#picogardens

[southernhispanics]

Turtle from CUATRO FLATS in the early 80’s. Be sure to check the hashtag for more photos of this varrio.

[mrmagnaminus-blog-blog]

The Roaches

When they got together that Saturday morning to form the football team, everyone had a different idea on what to name the team. Mark’s favorite NFL team was the Miami Dolphins and his NCAA team was the USC Trojans. Raul R teams were the Pittsburgh Steelers and the UCLA Bruins. Rob’s teams were the Los Angeles Rams and the Texas Longhorns. Raul A’s, the one and only Kabala, teams were the Dallas Cowboys and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Freddie’s teams were the Oakland Raiders and the Michigan Wolverines. No one thought that naming the team after a NFL team was a good idea, even though there was a lot of support for being called the Jets because we knew then our team was built on precision and speed. Mark would not go for it. He hated everything that had to do with the Jets. He offered the Rockets, but there was already a team call the Rockets that played in Aliso Village. No use being a copycat. The guys were also close to calling the team the Bullets, but Bob didn’t like the idea. Just when it looked that no one could make up their minds, Kabala slammed a book at a roach as it crossed the grass.

“Got it!”

“What did you get?”

“Freaking roaches drive me crazy.”

He lifted the book.

“Look, it’s still alive.”

Kabala slammed down the book again. “Those roaches are hard to kill. They’re made out of steel.”

He lifted the book and the roach was motionless for a second. “Got you. Burn in Hell.” Then it started moving its limbs, flipped over and scurried away.

“That settles it.” Mark said.

That’s when the Pico Gardens Roaches were born.