Southwest Tangent

Perfect example of the "handshake of time." The connectivity to the past.

Initially I thought the obituary on Mary Warburg would be just something about a rich woman who lived a long life. That part was true. But the byline was from Margalit Fox, so I suspected there might be something to this. There was.

Mary Warburg grew up on a ranch in New Mexico. She was born in 1908. New Mexico wasn't even a state then. Nor was Arizona. They were territories. The flag had 46 stars in it.

When I think of those two states I think of The Wall Street Journal story that started off in 1980 by wondering if Ronald Reagan was too old to be president. After all, when we was born, the flag over the courthouse had 46 stars in it.

Reagan is another story altogether. It turns out that Mary, at age 7 hauled out a shotgun and fired at Pancho Villa as he was raiding the ranch. She missed.

I couldn't help thinking of a recently departed 100 year old woman who once took a shot at Villa at age 7. One wonders how close she got, and did she land on her rear end after pulling the trigger? She had to, right?

Anyway, five lines of doggerel came to be before the train got to Jamaica. I shared them with an appreciative Margalit. Mary, this one's for you.

Southwest Tangent

Pancho Villa on a horse
Was missed by Mary's shotgun force.
And on that raid he rode away,
And lived to fight another day.

But not a lot longer.

http://www.onofframp.blogspot.com/