THE BROWNSVILLE OBSERVER HONORS REQUEST TO REMOVE OFFENSIVE PHOTO OF CITY ADMINISTRATOR

From the editor:  OK.  Ramiro's irreverent, evil friends have had enough fun.  We've removed his image entirely from this blog until the next time we catch him polishing Dr. Rose Gowen's bicycle.

We conveniently replaced Ramiro with an image he and his friends are too young to understand; the infamous test pattern.

Since my home town Seattle got TV in 1948, the year of my birth, I grew up knowing how to adjust the rabbit ears and fine tuning knob to stop the screen from rolling, get rid of the "snow," and adjust the horizontal and vertical.

Hopalong Cassidy movies are the first thing I remember viewing on the 4 inch screen inside the huge wooden console.

When I was 9 or 10, just older than Jack is now, stores started displaying a U-Test-M box.  I became adept at looking at the back of the TV, seeing which tubes had burned out, then riding my bike to Johnny's IGA and testing the tubes in the U-Test-M.  A meter showed if the tubes were good or not and replacement tubes were stored in the back of the machine.

Of course, Ramiro, Ruben, Trey and the rest of Brownsville's challenged youngins know nothing of those days.  They grew up or are still growing up in a less innocent era.

May God have mercy on their souls!