mio zio

April 14, 1946 - August 19, 2011

Tomorrow I pay my respects to my Tio Nene.  It takes just under 3 hours to drive to Uvalde, TX and we will be passing through Sabinal.  Oh, how I dread driving through there.  Call it a love/hate relationship, and right now we're broken up and have been for a long time.

The last time I was in Uvalde for a funeral was when my high school sweetheart's father passed away in December 1998.  It'll be the same funeral home, too.  My cousin Lisa said it would be a Catholic mass and we joked about all the physical exertion required during these events.  The standing and sitting, then standing and kneeling, then standing and...well you get the pix.  It's almost like doing holy lunges, which shouldn't hurt as much becos you got you-know-who leading the training.

I saw a video memorial for Tio today and it made me really think about all the time I spent with him.  My absolute favorite memory was visiting Lost Maples with Tio, Tia, Patty and Chiquita.  I must have been 7 or 8 yrs old and had never been there before.  I begged my folks to let me spend the night with Patty the day before and they planned the little hiking trip and round trip to Sabinal to drop me off.  When we took off from Uvalde to Concan, it was a regular drive.  There wasn't anything too exciting about it, until we took a road I had never been on before.  It was windy and the trees were green and and tall and beautiful.  Or maybe it just seemed that way becos it was new.  I remember driving on the side of the hill and thinking we were gonna fall off.  When we got to Lost Maples, we registered and the park ranger asked me and Patty if we wanted to win a prize.  I can just see our eyes light up and agree to the conditions without even knowing what they were.  He gave us each a plastic gift bag with the "Don't Mess With Texas" slogan on both sides and said we had to fill them up with any trash we saw.  At the end of the hike we would turn in what we found and we'd get the prize, which still remained a mystery. We accepted the challenge and were ready for a hike.  I remember how we fought so badly for each scrap of trash we found.  I remember Tio and Tia enjoying the hike.  I remember the streams filled with clean, fresh water inhabited by minnows, fish, all kinds of wildlife! I remember Chiquita getting tired and napping in the shade of a tree along the trail.  Everytime we reached her tree, she would run ahead searching for another spot to lie down until we reached her.  I didn't have to have that much interaction with Tio, but his presence was enough.  He was always the big burly guy and you just always felt safe.

At the end of the hike we went back to the ranger station, bags bursting at the seams, ready to collect our prizes.  We were proudly presented with 2 large, shiny "Don't Mess With Texas" buttons.  I remember feeling kinda bummed, but still proud of my prize.  Only recently did I realize Patty and I were free Mexican child labor. But I wouldn't trade that memory for the world!

Tio was also the one to teach me how to swim under water.  I remember Patty and I wading in the river at Garner State Park around 07:00 or 08:00, listening to Tio instruct us how NOT to breathe underwater.  He taught us in small increments and by lunch time we were pruney, had bloodshot eyes, but guess what, we knew how to swim underwater.  We always, Always, ALWAYS woke up early to get to Garner early to get the good spots.  Then we'd just camp out ALL day.  I miss those times.  I think those were my happiest: at Garner State Park, my family, Patty's family, Sandy's family, BBQ, swimming from sunrise to sunset.  

Why do ham and cheese sandwiches taste so good when you're in the water or have been in there all day???