Bride of Rove

A friend of mine – much older than me – retired to San Carlos, Mexico. San Carlos is\was a small town halfway down the west coast, just north of Guaymas which is a quiet little fishing town known for shrimp mostly. Her husband was a retired oil executive and she used to handle charity drives for some of the larger charities here in the U.S. before retiring herself. The economy in Mexico was such that you could deposit $100k in a Mexican bank and live very comfortably off of the 40% interest they paid out. Back then, San Carlos was an abandoned village. Club Med wasn’t too far away, but the shell of a half built hotel haunted the beach and there wasn’t much else except a handful of American expatriots and a few hundred locals who made a living fishing for the most part. There was no medical clinic. The nearest clinic was in Guaymas. There was an ambulance, but it was rusting out, loaded with roaches and several plants had taken root in the floor. Needless to say, it was not operational and there was no medical crew to man it.

She and her husband were retired, but in good health. Some of their friends were not in such great health and it became apparent to her that something needed to be done about the availability of emergency services and access to health care if their retirement dream were not to turn into a retirement nightmare. So she put her charity skills to work and organized this small town into a fair for three days and called it San Carlos Days. She promoted the hell out of it on radio, television, in the papers. She solicited sponsors from all over Sonora and even from back in the U.S. In all they made enough money to cover a “new” ambulance and a crew to man it 24\7 for a year.

Over the years the festival grew and the services available were increased and the town grew along with the population and the revenue. She was called the unofficial Mayor of San Carlos for years because of her drive to improve the quality of life for everyone in that town. She did for herself as much as for everyone else. The government did not do this, in fact it threw up several road blocks periodically in order to syphon its share off her labor. That’s what governments do vs what free PEOPLE do.

This is an absolutely true story and she is a good friend so don’t email me asking for her name or contact information because I am not telling you her story to throw a spotlight on her as an individual and potentially throw her to the wolves in the media. I am telling you this because this is the story of how things get done in the U.S. This is how things have ALWAYS gotten done in America. We do not whine to the government to take care of us. We innovate with the skills we have and fill the needs we see in our communities where ever that may be.

Recently:

• Labor Day Loose Thoughts
• Update on Old Story
• Carpet Quotes
• OMGWTHBBQ LMAO!!!!
• A Reminder
• Moving On
• Mike Church has lost me completely
• Saturday Blog Sift
• Anyone else watching Beck’s Revival on Insider Extreme?
• Would rather talk about anything else but …