Winter in Texas - part four

The Valley has an idiosyncratic charm. I’m always finding the unexpected, the amusing and touching. 

I quite like Lady Liberty touting for business outside a tax preparation office.

On a country road, this Fantasyland ‘castle’ - an Hispanic vision of grandeur - has visitors applying the brakes.

It’s a cliché, I know, but they think big in Texas, even in a city that anywhere else would be a hamlet.

At the regional campus of the University of Texas, the Oscar Mayer ‘Wienermobile’ is also visiting. Note the license plate. This is a descendant of the first Wienermobile, which appeared in 1936.

The lower Rio Grande Valley is one of the world’s top bird and butterfly watching destinations. So, the university provides binoculars to check the foliage.

Some of the local wildlife is not so benign. 'Snakes' means rattlesnakes.

Any place that preserves a cat’s grave gets my vote. When Mission was building its spiffy new library, the last resting place of Morton Downy - a feline named after an American entertainer - was carefully protected. He is shaded by a specially planted anacua tree.

Winter in Texas - part three

Religion is almost as important here as high school football. Which reminds me, this a local high school football stadium. It seats 13,500.

The Valley is heavily Catholic and, if not Catholic, evangelical Protestant. When light’s good, Sunday’s best for photography because everyone’s in church and I have the streets to myself.

Well, not everyone. This nun is making rosaries in McAllen. She’s delightful, but like the guy campaigning with a shopping cart, only speaks Spanish.

Competing signs - the picture's best clicked on - outside a McAllen Episcopal (Anglican) church. Armory Guns vies with ‘Sanctuary for Life’ for passing motorists’ eyes. Not to mention Fiesta Cleaners, McDonald’s and Viva Life Christian Book Shop.

The shrine with broken cross and fake flowers is in Havana. It’s a village with lots of goats, not far from my place, on the Rio Grande and so only a stone’s throw from Mexico.

Church and state in a backstreet of La Joya. Pity the light isn’t better, but I hope you get the idea.

A BBQ place I enjoy (excellent beef brisket) doesn’t shy from mixing religion and business.

Winter in Texas - part two

At home, I’ve given up a car, so Texas is my time for driving. This is Weslaco (W.E. Stewart Land Company) with one of the Valley's better main streets.

In the Thirties, as below at the Hotel Cortez, it bustled, but now the sidewalks and delightful buildings would benefit from more than just a few lonely pedestrians.

From the Thirties until well into the Fifties, the Keno Cafe - its curved counter complementing the deco exterior - had a certain style. Now, it’s a friendly Mexican restaurant, a bit down-at-heels.

Wonderful buildings molder. This is in Edinburg ...

... as is this crenelated, now empty, county 'restitution' (!) center. Texas restitution centers were what seems to have been a largely failed effort to make people pay fines or compensate victims. Offenders would spend nights and weekends in a low security jail - debtors' prison of a kind - until they came up with the money.

In run-down Progreso, this Spanish Revival building is boarded up.

San Ygnacio, way up the Valley towards Laredo. Hardly another soul.

Well, there’s a dog.

An abandoned hotel's sign in Mercedes reminds the few passersby that air conditioning - in the often stiflingly hot Valley - was once novel.

Some relics live on. A drive-in theatre (note the spelling, unusual in the States), one of the few, still brings 'em in. Five dollars mid-week, ten on the weekend and that’s for as many as can get in a car.

McAllen's Cine El Rey deco-ish exterior has been one of my favourites since first coming here. In the lobby is a rusty, mechanical candy machine, possibly dating from the opening in 1947. The cinema has comfy sofas and often shows free films with complimentary popcorn.

Winter in Texas - part one

My first posting since arriving in early January.

Just a reminder that clicking on the pictures brings up a larger version and, for background, here's a link to my 2010 postings:

http://trainsandboatsandplanesandtheoddbus.blogspot.ca/2010/03/i-become-briefly-winter-texan-part-one.html

2011 is at:

http://trainsandboatsandplanesandtheoddbus.blogspot.ca/2011/02/2011-texas-blog.html

One can hardly move in the Valley for oranges and grapefruit.

The big annual celebration is the Texas Citrus Fiesta.

There's 'King Citrus' (aged worthy) and 'Queen Citrianna' (high school stunner) and parade in which floats are festooned with oranges and grapefruit.

Here's the 'Princess of Orange Blossom' among whose achievements, I'm pleased to report, is an award for high school journalism. The page, working on his wave, has still to decide on career.

There are lots of pretty girls …

... but, given the setting, this laundromat's patriotic entry (sans citrus) is enthusiastically cheered.

It's election season (when isn't it?). No, I don't mean the national election, but local ballots. I was moved by the comments of one aspirant councilman:

"I ask not what my city can do for me, but what I can do for my city."

Such selfless sentiments strike me as worthy of mention.

Our paper's filled with allegations of skulduggery and, in one case, a candidate's facing money laundering charges. He was allegedly found with a million dollars - cash - in his car.

What also interests me are the races for judicial office. Is there another advanced country in which judges are elected? Doubtless the lady is qualified, but, if her picture's any guide, facing her in court would almost be a pleasure.

(On July 12, 2014, McAllen police arrested Judge Nora on suspicion of drunk driving. She didn't look so glamorous in her mugshots.)

Not the best advertisement for safe driving, this car promotes a hopeful sheriff.

One candidate’s headwear appeals to regional sensibilities. If elected, will he wear it in court?

This friendly chap (I encountered him during a previous election) campaigns with a shopping cart. Unfortunately, he doesn’t speak English, rather limiting his ability to tell me about Mr. or Ms. Espinoza.

Backers of another candidate for the bench gave me this bottle sleeve. I'm sure he only meant it for pop, but I use it for beer. Cheers!