BajaNomad

Don't Ask Me

Osprey - 4-14-2011 at 03:06 PM

Don’t Ask Me


I think I owe my good luck with the big palapa on the lee side of my house to Mike O’dell of La Trinidad RV Park here in La Ribera. Mike did my remodel work about 15 years ago and recommended a local palapero who built one so sturdy it has withstood all the hurricanes that touched here for those years.

The six big posts that support the thing are sturdy local Palo Amarillo right out of our own Laguna mountains. Somebody asked me what the scientific name or common name was and I had to look it up. I’m sorry to report it is Mexican Barberry, Phyllostylon brasiniensis, baitoa, Bois blanc, Cara, Tibama, Ceron, Jatia, Pan branco, Sabonero, and San Domingo boxwood.

Whatever you call it, those sticks will be here years after any trace of this old homestead has disappeared.

Names are troublesome around here. I’m not familiar with plant professors like Norman Roberts or Ira Wiggins but Steve Chism of Buena Vista is. He and I and a guy named Jimmy Smith over there started quite a ruckus about what you call Frangipani or Plumeria. The plant is a very big deal in Hawaii because they use it to make leis, garlands but the plant’s origin is probably Central American and moved from East to West way back when.

We found so many different names that Steve wrote a great little story about it – we gathered the words from books, the internet and anybody with ears and a mouth we could get answers from. The Mexicans were mostly Cholleros from around these parts but their ancestors must be part Juntaros or Californios who spoke Nahuan, Tzotzil, Coro, Pericue, etc.

Here’s Steve’s list: cacadechuctil, cascalochuctil, cazaloctuctu, katatasucti, cacaloxoctift, cacalosudile, jacolosuctile, sacaiosud casalosucho, sacalazuchd, cajalazcil and cacaiosucho.

So if you stop by, catch me on the patio, looking out to sea and enjoying the music and the pretty white flowers on the big green plants just ask me about the fishing.

woody with a view - 4-14-2011 at 08:21 PM

and if the rubber band pulls me back towards the border before i can get there this summer will you still tell me about the fishing?

from your patio?

Paulina - 4-14-2011 at 08:25 PM

That was a really nice post, Osprey. I liked that. I would like to have that visit under your palapa too.

Thanks for the smile I'm wearing.

P>*)))>{

Ken Bondy - 4-14-2011 at 08:40 PM

Gracias Jorge, buen dicho mas una vez :)

It *is* a small world after all, esp. in Baja

Barbarosa - 4-14-2011 at 11:07 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Osprey
Don’t Ask Me

I think I owe my good luck with the big palapa on the lee side of my house to Mike O’dell of La Trinidad RV Park here in La Ribera.

<snipped a whole bunch>

Names are troublesome around here. I’m not familiar with plant professors like Norman Roberts or Ira Wiggins but Steve Chism of Buena Vista is. He and I and a guy named Jimmy Smith over there started quite a ruckus about what you call Frangipani or Plumeria.

We found so many different names that Steve wrote a great little story about it
So if you stop by, catch me on the patio, looking out to sea and enjoying the music and the pretty white flowers on the big green plants just ask me about the fishing.


Well Wholey moley! Steve? Met him down there a few years ago. He used to hang up here in Jackson a *bunch* of years ago and we know a bunch of the same peepholes. (Ask him about Neil Stark!) Any story told by Steve is sure to be a GREAT story.

And Jimmy Smith Jr. (R.I.P.)... What a marvelous piece of work! Serendipitously, I sat down at a table with him at that outdoor cafe just off the hiway in Los Barriles a few years ago -- Plaza del Pueblo, right? -- and managed to "waste" <SEG> an entire afternoon with him. Can't think of any time better spent. Wouldn't trade it for *anything*.

Here's a good link:
http://hubpages.com/hub/Grinning-Gargoyle--We-Aint-Forgot-Ya

And if all y'all don't have his book, you should! (Funny aside: If you find it on Amazon, there's folks who think it's worth $160. That's because they don't know the price on the cover is pesos.) Got to hear a bunch of those stories told firsthand.

Too bad I didn't catch you on the way thru in February. Would have taken you up on that offer. My wife and I did stop by for a great time, catching up with our very dear friends of many years, JoAnn and Russ Hyslop.