In the olden days everybody knew you could find sweets of all kinds at a confectionary and get your shoes repaired at the cobblers and a hack was a taxi-driver rather than someone who wreaks havoc on our computers. A proprietor was someone who owned a business and gay meant "happy." We could find many colloquial examples and parlance of the day by reading old newspapers and words printed or written on the backs of postcards.
We originated several terms to describe one thing that is called something somewhere else such as "resaca" instead of "ox bow" lake and you'll probably hear several explanations as to how they got their name but I like the simple explanation of it meaning what it sounds like - a dry lake -- even though now our city has the water systems to keep them replenished all the time.
But all that is beside the point. What we have here is a rarely seen postcard which this blogger felt deserved a post with a few words spent on it. Those thatch roofed huts in the background are what indigenous people called "jacals" and in old postcards of poor Mexicans we also see men hauling water barrels and they are called "piperos." Sorry, I haven't the time or desire to explain all these words to our handful of readers.... The people seen in this postcard was the fringe society of Brownsville that was pushed to the outskirts of the city and eventually eliminated by the new builders and businesses that formed a city.
I view today's historical community much like the people in this postcard.
But as administrator of this blog I hope to spend more time writing to reach out to more people to express an interest in the local history and controversial issues once in a while and sometimes I may provoke discontent with malefic souls disguised as social justice warriors ... when there is time for that. Please stay tuned for more later ....
Postcard sent by local historian Rene Torres.
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