Written Friday, February 6th, 2004
It feels like Saturday to me, probably because Butch isn’t golfing today. Tonight we are a going to see a Mariachi performance in Edinburgh. Since it will be an audio and visual performance a report about it may not match the experience. Much of the experience here isn’t easy to relate. Some of the first things I notice when we arrive in the valley is the different smell and the different bird sounds. There is a sweet smell in the air sometimes. A thought just occurred that it might be from the cane fields when they burn them.
Sometime the smells are not pleasant; over ripe produce at the Farmers Market, overworked sewer systems from all the northerners being here since their plumbing is not very far below the ground surface. On warm humid days in Iowa the smells can be quite intense and I am reminded of that here too but yet it is different.
The sounds are different too. Most prominent are the Grackles, a noisy pest of a bird and the one most often heard. To me they say “why”. They drag it out and it is very high pitched. And then there are the Mockingbirds and they copy everything and everybody, a friendly bird and easily tamed. There are the sounds of golf carts now and then and when the wind is from the north a constant hum from the expressway.
When we are in other parts of the country and I hear Tejano or Mariachi music my thoughts always turn to South Texas and/or Mexico. It used to be when I heard Spanish spoken in the grocery aisles I knew I was in South Texas but that isn’t true anymore. Being in Wal Mart in McAllen Texas or Council Bluffs Iowa sounds the same these days.
What sounds and smells are you experiencing right now?