Chilex Weekly 2000
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Editor: Graciela Osterberg
Design: Charles Fisk III
Chuquicamata, September 4, 1999
Volume I Nº 4
The Magic Mirror   Letters To The Editor

Travesuras...barbaridades y lesseadas...

We all have wonderful memories of travesuras during our childhood. Here are a few:

One of the more colorful and dear recollections I have of growing up in Chuqui was when I started kindergarten at Frieda Ruther's house near the Foreign School. When I started there was a bumper crop of us kids and she had set up tables in her enclosed patio to seat us all. I ended up sitting there as well as one of my friends, Pancha Swain.

One day one of us - I can't for the life of me remember whether it was Pancha or me - suggested we go to her house to play instead of staying at the kindergarten. Pancha's house, at the time, was closer to the old hospital and had a huge pimiento tree in the yard. We spent the entire morning playing in the yard of her house having a wonderful time. Mrs. Swain (Virgie) had gone shopping and was not at home. When she came home at noon and found us there instead of at school - Boy! Did the fur fly! She immediately commanded me (as only Virginia Swain could do) to go home and never play with Pancha again. She really was a dear lady but I was intimidated by her for a very long time after that. We were in a lot of trouble. The next day at kindergarten we were seated apart from each other and, if I remember correctly, one of us was placed inside and the other outside in the patio. Teachers from then on would watch us with an eagle eye as we had gained notoriety as "troublemakers". Can't remember whether or when we ever outgrew our reputation.

Tessie Leon and I would also listen a las escondidas to Mr. Leon's state-of-the-art hi fi equipment. He had prohibited us from playing with it, but he had a grand collection of records and we happened to fall in love with Pat Suzuki singing "How High the Moon". After school on some afternoons we'd wend our way up the hill, over the bridge to Tessie's house and play the records. Arturo or Patricia would come by and chastise us, but we'd blithely ignore them, always turning the equipment off before Mr. Leon came home. If often wonder if he also wasn't aware of what we were doing.

LAMBETH & VERDUGO TAXI LTD.



Vic, my brother also did travesuras. He was compinches with the Lambeth brothers (Harold and Jorge) who lived in Casa 402 right in front of our house. Actually, Vic is Harold and Jorge's cousin and their history goes way back to when Vic was 6 years old and the ship "Maipo". As Harold tells it: "…while my father was working in Chuqui, my mother, my pest of a brother, your mother (referring to my ma, Graciela Revecco Verdugo), your brother Victor and I stayed in Santiago until maybe 1942 when we moved to Chuqui. Your mother stayed in Santiago, but my mother, my brother, and Victor and I traveled to Antofagasta by boat. I can still rememeber the name of the boat - the Maipo. I think it took about 5 days to get to Antofagasta from Valparaiso. How this boat survived being sunk by Victor and I is only a miracle. I was 7 years old, Victor was 6, and Jorge was 3. If the boat should have sunk I doubt that any of the passengers would have survived because Victor and I spent the 5 days on the boat stealing all the life vests and hiding them. We must have had at least 50 life vests. Well...we were bored and we wanted to be sure we would survive..no Titanic for us." This penchant for petty larceny seemed to grow and become more a proclivity for grand theft auto. When they were teenagers and back in Chuqui for summer vacations they would, on occasion, sneak my father's car and use it as a taxi between Chuqui and Calama in order to make extra money. Some of you may remember that our house 502 was on a hill and my pa always parked his "pride and joy" (the dove gray Ford) at the front gate facing downhill. When he'd fall asleep Vic would sneak the car keys out of his trousers and they would coast the car down hill until it was safe to turn it on. They were always pretty good about bringing the car back before my pa awoke in the mornings. But one morning, as my ma remembers it, it was nearly 6 a.m. and they had not returned. She was sweating bullets at the thought that my pa would get up soon and discover the car missing! The fur would really fly then especially since my father had just adopted Vic! Fortunately for Vic he brought the car back just in time to slip the keys back in Dad's trousers and Dad never did discover that his car was not where he had left it the night before. Of course, I often wonder if he was THAT dumb and had already suspected something when he'd notice the odometer increasing. But he never said a word.

Clarence Fisk reminds me of his travesuras: "Yo tengo tantos recuerdos de las barbaridades de la pandilla de los FISK con Johnny Bradford, Arturo Leon y Cia. Me acuerdo de mis primeras idas al colegio, alla con la Mrs Adams o la Mrs Cooken en Kinder (el primer dia con la Mrs. Cooken me hice pis y deje una poza en mi silla). Me acuerdo de la vez cuando con Johnny encontramos una caja con dinamita en un hoyo y nos fuimos a los cerros para hacerla explotar. !Que barbaros eramos! Si hoy uno de mis nietos hace las leseras y diabluras que nosotros haciamos, creo que me muero !!! Las salidas a pescar al Salado con Sandy Brown...los tiempos de boy scout con el padre de Leah...las ida a la matinee en el teatro Chile...las guerrillas a peñazcazos despues de un partido de futbol con los del "Nuevo"...ganaramos o perdieramos.. cuando le tirabamos arroz con un "pea shooter" a las chiquillas en la oscuridad de la pelicula...las seriales en los cines de Tarzan y Fu-Man-Chu...las ida a comprar helado en la unica heladeria que habia en Chuqui donde los Wood. (El Refugio)...los partidos de bowling cuando en el Chilex habia solo dos canchas y teniamos que parar los palitroques a mano....¿

So many travesuras y diabluras…there are many, many more. It's the stuff of growing up anywhere in the world. It's the stuff of being kids. We just happened to grow up in a very different time and place. If we did now what we did then we'd all be carted off to "juvee"!

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