Monday, April 14, 2014

Trench Warfare

Cheito Pagan rummaged through his father's tools and found the rusty army surplus entrenching tool. He grabbed it and the yellow construction helmet his dad had been given as a commemorative gift for some ceremonial ground breaking a few years back, ran out of his family's apartment, down five flights of stairs, across the grassy field behind the building, past the Australian pines that lined the beach, and met his friends on the sandy shore. The morning was cool and gray. The air was heavy with mist from the rolling breakers. His friends were already hard at work, digging into the moist sand of the beach. He went to work alongside them, shoveling sand on to the eastern side of the hole. Three feet down, the sand was mixed with water, so he stopped digging and started packing the sand along the sides of the trench. He lowered the protective goggles strapped on to the helmet over his eyes. All the boys had stopped digging and pulled the stones they had collected from their bulging pockets. Cheito peered over the berm along the edge of the hole. The sun had broken through the clouds and was starting to burn off the morning mist. A couple of dozen of yards away, he could see the built up side of the Park Place boys trench. Suddenly, a barrage of projectiles flew through the air and pelted them and the sand around them.  The balloon had gone up.

Jose M. Caldas, April 14, 2014.


Friday, April 11, 2014

Peace, Love and Plastic Flowers

The wall that separated the Beach Towers Apartments from El Cementerio Puerto Rico Memorial was 6 feet tall, easily scalable, and, in fact, frequently scaled by 7 year old Cheito Pagan and his friends. The summer of '67 had been very stormy, and the wear on the north wall along the beach was severe. The sand had disappeared along the wall, and chunks of concrete and tangled rebar kept the water from further incursions into the cemetery. On that side, the headstones were unkempt and tumbledown. The salt air could not mask the smell of old plastic flowers and formaldehyde. Cheito did not do mischief when he explored the boneyard. He preferred to find interesting memorials and mausoleums, read the names and dates on them, and try to imagine what the man, woman or occasional child had been like. The older the grave the better. The oldest found: Jose Enrique Denton Del Topo, born in 1854, and died 1923, the year his own father had been born. Del Topo? What a fantastic name! The Mole? No! From Topo in Calheta, the Azores!

Jose M. Caldas, April 12, 2014.


Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Trees

Cheito worked his way up the limbs of the almendro tree. The tree stood on the lot between the Seaside Towers apartment building and the beach, and overlooked the cemetary next door. The tree was fruiting and small green almond pods covered the limbs. He went high and higher and stopped when he was even with his family's fourth story apartment. He saw his mother open the sliding glass doors on the balcony, step out and start searching, probably for him. She spotted him hanging on to the swaying branches of the tree. He saw an angry look come to her face, and heard her angry voice over the sound of the breakers and the breeze: "Cheito! Carajo! Bajate del contrayao arbol antes de que te escocotes!" He scrambled down immediately, hung on the lowest limbs and dropped the last eight feet to the ground. Doña Gloria hadn't told him to come home, and it was not yet dinner time, so Cheito ran to the playground to look for his friends. 

Jose M. Caldas, April 2, 2014.



Tuesday, April 1, 2014

El Show de Franco, Toto y Alberti

Cheito, Jorgito and Berto waited impatiently in line for the studio doors to open. Cheito's father had finally gotten tickets for "El Show de Franco, Toto y Alberti." The show ran every weekday from 4  to 5 on Cadena Teleglobo, and featured the antics of three Argentinian brothers. Franco was the straight man and M.C., always well dressed in suit and tie; Toto, the pint sized trickster, and Alberti, the big oaf, were the clowns, dressed in oversize jackets, striped t-shirts, balloon pants, oversize shoes, felt hats and make up. The show would kick off with the Franco, Toto and Alberti theme song which the brothers played live on clarinet (Franco), accordion (Toto) and trumpet (Alberti). They were backed up by a small band that was as good as the Spike Jones Orchestra and never missed a trick. Next would be a comical skit, followed by a raucous musical number. There were games, prizes, jokes, and contests. Cheito's oldest sister Lali had once competed in a singing contest and earned second place, her prize a transistor radio in the shape of a Coca-Cola machine. The following week, his youngest sister Tati had played her zither on the show. He had missed both, sick home with dengue fever. The show was an enormous hit with the island's children, but tickets to see the show, and perhaps get chosen for one of the skits or one of the games were highly prized. His father, Don't Francisco was a friend of one of the sound engineers, and was able to secure a couple of tickets on occasion. The boys could hardly wait, and when the doors opened, the children (and quite a few adults) rushed to the seats in the studio and the music soon started: "Este's el Show de Franco, Tito y Alberti..."

Jose M. Caldas, April 1, 2014.