Baja Bernie
`Normal` Nomad Correspondent
Posts: 2962
Registered: 8-31-2003
Location: Sunset Beach
Member Is Offline
Mood: Just dancing through life
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Moving on but I will not be gone.
Far too many friends here to walk away from.
Hola! Gus was at the gate and I was just sitting sorta hollow like in my patio. Don’t rightly understand how that can be because the wife and I had
sold out to Phil a few years back. When we decided to sell our little slice of paradise we agreed that we would pay particular attention to who would
be replacing us and how they would get along with our neighbors.
Sure it was silly but that he exactly what we did and we figured that Phil was the perfect fit and after many conversations we gave him the
keys—Remember Mr. Gomez of “God and Mr. Gomez” fame—“you’ll know you own the house when I give you the keys.”
Anyway, I only made one mistake with Phil and that was I failed to notice that he was lazy and the first thing he did was tear a small part of my
heart out when he destroyed over 50 bougainvillea that graced our patio and provided shade and comfort as they covered the gazebo. We had done a good
deal of our entertaining over the past 25 years on the patio and had come to expect that they would always be there.
So Gus is at the gate and I am sitting under the gazebo waiting, as I had for so many years for his call which meant we might talk with each other or
even more common we would just smile and grunt as we failed to discuss much of anything.
You all know that I am about as old and dirt and Gus has a good ten years on me. I am sure that, perhaps, his wife Delfina remembers that he is
really not a Mexican but I guess that I am about the only soul in the whole mesa that shares that knowledge. I used to think of all the stories I
would write about this man and how his family had come to La Salina way back before I was born. Yes, that was in the most fine year of 1936.
He used to tell me about when he was a kid and they still herded cattle from La Mision Valley down through the canyon of the Tiger and on into
Ensenada. He also told of feuds and barn burnings and how nobody went out of the house without a pistol at his belt. Perhaps, one day I shall put
quill to paper and record a few of these.
So, anyway, I am sitting in my patio and Gus walks in and does something that neither of us have done in over 40 years—he puts his hand on my shoulder
and simple asks, ‘what is troubling you my friend.’ Unbelievable, the words started flowing like a dam had been burst. He listened, very quietly,
and then he laughed and asked if I had a soda. Soda for him and a beer for me and the words ended in a silly trickle. As I always say—“Baja is about
Friends Helping Friends.”
He ever so kindly advised me that I was being rather stupid if I thought that how a few of the newer gringos were acting could possibly have any
impact on how my Mexican friends thought of me. He reminded me of how he and I had worked to neutralize Sam when his pushy ways began to anger the
Mexicans and how we all laughed at the antics of a couple of gay guys who had moved into the mesa and felt that they were way above the average
Mexican who owned the land they merely squatted.
I heard the rustle of the light on shore breeze in the bougainvillea and dosed off in the filtered sun. Suddenly, I awoke and found Gus talking with
his son-in-law Hector. Something was definitely wrong here because I clearly remembered consoling Hectors wife after he had died of stomach cancer a
few years back. I had been so angry because Hector was one heck of a young man and he had had to suffer through a very painful cancer without any
meaningful treatment because the Mexican government did not have the funds to properly care for one of their own citizens.
Again, Hector laughed, as I focused, and asked why I had not dropped off a copy of my last book at his wife’s home. Confused, you bet! It was only
then that I realized that these two friends had come to visit me in the dead of the night to help me back to my feet after I had stumbled over my own
stupidity.
Hector smiled as he told Gus how he had found that I had an ability to crawl right under a Mexicans skin and see what was in his heart. Hector gently
explained that I should not allow a few misplaced folks to get under my skin.
And so my friends I do know that we all have our history’s—and you will just have to live with my stories ‘cause I ain’t done—or thanks the internet
you may just chose to hit the delete button.
My God! It is four o’clock in the morning and my visitors have left me alone to stare at what I have writ.…………….six hours before the first
game…..what to do!
Move over my love. On the 14th of October it will be number 52 and we will celebrate in Baja as usual.
My smidgen of a claim to fame is that I have had so many really good friends. By Bernie Swaim December 2007
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Bajafun777
Super Nomad
Posts: 1103
Registered: 9-13-2006
Location: Rosarito & California
Member Is Offline
Mood: Enjoying Life with Wife In Mexico, Easy on The Easy
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Bernie, good to see your back and hopefully others take heart in your writings. Sometimes we get so focused on the small stuff we miss the things
that really matter. Those things are our friends and friends to be that we just have not met yet. All of us have had people that have touched our
hearts and souls like no others and then they are gone without warning, as it just happens in God's plan. This is why we should give a little thought
and take just a few seconds to show others a little kindness as you just never know. We should all just take a little time to "Care" it won't hurt
and actually makes you feel good in the end. Amigo, wish you and your wife a happy 52nd anniversary and look forward to seeing you at Keri's for the
booksigning next year. Good to see your back on the forum keeping us entertained with your writings. Remember "No Hurry, No Worry, Just Fun."
Later------------- bajafun777
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jerry
Super Nomad
Posts: 1354
Registered: 10-10-2003
Location: loreto
Member Is Offline
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glad your gonna keep on keeping on as we all have to
jerry and judi
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Baja Bernie
`Normal` Nomad Correspondent
Posts: 2962
Registered: 8-31-2003
Location: Sunset Beach
Member Is Offline
Mood: Just dancing through life
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Thanks Jerry---Sometimes we just lose sight of those truisms in life/
My smidgen of a claim to fame is that I have had so many really good friends. By Bernie Swaim December 2007
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Cypress
Elite Nomad
Posts: 7641
Registered: 3-12-2006
Location: on the bayou
Member Is Offline
Mood: undecided
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Baja Bernie Your Baja stories are super and well worth reading no matter where you hang your hat. jerry's post say's it for me.
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Bedman
Senior Nomad
Posts: 523
Registered: 9-4-2002
Location: Orange County, CA.
Member Is Offline
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One of my favorite quotes.
All that is gold does not glitter
All that is found was not lost.
J. R. R. Tolkein
Bedman
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amir
Senior Nomad
Posts: 559
Registered: 5-4-2007
Location: Todos Santos, BCS
Member Is Offline
Mood: chiropractic
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Baja Bernie,
You are an inspiration, in many ways.
I am not privy to the details of your ups and downs, and I can only read between the lines what is going on in your life.
It is easy for me to want to quit when I am feeling depressed. Then somebody reminds me that maybe the beneficiaries of my life is not myself but
those around me and those I touch.
Keep Up my friend! Don't let the negative forces bring you down, for too long...
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Baja Bernie
`Normal` Nomad Correspondent
Posts: 2962
Registered: 8-31-2003
Location: Sunset Beach
Member Is Offline
Mood: Just dancing through life
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Amir--thanks for you wonderful words
I have posted this elsewhere but I do believe, because of your past posts, that you will understand why I have repeated it here.
Okay, here I go again doing what I should not even think of doing. I love to write for so many reasons. It allows me to think on a plain that I
normally do not occupy and touch folks I want so desperately to cause to understand. I know that I sometimes fail, and miserable, because I am not
even sure of what it is that I wish to convey. The only thing that I am sure of is that sometimes I am able to weave a story in such a fashion that it
bring happiness and interest and when that occurs I am on cloud 9 or I have at least have gotten a ‘get out of jail’ free card.
At other times I write because I wish, no need, to act as a bridge between to really two wonderful cultures; I believe that a through mixing makes for
something even greater…more fun and even....more alive.
Occasionally, I cry when I realize that I do not have the tools nor the intellect to bring divergent folks together in such a manner that they can
share each others passions. Passion is, to me, one of the most important ingredients in our rather short and boring lives. It is the one most
important components that must be mixed well in the paintings some of us attempt to create. At other times it is the Jamaican Jerked Pork that is all
by itself a creation of simple passion. More often it is the a simple spice such as garlic added to a basic comfort food like as a stew. Sorta like a
‘Jimmy’s Soup that Sara can share with you should she wish. Rarely is it offered up as this saying I wrote years ago, “He who is blind to my soul
shall never know me.” Passion so clean and pure.
At other times it is the Baileys Cream that soothes the Shakespearean actors parched throat.
As I write this I am beginning to understand that of all of the feelings and senses which move modern man it is passion that is placed behind a high
dam—never to be truly placed on display for it causes confusion—and even conflict. Why is that so I have no clue—but—I do know that our society is
hell bent on eradicating this most important aspect from our daily life. Feel nothing and you are safe!
Live your life passionately and you will have lived a full life and you just may touch another human being.
Like I said I love to write and always hope to reach both friends and foes.
My smidgen of a claim to fame is that I have had so many really good friends. By Bernie Swaim December 2007
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Baja Bernie
`Normal` Nomad Correspondent
Posts: 2962
Registered: 8-31-2003
Location: Sunset Beach
Member Is Offline
Mood: Just dancing through life
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PS Amir
What happened to your wife...............as I remember her few posts she did have a certain passion.
My smidgen of a claim to fame is that I have had so many really good friends. By Bernie Swaim December 2007
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amir
Senior Nomad
Posts: 559
Registered: 5-4-2007
Location: Todos Santos, BCS
Member Is Offline
Mood: chiropractic
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Hey Baja Bernie,
My wife is right here, and we've both been thinking about you for the last couple of days. And she does have passion alright! And if I ever get off
this darn computer, she'll compose another post for you, as she's telling me right now that she wants to...
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Gnome-ad
Nomad
Posts: 156
Registered: 6-4-2007
Location: Todos Santos, BCS
Member Is Offline
Mood: Okey-Dokey
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Hola Bernie ~
Amir’s wife here … I posted on your other thread about We All Must Have a History and said how I wished I had posted when you had written the thread
about why you write. Back when I was first posting on this board you were kind enough to ask about my avatar and Amir was kind enough to answer you. I
was so involved suddenly on fixing our house for sale and taking care of what felt like a million details to prepare for the final move down here. I
do have passion and you probably remember that from my defense of Amir when he was being attacked due to mistaken identity issues. Then I got fired up
about bajalera’s thread on Baja Indians Caring and Sharing. I had just read “1491” by Charles Mann and had plenty of ammunition. Currently I have been
too passionate off topic. Oh well. I like to write as well and I get verbose and sometimes more caustic than is good for me. Trying to find a balance,
but sometimes it is difficult.
Thank you for this dreamtime interlude, Bernie. Visits like these are rare indeed and sharing them more rare. You are a gem and I am honored to read
your thoughts and experiences. This one brought a tear to my eye as I have been down at times and have had a visit from my mother or my sister and
re-awakened to the fact that life is good and for the most part people are good and there are people that I love and who love me.
It is interesting to me that when I was leaving the USA and going back and forth to Baja Sur to visit I needed a house sitter. I found Phil as well! A
different one, I’m sure, but the same in many respects. I trusted him with the care of our home of 26 years and he assured me he would get a good
start on the many little odd jobs around the house that needed to be done in order to sell it. Suffice it to say I came home a day early after my five
week stay in Baja to find an astonishing mess and not one project done. Phil is a sweet guy, but found living a life with a hot tub and indoor
plumbing (he had been living in his van for two years) to just be too comforting to worry about the work he should have been doing in exchange for
getting to live in our little paradise.
Well, it’s all in the past. The house did get fixed up by someone else and it is sold. Our neighbors, unlike yours, were upset with me when I sold it
to seven young people. We had been a quiet couple except for chiropractic patients coming and going, but even that we kept low key. I explained to
them that the new people were good folks who met volunteering after Hurricane Katrina. They lived in a parking lot together for seven months or so,
feeding and comforting people. I felt honored they found our place to be the home base they wanted after deciding they did not want to go back to
their normal lives in different parts of the country after the Katrina experience. I only hope my old neighbors have found that even though some of
these youngins have tribal piercings and sport dreadlocks, they are kind hearted and good. And they are not just squatting.
I wonder if they will keep the wisteria well cared for and all the beautiful plantings and arbors that Amir did around our unique property. Maybe
those things will go the way of your bougainvillea. So we pass on our treasures to others and they do what they will. But sometimes we get to visit
them again, just the way they were, like you did. Again thanks for sharing all your stories. The beat goes on and so do we.
The only normal people are the ones you don't know very well. - Ancis
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David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64617
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
Member Is Offline
Mood: Have Baja Fever
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Yesterday's visit was very nice Bernie... It is good to just relax and share thoughts about 'stuff'... Would you agree?
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Baja Bernie
`Normal` Nomad Correspondent
Posts: 2962
Registered: 8-31-2003
Location: Sunset Beach
Member Is Offline
Mood: Just dancing through life
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Yep! Sure do.
My smidgen of a claim to fame is that I have had so many really good friends. By Bernie Swaim December 2007
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