Sepia Saturday #320: "Sock it to Me"

Years ago, it was simple and safe to pop down to Tijuana, Mexico from here in Fallbrook. For Southern Californians and our visitors, a day in TJ was an easy way to visit a foreign country. We loved shopping for hand-made Mexican arts and crafts -  silver jewelry, onyx chess sets, hand-painted tiles, clay pottery and the like. Bargaining in the markets was fun and we enjoyed the lively street scenes. Everyone who came to visit us, from out of state or out of the country, wanted to go to Mexico and drink margaritas, eat at Caesars**, go to a jai alai game or the bull fights. Ole!

Tijuana Bullring

Jai Alai Palace Tijuana

"Tuck and Roll" www.jalopyjournal.com

As a teenager, my husband motored down to Tijuana for a leather tuck-and-roll job on the upholstery of his new car. A pea green '51 Chevrolet 2-door coupe with a Bluefire 6, he inherited it from his brother who enlisted in the marines. Richard painted it, what else? -  red. The tuck-and-roll upholstery job was almost a rite of passage for "gear-head" teen-aged boys in Southern California. The photo is not Richard's upholstery but very similar.





The boys probably did other things while they were in TJ, activities prohibado for teen-aged boys at home, but I'm only guessing at that. The photo below is of Richard and a friend, Neil, sitting in their friend Dave's car. The plate to the left of the license plate proudly announces that Dave is a member of the car club, "The Violators." Richard has on his letter sweater circa 1955, 1956 from Birmingham High School in the San Fernando Valley. The sweater survived an avalanche and a hurricane, countless floods and attacks by mice and moths but finally succumbed. These are the only bits we have left.

The boys had all the trappings of "Rebel Without a Cause" except they weren't rebels. In case you've forgotten or weren't born yet, "Rebel Without A Cause" (1955) was a film that sympathetically portrayed restless and misunderstood middle-class American youth.





The photo below shows how I remember the streets in "TJ" during the 70's. How about all those macrame pot hangers? I bet most of them ended up housing spider plants or wandering ivy, hanging in kitchens in L.A. or here in San Diego and swaying gently to the sounds of Herb Alpert!

Tijuana 1977 Tadeusz Slaboeznski

On my last visit, a decade or more ago, we purchased large clay pots for outdoor landscaping and a custom iron railing for the house at bargain prices. Too bad that it's currently considered unsafe by the State department to travel to Baja, Mexico where Tijuana is located. Here's the warning* as of Jan. 16, 2016.

The border

And now for the hats.....
I took the long way around to get to my photo of the week which features my ex-sister-in-law's family in full silly tourist regalia, on one of those Tijuana visits ...I can't believe we/they posed with those corny sombreros. I have to confess there is a photo of me wearing one of them somewhere, but I can't bear to post it. The "Sock it to Me" hat might date the photo to Laugh-In days (1968-1973). Don't you love the donkey/zonkey with the painted stripes for added Tijuana ambiance?

Grab your sombrero, large or small, and skip over to Sepia Saturday for stories of jugs, fountains and hats and sleepy, dusty little towns. 

Tijuana at night. Not exactly a sleepy dusty little town.

*"The U.S. Department of State warns U.S. citizens about the risk of traveling to certain places in Mexico due to threats to safety and security posed by organized criminal groups in the country. U.S. citizens have been the victims of violent crimes, such as homicide, kidnapping, carjacking, and robbery by organized criminal groups in various Mexican states. For information on security conditions in specific regions of Mexico, which can vary, travelers should reference the state-by-state assessments further below. This Travel Warning replaces the Travel Warning for Mexico, issued May 5, 2015, to update information about the security situation and to advise the public of additional restrictions on the travel of U.S. government (USG) personnel."


**Here's the original Caesar salad recipe (their spelling and grammar left intact) from their website.

"In Caesar's, we respect each of the versions and varieties made a legendary dish; We honor the history of our city and godparents of the restaurant Tijuana tradition of sharing our current version of Caesar salad:


Our version of the original Caesar's salad portion for 4 people
20 pcs. Romaine lettuce leaf
200 gms. cup extra virgin olive oil
20 gms. Perrins sauce
15 gms. Dijon mustard
15 gms. crushed garlic
1 egg yolk
15 gms. lime (juice)
3 gms. black pimienta
35 gms. Parmesan
4 pcs. croutons
40 gms. anchovies


In a wooden bowl anchovies and garlic, pepper, mustard, Worcestershire sauce and lemon juice milled.


Once they integrate well all these ingredients we add the egg yolk with this we texture.


We continue mixing adding olive oil, dosificándolo threadlike while mixing to achieve the desired volume and texture, and finally add a touch of parmesan cheese."