Baja Bernie - 2-5-2006 at 01:09 PM
This is the story I tried to get Oso and a couple of others to help me with the title--Guess this one will work.
Asi es la Vida
(That?s Life)
It was one of those days that us American *******s travel hundreds of miles to find. A slight breeze blowing off the Pacific Ocean to
compliment the 85? wonderful sunny day with not a cloud in the sky. A killer of a day that brings tears to the eyes of the guys and gals down from
Oregon and Washington State, and Canada.
Frenchy, the camp grump, was out on the road giving a couple of surfers a bad time when a slight Mexican kid entered the scene. He watched and
listened quietly as Frenchy ended his one sided conversation. He then asked the Frenchman if he had any work. Frenchy, who spoke Italian, could get
along easily in the Spanish language, listened for a few seconds. He never had any patience with anyone except his wife who was very important to
Frenchy because like so many foreign residents of Baja he had traveled the world but didn?t have a pot of his own to pee in or a window to throw it
out of. His wife totally controlled the purse strings.
Anyway! He grabbed a hoe and told the kid he would pay him ten dollars to weed the ?community garden.? Big spender! He would get his lousy
ten bucks back from the community group.
The young guy started chopping weeds with gusto but a couple of hours later when Dick happened by he was reeling under the fierce noon day sun.
Dick got him over to the side of a building and sat down with him and started asking him questions. Funny! Dick was a retired United States Border
Patrolman and the most proficient Spanish speaker in camp. He claimed to have learned the language from reading Mexican Comic Books (try it because
it does work). The kid, Salvador, told Dick that he had been looking for work for three days and had had nothing to eat or drink except for a glass
of clam juice that a street vendor had given him in Ensenada sometime yesterday.
It was obvious that Salvador was starving so Dick went home and got his wife , Nancy, to fix a couple of sandwiches. With the sandwiches and a
liter of soda he returned to find the kid trying his damnest to work in the garden.
Pulling him over into the shade Dick listened as Salvador wolfed down the sandwiches as he took large pulls on the bottle of soda. The kid told of
having worked his way from Guaymas on a small freighter to Baja. They fed him okay but when they reached Mulege the Captain forced him ashore without
the wages he had promised and without a peso in his pocket. He laughed and said that it had only taken him about three months to work, walk, and
hitch hike his way to Ensenada. Most of the way he found ranchers who had no money to pay him but were happy to feed him and give him a place to
sleep for his labor. Some of them even gave him ?handed me down? clothes and once he got a pair of shoes. When he got near Ensenada he found that
there were many more workers than there were jobs.
Dick and the kid got along great, he stayed at Dick?s place and he got almost everyone in camp to give him a day or three of work. At that time it
was expected, a tradition in Mexico, that you not only paid the working guys but that you also provided them with a noon day meal. After a few weeks
of work Salvador thanked every one and said that he was moving on to ?Otra Lado? (the other side)to get rich so he could go back to Sonora and help
his Mom and Dad.
About thee months later he was back with hat in hand at Dick?s door step?at least this time he had a hat. They drank coffee as Salvador told him some
of what he had seen and done since he had left camp. He told of coming to the ?Zona Roja? that ran along the border fence. He spoke of the hard and
vicious guys who preyed on the peones who were trying to cross over. He could not understand why?if a guy had a lot of money the coyotes (people
smugglers) would take them right across but if someone only had a little, like twenty pesos, they would be beaten or stabbed and robbed. He even told
of how a guy with new boots was kicked and beaten as they stole his boots. He mentioned the ?Nasty Ladies? but said nothing of what they did to earn
a living.
He spoke of working in Bars where he was handed a five gallon plastic bucket and told to empty the septic tanks by hand. They talked into the night of
his experiences and how, when it became time for him to cross the border, that he became fearful and fled back here to safety.
Dick laughed and thanked him when he told of stopping at the La Playa in La Mision where he took off his clothes and scrubbed them clean in the surf.
And that while they dried he cleansed himself with wet sand until he got the smell of Tijuana and the septic tanks off of his body. Tears came to his
eyes when he explained that the smell would never be erased from his mind.
Salvador slept in their garage and ate at their table for a few months as he worked all over the mesa. He saved the money he earned and moved to
La Mision where he found a small house with a broken down van (the bedroom) attached.
He became a contratista (a contractor), got married and Dick and Nancy became god-parents to ?Ricardo?, Nancita, and five other happy and secure
kids.
This story was told to me over 20 years ago when Dick was in his cups. It was never mention again until I awoke in the night with the story
running through my head. I place it here before you to make of it what you will.
Oh! I should add that in his early years in camp Salvador and his family were helped by many of us gringos in small ways. He never forgot and
while he did not exclaim or even mention the help he was always ready to jump out of his truck and help whenever he saw that one of his gringo friends
needed an extra hand. As he left it was always with a laugh and a de nada (it?s nothing).
He would be counted a real good man on either side of the border.
Thinking on it I know that even though I have not seen Salvador for many years?if I needed help he would be right there with that large and
wonderful smile on his face and more importantly in his eyes.
Viva Vida!
Copywrite January2006
by Bernie Swaim
Edit had to do with changing the indents and paragraph spacing as pointed out by my friend, Baja Lera. Thanks
Hope this makes it easier to read.
Second edit---well the spacing worked but the indent was not allowed on the board format.
[Edited on 2-7-2006 by Baja Bernie]
[Edited on 2-7-2006 by Baja Bernie]
elgatoloco - 2-5-2006 at 01:54 PM
Bernie, thank you for sharing.
i'm always glad to meet up...
eetdrt88 - 2-5-2006 at 02:06 PM
with a guy like Salvador,they have a way of putting your mind at ease....thanks for the thoughts,Bernie
thebajarunner - 2-5-2006 at 03:35 PM
Hey Bernie,
Stop giving away the book,
these guys will never want to buy it if you keep giving away the good stuff!
Cheers...
Gypsy Jan - 2-5-2006 at 09:12 PM
Bernie,
With all due respect (and I do respect you)
Too much words without punctuation.
Your story started out and sounded interesting, but I got too worn out to go through the presentation.
Runner
Baja Bernie - 2-5-2006 at 09:17 PM
I thought this was some of the bad stuff that I just many use in the new book.
It is going to be a fun book to do on Baja because several people on this board are contributing little snippets on what I believe make Baja what it
is.
Every person that I have asked if I could use their wonderful stories, that have appeared here over the past three years, have been very pleased and
are happy that something they wrote just on a lark will be included.
Darn it---I have been saying Baja is about "people helping people" and these folks are proving it. Makes me want to sing--just be glad you can't hear
me.
I also have some guy who has agreed to write about off road racing for me--I hate dirt, dust, mud, and noise so I was so glad when he agreed to
provide his knowledge because the off road stuff is a good part of modern Baja and I just am not competent to cover that. It makes me happy to know
that he has nothing better to do with his time than help me entertain all of our friend in Baja and points north.
Hope all of you know that I do not write anything but the truth as history has told it. I do try to make it a bit more fun to read and enjoy.
This was a true story with very little elaberation to it. A tough life!
thebajarunner - 2-5-2006 at 09:38 PM
great yarns do not need a lot of commas, apostrophes, semicolons and other assorted stuff.
they just need to tell the story, relax and enjoy.
Baja is not a punctuation kind of place....
that's my view, I'm stickin' with it....
(note the inclusion of appropriate grammatical marks- sans caps., etc.)
bajalera - 2-7-2006 at 01:08 PM
Nice story, Bernie.