Saturdays with Sam OM

HUNTING WITH HOOT

One day, a long, long time ago, I was a teenager, full of all the usual male adolescent stuff, and becoming a man.  I was well on my way, because for $70 I bought my first car, a 1941 Chevrolet.  Most of the paint had been worn off of it, so I painted it.  Knowing nothing about painting, I went to a store, bought paint and a brush and plunged in.  I painted the bottom half black, and the top half yellow because those two colors were on sale.  The color choice was also a form of rebellion.  I did it just to irritate my Dad.  He rose to the bait, and made me repaint to top half, so I went and bought pink paint.  Over the next several months the pink faded, so it was kind of yellowish pink.  That was a great old car.  Flat out it did 74 miles per hour, but I put the entire JV baseball team in it when the team bus wouldn’t start.  We made it to the game on time, but lost to some Jr. High team.  That was just about as embarrassing as our uniforms.  They had no budget for JV uniforms, so they made us wear old pants from the football team and our own tee shirts.  No logos, no hats.  You can imagine how silly that looked, football pants, with no pads under them.  Anyway I drove the car for three years, paid no attention to maintenance issues, largely because I didn’t know about them, and it never quit on me.  And, just owning a car gave me status with my friends, especially those who didn’t have cars yet.

Saturdays with Sam OM

HER FIRST CAR

You can’t live this long without accumulating some great memories.  I have noticed that recently some of them are vanishing, and thought that I should capture them before dissolute living erases what’s left.  One of my most special recollections is buying our daughter her first car.  So let’s sit back together and enjoy reminiscing about the good old days:

Saturdays with Sam OM

It’s not Funny

We’ve all read about the importance of humor.  Good health requires it.  But, I guess that’s just like exercising and eating a healthy diet.  Only a few people actually do it and we all know that people who exercise and eat health food are weird.  They are pompous, boring, self righteous asses, who die young.  Nutritionists keep changing their ideas of what is healthy.

Saturdays with Sam OM

IT’S A CHANGING WORLD

Life here in our little village is changing due largely to events in the world that really are beyond our control or even influence. For the developers who focus on selling property to gringos, it has been a disastrous year. The bad publicity from the U.S. press about violence and swine flu has virtually dried up their market. That frustrates all of us here because we don’t even have violent crime in most of Mexico, and the swine flu has never appeared on the Baja. It has meant financial hardship for working families, and even bankruptcy for many small businesses. It’s just not right or fair, but I guess that’s life, and we find ways to adapt. In spite of all the negativity there are some positive things happening. There is still a steady stream of foreigners moving here for the good weather, safety, and cheap living costs that still exist. There are others who are moving here because we have so many good cocktail parties and people who are a little off center. We still have a relaxed atmosphere without the stress that seems to be a part of life up North. It is a very healthy place to live.