bedsitter23

We made our vacation for 2018 centered around the Rio Grande Valley. This is where we went in 2014 and I blogged about it then. Papa Bedsitter was down there, so that was the reason for the visit.

I won't blog about the same stuff since this isn't a different visit, but do want to hit some of the main observations I had. There are two figures that are revered in this area (Harlingen-Brownsville-McAllen). One is Harlan Block. Block was born in Harlingen and was one of the soldiers along with Ira Hayes raising the flag at Iwo Jima. (Iwo Jima looms large in Harlingen. There is a statue that was the original sculpture for the Iwo Jima Memorial in Washington). The other is Freddy Fender, a legend in tejano music as well as country music, who was born in and buried in San Benito.

There is history here. The first battle of the Mexican War was here. The US with Zachary Taylor pushed the Mexicans south and would set up in Port Isabel. The Texans would fight again in Matamoros, which is just across the border. In 1863, the Union took the Confederates at the Battle of Brownsville and able to significantly disrupt the Confederacy's trade routes.

I have covered some of that stuff before, so I will try to keep these posts pertinent to this trip.

In 2018, there's not much difference in place to place. When I was kid, it seemed like it was a new world to travel somewhere where everything was new. Now, there are Wal-Marts everywhere, Walgreens on every corner, and once a restaurant pops up, they almost immediately try to go national.

Which isn't to say, there are some things about Texas. There's HEB, Whataburger and Raising Cains, all places I rate highly. Things are different, of course. There is a sense of Mexico to the place. There's a bit of Florida and California too, and those places where they have prospered and maybe failed. There's palm trees. There's onion fields and sugar cane fields. With sugar cane, they grow it, and when it's grown, they burn the fields, thus removing the leaves and only leaving that hard cane.

There's Spanish style homes, often with an outdoor pool. Where we went, it's hardly ever cold, even warmer than the usually warm climes of Houston and Dallas northbound.

People are strange when you are a stranger. Bill Shakespeare wrote that, and it's true, so every place is filled with ads for attorneys and car dealers and none is more ubiquitous in South Texas than Charlie Clark.



Every successful car dealer has a story, but Clark's a bit interesting than most. A quick google search will tell you what you would probably lead with if you were writing a business magazine- that Clark makes terribly outdated ads.



By outdated, I mean racist- Clark has dressed up as Tonto as recently as 2013 complete with broken English and rain dance, and that was only one in a long line that includes pokes at Asians and Italians.  Indeed, Clark calls himself the Green Ghost (if it's not obvious, it sounds like "gringo".)

Yet, although I could end the story there, it's not that simple.  Clark seems to be loved in the area.  His Green Ghost character is a decade strong.  That character is paired with his childhood nanny, an 80+ year old Mexican woman he calls his 'pau-pau'.  Clark speaks Spanish in his ads, supports a  gospel show, and even developed a television show for his characters which shows on Spanish-language television in the area. 

It's a bizarre mix for success.  I suppose he's the crazy South Texas car dealer, but he's their crazy car dealer.  Like Jerry Lawler in Memphis, he appears to be above reproach.

It is also an American success story, which is why he is not only the guy who took over a failing car dealership about 20 years ago to the most ubiquitous face in the Rio Grande Valley, and they are writing about him in the Wall Street Journal