The ravages of time

rcof

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rwells

Right-up my alley

Ric Grupe

I like this...maybe more of an angle, 45 degrees or more might make the lines more interesting and have a greater impact on the viewer.

Jack'll do

Nice one Looks like a Mexican jail in an old Western B movie.

black mamba

Nice shot. Had to laugh at Jack's reference to a Mexican jail. I could tell a real story about Mexican jails.....you DON"T want to be in one of those things.

Tom

rwells

black mamba wrote:

Nice shot. Had to laugh at Jack's reference to a Mexican jail. I could tell a real story about Mexican jails.....you DON"T want to be in one of those things.

Tom

black mamba

Randy,

It's a two part story. I'll be as brief as possible. It's late in 1973. I'm living in Austin. I've got a business associate that lives in McAllen, Texas. I get down to see him on a regular basis. He is quite a character.....Romanian by birth. To look at him, though, you'd swear he could have ridden with Poncho Villa. He had a big gut, big old mustache, and very dark skinned. He was a real rounder but he had a very redeeming quality....he was married to a real Mexican "queen " from a real rich and influencial family out of Monterrey.

Whenever I was down to see Ron ( his real name ) I also often had with me another associate from Austin named Melvin. We would always make a point of slipping across the border for a little fun and games. On this one particular night of festivities, we got a little carried away. Too much tequila by all of us and an impromptu strip by Melvin got us thrown into the Ciudad Rio Bravo jail. We could barely see, much less communicate. A real hell hole if there ever was one. I don't remember going in, but waking up in the morning was a real revelation. You wouldn't believe the filth and squalor. Damn roaches that looked to be a foot long. This one old derelict, not a tooth in his head, kept trying to piss on Melvin....got him once too, all over his back. There wasn't even a lock on the door. Try and leave and they'd beat the holy hell out of you.

As soon as he was able, Ron started throwing out all sorts of names and numbers. He must have hit a nerve, because it wasn't long and we were out of there. We mustered what dignity we could and strutted out the front door.

Fast foward to early 1974. Melvin and I are now in Reynosa. Ron couldn't make it....had to stay in McAllen that night. Same old story....too much tequila and Carta Blanca. This time we decided to pack it in around 3:00 A.M. and head back to the border. The Ciudad Rio Bravo incident was still fresh on our mind and we didn't want any more of that routine.

We had gone just a few miles and this old, ratted out '56 Ford cop car.....red lights flashing.... pulls me over. The two cops get out and order us out of the car. The head guy tells me that I was speeding and had run a stop sign. Crap!! I could hardly see, couldn't have been going over 15 MPH. and there wasn't a stop sign within 10 miles. About this time, Melvin begins to mouth off. The cop next to him commences to rack him in the ribs with his billy club. Melvin drops like a sack of potatoes.

Right about now, I began to sober up pronto. This is getting serious. The head guy then tells me he thinks I'm drunk ( no S**T ). Says he's going to take me to a Mexican doctor. If the doctor says I'm drunk, we're going to jail. Now it's HOLY CRAP. I ain't ready for that. I tell the guy all we want to do is go home....get back across the border. I ask him if we can't pay some kind of fine or something and get the hell out of there. That's exactly what he wanted to hear. We paid the bastards $ 100.00 and beat it for the border. Later on, Ron said it was a shakedown from the gitgo. He said they do that a lot to gringos and for us not to go over there without him. We never did again.

Dogdots

Wow...what a story. Your just lucky you didn't get stuck in there for a long long time.

About the photo -- love it and it does look like an old jail. Was it?

black mamba

Hi rcof,

I'm not meaning to hijack your thread. As I said, I like your picture. It's exactly the same kind of stuff I like to shot. Well done job.

Tom

rwells

black mamba wrote:

Randy,

It's a two part story. ...

Geez Tom, I didn't take you for a slow learner Thanks for the story


I have a buddy that tells and updated, but very similar story. That's why I've decided that I haven't lost anything down in Mexico - No need to go there.


rcof,
I'm curious as to why your copyright has a line through it? Not an issue for me, just curious.

rcof

I caught this shot as we were returning home from a day trip to take pictures. I was on a back street of a small town we passed through. It wasn't a jail, just had burglar bars on the window. I think it is only used for storage now. The missing plaster and bricks were what caught my eye.

Tom, I enjoyed your story. Definitly not a "resort" I'd want to visit.

Randy, I added the line just to be different.

Ric, I'll go back and shoot it again sometime. Next time I will spend more time trying different angles and different times of day.