The Night The Nueces Flowed Upstream
U.S. Geological Survey Report: “Odem Flood”
It was 25 years ago. In my hometown of Odem, Texas somewhere between eighteen and twenty-five inches of rain fell in a matter of hours. To this day, it is simply referred to as “The Flood,” and nearly every Odemite I have ever spoken to still has memories of that night.
The memories I have of that night are those of a child. Two months prior, I had turned eleven years old, and a month after that, I started the sixth grade. The playgrounds of elementary school were gone, and the steady march to becoming a teenager had begun in earnest.
I remember Tia Maria was in town visiting us, as she would do every so often. It was a Friday; and the skies getting dark as the evening progressed. The rain was welcomed at first, because we were in a bad drought. I remember wading through my backyard in waist-deep water to get to an aunt’s house, where we would stay the night. The power went out at one point, I remember a bottle of cologne being used as an improvised lamp. The water rose to the steps of my aunt’s house; some parts of the floor were wet.
I remember waking up late, my parents had already gone to the house. The power was back, I was told I had to stay at my aunt’s house, so I watched the Smurfs with one of my cousins. Once I got home, I saw the line on the walls where the water had been. My brother and I slept in bunk beds at the time, I was on the bottom bunk and my bed had been ruined by the water. My mother was upset, we had lost nearly all of our pictures, I remember stacks of ruined Polaroids; seeing rainbows of plasticky color where family memories had once been. Dad had already pulled out the carpet from the living room, he was not upset, instead he was very busy around the house, and talking on the telephone.
I remember throwing out stacks of wet magazines, and wondering if my collection of Atari 2600 cartridges would still work. I remember the truck from the Red Cross that went through our neighborhood that evening, and going out to the curb to pick up peanut butter sandwiches and lemonade. I remember hearing about the bus full of kids that got stuck and the man down the street that had to make a hole in the ceiling and roof of his house to get his family out.
The furniture and carpet would eventually be replaced, the house repaired and life would return to normal, but I doubt that anyone who lived through it will ever forget that night. Even though my own memories are the scattered remembrances of an eleven-year old, I know I won’t.
RealmsCon Day 1: In The Ghetto
Originally posted at J2GAMES.COM
First a disclaimer: I am from the Corpus Christi area. Thus, my opinions are colored by the fact that I think Corpus Christi is a podunk town that only has only had one good thing come out of it, and that’s Whataburger. I went to Realms-Con to preach the gospel of First Storm Manga and also out of curiosity to see what kind of con they could throw, especially after experiencing the uber-goodness that was San Japan.
It started out well enough on Friday morning. First Storm Manga “Roadie” Javier and myself headed to the Holiday Inn Emerald Beach to set up shop. I had expected a big hassle getting our badges because of the fun times I had running back and forth between the Municipal Auditorium and the Holiday Inn during the start of San Japan (YES I’M STILL BITTER). The original plan was for us to use half of Chris’ table for FSM and the other half to sell his leftover stuff from San Japan.
First, we had to FIND the registration table. This was made even more fun by the lack of signage. As REAL men don’t ask for directions, we simply hung a left at the hotel’s front desk. Walking down a hall, we saw some tables, and at the end, we found one with a “First Storm Manga” sign on it. I was enthralled that we had our own dedicated table, but just a bit disappointed when I realized we had been placed at the ass end of the convention. The only thing nearby was the video game room, which wasn’t even open yet. My confidence would have been more inspired if it hadn’t been for the flickering fluorescent light over our table. Great, I thought, I’ll be drained AND blind by the time this is all over.
But hey, a table was a table, and it would be all ours.
We still needed our badges, and so we headed back the way we came to find the registration desk. As we walked around, we passed by Chris’ table, located right in front of the panel rooms in a high-traffic area. Wow, isn’t he Mr. Cool. We soon found the registration table OUTSIDE of the hotel. I would later learn that they were forced outside to avoid a long line of people inside the hotel, which made sense, but at the time I remember thinking who could have thought that was a good idea.
Now for the fun part: “Hi, I’m Eduardo Soliz from First Storm Manga, and I am here to pick up our badges so I can set up our table.” Now, technically, I was supposed to be under Chris’ table, but after seeing they had a table assigned to us, I logically reasoned that they would have badges set aside for us as well. As the registration-gal flipped through the packs, I saw one with Chris’ name on it, which I hoped meant he would have an extra badge for his guest. Much to my relief, I would later discover that was the case…once they figured out who he was, that is.
Badges around our necks, we headed back to the Reliant (my 2005 Dodge Neon) to get our wares and head over to our table “in the ghetto” as I would refer to it throughout the day.
Traffic was miserable at first, partially because of our location, partially because it was a school day, and partially because the video game room was running late getting set up. The sign at the door that originally said “Open at 12:00″ was quickly edited to read “12:15″ then “12:30″ then “12:50″ and then was taken down. We kept seeing the same people walk by over and over again as well as the occasional hotel guest walking to and from the pool. Luckily, traffic picked up around four, once school let out, and except for a quick run to Subway and a trip to the hospital to visit some folks, the day was pretty uneventful. We gave away almost all of our copies of Manga Madness, each with a copy of San Japanic! inside.
I kept wondering what was taking Chris so long, because he had told me he was going to be there at 3. He showed up much later, but by that time, the other tables were closing down, so I figured we would do so as well. We all rode in the Reliant to the two-story Whataburger By The Bay where we chowed down and discussed Saturday’s plans.
It was decided that we would move over to Chris’ table for the improved traffic, and so that we could peddle his wares (no free lunch and all that). The move would turn out great in one way, and not-so-great in another…
It Was (Just Over) 20 Years Ago Today…
I wanted to post this picture awhile back, but some (now fixed) problems with WordPress kept me from doing so. I still love music, although these days, I play with music more than actually playing it. In any event, I hope this brings a smile to my former classmates.
Eduardo “Edward” Soliz – Class of 1991