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pacocacho
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Short Story from 15 years ago
Well, I admit I have been reading the Forum since a couple of years ago, and this will be my first post.
I’m not sure it will help in the stats, since I had to register to post, so even if I am a more or less frequent reader, I’m not one of the 8950
register non-writers…
So now one more writer and one more registered… doesn’t help…
Thanks for sharing. For me its nostalgia everywhere. I’ve been out of Mexico for 15 years. Lived in La Paz in the late 90´s… was partner in
Scubaja… (living the dream) but it all went sour when CaliforniaNet went bankrupt…
So I read and enjoy the adventures. Could write a few of my own, but they are from almost 20 years ago.
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pacocacho
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One day in La Paz I planned a trip to Guerrero Negro, specifically we (my wife and me) wanted to go to the Playa del Malarrino. I had some old maps
and there was an unpaved road that apparently could take you to Guerrero Negro without having to make the detour to Loreto/Mulege/Sta Rosalia… the
road goes on the Pacific side, and it has one of the longest straight lines in the world. It is not registred as so, but believe me, from Santa Rita,
that straight line crosses Cd Constitucion, Cd Insurgentes, turned into a dirt road close to Ejido Francisco Villa, and kept on going for 170km… more
than 100 miles…
I don’t know how that road is today, but 15 years ago in was a death trap, it was dry season, so I thought I had no mud to worry… Pavement ended
after Cd Insurgentes, and at first you could still feel the gravel that was placed in the 50’s when the Highway 1 was originally traced to reach
Guerrero Negro by the Pacific side. I later heard the story that due to the highly populated towns of Mulege and Sta Rosalia, they forced Highway 1 to
take the Sea of Cortez route to communicate them… (When I say highly populated towns, I´m not been sarcastic, in those days Baja´s population was
cero, so any town no matter how small, was “highly populated”). Well, so there we were, the road was traced fortysomething years ago, and it had never
been finished. It was a straight line, so even if we started encountering some lowlands, we could just kinda imagine where the road should have been,
and since even if rivers have no permanent water, you could tell where the river forms in the rainy season by the way the gravel disappears for
hundreds of meters. In one of those dry river sand bank, the Brnco 4X4 got stucked. O boy, the dry mud was like talcum powder, I opened the door and
I could hear the noise of the Bronco compacting the powder. I took the first step and there goes my feet like half a meter into an almost liquid
powder that was so dry and fluffy that small waves formed in the surface.
I pulled my left feet out of the powder only to see that my topsider had disappeared and it was never to be seen again. We were stuck… really
stuck.
Sometimes reality is far more incredible that real life and this was one of those magic-baja situations; A couple of kilometers before, I stopped
at the sight of a rattlesnake in the middle of the road. As we approached to take a picture, it turned out to be a stick in the shape and form of a
snake. I took the picture anyway, since there was an angle that you could swear it was a rattlesnake. And a few meters off the road, I see a shovel.
There It was, it must have gotten loose from another vehicle god knows how long ago. The wooden handle was sunburned dry and there were no traces of
paint in the metal parts. You could not see the shovel from the road, since it was lying close to some bushes. The odds of finding it, had a direct
relation with the snakeform stick. Took the shovel and tossed it inside the truck.
When I tell this story, it’s a lot easier to believe that the stick was a real rattle snake than to believe I found a shovel a couple of kilometers
before getting stuck in powder sand.
It took me like 2 hours to free the Bronco, if I hadn´t found that shovel, we would not have made it, the day is only as long as the sun´s hours,
and for a desert, there is a lot of life in that part of the Baja. Within minutes, a swarm of wasp was buzzing around us forcing us to close windows
at 40 degrees Celsius. Within an hour, there were a couple of zopilotes overflying our heads, and suddenly, through the sweat damped snorkel mask I
had put on to shove the sand without eye injury, I saw the first of the coyotes that started rounding us. Once out of the sand pit, the challenge was
getting out of the low lands without getting stuck again. My wife walking testing the consistency of the floor, and me driving behind… it was pit
dark when we finally arrived at Laguna de San Ignacio, where we were looking for a friend from La Paz who had come to do some sort of gigantic whale
sculpture. We brought him basic survival supplies, including a couple of tequilas and some weed. The following day, he took us to the construction
site where he (and a team of around 15 more) was working in the sculpture… All I could see was a pile of seashells in the ground, and guys moving
them with wheelbarrows from one side to another without any logic. I thought they all had gone insane, until he made me notice that they were drawing
in the dark sand with white seashells of like two meters wide…
You can see it in Google Maps if you search around Ejido Luis Echeverria…
[Edited on 6-8-2015 by pacocacho]
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David K
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Thank you for sharing!!
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BajaBlanca
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we have gone thru that powder too! I truly thought we were going to die in the desert that day.
great story and please tell more!
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Whale-ista
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Mood: Sunny with chance of whales
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Shovel? Snake? Ahh, magical mystical Baja at play again...
\"Probably the airplanes will bring week-enders from Los Angeles before long, and the beautiful poor bedraggled old town will bloom with a
Floridian ugliness.\" (John Steinbeck, 1940, discussing the future of La Paz, BCS, Mexico)
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pacocacho
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There was a gringo staying with my friend doing the whale sculpture (by the way, has anyone found it in Google Earth? Just slightly north of Luis
Echeverria). He was driving an old white van whose paint had started to fade leaving the original underneath painting; U-Haul…
Now, at that time I hadn’t lived that much in Baja to understand the U-Haul effect. My naïve thinking was that somewhere in the process of
recycling vehicles in that company, they sold some old lot to a broker in Tijuana and they ended in Baja. I had seen a couple of them in La Paz, and
more in other small towns. They were usually driven by gringos, and even if they made an effort to hide the U-Haul logo, the Baja sun is so fiercely
that it ends burning the paint unevenly and leaving U-Haul tattooed in the rusty metal of the van.
With time, I found out that there was no old truck sale every once and then as to explain such a great number of disguised U-Hauls. Turns out the
real reason as to their presence was a lot creepier. Behind every old camouflaged U-Haul, there is a story of a fleeing gringo. The motives varies as
much as life itself, some were running away from the IRS, others from a lousy divorce, or a bankruptcy, and some were running from the law… small
crimes or big ones, you would never know…
One day, they just walked into the rental office in –let’s say- Orange County, make one of their last card swipes of their previous life, go home
to fill the van with the essentials, and as in the movies, cross the border to lawless Mexico…
Once in Mexico they are free (like the movies). Free to take another name, another story, another life. The only thing that remains from their
previous one in that stubborn U-Haul logo that even under 3 layers of white paint it crawls out to the Baja sun.
Many years later I bumped into my La Paz friend and after remembering his torturous months in San Ignacio, he tells me “Hey, remember the gringo?
Turns out he was a high profile criminal, two weeks after you passed by the whale sculpture, he disappeared and a couple of days later the Feds came
by (the Mexican Judiciales that is). They turned my place upside down, confiscated my weed, and held me for like a day asking me questions about the
Gringo. Looks like he had killed his wife and in-laws in L.A. and there was a reward for his capture…”
(thanks for the comments, I´m in western europe time, so by the time you guys post, I'm sleeping like a baby)
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David K
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Thanks for double spacing paragraphs... makes reading stories much easier!
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Kgryfon
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Wow, great story! Please post more!
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Martyman
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Welcome Pacocacho-Great Story
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Sjsam
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Story
Nice story ,But the road 15 years ago Was paved from Insurgentes north to La Pursima. Around 1980 after Saragosa going north it was still dirt.
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Bajatripper
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Quote: Originally posted by pacocacho  |
With time, I found out that there was no old truck sale every once and then as to explain such a great number of disguised U-Hauls. Turns out the
real reason as to their presence was a lot creepier. Behind every old camouflaged U-Haul, there is a story of a fleeing gringo. The motives varies as
much as life itself, some were running away from the IRS, others from a lousy divorce, or a bankruptcy, and some were running from the law… small
crimes or big ones, you would never know…
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Now that would be an interesting study...
Welcome to the board, paco. Enjoyed your story. A little background on that stretch of highway. In the late 1930s Mexican President Lazaro Card##as (I
have no earthly idea why it keeps replacing the "en" with "##" in the middle of the president's name) commissioned a man named Ulises Irigoyen to go
to the peninsula to do a study of the local economic conditions and make suggestions on how to improve them. He was given a free hand and a letter of
introduction from the president to anyone who crossed his path asking them to be helpful in the project. If I remember, Irigoyen was a writer of some
sort--I think newspapers, but I'm not sure (my references are packed away at the moment). One thing he wasn't was an historian, to judge from the book
that resulted from his efforts titled La Carretera Transpeninsular, published around 1944.
Anyway, his book makes evident that that particular section of road wasn't on the Federal government's radar yet. This view is backed by the writings
of Homer Aschmann, a geographer who spent much time in the peninsula in the '40s-'50s and who later wrote an excellent article about Baja's road
history (it can be found in a book compiling some of his writings titled The Evolving Landscape: Homer Aschmann's Geography by Martin J.
Pasqualetti). At that time, any road-building that took place was motivated by local governments. Probably because of its greater population centers
in those towns you mentioned, the southern peninsula built a lot more roads that did the northern section of Baja. Territorial governments were ruled
by men who were appointed by the Federal Government. They were usually military men. Though President Card##as was the first president to see the
economic benefit of building a road down the peninsula, little money was allocated federally for it's building until the presidency of Luis Echeverria
(1970-76). He's the president responsible for making BCS a state. His interest in improving Baja is one reason why many old-timer Sudcalifornianos
think highly of him in spite of his jaded past as a government official.
Getting back to that particular section of road, I read somewhere that one of those generals had a local interest in La Purisima in the 1940s and so
it was a destination that he wanted to travel to regularly. I think you can figure out the rest.
I'd also like to take the opportunity to give a hearty "Hello" to my good friend David K. Work in a new career have kept me kind of busy--that, and
the lack of Internet at home, which has now been resolved.
[Edited on 6-6-2015 by Bajatripper]
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Sjsam
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Think the General your talking about had a place in San Miguel Comondu. Down by the school.
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Udo
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About 30 years ago, during my Jeep days, we (and the rest of the caravan of 12 Jeeps), drove that road, and I remember well the talcum powder road. We
ended up winching out two of the Jeeps that did not have lockers in front and rear.
A couple of years later we drove from Cabo to Tecate on mostly dirt roads via the SOC.
Those were some great days.
Thanks for the memories, pacocacho!
Udo
Youth is wasted on the young!
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Bajatripper
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Actually, since I didn't mention a name, it could be anywhere. But the one I have in mind had holdings in La Purisima, according to Fernando Jordan.
Generals who were posted to such far-away places (often as punishment for not towing the Party Line, as was the case with Gen. Francisco Mujica)
frequently helped themselves to local properties. They often fancied themselves the gentlemen ranchers. I can think of seven properties within 150
miles of La Paz that were once held by generals. Mission properties were popular places.
There most certainly is but one side to every story: the TRUTH. Variations of it are nothing but lies.
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Sjsam
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Right lots of Generals back then. That's why a lot of these places got power and phone services early on
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David K
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Hello Steve! Yes indeed it is good to see you online again. Please drop me an email with the latest scoop on things.
Sjsam, welcome to Baja Nomad! We appreciate hearing from those who are there, on the local seen and have an interest in their local history.
Here is a recap from my memory of the basic story on Comondu and the general...
The largest California mission church constructed was the 1737+ location of Mision San Jose de Comondu. The stone church was constructed from 1754 to
1760. Services were performed to at least 1828 when the site was abandoned and in the following years, neglect took its toll.
Photos of the ruined church were taken by North in 1906 and Davis in 1926 and it was indeed impressive but dangerous in its condition. The church was
demolished in 1936 (said to make room for a school), with only the side chapel left intact, and that is what remains today identified as the mission
for tourists. The school has since also been demolished.
The rumor we hear is that a Mexican general needed building material for his villa in nearby San Miguel Comondu, and the 1750's mission blolcks were
harvested for it.
The late Jimmy Smith told me a story about that... I am searching for it.
In the meantime, another gem from Jimmy...
Here is a post from 2003 by Jimmy Smith, The Grinning Gargoyle:
==========================================================
O.K. Guys
It's a little long and windy. Maybe Doug will tolerate it:
VICTIMS OF PARADISE
GIA FAMILIAR DE BAJA CALIFORNIA (Family Guide of Baja California) by the peninsula's foremost savant, Pablo L. Martinez is a record of about 12,000
births, baptisms, marriages and deaths that ocurred here between 1700 and 1900. This rare old book, while deficient in certain areas, is remarkably
well done considering the communication and transportation facilities available at the time it was written. To the casual reader, it is about as
fascinating as a telephone directory, however, for those of a historical bent it becomes an essential tool. Browsing reveals that there were 187
Anglo-saxton surnames registered, seventeen in the hamlet of Comondu.
Whatinhell were seventeen gringos doing a highland village of 800 people?
Wouldn't you know it started with a dude named Smith!
Prof. Martinez tells it like this: "SMITH, - Founder James Wilcox Smith. He was not a whaler but an English gentleman to all appearances, who brought
with him some economic resources. He arrived in Loreto by 1817 or 1818. He made great efforts to marry Concepcion Arguello, the governor's daughter,
(Jose Dario Arguello was governor of California from from 1814 to 1822) but being a very disillusioned young lady because of an earlier romance with
the Russian, Rezanoff, she turned him down. He married a Miss Verdugo , whose complete name I have not found. This man was the trunk of those who use
his surname at Comondu and outskirts."
Richard F. Pourade in his TIME OF THE BELLS smears egg on Prof. Martinez's face with the following passage: "One of the most curious and for a time
suspicious visitors to the (Pacific) coast was Capt. James Smith Wilcox, on the American Ship TRAVELER, identified in Spanish reports as THE
CAMINANTE.
When his ship was sighted off Monterey (presently in the state of California) , all guns were manned, soldiers marched to battle stations, and Gov.
Sola himself donned his uniform and prepared for action.
Ordered ashore, Capt Wilcox said he merely wanted to engage in trade. He was dressed in black with a swallowtail coat and tall fur hat. Thus there was
every indication he was some kind of a spy. However, he managed to establish friendly relations and eventually, September of 1817, picked up a cargo
of grain at San Diego and carried it to Loreto, the first such shipment from this port. At Loreto his ship was seized by a Mexican treasury officer
and stripped of Valuables. It was finally released.' It would appear that Prof. Pablo got some surnames transposed here.
The mystery of Comondu begins in San Jose del Cabo on the last day of 1808. Thomas Smith, a crewman on the Yankee trading ship DROMO, stayed on the
beach and watched the China bound vessel depart. He elected to live among the palm shaded villages and brown skinned maidens rather than face the
harsh life on the winter seas. Harry W. Crosby relates in THE LAST OF THE CALIFORNIOS: "Thomas Smith's decision made him the first citizen of the
United States to settle permanently in greater California.
The sergeant in charge of local Spanish troops reported to the governor that on August 20, 1809 at the mining center of San Antonio south of La Paz "
the American, Thomas, was baptized, having shown a great desire to enter our company and submit to our laws. His godfather, a local hero, Ensign
Javier Aguilar, was a sixty-six-year-old veteran soldier and a native of the peninsula. Smith took the baptismal name of Javier Aguilar and used it
for the rest of his life.
Subsequent Baja California documents show that Smith/Aguilar was paid as a sailor serving the Presidio of Loreto, married Maria Meza, (Maria Meza was
the daughter of Miguel Meza and Luz Arce. Meza was mayor of Loreto and temporally governor of California. He appropriated a vast ranch in Comondu
while in office), volunteered as a soldier and finally settled down to raise a large family in the peninsular hamlet of Comondu, where his children
eventually resumed the Smith name." (Evidence located in Doyce Nunis's MEXICAN WAR IN BAJA CALIFORNIA indicates that Thomas Smith found it convenient
to use his original name during the war. JPS)
Apart from Thomas Smith, 17 other English surnames appear in the vital statistics of Comondu between 1859 and 1896:
Horace Sherman confessed before marrying Soledad Real Dec. 8. 1859 .
John Cooper confessed before marrying Juana Osuna Aug. 21, 1859
Jose O. Belismelis (obviously spelling error) was born to Francisco Belismelis and Leonides Vidaurrazaga Apr. 4, 1877
Andrew Olsen married Susanna Aleja Robinson Dec 20, 1875
Andrez Filiberto Olson was born to Andrew Olson and Susanna Mesa Apr 19, 1877 (It is probable that the bride/mother's complete name was Susanna Aleja
Robinson Meza)
Guillermo Pedro Robinson was baptized in Comondu 21 Jan 1883 born 9 Jan 1829
This was probably the father of Susana Aleja Robinson Meza.
William Robbins married Guadalupe Lieras Mar. 5 1867
David Chonce (Shawnesy mispelled?) married Petra Baltierra Aug 7, 1867.
Maria Carmen Davis born to Lucas Davis and Beniga Cleiton Nov 2, 1879
Fredrico Taylor married Adela Garayzar Sep 26, 1896
William Osborns married Maria Meza Nov 5, 1862.
William Robinson baptized in Comondu at age of 54 years Jan 9, 1829
Ysabel Filcher was born to Robert Filcher and Salvadora Aguilar (Smith definitely daughter of Tom) Sep 27, 1860
Antonio Osben was born to Andrew Osben and Nieves Aguilar (Smith) Sep. 18. 1860 .
William Cunningham born to Stuart Cunningham and Emigdia Verdugo Jan 19, 1896 .
Seth Morton confessed before marrying Rosalia Romero 4 June 1860
Henry Luther and Elena Cunningham baptized a number of children the oldest being born in 1867
Margret Culleton and her husband Jacinto Rondero baptised a son 27 December 1883.
In his pamphlet entitled: BAJA CALIFORNIA ILUSTRADA, J. R. Southworth related that the population of Comondu in 1899 was 809 souls.
The people of the district devote themselves principally to agricultural pursuits and cattle grazing. Large crops of dates, figs and grapes are also
raised and a fine grade of grape wine is made. The following is a correct estimate of the crops raised in the district last year; 45,000 pounds of
grapes, value $1,600 ($.0355 per pound?), 112,500 pounds of figs, value $2,000 ($.0177 per pound?), 27,000 pounds of dates, value $960 ($.0355 per
pound?) and the wine manufactured was worth $3,750. As a rule the crops are much heavier than this, but the season of 1898, because of rains, was not
a good one."
Assuming that all 809 residents of Comondu were dependant on agriculture, excluding cattle ranching, the per capita income would be only $10.27 per
annum. The 18 English Surnamed families would have certainly represented a considerable percentage of the population. There was no mining nor fishing.
It must be assumed that the bread winners had other sources of income.How did these people sustain themselves?
MEN AND WHALES; Henderson PP 126
"Local Mescal, which sometimes found its way aboard ship, must have been welcomed by the thirsty and boisterous crews of the whaling vessels. Among
the inhabitants of the villages and ranchos inland from Estero Santo Domingo the distillation of mescal from the juices of agave or maguey plants of
the desert appears to been an important occupation.(Southworth reports 45,000 pounds of grapes harvested in 1898, He also states that 3,750 dollars of
wine was made that year, another report in 1751 reports a harvest of 7,000 pounds of sugar.)
After the Jesuit expulsion in 1767, the inoming Franciscian priests inventoried the property found at the San Jose de Comondu mission. This inventory
included: two wine presses, one large and one small and an assortment of large containers used in the preperation, fermentation and storage of wine.
These included tubs and vats as well as seventeen barrels and 140 tinajas (casks of about 11 gallons capacity to facilitate transport on pack burros).
In addition, San Jose had two stills for producing brandy.
It seems reasonable to believe that some of this equipment yet existed when the Gringo whalers arrived there 100 years later.
Mike Werner, winemaker, informs us that 1,000 pounds of grapes will yield about 90 gallons of wine. When distilled, this wine will produce about 18
gallons of brandy per each 1,000 pounds of grapes, based on Southworth's figure of an annual yield of 45,000 pounds of grapes Comondu produced about
810 gallons or 72 tinajas of brandy anualy. This would amount to 36 burro loads of brandy for the thirsty whalers at Boca de Santa Dominga.
It seems reasonable that the still was used to produce rum from the sugar cane crop as well as mescal from the maguey which grows in profusion on the
mesas above the village.
Some Mexicans came to Magdalena Bay to be employed as hands on the whaling vessels. Others some times working with their entire families, rendered the
remains of whales which the whalers had finished flensing and had cast away. The rendering of the abandoned whales, called "stinkers," was termed
"carcassing". A few days after being cast aside the bloated carcasses towered out of the water like giant bladders which were covered with gulls and
attacked by sharks. From the "stinkers" , which were driven ashore by the sea breeze, the Mexicans and RESIDENT FOREIGNERS extracted three or four
barrels of oil by trying-out the fat about the intestines, lungs and hearts. The whalers furnished casks for the oil rendered by the local folk who
sold the oil to the whalers for high priced trade items. Pots for trying-out the oil were apparently sometimes also supplied by the whalers, for
Prentice Mulford wrote that when the San Francisco Schooner HENRY departed Estero Santo Domingo in 1857, the natives were left a dozen iron vessels
the richer.
Mulford commented that some of the Mexicans also profited from the whalers visits by coming aboard at mealtime and eating everything in sight,
including all of the butter and sugar placed on the table.
At Comondu, inland from the northern reaches of Estero Santo Domingo, lived a group of Englishmen and Americans who carried out "carcassing" in the
winter gray-whaling season. Comondu supplied hands for the whaling vessels. Most of the whalers at Comondu must have deserted whale-ships at Magdalena
Bay, as did the boat crew of the CONGRESS of New Bedford in 1862.
Desertion by crew members of whaleships was not uncommon, even along peninsular shores where success was much more likely than at Magdalena Bay, where
nearby ranches and towns of the Cape District of southern Baja California offered refuge for the deserters."
It would seem that our Victims of Paradise were ex-whalers who found the best of two worlds. They lived with brown skinned maidens in the lush
tropical valley of Comondu.They Made and sold grog to the whalers and carcarssed when not employed as whalers. Not a bad way to go!
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Bajatripper
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| Quote: Originally posted by Sjsam | | Right lots of Generals back then. That's why a lot of these places got power and phone services early on |
The Baja California Sur I remember from the 1960s didn't have much in the way of power or phone service except for in La Paz and a couple of the
larger towns (though I don't remember seeing any public phones in La Paz during the years I lived there in the mid-sixties). Places like San Ignacio,
La Purisima and the Commondus didn't have power, running water, sewage services or phones in the early '60s. Well, they did have running water, in the
asequias. By the time these services began making their way to rural areas of Baja, civilian governors were being appointed.
So no, the generals didn't do a whole lot for economic development in the southern peninsula. Some of them, such as Francisco Mujica, really wanted to
help the locals and put their ideas on paper, but financing--all of which came from the Federal Government in those days (at least in BCS because of
its territorial status)--was always in short supply.
In the North, that was a different matter. Esteban Cantu and Abelardo Rodriguez (who would go on to serve a short term as president of Mexico) were
two generals who had huge impacts on the economic and social development of the border region of Baja. They were really local dictators so they were
able to get things done "efficiently." In fact, the president of Mexico had to send an army unit to get Cantu out of office.
Cantu used "sin taxes" on the prohibition-era alcohol, gambling, prostitution and illicit drug industry that sprung up across the border when the US
declared Prohibition (remember, California was about 11 years ahead of the rest of the nation in getting rid of public drinking, which gave that
region of the US-Mexican border a head start in developing the Sin Tourism Industry). Rodriguez is credited with having established much of the
fish-canning industry in Baja. His old house overlooks his cannery at El Sauzal, just north of Ensenada.
While each was motivated by private gain, they did also invest in infrastructure development such as roadways, public lighting and education,
hospitals, dams, etc. Cantu is the guy responsible for the first road down the Rumorosa Grade, a major accomplishment in its day.
[Edited on 6-7-2015 by Bajatripper]
There most certainly is but one side to every story: the TRUTH. Variations of it are nothing but lies.
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David K
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Esteban Cantú ?
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Bajatripper
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Thanks for the post by Jimmy Smith, David, I really enjoyed the read. He was posting before I was a member, so I didn't get exposed to his wisdom.
One point that I find interesting is based on these passages:
Prof. Martinez tells it like this: "SMITH, - Founder James Wilcox Smith. He was not a whaler but an English gentleman to all appearances... (t)his
man was the trunk of those who use his surname at Comondu and outskirts."
Richard F. Pourade in his TIME OF THE BELLS smears egg on Prof. Martinez's face with the following passage: "One of the most curious and for a time
suspicious visitors to the (Pacific) coast was Capt. James Smith Wilcox..." (i)t would appear that Prof. Pablo got some surnames transposed here.
Assuming these two names are for the same person (always dangerous)...if one follows the custom of most former Spanish colonies, the father's surname
comes before the mother's--in other words, the opposite of our way of doing things. So, Pablo Martinez (with whom I have my own issues) seems to have
known enough about our system of surname usage to have been able to compensate for it by "transposing" them.
Of course, that wouldn't explain how it is that the mother's last name became the dominant one.
There most certainly is but one side to every story: the TRUTH. Variations of it are nothing but lies.
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Bajatripper
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3147
Registered: 3-20-2010
Member Is Offline
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Yeah, that guy  . Thanks!
Obviously, I've been away from the subject matter too long, so this is a good refresher for me.
There most certainly is but one side to every story: the TRUTH. Variations of it are nothing but lies.
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