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#Post#: 14429--------------------------------------------------
Old Neighbors' Nephews
By: Jack Date: August 13, 2019, 4:36 pm
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I don't mention them a whole lot for many reasons, but I once
wrote about my next door neighbors, Freddy and Raymond Martinez.
Freddy was a year younger than me, and Raymond was four years
younger. I wrote a bit about them in the story Temperature
Rising -
HTML https://www.bransomtx.com/raymond01.html
Their family still lives next door to my mom. Besides Freddy
and Ramon, they also had two daughters whom I didn't know as
well - one was 2 or 3 years older than me, and the other was
younger than Raymond. One of the daughters still lives in
Bransom, and the other actually lives with her parents.
I've been helping my mom with more stuff lately, which means
I've been seeing those people again. I'm not really friends
with any of them, but we're at least polite to each other.
The daughter living with her parents has a son - Alejandro - who
lives there with them. He's college age, 19, I think . The
daughter who lives in town also has a son, Ricardo, who was
staying with his grandparents (at least during the day) much of
the summer, because he's 15 and taking driver's education.
Both boys have black hair, dark brown eyes, and a light Hispanic
skin tone. Despite the age difference, both of the boys are
about the same height (slightly taller than me, so 6' or maybe
6'1") and very lean (Alejandro looks like he hasn't really
filled out through the chest and shoulders yet).
One afternoon, I think not long after we'd come back from San
Antonio, I was in Mom's garage, rearranging a few things and
carrying some trash to the curb. Alejandro and Ricardo were out
doing a bit of lawn work, and we got to talking.
One of the boys - Alejandro, I think - asked something like if
I'd just moved in. I explained that it was my mother's house,
and that I'd 'just moved in' in 1974, and I'd been friends with
their uncles. I stopped to make sure that it was 'uncles' for
both of them, and got the bit of background information I
already shared. I asked a general question about their uncles,
then they asked what their uncles had been like as kids. I was
never close friends with either of them, but I told a bit of
what I remember. Then I mentioned that they'd both been trouble
prone back then, and added that their grandfather had been
really strict back then.
"He's really strict now," both of the boys hurried to assure me.
"Maybe so, but from everything I heard, he swung a serious
paddle back then."
"He still does," Alejandro insisted.
I only remember seeing that paddle a couple of times, but I'd
say it's pretty comparable to paddlewerks 18" classic paddle.
As I tried to describe it, the boys agreed with me that either
their grandpa (abuelo?) still has it or has one just like it
(and also admitted their grandma used to spank them with a
spoon). After that, the discussion denigrated a bit. They were
both trying to say that their grandpa hadn't paddled them in
years, but Alejandro told me that his cousin 'still got
threatened with it', and Ricardo insisted 'so (did Alejandro).
Alejandro also mentioned having to drop boxers. They didn't
seem to want to go into specifics, but we did end up talking
about tighty whities a bit, which both of them had worn when
they were younger - though both obviously wear boxer briefs now
(shirtless for the yard work).
I go by mom's house at least a couple of times a week, but I
haven't had a chance to talk to them again. I just thought it
was a fun conversation and maybe worth sharing.
#Post#: 14434--------------------------------------------------
Re: Old Neighbors' Nephews
By: db105 Date: August 14, 2019, 1:04 am
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[quote author=Jack link=topic=1424.msg14429#msg14429
date=1565732183] I just thought it was a fun conversation and
maybe worth sharing.
[/quote]
It is!
Aren't there fathers in the picture? I mean, with all the talk
about grandparental discipline...
#Post#: 14438--------------------------------------------------
Re: Old Neighbors' Nephews
By: Jack Date: August 14, 2019, 4:56 am
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There isn't in the case of Alejandro, at least not living with
them. There might be visitation? Or contact, at least, since
he's an adult now. As for Ricardo, I don't know. And there
really wasn't any 'all that' implied - more just an indication
that their grandparents had disciplined them in the past at some
point.
It's hard for me to say much about Mr. Martinez. While he
speaks pretty much perfect English now, when I first met him (45
years ago, remember), his English was so heavily accented that I
could barely understand him, and his wife often had to
translate. That makes it hard for me to have had any real
impression of him back then. The only reason I probably have
any impression at all is that his kids weren't allowed to learn
Spanish until after they were fluent in English, so I was never
cut off by them speaking Spanish when I was around.
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