Prohibition Border Runners

We had finished a school term in Tankersly, when Mother, Aunt Lura, and I and my cousin Ethel, (who was ten years older than I, and studied at Sagerton, Texas, and was my IDEAL) decided to take a little trip on the way to Commerce and summer school.

Well, it wasn’t on the way, but we were excited about being that close to Mexico [157 miles]. We looked at the map, and Del Rio was the nearest point with Villa Acuna (now Ciudad Acuna) across the border.

On the way, they talked about all the wild stories they had heard about Mexico, and I was a little uneasy.

It was almost dark when we arrived, and we drove across a rickety bridge after being inspected thoroughly. The street was not paved, but we found a place to eat and went in.

This was during Prohibition in the U.S. (1920-1933) and Ethel wanted to try beer, so she ordered that along with a meal. I don’t know what we ate, but it was green.

She insisted that we all taste her beer. I stuck my tongue in and almost gagged. That one taste took care of my beer drinking for the rest of my life. The taste was not for me!

After dinner we went back to the border. After much searching, we were allowed back in the good old U.S.A. and I could breathe easily.

We found a yucky “Tourist Court” for the night [the image above at right is a postcard of Main Street, Del Rio in the 1930s]. One by one we got sick in the night, and spent our time taking turns upchucking. Don’t know whether it was the food, the water, or the tension, but we were all pretty uncomfortable.

I’ve been back across the border all up and down the Rio Grande since, but never beyond the border towns.