GROWING UP IN ENCINAL  

At the time we were in Encinal the population was 704.   At one point it had reached a peak of 3000.  It had a hotel, a theater and a two story middle school building on the eastside of town.  When we were there, there was no middle school, theater or hotel anymore.

 The elementary school had an auditorium on the second floor.  I used to go up to the second floor and get the iron bars that were in the windows, the window weights.   I would use those for bar bells until my grandfather bought me real barbells.  I would take those and my friends would help me carry them.  The building was deteriorating and they were going to eventually knock it down.  I should have had a camera and taken pictures of all of that. 



John, age 14, after working with weights for several years.

Later they torn down the school and they used the gymnasium to hold dances.  They would have big dances there and people would park all around it and fill it up.  A lot of musicians went there and they would pack the place. 

There use to be Tony Salinas’ grocery store. His son, Tony Jr., became a professional gambler in Las Vegas.  His brother, Juan Salinas, was a member of the original Lion’s club and he was a real Rodeo Calf Roping Champion Cowboy, and went yahoo, like a cowboy would.  He had been the Deputy Sheriff in Encinal for years under the Sheriff Frank Newman.  Tony’s store had little carts for the groceries; it was an amazing little store.  Like a miniature grocery store.  As you go in, he’d have the check out stand over here.  The vegetables were over on the right wall.  There were rows in the middle with lots of canned goods and there was a meat market in the back and the dairy products.  My grandfather would take turns buying groceries there or at the Mercantile, which was a real nice store also. The Mercantile was still active when we were there.  That was a great building. 

See the story the Mercantile.

 
Mayor John (right) 
talking to Constable Chago
in front of the Mercantile

I was raised there since I was one year old.  I was born in Three Rivers, Texas, but I started being raised there in Encinal learning both languages, English and Spanish at the same time.  I knew them both.  I never remember not knowing one or the other.  They would speak in both in Encinal.  

I never imagined later that I would come back and be the mayor of that little town.  At that time they didn’t have a mayor, it was unincorporated.     They incorporated it years later.  At that time I was living in San Antonio.  They incorporated it and made Mundo the first mayor.  He was like a cousin of mine. He was the son of my grandmother’s half sister.   After him, Mickey was the second mayor and I was the third. 

I do remember in school, Mrs. Parker having to go around spraying deodorant sprays all of the time.  I didn’t think anything of it.  But it was probably because all of the little kids were stinky.   Most of them took a bath only on Saturdays.  I remember every Friday they would all tell each other, remember tomorrow is Saturday, take a bath.  Don’t forget to take a bath tomorrow.  I would just laugh.   

 

     
     John's Mother washing clothes
     the hard way

I would take a bath every day.  The house had no running water inside.   To take a bath, I would put a bucket under the outside faucet and let it run until it was full.  That usually took several minutes as Mr. Parker had the water pressure real low.  Then I put the bucket on the wood stove to heat up the water.   Then I’d sit in a metal tub and pour it on me with a cup.  Then I’d drain out the water onto the yard. 

I took a bath every day but most little kids there took a bath once a week.  So Mrs. Parker would go around spraying the deodorant spray.  And she had two big fans, one on each side of her pointing towards the kids probably to blow the smell away from her.  She had it tough as a school teacher there. 

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