San Antonio, Texas

I love San Antonio and always jump at any excuse to go there. I love its diversity. While the population is predominately Hispanic the city bursts with the energies of a variety of people. The military bases like Lackland, Ft. Sam Houston and Randolph Air Force Base constantly bring in persons not only from across the USA but from our allies abroad, While there are massive areas of low-income and not a few very poor people, the city has its share of the wealthy, many living in beautiful estates. Together they reflect the military, the health industry, the higher education world, all within an ever-prevailing aura of the Old West with plenty of cowboy boots and large Stetson hats abounding.

One of the words that always pops up when I reflect upon my time in San Antonio is sweat. Yes, that stuff that flowed out of my body during the summers of my college years. I worked in construction at the very lowest level. In weather, which was consistently over 100 degrees, I was the one (back before sophisticated  Bob Cats) digging foundation trenches with pick and shovel. My hands were seared with the iron of the foundation steel. My back blistered as I laid the roofing panels. The good news: I was in the best shape of anyone who reported for fall football practice in September after surviving an unforgettable orgy of fresh tamales and Lone Star beer when we finally had the topping out celebration of the building at which I was working.

I also did my share of philosophical and mental sweating. After a couple   years of teachers college I took off a year to teach in a 2 room Lutheran school. I had 42 in grades one to four. I hope by this time they have forgiven my inadequacies and plain old mistakes. Believe me I tried! The mental stress was at its highest 20 years later when the ambulance met us at the airport upon our arrival from Hong Kong. My wife Jane was in a virtual coma and it was at San Antonio’s Baptist Hospital that she was properly diagnosed and treated for a brain aneurysm. Family and friends provided unbelievable support to me and our children.

Of course, San Antonio is a city of romance. The historic Alamo hastens the blood flow of any true Texan. The San Antonio River and the River Walk stir up romantic feelings in even the most jaded. And for me San Antonio is the place where my now wife of some 62 years was first introduced to my mom, dad and family.

San Antonio evokes s feelings of sadness and absence. It was in San Antonio that I saw my mother slowly lose her formerly unquenchable energy. And it was at a bedside in San Antonio that Jane and I joined my father in a harmonious rendering of “Abide With Me” shortly before he left us to be forever with our Lord.

I wish I could conclude this little reflection by just sitting at a comfortable table on the River Walk savoring a margarita and some chips but that will have to await my very earliest convenience