My City

So it started simple enough, a conversation with a co-worker of mine. The topic of the conversation revolved around me being born and raised in Pomona. I told him that I have pride in my city and he began to put it down. It was all in good fun of course, if you can categorize putting something down as fun. I had recently purchased a Pomona emblem, and so it began. He currently lives in Covina and began to compare his city to Pomona. Well this went back and forth for pretty much the rest of the day (kinda slow at work). As debates go, well, it was pretty much a stalemate. Well later that night while at home I received a text from (as the kids say) the “Hater”. He stated that he was at Rite-Aid and he had bought a gift for me and that I would love it. Cut to the next day which would be today. After 30 minutes into the work day he pulls the so called “gift” out of his bag and hands it to me. What do you think it was? Any guesses? Well let me tell you, it was a t-shirt, a t-shirt that was purchased at a Rite-Aid with the words “Greetings From Covina”. It had a painted picture of the Covina police department, fire department and the Covina post office. But wait, there’s more! Driving down the road on the t-shirt was a school bus with the words “Charter Oak Chargers” on it. He bought it at a Rite-Aid! I’ll give you a minute to let it sink in . . . Now with a bomb like that being dropped on me what could I do? How could I defend my city when you have franchises selling other cities merchandise? When was the last time you saw a “Welcome to Pomona” t-shirt or “I love Pomona” mug? I’m not talking about the ones you can get from the Pomona Historical Society Gift Shoppe. Those objects pretty much plug the society not so much the city (not that there is anything wrong with that). But how was I supposed to come back with anything when I had to purchase the emblem that I have from one of those places that make cut out vinyl stickers. I’m pretty sure that those aren’t “Officially Licensed Merchandise” dealers. I mean come on, even the Los Angeles Coroners Office has merchandise that they sell (and people want). I even remember a booth that they had at the fair one year. But I digress. I guess what I’m trying to get at is do we or does Pomona have some way of showing some pride, unity, strength, whatever you want to call it (And I don’t mean that “Piece of Pomona” thing, I still don’t get that). I don’t even drink coffee but where can I get a mug that I can take to work show that I’m for Pomona? I even have one from the radio station KJZZ 88.1 FM to show support (I love their “Nothin’ but the Blues” Program). So how can I go up against a t-shirt that he purchased at an actual big-name store? What is my Pomona doing to get the community behind it? Is the answer construction, because we definitely have our fill going on around the city. Maybe it’s something else, something that I haven’t been able to acknowledge yet. Any comments, any thoughts, anything???

Okay where to begin . . . well let me start by saying that I often peruse websites, or for that matter blogs which pertain to subjects which I find interesting. To be more specific, I am referring to the ones that deal in some way, shape or form with the City of Pomona. Well a while back a colleague of mine introduced me to a blog by an author that goes by the name “The Goddess of Pomona”. In one of her older posts I remember her referring to a local and extremely familiar business know as “Nancy’s Carniceria”. The reason I bring this up is because about a month ago they took down a banner that had been hanging on the side of the building for quite some time. While banners are nothing out of the ordinary, this one caught my attention (while it was up). Now I have nothing against Nancy’s, the tortillas are rather good and from the longevity of the business I don’t think many people would argue that fact. But every time (up until recently that is) that I would drive by I would see that banner and something just didn’t sit right with me, then it hit me. Just above the front doors of this business and under the green Nancy’s sign there was another sign that said “carniceria” (pretty much means meat market or butcher shop). Well for as long as I can remember that is the correct spelling for that word but on the banner plain as day it said “carniseria”, the c had been changed to an s. I know it’s now big deal or I should say it was no big deal but I couldn’t help but look in that direction every time while driving by. And apparently someone else noticed it as well for it is no longer there. Had the Spanish language changed overnight or was this just an alternate spelling of the word? Who knows, perhaps no one noticed the spelling error or maybe the owner received a discount on the banners for the spelling mistake. Anyone that has been to Tacos Jalisco (a great taco shop also located in the city) might remember a similar spelling mistake. I don’t recall exactly how many years ago it was but I clearly remember reading the phrase “Thank you for coming” on the bottom of their receipts. The only problem was that it actually read “Thank you for caming”. It was on their receipts for quite a while before it was taken off. I guess an accent can easily be translated into a spelling error. But now the sign is gone and I’m glad I got that out of my system (finally). Anyway, let’s get back to the Goddess’s story. I also recall her giving a bit of back story to the picture on their tortilla packages. If I remember her (The Goddess’s) story correctly she wrote how the picture on the package was the owner’s daughter Nancy. The picture has been on there as long as I can remember. Well I feel obligated to interject a little bit of information, something that I have been told for as long as I can remember. Whether it is true or not I can’t say for sure because I have never gone to Nancy’s and asked to talk to the owners to verify, but it does make for an interesting story. You know that little girl on the tortilla packages that we have all come to know and love as Nancy? Well . . . (I’m constantly told) that that isn’t Nancy. I know what you’re saying, and if I hadn’t heard the story for a good part of my life I wouldn’t have believed it either. The girl whose picture is on all those packages is supposedly one of Nancy’s older sisters. I believe her name is Cynthia and she is the third of four sisters in that family (so I’ve been told). Fact or fiction, it does make for an interesting story. One thing I can guarantee you is that I didn’t just make that up. I’m not exactly sure on how it came to be that way but if anybody wants to (with certainty) say otherwise please do. I would hate people to think that I am just starting wild rumors about our beloved “carniseria”.

A Thousand Apologies

Well the title pretty much says it all. As busy as the year has been for me as well as all the uneventful times I pretty much placed this endeavour on the back burner. For that I sincerely apologize. I honestly have been wanting to post something new for a long time now. As you can plainly see from my first post it has been almost a year since I have done anything with this. Fortunately for me and anyone else who caress (or pretends to) I am posting this short update. Recently I had the pleasure of sitting down with an extremely good and important friend of mine. Conversing over a cup of coffee as we usually do she brought up the fact (while making me feel bad) that I had not posted anything in quite some time. I tried to skirt around the topic but she (like all women) knew how to get her point across. Well I basically had to say that I would stop slacking and do something about this situation. In fact I made a promise to her that I would post something by the end of this month (this doesn't count, I know). So before this month is over I will put something up. I said that I would so I shall. Meum pactum dictum (I think that's right).

Greetings to all.

Well here it is, the first of what I hope to be many blog entries. Entries which I hope will make people laugh or think (if not only for a second or two) or maybe both. Let me begin by saying that even though this blog is in English I hope that I will be forgiven for any grammatical errors. English is my second language and I'm pretty sure that I will eventually have some English major, teacher or someone that just likes to knit pick (like me) find some kind of mistake in my use of the English language. Sorry. Now that we've gotten that out of the way lets get to the nitty gritty. The reason that I've decide to start posting a "blog" is really quite simple, an extremely good friend (you know who you are, much love!) told me I should. Not just for the simple reason that I'm full of hot air most of the time but because I see or should I say notice things that make me stop and wonder. Therefore, I figure that I will be able to annoy much more people with the help of this medium than I would be able to do on my own. Isn't technology wonderful? Now in order for me not to just bounce around from random subject to random subject I will try to keep all my posts related somehow. After a little bit of thought I figured the easiest way to accomplish this would be to post things that I hear, see, or experience around the city I grew up in, Pomona, California. I was born and raised here and if not for an extended stint in the military I have lived my entire life here. Now even though the city keeps changing both externally and internally whether it be due to the destruction of and construction of new buildings or just the changing of the city's council members, if you're not paying attention to certain things I can guarantee that you will be surprised when you actually do notice a change. It's the only constant, right? Anyway, since most of these posts will relate to the city I must admit one thing. I do not involve myself in any of the city's meetings. I never go and I honestly believe that I would be bored to death if I sat there listening to 'politicians". Shameful I know but ignorance is bliss (there's another piece of wisdom). So at anytime I write something that sounds like I don't have the slightest idea of what I'm talking about please feel free to educate me (tactfully please). Though for the most part I'm sure these posts will be more about small things that I notice around the city I love. With that being said allow me to begin to wrap this up. I'm sure that I have forgotten to mention a thing or two in this post but this is just the beginning to what I hope will be a very fruitful blog. So enough already, let's run this thing up the flag pole and see who salutes.