chapter 35   The Border Patrol

Chapter 36   Winding Down

END

Preface

For the last couple of years, I have sent an e-mail to my children every Sunday. Three of the four live out of state, and I rarely hear from them, so I take this opportunity to say hello.

The e-mails are very short. In the subject line, I write, It’s Sonday, then in the body of the e-mail I write, Dad loves you. End of e-mail.

Several months ago, I got a curt reply from my daughter Virginia, who presently lives in Durham, North Carolina, where she is working on her master’s degree in environmental science. She complained that I should write something, anything, other than the short message Dad Loves You.

I had been thinking of starting to write my memoirs, and this was the impetus I needed.

I began writing an excerpt of my life every Sunday and sending it to my children. Green Street Kid is the compilation of all of the e-mail excerpts that I have sent them.

Chapter 1

Birth at Laredo, Texas, November 13, 1943

Momma started having labor pains at about six in the morning. By seven, Daddy was driving her to Laredo, Texas, thirty-five miles away. I was born at about two in the afternoon on November 13, 1943, at the old Mercy Hospital in downtown Laredo in Southwest Texas, on the Texas-Mexico border. This hospital, on the west side of Jarvis Plaza, was the second hospital that the Sisters of Mercy built in Laredo. It was a three- or four-story building. It has since been torn down and replaced with an old folks’ home. The other sides of the plaza house the United States Post Office and what used to be the Hamilton Hotel and is now another old folks’ home. The plaza is very green for Laredo. Tall trees, cool shade, and full of retirees just sitting there, doing nothing, waiting on the next Social Security check. The plaza is full of war memorials and an eternal flame in memory of all soldiers from Laredo who died in battle.

Laredo, Texas, was a sleepy border town at that time, with a population of about forty thousand. It borders on the Rio Grande, next to its neighbor in Mexico, Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas. At the time I was born, Laredo occupied about 15 percent of the land it currently occupies, and today it has a population of about 250,000. At that time, everyone knew everyone in the city, and definitely all the old families, of which ours was one, knew each other.

When I was born, my mother, Mucia Salinas, and my father, Abraham Palacios, were living at the Salinas Ranch, three miles south of Encinal, Texas and thirty-five miles north of Laredo, with my grandmother Minnie Light Salinas, other members of the Salinas family, and my brother Abe and my sister Angela, coincidentally where I live today. It is now a different house. The earlier house was built in 1923 and dismantled in 1963, when the present house was built. The first house was built by my grandfather Antonio Salinas for my grandmother and their children, Juan, Jose Maria, my mother Mucia, Margarita, and Antonio. Later, my uncle Jose Maria’s wife Blanca and three children also lived in the house. At that time, the Salinas Ranch was about 6,000 acres, and after Papa Antonio’s death, it was managed and operated by my uncle Juan Salinas, whom we called Tio (uncle)Juan. For most of the 1920s and through the mid-1930s, Tio Juan he supported my grandmother Mama Minnie. At times this support included some of his siblings.

Later Momma would become a teacher and have her own salary. At the time of my birth, my dad was employed by the state of Texas as a livestock tick inspector.

My older brother Abe, then seven years old, tagged along. Daddy drove the thirty-five miles from the Salinas Ranch to Laredo, took Momma to the hospital, and had to babysit Abe for the rest of the day. My sister Angela stayed at the ranch. I became their third and last child.

Mother and I were attended by Doctor Ruby South Lowry, who brought hundreds of Laredoans into the world. Do your arithmetic and you’ll figure that I’ll be sixty-eight in November. After my birth, Momma and Dad and the three children lived at the Salinas Ranch for a while.

More next week.

Love, Dad

Chapter 2

Mom and Dad

My mother, Mucia Salinas Palacios, graduated from Laredo High School in 1926. The school building now houses La Posada Hotel on San Agustin Plaza, by the San Agustin Cathedral, right on the Rio Grande, the border between Mexico and the United States. Both my parents were born in 1906—Momma in March, Daddy Abe in April. Dad missed a grade somewhere along the way and was scheduled to graduate in 1927. He was a star football player, and he earned a football scholarship to Rice University in Houston. His coach Shirley DaCamara was a Rice alum who arranged for the scholarship. After the 1926–27 football season, Dad dropped out of school, went to work as a cowboy with the Matthews family in Mexico, and did not take advantage of the scholarship. His father, my grandfather Ignacio Palacios, was either bedridden by this time or had died, so Dad did not have the financial support to go to Rice.

Momma, on the other hand, went to the University of Texas in the summer of 1926 to obtain her teaching certificate. It was a short, temporary matter. She would be given the certificate if she promised to teach in the Webb County rural schools and if she promised to work toward her degree. She went to work in the fall of 1927 at the Atalaya School on Salinas Ranch, a couple of blocks from the main house and run by Webb County. She lived with her mother and siblings, and walked each day to and from the one-room schoolhouse just south of the roping arena. In the meantime, she and Daddy married in 1935, brother Abe was born in 1936, sister Angela was born in 1938, Momma had a miscarriage in 1940, and I was born in 1943. She taught at the little school for sixteen years.

Two of Dad’s high school buddies, Laurence and Maurice Matthews, had a huge ranch in Mexico, and Dad went to work as a cowboy for the Matthews family at their ranch in 1927. Miserable pay, no doubt. Later he became a tick inspector. Today tick inspectors work for the federal government, but if my memory serves me right, I think Dad said he worked for the state of Texas. He worked there until 1938, when he landed a federal job as a US Customs Inspector, a uniformed cop, at the International Bridge in Laredo. He worked there for several years and eventually moved up to US Customs Agent, a plain-clothes narcotics officer. He was very successful in his job, catching loads and loads of marijuana in a career that lasted until 1963, when he retired. His retirement photo album contains a document prepared by the agent in charge stating that Dad had engaged some of the most dangerous criminals of the era, including members of the Clyde Barrow gang, had done more than his share of undercover work, and was credited with seizing more marijuana than any other officer in the nation.

In 1944, Momma and Dad moved to Laredo. After I became of school age, Momma continued to teach in the Laredo Independent School District, and she eventually got her degree in 1958 from Texas A&I College in Kingsville. That same year, I graduated from eighth grade and my sister Angela graduated from high school. In total Momma taught school for thirty-eight years.

At first, we lived in rental houses in Laredo, but in 1946 we moved to a house my parents purchased at 2106 Green Street in the Montrose/Chacon neighborhood.

S’all for today.

Love, Tata

Young family Mucia Salinas Palacios and her three children. From left: Angela Palacios, Abraham Palacios Jr., and Ricardo Palacios, forefront, 1944 at the Salinas Ranch

Chapter 3

Immediate Family Geneology

Both my parents were descendants of the early Spanish colonists who migrated to what is now Texas from Mexico in the mid-1700s. Though our family was Spanish first, after Mexico achieved independence from Spain, the family became Mexican, and later Tejanos, and still later Texans and Americans. My ex-wife said that I should call myself Spanish-American, but we have always considered ourselves Mexican. I call myself Mexican American.

On my father’s side, the Spanish migrated from Ciudad Mier, Tamaulipas, to San Diego (now Texas), between Laredo and Corpus Christi, Texas. Actually, the Palacios settled in a small town near there called Concepcion or La Chona. I still own a few acres in Concepcion. My dad was born in San Diego, Texas. His father was Ignacio Gonzalez Palacios and his mother Josefa Perez. Josefa was called Mama Pepa by all. When she was sixteen, she and Papa Ignacio eloped to Corpus Christi, where they married. My dad was the firstborn and spoiled rotten forever. Next born was Maria Estela, aka Chela, and she would marry Alfonso Leyendecker of Laredo. Next was Victoria, aka Mama Vique. She insisted that everyone call her Mama. Finally came Oscar, whom we all called Tio Oscar.

Papa Ignacio was a banker. He worked at the San Diego State Bank, and later at a bank in Kingsville. There, he got in trouble for messing around with a man’s wife, and the man wanted to kill him. Papa Ignacio fled to San Diego and sent Mama Pepa’s brother Jose Perez to bring the family there. Still fleeing the death threat, the entire family moved to Laredo in about 1920. There, the family changed their name slightly—for example, from Ignacio Gonzalez Palacios to Ignacio G. Palacios. My dad, who was Abraham Gonzalez, suddenly became Abraham G. Palacios.

Mama Pepa was also from a large family. The Perezes migrated primarily to Alice, Texas, ten miles east of San Diego. Her father, Abraham Perez, had a huge ranch north of Alice, the Amargozo Ranch. I still own some of the minerals under four hundred acres of the ranch, my share being one-third of one quarter, or a twelfth of the minerals.

On my mother’s side, the Spanish colonists migrated from Ciudad Guerrero, Tamaulipas, to Laredo in 1757. If Columbus landed in 1492, we know that it took the Spaniards 263 years to get to Laredo. My mother’s father was Antonio Garcia Salinas, aka Papa Antonio. He was a quiet, sinister-looking man who became a strong political leader in Laredo. As a young man, he participated in a political battle that got out of hand at San Agustin Plaza. It is known as the Battle between the Botas (Boots) and the Guaraches (Sandals). Two political parties began firing real live bullets at each other, and several men were killed. The riot was quelled by the US Army troops stationed at Fort Macintosh in Laredo. It is well-known Laredo history that Papa Antonio killed a man in that battle. Later Papa Antonio became Sheriff of Webb County. Go figger.

Papa Antonio married twice. The first marriage was to Maria Garcia, and they had three children: Jose Salinas, Antonio Salinas, and Lucinda Salinas. Maria died young. Later Papa Antonio met and married my grandmother, Minnie Light, later to be called Mama Minnie. Minnie Light had recently arrived from the Texas hill country with her mother, Margaret Riley Light, later to be called Granny, and her brother, Zack Light Jr. later to be called Tio Isaac. (Tio is Spanish for uncle, tia Spanish for aunt.) Margaret Riley was Irish, and she married Zack Light, who was German, thus Minnie and her brother Zack were German-Irish. They met Papa Antonio at the train stop in Webb, twenty-two miles north of Laredo, in1899. He invited them to live and work at his Las Blancas Ranch in east Webb County, about fifty miles northeast of Laredo. Granny Margaret and Mama Minnie stayed on the Salinas Ranch for the rest of their lives. Zack Jr. stayed for a couple of decades but later moved around. Minnie had five children with Antonio, the oldest being Juan Light Salinas (Tio Juan), then Jose Maria Salinas, (Tio Chema), then my mom, Mucia, then Margarita (Tia Mague), then Antonio Light II (Tio Tony.) Ten years and five children later, grandfather Antonio married Minnie at the San Agustin cathedral in Laredo.

In 1922, Papa Antonio sold the Salinas Ranch in east Webb County and bought a 15,000-acre ranch near Encinal. The whole family moved to the Santana Ranch just south of Encinal, which is where I live today. Thus, although I am a descendant of Spaniard colonists, Mama Minnie was German-Irish and Momma was half gringa-half Hispanic, that makes me one-fourth gringo and three-fourths Hispanic. Being that your mother is one hundred percent Anglo, the combination makes each of you five-eighths Anglo and three-eighths Hispanic.

As a youngster, I realized gradually that I had grandmothers. I got to know Mama Minnie first, because my parents were living with her when I was born. I later got to know Mama Pepa when we traveled to Amargozo Ranch. Later both grandmothers would come to our house to visit.

The two grandmas and their homes were very different. While Mama Minnie’s was a full-fledged home with three bedrooms, a formal dining room, a big kitchen, and a living room, Mama Pepa’s was quite austere. Mama Pepa was a very caring and loveable mom, muy carinosa, even insisting on having me, as a young adult, sit on her lap on the rocking chair. Mama Minnie was far from any of that. It was a cultural thing, the Hispanic juxtaposed with the Germanic-Irish. Mama Minnie was always very serious, somewhat cold, and not a loving person at all. Aside from being cultural, perhaps it was circumstantial. Mama Minnie and her family had come from the Texas hill country with nothing but a couple of bags of clothing. They were poor farmers or farm laborers. True, when she married Papa Antonio, she lacked for nothing, but perhaps her personality had been molded by the time she came to South Texas. Mama Pepa, on the other hand, was raised by a wealthy family. When I knew her, the wealth was gone, but as a young person and when married, Mama Pepa had not had a difficult life.

My dad’s family had wealth, but the wealth was all gone. My mom’s family had wealth and had managed to preserve much of it. Momma had her thousand acres, and managed to eke out earnings throughout the years through oil and gas and grazing leases. Dad was not able to get any income from what was left of the Palacios land.

Love, Tat

Maternal grandmother Minnie Light Salinas

Maternal grandfather Antonio Salinas

Paternal grandparents Ignacio G. PalaciosJosefa Perez Palacios

Father Abraham G. Palacios upon retirement from

the US Customs Service, 1963

Mother Mucia Salinas Palacios as a young woman

Mother Mucia Palacios, schoolteacher photo, 1965

Chapter 4

Move to Laredo

After I was born, we lived at the Salinas Ranch for awhile, then the family moved to Laredo. I remember Mom talking about a rental home on Farragut street a block east of San Bernardo. The house belonged to Ella Garcia Spruiell’s grandfather. Later we lived at a rental home on San Bernardo, near the present day Holiday Inn Civic Center. Then, when I was about two years old, we moved to the house where I grew up, 2106 Green Street. There I met two of my lifelong friends, Tom (Tete) Sanchez and Jimmy Battaglia. I also met the sisters, Diana Sanchez and Sandra Sanchez, and Anne and Mary Jo Battaglia. The sisters are also friends,