Brownsville's Disappearing, Non-Performing Blog

"And when I die 

and when I'm dead, dead and gone, 

There'll be one child born and 

a world to carry on, to carry on"

Blood, Sweat and Tears

The little boy and grandmother above are inseparably linked in memory and values, if not in time. 

One will soon leave while the other carries on, the so-called circle of life.

The publisher of this irrelevant, unfocused, intermittent, out-of-touch blog, the Brownsville Observer, is primarily occupied with the twosome  pictured above, a crusty 74 year old army veteran and a precocious, homeschooled 7 year old.

Grandma, after several strokes, is angry, depressed, then angry again, brain-damaged and can't be left alone.

Grandson Jack sees past the anger and hugs his grandma, offers his hand to lift her from the car and respects her every word.

As Jack's homeschool teacher, I look for gaps in his education.  Only yesterday, Jack learned that enamored was similar to in love.  Jack does know that Grand Theft Auto 5 is based on Los Angeles, but just learned that L.A. is in California.

Someday  soon, I will tell Jack some of my experiences in L.A. in '63 at the 80 cent per night hotel on Figueroa Street, a structure condemned for the then-future Los Angeles Music Center.  I witnessed my first knifing there and when the night desk clerk challenged me to a wrestling match, remembered awakening to smelling salts and the laughter from a small crowd of observers.

At Hollywood and Vine, I tapped on the window of a Chinese restaurant.  They were closed, but welcomed me in, offering a huge bowl of leftover rice for ten cents.  They even brought me soy sauce when I asked for it.

This blog is not totally dead, having two pending Public Information Requests with City Secretary Griselda Rosas with future, potential stories about Mayor Tony Martinez and Brownsville Metro.

We've cleaned up and consumed all of my Thanksgiving cooking.  I used Nena's tried and true methods for turkey and stuffing, but "Say" McIntosh's sweet potato pie recipes.  

Some day, I will tell grandson Jack about Little Rock legend, black activist, "Say" McIntosh, not just about his pies or his art, but how he played the Democrats and the Republicans in Arkansas, and how he was Black Santa to the impoverished of East Little Rock on his own dime.

Nena has already told him about her father, his great-grandfather Manuel Perez from Ciudad Victoria, who literally swam across the river, joining the U.S. Army during WWII.  

I've told Jack about my own grandfather from East Flanders, Belgium, Adolph DeMan, an inventor, how he settled in Republic, Michigan, but then homesteaded in Maple Valley, Washington, near Seattle.

Jack can't control his DNA, but he can learn his ancestry.