December Remembrances

The month of December always takes me back to my hometown of Crystal City.


I remember walking up and down the sidewalks downtown and shopping and peering in the windows of the storefronts.


I remember Christmas plays where I played an angel in the nativity scene only because I had blonde hair and they thought at the time I guess that angels needed to have blonde hair!


I remember the Christmas lights decorating contests in neighborhoods.


I remember our hometown's homeless gentleman, Assi Alli, walking around near the Christmas tree lot where my Dad took us to buy a tree one year. I was afraid of that man in the ragged clothes and the American Flag bedecked hat, but as I got older I learned more and more what a kind soul that man was, and was saddened to learn years later that he died on Dec 26th, the day after Christmas.


I remember counting on getting new Nancy Drew books every year to read and add to my collection and the year my parents decided I was old enough to have a transistor radio and the year they decided I could wear makeup and gifted those items as well.


I remember a few years when Dad decided to help Mom with the Christmas shopping. When we were little, he gave me a little robot and a steam engine plant powered by sterno fuel and a remote controlled airplane. When I got to be a teenager I remember one year him buying me perfume...this was not long before he passed away.


I remember helping to cut branches from our juniper bushes and tying them to the fence in front of the house just before stringing Christmas lights over them.


I recall the year my mom, feeling festive, put a blue light bulb in the porch light, to go along with the other decorating and then wondering why the police car drove slowly by our house...


I remember some cold and rainy winters and some winters where I was still wearing shorts.


Christmas school holidays!


And then as the month draws to a close as it has now, I recall that my mom always said that all the world would be celebrating her birthday on the the 31st. Happy Birthday Mom, Happy New Year!

Crystal City Memories

I thought I would share these Crystal City Memories gleaned from an email that was going around. This is wonderful stuff from an earlier, simpler time in Crystal. Nancy

Classmate 1 - I also remember distinctly the dry cleaning being delivered to our house for my mom and the dry cleaning guy that delivered it of course back then only took cash, and he gave out change from a little change purse thingy that he wore on his belt. I always thought that was very odd when I saw him get change out of a "man purse'! haha.

Also, I remember Dr. Poindexter coming by the house once to check on one of us kids, something only the very rich enjoy today and even then is rare!.

Oh, and one other one, remember (for those of us that had the tv cable during the early 70's-all 4 channels) you tuned in to a special channel to see the wind-temp-barometric pressure gauges on TV and they had the elevator music playing while the camera would pan from one gauge to the next! SWEET!

Classmate 2 - Remember picking up coke bottles, for the deposit,5 cents for the small ones and a dime for the 12 ounce ones, then going to the 5 & 10 store for stuff.

Going to the Olivares Brothers Barber Shop, where you picked out your haircut style from the pencil drawings across from the chairs by number?. I'm thinking the cuts were either a dollar or two?.

Of course the best fast food was/is Dairy Kreme....

Classmate 1 - Yep, used to pickup coke bottles in the vacant lots and alongside the road and take’em down to Joe's Short Stop to buy all the candy and pop I needed! I used to get my haircuts downtown at Mr. Black's shop, and there was only one choice that I remember, BUZZ CUT! hahaha But I used to like going in there cause he always had the air conditioner going and lots of those puzzles hanging on the indoor puzzle tree he used to have in there. I think he even had this little electric shock machine set up on a table, where you would put your finger on 2 wires that were nailed down to a board and he'd crank a little generator by hand and it would give you a little jolt. Oh boy, the simple things in life we had back in the day. My grandson would be so bored, or would he?

Crystal City, TX Class of '78 Reunion

Can you believe it's been 30 Years? Well it's here and we are veryexcited! We have had several Meetings and here are the details.Check it out! We look forward in seeing you.

We are asking for a donation of $35.00 per couple or more if youwish, to help cover the expenses. Please RSVP by October 17, 2008.

Class of '78 Reunion
Saturday, November 8, 2008
4:00 P.M. to 8:00 P.M.
Tumble Weed, Hwy. 83, Crystal City, Texas 78839
(Brisket Dinner with Trimmings and Tea provided -- Buy your own
Beer/Cooks/Water at Tumble Weed)

Send Checks, Money Orders or Cash to:Cynthia M. Ortiz
C/O Class of '78P.O. Box 623
Crystal City, TX 78839
Make Checks/Money Orders payable to Cynthia M. Ortiz or Connie R.
Lozano, and on the Memo write Class of '78 Reunion.
We still need addresses and phone numbers. Please contact Eloy
Menchaca at 830-374-7045, Connie R. Lozano at 210-237-9737 or myself
Noemi (Mimi) Lopez at 830-374-7135.