QuadMexico

THE MEN - VIEW BRANDO'S 1950 CLASSIC MOVIE ABOUT WWII PARAPLEGICS

2012-01-16T09:04:00.000-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urpLp8SvQEA&feature=related

TEQUILA WORM - FACT OF FICTION???

2012-01-08T12:48:00.000-08:00

Is the tequila worm fact of fiction?

Kinda, Tequila is made from fermented cactus from a specific part of Mexico called Tequila. As far as I know it was never common practice to bottle tequila with a worm in the bottle. Mescal on the other hand, is a liquor very similar to tequila also made from fermented cactus. Originally when mescal was being made the people would put a worm into the fermenting product to determine if it had a high enough alcohol content yet. If the worm died it meant the mescal was done, if it lived it meant that it needed to ferment further. The dead worm would be left in the bottle and it was tradition that the person who finished the bottle had to eat the worm. Some modern mescal producers still put a worm in the bottle. (Source: WikiAnswers)

http://www.quadmexico.com/

MY SON

2012-01-07T14:30:00.000-08:00

The cute little guy with the cute puppy in the cute photo is referred to as my "Son" in his pics because..."Within 24 hours, Maria had gone into labor, had her child, and was discharged from the Hospital Civil, where many poor women gave birth, and returned home with her baby boy. I saw Armando for the first time on my 25th birthday. My girl had just come home from the hospital on my birthday with a new son--only Maria was not "My Girl." (From page 101, QUADALAJARA - The Utopia That Once Was)

I had been in Guadalajara since early March, and as the year drew to a close, I had a decision to make. I wanted to return to Rhode Island to visit my family. I knew that Mom liked the idea that Maria and I were a couple, and Armando completed our little family. Maybe Mom harbored the same wish as Maria --- that we would marry?

My other option did not include Maria or Armando. I could visit my family taking Alberto along as my attendant. I wasn't sure how long my relationship with Maria would last. And marriage was not in my plans. I thought constantly about what would be best, not for me, not for Maria, but for Armando. I was definitely more concerned with my eight and a half month old boy than either his mother or myself. I also thought that maybe what would be best for Armando and Maria would be to reunite them both with Maria's daughter Elizabeth. I had only met Elizabeth briefly when Maria's father brought her to Guadalajara looking for his own daughter. The inquisitive then two and a half year old me pregunto, "Tio Jass, donde compro su bicicleta?" I guess that to a toddler, there wasn't all that much difference between a wheelchair and a bicycle Maybe she understood that better than most grownups?

I again asked Reverend Hunter to stop by the house. I was certain that he would give me good counsel --- even though I was aware of his reputation for playing cupid, for encouraging many quads to opt for the ready-made family.

As things turned out, Reverend Hunter and I were on the same page. He pointed out that obtaining a visa for Maria and two children would be next to impossible. We agreed that reuniting her family, at some point, would be best for them all. He didn't push the ready-made family option, probably being able to read me better than I realized....

...I took Maria and Armando to the bus station on January 2, 1974 for a one way trip back to Tijuana. Back to her family and daughter Elizabeth. Although I was still in denial and refused to believe the rumors and gossip, I said good-bye to my pretty senorita in a similar fashion as the condition she was in when I first laid eyes on her back in March.

Maria gave birth to her second son --- seven months later!"
(From pages 111,112 - QUADALAJARA - The Utopia That Once Was)

(Personal Note: I thought about my "Son" often over the next year or so. Did I do the right thing? What would become of him? Memories fade over time to the point that you barely think of important times in the past. In 2000, I received a phone call from one of my sisters. Maria had called my family home inquiring about me. A brief reunion took place about a week later. Then I learned that my "Son" was now a school teacher in a neighboring state. Sometimes we do make the right decisions! :)

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Twitter: @QuadalajaraJack

SIX TUMIDAJSKI BROTHERS SERVE IN WORLD WAR II

2011-09-13T21:31:00.000-07:00

(Back row L to R - John (Army), Stanley (Army), Joe (Marines), Adam (Army), Matt (Army) and Charles (Navy)

Pawtucket Times, July 6, 1944 - The six Tumidajski brothers, sons of Mrs.Victoria Tumidajski of 100 Raymond Ave, are threatening Japan and Germany in three branches of the service.

One is already in the Southwest Pacific and another is serving on a ship on the high seas.

When Storekeeper First Class Charles Tumidajski, 23, enlisted in the Navy back in October,1940, Pearl Harbor was still more than a year away. Mrs. Tumidajski had an easy time keeping track of his whereabouts in the service.

She had watched Charles graduate from Pawtucket East High School and Bryant College before becoming a clerk at the R.I. Lumber Company in East Providence.

When Charles enlisted, his mother didn't know that some day five (of her other seven sons) would also be in the service. Then the Japs struck at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7,1941.

Corporal Joseph Tumidajski, Jr, 25, didn't wait for his induction call and enlisted in the branch which causes terror to the Japs--the Marines--in January,1942. He went into the service with a thorough knowledge of teamwork learned from his experiences playing amateur football, softball and baseball. He had been employed by the Newman Crosby Steel Corporation.

On Nov. 4, 1942, Mrs. Tumidajski bade two other sons Goodbye. Sgt. Adam Tumisdajski, 29, went on California desert maneuvers with an armored tank division. He was formerly employed by the General Ice Cream Corporation.

Leaving with him was Sgt. Stanley Tumidajski, 33, a former employee of General Cable Corporation, who became a member of the Armored Tank Division in California.

Two days before the first anniversary of Pearl Harbor, Private First Class John Tumidajski, 31, went off to the field artillery at Camp Jackson, SC, where he was asigned after his induction on Dec. 5, 1942. He graduated from East High in 1931, where he participated in football. He was formerly employed by the General Cable Corporation as a wire worker.

The last son to leave for service was Pvt. Matthew Tumidajski, 21, who was inducted in Sept, 1943, and is now attached to the Medic Corps at Camp Grant, III.

The mother of these six soldiers is just marking time until another son, Walter, 38, leaves. He was recently classified as I-A (meaning he's next to go in the draft).

EPILOGUE: the sons all came home from the war and are now deceased, according to family friend Tom Lutz. "They still have relatives living the Bishop's Bend section of Pawtucket" Lutz said.

DISABLED VET PAYS TRIBUTE TO 'QUADALAJARA'

2011-07-04T10:40:00.000-07:00

Buddy Pinsonnault (from Plattsburg, NY) arrived in Quadalajara circa 1970, Jack Tumidajski (Pawtucket, RI) 1972, Tom Kirch (Kellog, MN) circa 1963, Bill Baily (Baker, OR) 1958 and JoAnn Raway Kirch (Hastings, MN) 1964. Five friends of a group of some twenty Quadalajara residents enjoying un dia de campo at the popular picnic grounds of Chimulco--some 15 miles outside the city.

Disabled Vet Pays Tribute to 'Quadalajara'

Dennis Wagner

The Arizona Republic

Nov. 11, 2007

Jack Tumidajski rolls his wheelchair up to the desk at his Glendale house and gazes at faded photographs of men in wheelchairs laughing and partying in Mexico.

He lets the images draw him back in time to a place nicknamed "Quadalajara."

"The city was just waiting for us," he recalls dreamily. "A utopia waiting to be discovered. . . . It gave us a second chance at life.

"The year was 1972. Tumidajski, a Vietnam vet whose spine was severed in a traffic accident while he was on leave, had languished in his room at his parents' home for months with no hope for the future.

There were thousands like him across the nation. Before World War II, patients with broken necks seldom lived through the initial trauma and nearly always died within a couple of years because of complications. With medical advancements, however, quadriplegics like Tumidajski became survivors, often wasting away in institutions or as shut-ins with family. Decades later, the Iraq war also would produce thousands of casualties with spinal or brain injuries, but soldiers would receive more medical, social and vocational support.

During the years following World War II, recalls the 59-year-old Tumidajski, "You had a new segment of society with no place to go. Live in a room, watch TV, have family members take care of you. . . For so many guys, and a few gals, there were no options."

And then word spread about this place south of the border, Guadalajara, a haven for non-walking wounded veterans. Guys could live cheap, soak up sun and drink tequila. The flat terrain was ideal for wheelchairs. And, as a bonus, Mexican women weren't put off by crippled soldiers.

Tumidajski, then 24, caught a plane and found himself at what the vets referred to as "gimp camps." For most of the next decade, the Rhode Island native lived in Guadalajara along with countless hundreds of other refugees. They played cards together, partied together, relied on one another.

Their lifestyle was sensationalized in the Oliver Stone film Born on the Fourth of July, drawn from just a few pages of Ron Kovic's autobiography by the same name. The movie focused on debauchery in a community of wheelchair jockeys portrayed as philanderers and drunks. Mexican women were depicted as whores.

Tumidajski shakes his head. That is not what he remembers, not what he describes in his own book, Quadalajara: The Utopia That Once Was, released last year. The 394-page volume was written to honor disabled vets who created a haven of hope, Tumidajski says.

It is a personal reflection but also the lone historical record to debunk Hollywood's tawdry myth. "I wanted to preserve that moment in time. The only living record is encapsulated in that movie, and it's a distortion."

Tumidajski, who has limited use of his arms and hands, typed the book using a stick, pecking letters one by one on his computer keyboard.

The story opens with a 19-year-old U.S. Army enlistee contemplating life while on a military flight to South Vietnam in April of 1968. It is not a war story: Tumidajski came under enemy fire only once.

A year later, he was on leave at his home in Pawtucket, R.I., riding in a friend's Volkswagen on a night out. The car fishtailed out of control and struck a utility pole. Tumidajski's vertebrae were crushed, his body numbed from the neck down.

He spent 23 months in hospitals, enduring bed sores, surgeries, complications, therapy, and training on how to use a wheelchair. Then he faced the grim life of a quad, at his parents' home, watching endless soap operas, trying to be upbeat in a world of gloom.

"I just sat there in my bedroom," Tumidajski recalls. "What am I going to do with the rest of my life, try to invent the next board game?"

In the summer of 1971, a hospital buddy named Vinnie talked incessantly about a colony in Guadalajara, established years earlier by a handful of disabled vets from World War II and Korea. Most subsisted on Veterans Administration compensation, Social Security checks or other types of fixed income. Living on $500 a month, Vinnie said, a quad could rent a room, hire an attendant and live la vida dulce south of the border.

"You can go just about anywhere, and if you come across some steps, just say: 'Hey, kid, you want to make a peso?' There's always someone around willing to help you out."

Tumidajski gave it a try in 1972 and found an enclave of brothers wounded in body and soul yet full of vigor. To this day, he seems unclear whether they left the United States in search of adventure, to escape sympathetic stares or to reinvent themselves.

"It was a second chance at life," he says simply. "I found I could be independent. I was in an environment that was full of opportunity."

Tumidajski does not dispute that women were part of the attraction. Although some men found prostitutes, he says, more fell in love with young ladies who were hired to assist them with daily life.

Tumidajski tells of his own girlfriends, hinting at the difficult and important sexual rediscovery for men traumatized by paralysis.

He says these were genuine relationships with Mexican women who seemed to have an uncommon empathy.

"People who have known suffering - from poverty, for example - they're more accepting of others who have had misfortune," he says. "Down there, you were a gringo first, and you were a guy in wheelchair second."

The vets organized themselves under the Mexico chapter of Paralyzed Veterans of America, which served as a social and philanthropic club. Tumidajski says he became heavily involved in part because he felt awkward as a non-combatant quad among so many who had been wounded in warfare. Public service, he says, was a way to honor their sacrifice.

Life south of the border was not perfect. American food and other products were hard to come by. Phones didn't work. One of the Paralyzed Veterans events was hit by robbers. But the gringos, emancipated in wheelchairs, proved resourceful.

They might still be there, Tumidajski says, if times hadn't changed.

In Guadalajara, the cost of living escalated. In the United States, laws and social acceptance created new opportunities for the disabled. They could get degrees, find careers, fit in.

One by one, they headed north. Tumidajski followed others in 1981, migrating to Arizona for warmth and accessibility.

Still a bachelor, he lives with retired caregiver Miguel Lopez, who has assisted him for more than two decades. Tumidajski has contact with one old vet from the era who still lives in Mexico.

"Memories were all that remained: memories of getting a second chance in life," Tumidajski wrote in his book. "Memories of a unique place in a unique time - Quadalajara."

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BRANDO'S 'THE MEN' --- HOLLYWOOD'S FIRST LOOK AT PARAPLEGIA

2011-04-20T17:21:00.000-07:00

Sixty years ago a relatively unknown actor named Marlon Brando helped Hollywood introduce to the general public a relatively unknown segment of society--paraplegics. The unveiling of Hollywood newcomer, Brando, and these newest members of society took place on the Big Screen in the 1950 hit movie, The Men.

The Men served to launch Brando's film career but, more importantly, introduced movie-goers to the men--the earliest survivors of a catastrophic injury that most people had never heard of--spinal cord injury (SCI). Indeed, fellow actor and co-star, Richard Erdman (Leo in The Men) admits to asking a leading doctor of SCI at the time, Dr. Ernest Bors, why Erdman had never heard of a paraplegic--the very role he was about to play. The answer: there were none. At least until the war when doctors like Bors, with the discovery of antibiotics, helped keep spinal cord injured World War II veterans as well as civilian paraplegics alive longer than their pre-war life expectancy of eighteen months.

There are countless movie reviews of The Men on the Internet and elsewhere; copies of the movie are also available there.

The movie itself takes place at the Birmingham VA Hospital in Van Nuys, CA. Interestingly, approximately forty-five actual paraplegic patients take part in the movie--mostly as extras but a number with speaking/acting parts. Speaking of 'firsts', the movie-going public is also introduced to a newly-formed veterans' organization--The Paralyzed Veterans Association (PVA). In 1946, paralyzed veterans were organizing what would eventually evolved into one national organization--known today as the Paralyzed Veterans of America, with chapters in SCI centers in the Birminham VA, the Bronx VA, East Halloran General Hospital (Staten Island, NY), Saint Albans Naval Hospital (Long Island, NY), Hines VA Hospital (Chicago area), McGuire VA Hospital (Richmond, Virginia), Kennedy (Memphis, TN) and Cushing (Framington, MA).

In February 1947, delegates from seven of the existing chapters (Cushing couldn't finance the trip) met at the Hines VA Hospital Vaughan Unit for the first convention of the Paralyzed Veterans Association of America. PVA pioneer Gilford S. Moss (Vaughan Chapter) who sent out a letter calling for the formation of a national organization became the group's first president. Also present among PVA's 'Founding Delegates' were Robert Moss (no relation to Gilford, who would follow as PVA's second president), Donald P. Coleman, Joseph Gusmeroli, George Holmann, Fred Smead, Walter Suchanof, Alex Mihalchyk, Harold Peterson, William Day Jr., Marcus Orr, Kenneth Seaquist, Eldred Beebe, Joseph Gillette, Alfred Gore, and Harold Sharper.

The birth of PVA, along with connecting paraplegics from across the country, also served to bring them together through the organization's national magazine, the Paraplegia News. Every PVA member from New England to Southern California received this monthly periodical with information on everything from new medical breakthroughs to legislation concerning benefits for these newest battlefield survivors to news from other chapters of PVA.

The four principal paraplegic parts in The Men were played by able-bodied actors Brando, Erdman, Jack Webb (of TV's Dragnet fame) and paraplegic Arthur Jurado. Interestingly, The Men, using paraplegics to play the part of paraplegics would be a novel idea--if it took place today. Sadly, some segments of society still have to wait in 'the back of the bus'.

Besides Jurado, hospital patients who had speaking/acting rolls in the firm included Pat Grissom (himself), Randall Updyke III (Baker), Tom Gillick (Fine), Carlo Lewis (Gunderson), Ray Mitchell (Thompson), Pete Simon (Mullin), Paul Peltz (Hopkins), Marshall Ball (Romano), William Lea Jr. (Walter), Obie Parker (The Lookout) and Sam Gilman (uncredited). Bud Woziak (who, according to Turner Movie Classics, was used as the model for Brando's character) joined Ted Anderson, Pat Grissom, Pete Simon and Herbert Wolf as the film's technical advisors.

For those who haven't seen The Men: boy (Lieutenant Ken 'Bud' Wilozek played by Marlon Brando) meets girl (Ellen played by Teresa Wright), boy goes off to war--but not before proposing to girl, boy takes a bullet in the back while on patrol, boy finds himself paralyzed, boy shows up in Birmingham VA SCI unit still unable to deal with his paralysis one year later, girl who is still waiting for boy to 'recover' asks to see him, boy and girl resume dating ritual, boy marries girl and they move into their own home, boy and girl have marital issues and boy returns to hospital to live, boy lashes out and fellow patients--PVA Board members --vote to kick his butt out, boy and girl reconcile and live happily ever after...maybe.

The film enlightened movie-goers in 1950 and still has unique educational value today. Many of the situations dealt with in the movie still apply: adjusting to a catastrophic injury, rehabilitation, relationships--or lack thereof, camaraderie and veteran helping fellow veteran, and the sometimes difficult reality of rejoining a society that only recently appears ready to accept its differently-abled citizens. Unless you are a paraplegic or quadriplegic, have a family member or friend with SCI, or work in the rehab field, chances are you'll gain a substantial amount of understanding from viewing The Men.

Aside from dealing with most issues that newly injured paraplegics (and quadriplegics--no distinction in the movie) are faced with today, what would become of the men? Although Brando's character makes his way out of the safe confines of the Birmingham VA Hospital and starts a new life in a world not yet ready to receive him, what would become of the others? We know that Angel (Arthur Jurado's character), the super para who was preparing for discharge to rejoin his family, tragically takes ill and dies. What of the others? In 1950, no one knew. Many assumed a cure would certainly be found.

Those who viewed The Men may have gotten the impression that all the paraplegics would finish rehab--except for those who died from their injuries or an isolated illness--and be discharged into the world that Brando's character showed was not prepared to accept them.
The film shows how difficult it was for the first paraplegics to rejoin society. Leaving the hospital and going out into the 'real' world was, with no blueprint or path to follow, an unimaginable challenge--even for the good shape paraplegic. What about the quadriplegics, paralyzed from the chest down, sometimes with limited or no use of their hands and arms? Wilozek, at least, was a low-level para able to function independently--almost--with a few physical hurdles (steps) to overcome and a loving wife to support him. What about those paraplegics and quadriplegics who lived in the Northeast or Midwest? How many barriers besides steps and cold weather did they have to overcome? These were the true pioneers--the men who would take charge in uncharted waters and lead the way.

The earliest battlefield survivors of paraplegia were being treated and given therapy in the infancy of this new and challenging area of medicine by, in most cases, doctors, nurses, and therapists with relatively no prior experience in the field of SCI. Paraplegia was as new to the hospital staff as it was to their newest patients.

Despite the best efforts of the newly-formed veterans service organization, including securing automobile and housing grants for its members, slow progress was being made in crucial areas. A cure for SCI proved elusive. Although some paras and quads were fortunate to live in warmer regions of the country that were also more accessible than those where stairs and cold, oftentimes snowy weather, made getting out and about extremely difficult. Sitting in a wheelchair looking out the window at a foot of snow along with freezing temperature for months can be quite depressing. Not to mention the fact that, for so many young men who rehabbed successfully, once the snow cleared and the weather warmed, there where few places to go that didn't have steps. Architectural barriers remained in place for years. Attitudinal barriers even longer! The uncomfortable stares from strangers that Brando's character experienced in the restaurant scene were commonplace back then. Human nature? Societal change and 'acceptance' came slowly for most disabled citizens. But for wheelchair users, the most obviously disabled, it took longer.

It's no wonder that so many paralyzed veterans--especially the more dependent quadriplegics--rarely left the hospital and never went home. Who would care for them? What about those whose families lived on the second floor of a multi-family tenement?

Options for a life after SCI for many were limited. For every independent paraplegic Bud Wilocek type who lived in Southern California there was a caregiver dependent Christopher Reeve type quadriplegic stuck in a Hines VA hospital in the Windy City looking out the window wondering about the future.

Twenty years after the release of The Men, there were still "homesteaders", as some discharged paras and quads referred to them, living in VA hospital SCI centers--many patients who never went home or ever intended to!

As the PVA continued to evolve, chapters were being formed from Puerto Rico--as far from PVA's birthplace of Chicago's Hines VA Hospital as could be imagined, to serve the many veterans who sacrificed so much in Uncle Sam's Army--to Guadalajara, Mexico for the many spinal cord injured veterans who were wiling to 'roll the dice' and leave behind snow, cold weather and staring out the window, wondering...

While many injured veterans lived out their final years wasting away in VA hospitals afraid to face the outside world, a number of the men decided to explore the exotic notion of checking out this place in Mexico that a number of their hospital buddies spoke so highly of. By the mid-1950's, there were reports of and by paraplegic veterans exploring and visiting places in Mexico. Although most of these initial stories appeared in articles in PVA's Paraplegia News, word of mouth spread in VA hospitals and civilian care centers from New England to New York to Chicago and on to Southern California where a steady pipeline of wheelchair users--both veteran and non-veteran men and a few women--continued to swell the ranks of those desperate and/or adventurous enough to gamble their future happiness--or lack thereof--on this intriguing 'South of the Border' option.

By 1964, there were so many paraplegic and quadriplegic veterans now living in and around the city of Guadalajara that they petitioned national PVA for a chapter in Mexico. The Mexico Chapter would go on to serve veterans, non-vets and the local community for the next twenty years.

Thanks to the ground work laid, and selfless sacrifice of so many paralyzed veterans over the last sixty-five years, the Paralyzed Veterans of America is today a first class veterans service organization with thirty-four chapters operating throughout the United States and Puerto Rico.

For anyone interested in an entertaining and educational film about the earliest survivors of a catastrophic injury whose cure has eluded the world's top medical researchers for decades, you just might want to take another look at The Men.

________________________

Rarely seen and newly 'discovered' photos of Brando on the set at the Birmingham VA Hospital (1950)

http://www.life.com/gallery/46182#index/17

THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS (Noche Buena)

2010-12-14T20:06:00.000-08:00

THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS

(NOCHE BUENA)

'Twas the night before Christmas and all through the casa,
Not a creature was stirring. Caramba !Que Pasa!

Los niños were all tucked away in their camas,
Some in long underwear, some in pijamas.

While Mama worked late in her little cocina,
El viejo was down at the corner cantina

Living it up with amigos, Carracho!
Muy contento and poco borracho!

While hanging the stockings with mucho cuidado;
In hopes that old Santa would feel Obligado

To bring all the chidren, both buenos and malos,
A nice batch of dulces and other regalos,

Outside in the yard there arose such a grito
That I jumped to my feet like a frightened cabrito.

I ran to the window and looked out afuera,
And who in the world do you think that it era?

St. Nick in a sleigh and a big red sombrero
Came dashing along like a crazy bombero!

And pulling his sleigh, instead of venados,
Were eight little burros, approaching volados.

I watched as they came, and this quaint little hombre
Was shouting and whistling and calling by nombre

"Ay, Pancho! Ay, Pepe! Ay, Cuca! Ay Beto!
Ay Chato, Ay Chope! Maruca Y Nieto!"

Then standing erect with his hand on his pecho,
He flew to the top of our own techo.

With his round little belly like a bowl of jalea,
He struggled to squeeze down our old chimenea

Then, huffing and puffing, at last in our sala,
With soot smeared all over his red suit de gala

He filled all the stockings with lovely regalos,
For none of the niños had been very malos.

Then chuckling aloud, seeming very contento,
He turned like a flash and was gone like the viento.

And I heard him exclaim- and this is verdad-
Merry Christmas to all! Feliz Navidad!

http://www.quadmexico.com/

Your GREAT Book!!

2010-08-20T16:36:00.000-07:00

Hi Jack,

I received the signed copy of your book earlier this week...thank-you!! Just finished reading the book, WOW!! I had a vague recollection of hearing the name Quadalajara, must have been from Ron Kovac's movie "Born of the Fourth of July". I am so happy that by chance I found your book and now have the true story. You have done a fantastic job!!

I have been in a wheelchair since 1973, T-2 Para from motorcycle accident at age 15 years. I love Mexico and have traveled to Mexico many times over the years. You have now inspired me to check-out Guadalajara. While I don't expect to experience the great lifestyle you had, I am sure there will be some great times. Any recommendations on where to stay/go in the areas you were??

Anyway Jack, you and the group of guys in Quadalajara are a real inspiration! I hope one day to see a movie made from your book, it is warranted. I will be ordering additional copies of your book in the near future to share with friends.

Thanks again for the great read Jack!!

Regards,
Glen Gregos

(I agree with Glen...books make excellent gifts! A must read for those who think they know a little about disabled veterans who once lived in Mexico and for babyboomers and others who appreciate inspirational true stories about veterans and those society considers "handicapped" :)

(Any Facebook folks interested in contacting me, please send a message or friend request by searching my name! Jack Tumidajski...Thanks!)

http://www.quadmexico.com/

www.myspace.com/quadalajara

Hospicio Cabañas ORPHANS TREATED TO KING-SIZE PARTY

2009-12-04T20:22:00.000-08:00

(Alliance for Compassion members Marion Fuget and George Small, surrounded by orphans from Jalisco's state run orphanage, Hospicio Cabañas. Circa 1963)

Paraplegia News - June 1964

Wheelers Throw King-Size Party for Orphans
By John Reese

GUADALAJARA, MEXICO

Those guys are at it again.

The same incorrigible bunch of American quadriplegics and paraplegics who gave the big Christmas party at the state orphanage took 300 of the kids for an all-day picnic and swim at one of the newest and most beautiful resorts here, Los Camachos, in the spectacular setting of the wild Barrancas.

This was an even more ambitious project than the Christmas posada. It meant transporting everyone but the nursery babies 15 miles out into the country, feeding them all day, providing lifeguard protection in an acre of clear mountain water in a blue-tile pool, and getting them all back, exhausted but happy and safe, that night.

3,200 Pesos Raised

The paraplegics “Alliance for Compassion,” as they now call it here, raised 3,200 pesos in one of the quietest fund drives in money-raising history.

What baffles everyone in the big American colony here is that nobody seems to want any credit, nobody wants his name in the local papers, nobody even wants to admit he was a part of it. Nevertheless, although only 18 contributors showed up to see their money at work, it is known that “around 30 or 40” donors contributed.

The picnic was unprecedented in the 177-year-old history of the Hospicio Cabanas, the state orphanage. The kids drank 900 bottles of soft drinks and ate three-quarters of a ton of food. They kept the pool filled in relays, some of them wearing swim-suits paid for out of the paraplegics money.

Record in Foreign Aid

When you figure that the cost per kid was only about 10 pesos - that’s 80 cents U.S. - you're getting pretty close to a new economy record in Foreign Aid. It couldn't be done, but they did it.

The attention this “impossible” act of charity drew makes the American paraplegics one of the most influential groups in the big American colony here. From now on, their support is going to count heavily.

After the success of the Christmas party, it was relatively easy to line up help for this. The American School and the Municipal Police contributed the buses. State and Highway police detailed men to help handle the kids. A big brewery brought in folding tables and chairs, set them up, and hauled them away afterwards.

From page 150: QUADALAJARA --- The Utopia That Once Was

2006 Distinguished Book Award - FIVE STAR Rating
Military Writers Society of America (MWSA)
Present at San Diego Salute to the Military, July 2006

2007 Honorable Mention Award from the Hollywood Book Festival
"Celebrating books worthy of greater attention from the film and TV industries"

http://www.quadmexico.com/

OLIVER STONE, TOM CRUISE and the MYTHS of 'BORN on the FOURTH of JULY'

2009-09-18T20:48:00.000-07:00

Jimmy Jordan, Jerry Maurer and Glenn Green anxiously await the arrival of Tom Cruise and the whores from Villa Dulce that were depicted in Oliver Stone's Born on the Fourth of July

Twenty years ago, Oliver Stone's Born on the Fourth of July was a box office mega hit that earned a Best Actor nomination for Tom Cruise and the Academy's Best Director Award for Stone.

The movie was adapted from paralyzed Vietnam veteran Ron Kovic's 1976 bestseller by the same title. Cruise played Kovic in the movie and many consider it his best Big Screen performance.

Millions who viewed this epic at the theater, on TV or DVD were treated to a Seventeen Minute segment in which Cruise, the former All-American patriotic teen athlete turned Marine turned paraplegic--due to a bullet that shattered his spinal cord in Vietnam--journeys to Mexico to escape the daemons that plague him.

Unable to adjust to his paraplegia and now dealing with depression, fits of rage, confusion and alcoholism, Cruise discovers a haven for equally messed up Vietnam vets in the ocean side sex resort,Villa Dulce. Here, Cruise finds his niche. His initiation begins when he rolls his wheelchair up to a marathon 55 hour poker game where the residents chug Mezcal (Including swallowing the worm at the bottom of the bottle), joke about their paralyzed private parts while surrounded by Mexican whores wearing short-shorts and skimpy tops.

Cruise soon ventures out on his own and has his first sexual experience in a cantina with an English-speaking prostitute. With her understanding, believable compassion and gentle kisses, she persuades the anxious vet to relax and forget about his paralyzed body. Soon, Cruise is back at theVilla drinking Mezcal and howling about his first sexual encounter.

Many movie-goers still remember that unique place in Mexico: the Seventeen Minute segment about Villa Dulce is embedded in the minds of many who viewed Born on the Fourth of July. Seventeen Minutes of history that will live on forever?

But what if Villa Dulce wasn't an ocean side sex resort for disabled Vietnam veterans? If Villa Dulce was simply Villa del Sol, one of a half dozen group homes in Guadalajara, at the time, (which the guys affectionately referred to as "Gimp Camps") where wheelchair bound veterans from World War II, Korea, as well as, non-vets and Vietnam vets--guys and some gals--rented rooms or bungalows?

"The long dining hall full of wheelchairs was an exciting place for him...a lot of people talking and laughing...there were old and young, veterans from all wars...a lot of the men would play cards all day long and some would drink heavily and have to be carried back into their rooms...some of the others just stayed in their little rooms writing letters to people or reading the newspaper." (Ron Kovic, from his autobiography, Born on the Fourth of July)

Oliver Stone's award winning Born on the Fourth of July (a typical Stone mix of fact and fiction), based on Ron Kovic's autobiography, contains that Seventeen Minute segment that unfortunately portrays ALL Mexican women as whores and prostitutes and Vietnam veterans as whore mongering alcoholics. This is an injustice to both groups. One man's brief experience, embellished in Seventeen Minutes of a Hollywood movie, should not define a thirty year period of history experienced and lived by countless hundreds of others!

For the record, Guadalajara is Mexico's second largest city and is hundreds of miles from the ocean. The first nomadic paraplegic and quadriplegic veterans to discover this unique utopia were some of the earliest survivors of spinal cord injury (SCI).

Prior to WWII, people who incurred spinal cord injuries had a life expectancy of eighteen months. Many paralyzed veterans injured during the war years received the first ray of hope. With the discovery of antibiotics and new medical breakthroughs, paras and quads were now, for the first time, living long enough to be discharged from military and veterans' hospitals into a world not yet ready to receive them. They gained a second chance at life but with no blueprint to follow. The questions: "What would they do?" and "Where would they go?" remained unanswered.

By the mid-50's, there were a number of paraplegic veterans enjoying the freedom, independence, ideal climate and low cost of living that Guadalajara had to offer. Others, seemingly oblivious to their existence, were exploring areas in and around Mexico City--some three hundred miles to the Southeast.

Word of mouth spread, especially in VA hospitals from Long Beach to New England, and while thousands of spinal cord injured veterans lived out their final years afraid to leave their hospitals or bedrooms, a growing number of adventurous paraplegics and quadriplegics left the safe confines of institutional and shut-in living and joined those already residing in this mysterious utopia somewhere South of the Border.

By 1960 there were three group homes in and around the city of Guadalajara that could accommodate eight or more residents. As more wheelchair users decided to make this new found utopia their home, many guys chose to venture out on their own, renting three and four bedroom houses and sharing living expenses.

Unfortunately, many folks who think they know something about this unique history from the Seventeen Minute segment in Oliver Stone's Born on the Fourth of July, have been misinformed. Besides Guadalajara not being an ocean side sex resort, the American residents were not ALL Vietnam veterans (only a small percentage were), as some were led to believe, and did not live in the same enclave--a small town called Villa Dulce--as depicted in the film and still believed as fact by many to this day. By the mid-60's, there were over a hundred wheelchair residents--mostly veteran and mostly quadriplegic--scattered throughout the city and surrounding towns.

Although many of the new arrivals at the various group homes did check out Guadalajara-after-dark, few spent their entire time inebriated in cantinas and bordellos. Ron Kovic's experience while at the fictional Villa Dulce and as portrayed in the movie by Tom Cruise, hardly represents what most of those who visited and resided there experienced.

The Guadalajara era, when wheelchair users from all over North America and beyond, once discovered a utopian paradise which offered freedom, adventure and a second chance at life, spanned a period of more than three decades (early 50's - to mid 80's) and was lived by countless hundreds of disabled veterans and non-veterans, both men and women.

To allow myths and misconceptions to live on, along with the racist portrayal of Mexican women and negative stereotypes of veterans who once sacrificed life and limb for our freedoms, is reprehensible.

How long must Seventeen Minutes of fiction be accepted as fact?

Is twenty years long enough?

Or will these myths and misconceptions live on for eternity?

QUADALAJARA - The Utopia That Once Was
Honorable Mention Award from the 2007 Hollywood Book Festival "Celebrating books worthy of further attention by the film and TV industries"

QUADALAJARA - The Utopia That Once Was
FIVE STAR Rating! MWSA 2006 Distinguished Book Award Winner!
Bill McDonald, President, Military Writers Society of America
(Presented at MWSA's "Salute to the Military", San Diego, October 2006)

http://www.quadmexico.com/

www.myspace.com/quadalajara

Is QUADALAJARA Worthy of the BIG Screen???

2009-08-06T15:47:00.000-07:00

The letter that follows originally got Lost in (Cyber)Space but was well received by the author :)
Jack,

It’s been so long...I may be the last one to congratulate you with your book but, when I received it, I couldn't put it down. I’m sure people who read it got different perspectives. For me there were many. I finally found out just what happened to my cousin at a time in my life where no one in our house talked about anything in any detail. I was just told who not to talk to anymore.

Those first 100 pages enlightening my reality to what I never knew and was afraid to ask. The drive you had as a young man is what I could relate to. To me it was, “Be a burden to no one and do what I have to do from here on.” But how you did it, under your circumstances, is beyond me.

I lost my dad, but I could go wherever I wanted. You lost your mobility, that's what I had thought at that time. “What will he do?” Well, now I know what you did and still do and it’s far more than I could have ever imagined. How modest you are. This true story has very little about what you had to go through to live each day.

This story, your words pulled me into the world that you intended it to. You introduced me to the PVA (Paralyzed Veterans of America) as will others who will read this book. Its inspiration is not just to disabled people but to ones who ask, “What can they do now?” You did a great service to your comrades as you name them all and the honor you give to them for their courage not to conform and give up on life and showed a way to continue on --- the real true grit.

I have run into many people who have been to Guadalajara in the past few years and talk about what a nice place it is.

Time changes all...a book is timeless...You made us all proud of this work you've done. And Jack, no bull#$%, this is movie material.

Your 'little' cousin, Ken
* * * * * *

Is my 'little' (6 ft 5 or taller) cousin right? Does a story about spinal cord injured veterans post World War II who, for the first time in history, survived long enough to be discharged from military and veterans' hospitals into a world not yet ready to receive them merit preserving in film? Not to mention the fact that these nomadic paraplegics and quadriplegics discovered their utopian paradise of freedom and adventure in a foreign land? I've been told that since before I even wrote, QUADALAJARA - The Utopia That Once Was, and many times since by neighbors, others who read the book, and even by judges from the 2007 Hollywood Book Festival, 'Celebrating books worthy of greater recognition by the film and TV industries!'

* * * * * *

"In the fall of 1998, when I was a social work intern talking to you, someone who had lived in Guadalajara, Mexico, I clearly remember standing at your hospital bed and telling you, "You are part of a remarkable moment in history. You should write a book to tell this story. There's a screenplay in there." After reading parts of that book, now I realize I had no idea at all about just how truly remarkable that moment in history was. I knew it was very important for you, as the youngster of the group, to tell the story.

"M.O. Social Worker

San Diego VA

http://www.quadmexico.com/

PARAPLEGIA NEWS READER FONDLY REMEMBERS 'QUADALAJARA'

2009-07-23T18:01:00.000-07:00

Editor, Paraplegia News

The Mexico Chapter PVA (Paralyzed Veterans of America) article (May 2009) brought back fond memories from the past. I attended my first PVA annual convention held in Chicago in 1970. I left that experience wearing a black and silver sombrero after admiring it for several days on the head of a Mexico Chapter delegate. It hung on display for several years in our home.
A few years later during President Frank DeGeorge's term in office I had the pleasure of serving as the National Vice President, back when there was only one such position. Since recruitment for members was in my job description and Chapter visitations was part of the job, I flew from Washington, D.C. to Guadalajara for an official PVA visit. It was the first time a national figure had made such a trip.

The hospitality and welcome received was red carpet treatment the entire visit. The VP met with most of the Chapter members (residing at this particular group home...most members rented houses and some shared theirs with other guys/gals), was shown the sites and living quarters of those residing in this quaint place. It was a real experience for all of us from which a favorable report was taken back to National Office. Those who lived that experience during that time in PVA history proved their independence, determination and showed to others what can be accomplished.

Over the years I have told others of my first trip South of the Border and how I enjoyed the adventure. Like so many things in life, we change, as does the situation.

However, it was a sad day in 1984 when a great PVA Chapter ceased to exist. I salute those members, still living, who had the chance to be a member of a one of a kind group.

John "Jack" Rine,
Past National Vice President, PVA

AN OPEN LETTER TO AN OLD FRIEND FROM THE QUADALAJARA ERA

2009-07-20T18:14:00.000-07:00

David,

A long-overdue 'thanks so much for the book order.'

By now, I'm sure you've read the letter to the Mexico PVA editor that gives kudos to your 'Chaplain's Corner' (by David Carlson). It's ironic that it came from our Arizona PVA.

I held on to many old PVA letters and articles, as did Keith Ziegler and Ray Foland before him. It helps bolster my claim that Guadalajara during the 50's through the 80's was much more than a 'oceanside sex resort for Vietnam veterans', as depicted in Oliver Stone's Born on the Fourth of July and as described in other magazine articles by those who were mislead! Every time I watch that movie, with the seventeen minutes segment about "Villa Dulce" (I believe that the real Tom Cruise--Ron Kovic--stayed at Villa del Sol) minus the ocean, I become more infuriated that one man's experience, during his brief visit to Mexico close to four decades ago, still defines a thirty year period of time lived and experienced by countless hundreds of others!

Depicting ALL Mexican women in the movie as whores and prostitutes, as well as, misleading the public to believe that ALL the paras and quads who lived there to be alcoholic whore-mongering Vietnam veterans, is a grave injustice to both groups.

I don't know what it'll take to set the record straight, but I'll do my part to keep that special place in time from being forever forgotten.

Best Wishes,

Jack Tumidajski

http://www.quadmexico.com/

www.myspace.com/Quadalajara

JIM DERRY --- REST IN PEACE

2009-07-20T17:45:00.000-07:00

I didn't know Jim Derry all that well while we were living in Guadalajara. The paraplegic from Ohio and I traveled in different circles. I'd see Jim at PVA functions and oftentimes at Cubilete (the original George Ray's Place) whenever I stopped by to visit and play cards with seasoned citizens Gil Turetsky and Leo Boudosis, who also rented rooms there.

Ironically, Jim was the first person to order a copy of my book, QUADALAJARA --- The Utopia That Once Was, when Paraplegia News editor Cliff Crase first reviewed it in the Paralyzed Veterans of America's monthly publication.

Jim passed away on July 8, 2009. May he rest in peace...

HAPPY 40th ANNIVERSARY, JACK!!!

2009-04-23T17:10:00.000-07:00

OK, so my BIG day was yesterday...but I was too busy CELEBRATING to BLOG!!! That must mean that I celebrate a whole lot! :) (See Chapter Five of QUADALAJARA - The Utopia That Once Was, pages 53 - 56.)

Anyway, on to today: I received my advanced copy of the May issue of the Paraplegia News. Being a PN "contributor" has it's benefits.

My article --- which is an edited excerpt from chapter thirteen of my book --- appears on the last page, "And Finally."

Ironically, the first name mentioned was that of Maria Elena (Bailey). Ironic because today is my Comadre Maria Elena's birthday. (You'll have to ask her how young she is --- unless you have a copy of the book...or read the article and care to 'do the math'.)

I'm a bit 'rusty' but I'll do my best to upload the wedding photo of "Quadalajara's first Love Connection."

Word Weavers Writing Excerpts --- JACK TUMIDAJSKI

2009-03-05T14:21:00.000-08:00

Jack Tumidajski is a Vietnam veteran who lives in the Phoenix area. Originally from Pawtucket, Rhode Island, Jack attended Providence College before enlisting in the Army in 1967. Ironically, five days after returning home from the war, he became a quadriplegic as the result of "An idiot driver who did something stupid!" He's been living life on "Plan B" ever since.

After nearly two years of hospitalization and rehabilitation and one and a half years of shut-in living with his family, Jack decided --- like many paraplegic and quadriplegic veterans from World War II, Korea and Vietnam had before him --- to "roll the dice" and check out life in Guadalajara, Mexico.

Jack spent most of the '70s living in the sunshine of this surprisingly accessible city in the heart of Mexico. In his book, QUADALAJARA - The Utopia that Once Was, he not only takes the reader through his personal experiences, setbacks and triumphs on his journey through "A special place in time", but also chronicles the lives and experiences of many of the original Explorers and Pioneers of an almost forgotten moment in time.

According to Tumidajski, "QUADALAJARA picks up where The Men (1950 movie about paralyzed survivors of World War II, staring Hollywood newcomer Marlon Brando) leaves off, as well as, dispels some of the myths and misconception about this era from Oliver Stone's movie, Born on the Fourth of July."

www.myspace.com/Quadalajara

www.QuadMexico.com

When back on duty, one of the jobs I acquired was that of Air Force liaison. Daily contact with my Air Force counterpart at Phu Cat Air Base north of Qui Nhon was maintained to alert those further up the logistical line of what supplies were needed and what supplies were being sent from our port city. I remembered my first phone conversation with my Air Force contact at Phu Cat. I was still a naive newcomer. After informing him of what cargo was headed his way, I was told that three cadavers would be on the return flight. I remember being taken aback by his routine manner of speech. I wasn't sure if I heard him correctly or understood the magnitude of what I'd just been told. After sheepishly asking him to repeat what he had told me, I froze for a moment. This was anything but routine for me. I was assured that I understood correctly. Thus began one of my daily duties: learning the always unpleasant news than another mother's son was returning home to a heartbroken family.

* * * * *
As I lay in bed one evening staring at nothing, my eyes focused on a welcome sight: my friends and cousins Rich and Joe were joined by Pat Mckenna. It was unusual to receive such a late night visit, especially on a cold mid-week night as the calendar was changing from February to March, but my mood quickly perked up.

"Great to see you guys," I began, as they approached my bed. I sensed that something was amiss by the lifeless expressions on their faces.

Before I had a chance to think, Rich spoke up, "Bobby's been killed!"

The news of Bobby's death left me emotionally numb. The reality took days to sink in. I was given permission to attend the wake and funeral by an empathetic medical staff. Stage three of my unusual medical procedure would have to wait, and any possible damage to what had already been reconstructed didn't matter. Everyone understood.

Subconsciously, perhaps, I wasn't ready to accept that my close friend was forever gone. Memories of competing in basketball, baseball, football, and all around horseplay that bonded Bobby and I were running through my head. I remembered leisurely walks down Prospect Street past Memorial Hospital on our way downtown on Saturday afternoons in hopes of meeting girls, hanging out on the West Side with the girls from St. Mary's Parish, and double dating with Denise and her sister Eileen. I had so many fond memories; memories that would last a lifetime for me, bur were stolen from my friend at only twenty years of age...

...I remained in my brother-in-law Alan's car for the funeral service. He was able to park close enough for us to be merely a few yards behind the crowd of mourners. Family, friends, and just about everyone from Bishop's Bend came to say goodbye to the first resident of our neighborhood to give his life in service to our country since World War II.

The tragically sad and solemn funeral service was punctuated with the crackle of the twenty-one gun salute that filled the cold morning air. The finality that this military tradition signaled was too much for Denise, as she collapsed and was caught by Bobby's cousin. After composing herself, Denise walked over to Alan's car. We talked for a few minutes before Denise left and a few other friends stopped by to greet me. Ironically, Denise's sister Eileen, who once told me, "If you join the Army, I'll never speak to you again," was not among them.

After returning to my all-too-familiar bed at the VA hospital, a few more days passed. I was watching the Saturday afternoon college basketball game --- a game in which Notre Dame defeated the seemingly invincible UCLA Bruins --- when tears began to flow from my eyes like water pouring uncontrollably from leaky faucets. Reality finally thawed my previously numb emotions. Bobby Taylor was dead.

* * * * *

In memory of Bobby Taylor and all those brave souls who sacrificed their lives for the freedoms that we, too often, take for granted.

© JACK TUMIDAJSKI

TOM CRUISE - THE UGLY AMERICAN IN MEXICO?

2009-02-24T20:45:00.000-08:00

(From page 240, QUADALAJARA - The Utopia That Once Was)

This was not the Guadalajara, Mexico (or Villa Dulce) as depicted in Oliver Stone's movie 'Born on the Fourth of July.' The only portrayal of Mexican women in Stone's movie was unfortunately that of whores and prostitutes. This is a demeaning misrepresentation of the señoras and señoritas of our neighbors to the south.

Ron Kovic's experiences during the short time he spent in Mexico, as detailed in his autobiography by the same title, differ greatly from that of most who visited or resided there. Although many of us who spent time in one of the "gimp camps" did explore the seedy side of this wondrous city, not everyone spent the majority of their time inebriated in cantinas or whorehouses. Most of us explored all aspects of the city, including its rich history, culture, and wonderful people.

I only regret that I, or someone knowledgeable of this unique time in history, had neither the voice nor the fortitude to set the record straight earlier.

(I stumbled on to the following last night while 'surfing the net')

Tom Cruise the ugly American in México?

By Carlos Quintanilla
UTwatch.org (May 1990)

"A number of critics bemoan the Motion Picture Academy's denial of recognition to Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing. What has not been criticized however, is the Academy's "Best Director" award to Oliver Stone, whose Born on the Fourth of July contains a sequence unparalleled in its racism.

Born on the Fourth of July a good, powerful film, contained some objectionable scenes. But the shit-filled bedpans, sucking chest wounds, compound fractures, and vomit didn't bother me nearly as much as the film's racist portrayal of Mexicans.

It may seem a little late to review a film out as long as this one, (I spent my Spring Break afternoons in Austin catching up on movie viewing) so I'll skip the conventional mention of fine acting, masterful editing and cinematography, and terrific musical score to focus on one segment of the film, in which Ron Kovic, the paraplegic Vietnam vet, played by Tom Cruise, goes to México.

Once again, the media in this country portrays Mexico and the people who live there as beneath contempt.

Kovic is understandably distraught by war injuries that confine him to a wheelchair. Mistreated by the "system," degraded in a filthy V.A. hospital by a callous staff, (most of whom are Black)

Kovic becomes increasingly disillusioned and angry. He begins drinking, explodes in anger at anyone who will listen. To get away (and stop driving his family and friends to distraction) he heads for Villa Dulce a Mexican beachside town. There, he and numerous other paraplegic Vietnam vets, unable to readjust to life in the United States, gamble. They consume copious amounts of Mezcal, worms and all. They frequently pay the plentiful whores who for sixty pesos will sexually oblige anyone, no matter what their physical condition. (I realize that "prostitute" is more palatable than "whore"; but only the latter word is used, even in the credits.)

In one particularly telling scene, Kovic and fellow disabled vet, Willem Dafoe take an ill-fated taxi ride, presumably in search of more carefree alcoholic consumption and high-risk sexual activity. After fighting with the taxi driver, whom they suspect of trying to do them wrong, the two vets are ejected from the cab in the middle of the desert. Slobbering drunk, Dafoe vents rage, at Kovic, whores, and Mexico. "Fuck México!" he bellows, a line that fairly well typifies the feel of the whole sequence.

Once again, up on the silver screen, millions see our country of origin merely as a place where a gringo can satisfy any depraved desire. The film depicts the women as money-hungry sluts with too much blue eye shadow and the men as leering bartenders or taxi drivers who will cut or rip off anyone at the drop of a sombrero. Of course there are places in México where this happens. But the film gives us not one positive image of México or its people. Not since Under the Volcano has such a preponderance of thieving pimps and vicious prostitutes flickered across the screen.

Ron Kovic shares screenplay credit with director Oliver Stone. This really surprised me. I expected more from him. I read Kovic's book years ago and was familiar with his work as a Vietnam veteran/activist. I'm less surprised by Stone. His film Salvador carried more than its share of stereotyped Latino images and played fast and loose with historical fact.

Stone and Kovic show the underside of the John Wayne mentality - young men physically and emotionally wrecked in the name of patriotism. The movie makers negated all their good intentions by showing Mexico as a nation of scumbags. They might as well have emptied the contents of those bedpans over the entire movie."

(Maybe this should be re-titled: Oliver Stone - The Ugly American In Hollywood?...JT)

ARTHUR HEYER and KEITH ZIEGLER

2009-02-07T19:41:00.000-08:00

Arthur Heyer was injured in Guadalajara, Mexico at the ripe old age of seventeen!

I've never met Arthur Heyer. Keith Ziegler first mentioned Heyer's name to me when I was interviewing Keith for my book, 'QUADALAJARA - The Utopia That Once Was'.

I spoke with Arthur for the first time a few days ago. Unfortunately, Keith has passed on. (Related BLOG post, November 18, 2006)

It's strangely ironic that Arthur Heyer's second chance at life did NOT take place in Guadalajara, as OURS had --- it took place here in the United States.

I'll step aside and let each tell their unique stories:

Keith Ziegler was one of those few quadriplegics who went on to college after sustaining a spinal cord injury in 1960 at the age of twenty-one. Ziegler spent the next six months hospitalized in Denver before being transferred to the Long Beach VA.

With the help of his parents, Keith returned to his now-modified and wheelchair accessible home in Colorado, and to an uncertain future in higher education. After three years, it became apparent that Ziegler's pursuit of a college English degree was becoming increasingly more difficult. His parents could only do so much, and full-time attendant care for a quadriplegic student on his own was beyond his financial means.

In 1965, Ziegler read an ad in the Paraplegia News about this place in Mexico. A few months later, Keith and his parents were on their way to check out Bill Coe's. Asked what his first day was like in Quadalajara, Ziegler responded, “They were a bunch of drunks. The owner was drunk, his wife was drunk, and the room was all mildewed and wet. My parents didn't like it and went for a walk the next day and saw Kegan's Place and said, 'You're coming over here.'

I had a nice room by myself. It was dry and comfortable. I knew Tom Kirch from Long Beach. Dave McDonald and Joe Darichuk, I'd seen before.”

Unlike those quads staying at Kegan's who Keith already knew from Long Beach, the guys at Bill Coe's “were mostly paras with pressure sores who stayed in bed all day and shot their pistols at night. There was one guy named 'Cowboy' and another named Ben something-or-other. Bill Coe used to get drunk and curse at Kegan at night and fire his pistol.”

“At Kegan?” Ziegler was asked. “No, just in the air.” Might this be the “entertainment” mentioned in many “WHY MEXICO?” and “GO MEXICO” ads?

“The first time I went out was in Joe Darichuk's car,” Ziegler recounted. “I met Frank Stocker, Chuck Devejanik, and this other redheaded para named Bob Enge. Just about everyone I met who didn't stay in one of the gimp camps had their own automobile. Even some of the guys who stayed at Kegan's had their own cars. Besides Darichuk, Steve Wilson had his own. Eddie Lucier had his own.”

Asked about some of his more memorable experiences in Quadalajara in the mid-60s, Ziegler recalled the time, “I was with George Ray and he pulled out his pistol and BLAM, shot a sparrow through Joe Miller's window.” “Didn't some of the guys belong to a shooting club in Quadalajara?” Keith was asked. Ziegler wasn't aware of it, but added, “Some of the guys used to shoot doves on the Tequila Highway.”

On a more positive note, Ziegler was one of many wheelers invited to a graduation party at the Hospicio Cabañas orphanage. “It was soon after I got there,” he added. Mexico PVA's unofficial chaplain and friend, Reverend Paul Hunter, did the inviting. The honoree was a very bright, paralyzed teen who had just graduated from la preparatoria, Mexico's equivalent to high school.

Although the event wasn't Mexico PVA sponsored, a number of its members, including one of its newest, Keith Ziegler, attended and donated money toward the purchase of a wheelchair, bed, and help toward Arturo Heyer's college education.

The significance of Heyer's introduction to the Mexico PVA would have lasting implications. According to Ziegler, Heyer would go on to receive an engineering degree, a job in Santa Ana, California designing prosthetic equipment to better the lives of people with disabilities, and return home “to found a similar organization in Mexico.”

La Asociación de Lisiados de Jalisco, A.C. (ALJAC), “would be formed around '72 or '73,” according to Ziegler, with membership open to all of the state of Jalisco's disabled citizens.

* * * * *

I MADE IT!...But What About the Others?

"When I became independent at work I had a great deal of satisfaction, but my happiness was not complete until I started sharing the experience with others with similar needs."

In the orderly chaos of a cluttered business office, Arthur Heyer moves a switch with his chin and his wheelchair back reclines.

"I broke my neck when I was seventeen. I became paralyzed from my neck down. Had my life come to a stall?, I asked myself. Could I ever dream to do anything other than sitting in a wheelchair and watch others grow?

"Now I do all these things. And I feel good about myself," Arthur says.

"These things" are impressive. After his accident, Arthur went back to school, he tutored in English and Mathematics, he became a graduate mechanical engineer and then leader of an organization for the handicapped. Now he is the owner and operator of a company where devices to aid the handicapped are manufactured. He is fluent in both English and Spanish and reads some Russian.

"I saw the moonlight reflecting on the water and I dove in.

The weather was warm and I had been ill. I was still running a fever. I had once swum in this pool near my home. I saw the moon reflecting on the quiet surface and dove in.

"It was nine feet from the edge to the bottom of the pool, and on this night the moon reflected on just two inches of water. My third and fifth vertebrae shattered, my spinal cord was smashed, and I became a quad. This happened August 8 of 1963 in Guadalajara, Mexico.

"I spent one year in a Striker frame, a bed designed with two cots that "sandwiched" me keeping me immobile while I was turned face down or face up every two or three hours. Striker frames are narrow and have wheels, so I could be moved from room to room or out to the patio to get fresh air and lots of sun. Books that were placed on a transparent platform over my face when I was lying on my back, and on a different platform when I was facing down kept me busy most of the time.

"I did not go to a rehabilitation hospital, not until 9 years later. My family took care of me. I was the second of 9 brothers and sisters.

"After the first three months, I started moving my head. My father saw this and made me a device for writing with my head. He attached a ball pen on a pair of eyeglass frames he arranged with magnifying glasses. The magnifying glasses allowed me to write at a short distance for better control, without straining my eyes. I spent at least 2 hours writing and drawing every day.

"I made pen pals: one girl from Mexico City and one from Indonesia. I kept abreast with my Calculus and studied Russian, about 5 hours a day. I read Physics and I spent valuable time with visitors from the "Legion de Maria". It was a good year.

"At one time, the most important thing in my life was to be able to sit comfortably in a wheelchair. I was 6 feet and 6 inches tall and a calcified hip kept my left leg in the extended position. My father and a friend of ours developed a special wheelchair with a half-seat. The chair became my all day and every day companion for the nine years it lasted."

"When I had to go to the university, we did not have a vehicle where I could fit with my special wheelchair. My father and I did not want to wait until we saved or raised the money to buy a van. So he attached a "U" bracket at the rear of his bicycle and towed me the five miles to the University every day for two months until we bought a van."

Arthur did not go to a rehabilitation hospital. He received rehabilitation at home with the help of his parents, brothers, sisters, and friends the first year. Then he returned to school, reintegrating himself fully into a world of walking people, and involuntarily and unconsciously segregating himself from other handicapped people.

As a result, he developed an anti-handicapped feeling. "I did not want to be with other handicapped people. I would not even look at them. When I saw one on the street, I saw myself as a mirror reflection and I did not want to know that I looked like them."

The part of Heyer's mind that rejected even his own handicap may have been the part that drove him to study and strive. While society saw him as a handicapped individual, Arthur saw himself as a man, who was also a quadriplegic.

An operation for his calcified hip joint led him to Rancho Los Amigos Hospital in Downey, California. In the Rehabilitation Center he learned that those broken or twisted bodies he had avoided were also real people.

The "growth" that he was later to realize everyone wants began there. He became so involved that when he returned to his home town Guadalajara, Mexico, he helped to start ALJAC, an organization of handicapped individuals, and was its president until he married 3 years later.

He and his bride went back to California, where Arthur obtained employment as a rehabilitation engineer at Rancho Los Amigos Medical Center, where he had been a patient 3 years before. He worked there 3 years and then changed jobs to become the president of his own company, Extensions For Independence.

The design of mechanisms to solve his own and others' functional needs became Arthur's career. He has done it almost on a daily basis since he first sat in a wheelchair in October of 1964. Actually, he designed mechanisms since much before his accident. Arthur was a natural engineer.

Fortunately for him, his father first, and then other people too, were there to help him continue his natural career with practically no interruption. In the course of his life as a quadriplegic, Arthur has designed a number of mechanisms which have given him increased independence and comfort for life and work. Among other things, Arthur designed different types of mouthstick operated drafting machines, a motorized easel, telephone adapters, file trays that hold resource material open for easy reading, variable-height desks with large rotating tables for easy access, portable desks that attach to wheelchairs. But first and best is the development of the H-A Modular Mouthstick, the production version of the mouthstick his father first designed for him.

The "Y"-shaped mouthpiece feature, which is basic since the elder Heyer first designed it for his son, is for the user to be able to talk while holding it with a firm and comfortable grip in his mouth. Later, Arthur worked with Henry Abadie, a retired engineer from Long Beach, to create the Heyer-Abadie Modular Mouthstick. The new mouthstick was based on the same original design, but with added features. It had a mechanism for the user to interchange tips with different implements independently. It was designed telescoping, and best of all, it was designed so it could be produced with regular manufacturing methods, without requiring the craftsmanship needed by the original mouthstick design.

"This and other projects could have never materialized without the invaluable help of Henry, who spent thousands of hours at his home machine shop working on my designs.

"I first met Henry in my work at Rancho. He was looking for something meaningful to do for the handicapped that would keep him busy in his retirement. His skill and persisting devotion for implementing and completing without delay mechanical concepts is responsible for the realization of my most intricate mechanical dreams.

"Henry was amazing. I would tell him what was needed, describe how I thought it could be made, and he would return in a week or two with the item completed, or much advanced. (He passed away in 1993.)"

One of the specific designs that carry the Heyer-Abadie name is a motorized easel for the nationally known artist, Joni Eareckson. Joni's beautiful paintings are produced by holding paintbrushes in her mouth. Her limited body movements required that someone be available to reposition the canvas as needed. With the motorized easel she can move the canvas attached to a drawing board up, down or to the sides at the touch of a button.

Joni's motorized easel evolved from one of Arthur's "impossible" dreams Henry made a reality: a full-fledged drafting machine. This cross between an Etch-A-Sketch and a display board allowed Heyer to draw on-scale designs with his mouthstick.

"Arthur made it! He conquered his disability! He did not just sit in a wheelchair to see others grow. He grew up himself, together with the rest of the people. He obtained the equipment he needed and acquired the skills to become gainfully employed. But...what about the others? Not too many have the great opportunities he had. Not everybody has someone around to create mechanisms.

"I started Extensions for Independence for a reason: I wanted to make available to others the equipment which was being responsible for a great feeling of fulfillment in my life, and I did not trust that anybody else would care to do it.

"Twenty one years later, I see back and say that I wish I had done differently. Engaging in business with no previous experience or knowledge was like pedaling a Cadillac. I worked hard and accomplished little. A good half of all my years in business have gone doing clerical work. I learned independence for working in an office so well that I ended up wearing all the hats myself.
Originally written and published in 1983 by A.R. Rogers. Edited 15 years later by Arthur Heyer.

Note: This story has not ended. http://www.mouthstick.net/madeit/madeit.htm

http://www.quadmexico.com/

HOLLYWOOD and SPINAL CORD INJURY before CHRISTOPHER REEVE

2009-01-31T19:25:00.000-08:00

Imagine laying paralyzed on the battlefield. Stone cold fear grips you like nothing you've experienced before! Your only thoughts are of survival. Nothing else matters. The questions, "Will I ever walk again?" and "What am I going to do for the rest of my life?" will come to mind sometime later --- if you live long enough!

Prior to World War II, Americans who suffered a spinal cord injury had a life expectancy of one and a half years. After the war, antibiotics and modern medicine combined to keep many fallen heroes alive long enough to actually be discharged from military and veterans' hospitals.

Before Hollywood actor Christopher Reeve's tragic injury, most Americans - most people worldwide - probably had little understanding of the ramifications of paralysis --- not to mention the terms "Quadriplegic" and "Spinal Cord Injury (SCI)".

Hollywood movie makers first touched upon these issues in The Men (Marlon Brando, 1950). Others, Coming Home (Jon Voight/Hanoi Jane, 1978) and Born On The 4th Of July (Tom Cruise, 1989), would focus on paralyzed survivors of the Vietnam War.

QUADALAJARA --- The Utopia That Once Was tells the story of a number of brave souls, among them veterans of World War II, Korea, and Vietnam who ventured into uncharted territory, leaving behind family, friends, the safe confines of institutions, and a life expectancy of seven to however many years in search of a second chance at life. They discovered paradise South of the Border in --- Quadalajara.

Follow the author on his journey from Qui Nhon to Quadalajara. Find out whatever happened to The Men!

(Coming "soon" to a theater near you?)

Hardcover 394 Pages

Web Site

Email the Author

MEXICO'S PARAPLEGIC PARADISE --- THE EXPLORERS

2009-01-18T16:23:00.000-08:00

(Preview of article to appear in the March 2009 Paraplegia News)

The Explorers --- In Search of Utopia

The following information pertains to life in the 1950s and early 1960s, when paras and quads were discovering travel adventures:

According to the Paralyzed Veterans of America:

Prior to World War II, Americans who suffered a spinal cord injury (SCI) faced a bleak future and a life expectancy averaging about eighteen months. But veterans who sustained a spinal cord injury during the war years received the first ray of hope for a fuller life ahead—the development of antibiotics, modern medicine, and new techniques which added significantly to their life span. Because of this medical progress, for the first time, spinal cord injured veterans could leave the confines of the VA or military hospital, return home to work or rejoin society. Unfortunately, much of society proved to be unwilling, unable, or ill-prepared to accommodate the needs of paralyzed veterans.

PVA’s monthly periodical, Paraplegia News (PN), went to print in 1946. The publication united paralyzed veterans from chapters initially formed in VA hospitals, from New York to California. Information ranging from legislation, adaptive equipment, individual chapter news, and travel tips for those who were able and willing could be read by every PVA member or periodical subscriber who opened its pages.

One interesting article, complete with travel tips, was penned by PVA member James E. Seybold and appeared in the November 1954 PN. Not content to push his wheelchair through snow or sit around for another long cold winter, Seybold drove his hand-controlled automobile 2,500 miles from Wisconsin to California by himself.

“It’s not such a great problem after all,” he reported. “I would like to enumerate a few of the main difficulties which may arise, and how to face them: Your car should be in A-1 shape. Good tires and a well-lubricated engine and chassis for a safe, comfortable drive. Pack your car so that the things you intend to use while traveling are easily accessible. Recognize your handicap and don’t knock yourself out by seeing how far you can drive in one day… Try to plan your trip so you will reach a certain destination for a decent place to eat or sleep at a certain time. Toward the middle of the afternoon, start looking for a place to sack out… When you stop, inquire before you get out if the bathroom is large enough to accommodate a wheelchair.” He goes on to mention the necessity of water while crossing the desert and checking brakes before mountain driving. “Never hesitate to ask for help when you need it. You don’t have to go into details about your condition. I have found people only too glad to assist in all instances where I needed help.”

Seybold was probably not the first active para, or possibly quad, to make such a trip, but his detailed report in the Paraplegia News appears to be a first. His journey would not end there.

Travel tales appeared regularly in the PN. Group travel, to and from about every European country where SCI survivors lived, was becoming commonplace. A late ’40s letter, which gave kudos to the PN magazine editor, came from a PVA member living in Brazil. Our neighbors to the North also made the PN pages. The only conspicuous absence of travel news came from our neighbors to the South. Some adventurous para or quad must have explored Mexico, with the exception of anyone who may only have been shopping or looking for mischief in one of Mexico’s infamous border towns.

Hernan Cortes and the Spanish conquistadores certainly were fascinated by their new find. Cortes and his followers explored practically every inch of this enchanting territory resting on our southern border.

Who were the first to explore Mexico, not on horseback like Cortes but using an E&J wheelchair to travel and explore a whole new world of adventure? The many unconfirmed reports of a paraplegic or quadriplegic having visited or moved to some city or town in Mexico’s interior were just that—rumors.

Countless PVA members were surely mesmerized while turning their May 1955 issue of the Paraplegia News to page four: “Mexico, a Paradise for Paraplegics,” by James E. Seybold.“Did you have a hard and trying winter?” the article begins. “And you Californians, did the smog and fog drive you to distraction? Your worries are now over, for here, in Mexico City, is the ideal retreat…Until you have actually seen it, it is hard to realize how beautifully modern and how far ahead in architectural design Mexico, D.F., is.” Seybold touts the “spring-like climate” and states that “the city was once the bottom of a lake,” accounting for its wheelchair-friendly, level landscape.

His article continues with detailed travel tips for adventurers like himself, who wished to drive down and explore Mexico’s capital city. Seybold explains the advantages of services provided by the American Automobile Association, including obtaining Mexican auto insurance, arranging accommodations, and planning scenic routes while driving within Mexico. He cautions about highway conditions and the dangerous mountain stretches absent of guardrails.“Activities are numerous, from bullfights to Jai-Lai and soccer to visiting such nearby places as Maximillian’s Castle in Chapultepec Park, the Shrine of Guadalupe, and the Aztec pyramids. As Mexico City is centrally located, it can be used as a base of operations from which these side trips can be made. Some of these points of interest are Vera-Cruz, Acapulco, Puebla, Cuernavaca, Guadalajara, and Taxco.”

This interesting and informative article must certainly have served to pique the interest of a number of institutionalized SCI veterans and discharged shut-ins. The question is—how many curious adventurers, if any, were motivated to act?

Seybold returned to Mexico City in the winter of 1956 and again sent his “Report from Mexico City (The El Dorado of the Western Hemisphere),” which appeared in the February 1957 PN:“Did you just pick up your Paraplegia News after pushing your cold-rimmed wheelchair through a snow bank? Why not get away from it all? Visit sunny Mexico!”

The article is a basic follow-up of his previous visit, with updates on the Mexican peso, highway conditions/improvements, new traffic lights in parts of the city, and a reiteration of “the magnificent architecture of Mexico, both the modern hotels of Mexico City and Acapulco and the ancient beautiful cathedrals, like the one I visited yesterday in Taxco.”

Seybold concludes his article, “All in all, I’m delighted to be away from the cold and the winter. The only Spanish I know, to sum up how I feel about Mexico, is pura vida, which literally translated means ‘this is the life.’”

While Seybold was marveling at the magnificent architecture, climate, accessibility, and lovely senoritas in and around Mexico City, another PVA member was crisscrossing the same terrain. Harold E. Doolittle “has been roaming around Mexico for the past several years looking for the most likely spot to live. He has settled on Cuernavaca because of its climate and its location. Doolittle speaks fluent Spanish,” according to an article in the April 1960 PN.

Doolittle had indeed been exploring Mexico himself since the mid-’50s, something that would be verified in a future article in the August 1961 PN. His plan was to “arrange a set-up in Mexico where U.S. paras and quads can vacation or live on a permanent basis.” Cuernavaca was where Doolittle envisioned renting a place that would become a co-op to house men and women with any type of disability, as well as their children. The city is “50 miles south of Mexico City” and has schools for children of all ages. “This is because of the large American colony in Cuernavaca…There are many, many things to see and do in Mexico.”Doolittle’s article, which was intended to ascertain the number of paras and quads interested in his venture, concludes with a mailing address for Harold Doolittle at the VA hospital in Coral Gables, Florida. Apparently his dream did not become a reality.

At approximately the same time as Seybold and Doolittle were exploring areas in and around the hub of Mexico City, there was talk of Senor Roberto, an American para named Bob, who was renting rooms to fellow paras and quads in his four-bedroom house up the road a ways—in Quadalajara.

This material was excerpted from Chapter 12 of QUADALAJARA, The Utopia That Once Was, by Jack Tumidajski, and is used with the author’s permission. The book depicts the hardships and good deeds performed through PVA’s Mexico chapter—the lessons learned and memories experienced by those who got a second chance at life, in Quadalajara.

Hardcover, 394 pages.

Available at http://www.quadmexico.com/.

INTERVIEW: AUTHORS OF MYSPACE

2009-01-15T21:17:00.000-08:00

Author: Jack Tumidajski

How long have you been writing, and what influenced you to get into it?

First off, I tell people that I'm an author --- not a writer! Most people use these words interchangeably but I believe that anyone with a unique or interesting story to tell can, given the passion to put words to paper, become an author. In school, I was always good with numbers, not with words. Only the military can take an accounting major and turn him into an administrative specialist/would-be wordsmith. It was during my time in the Army that I was "drafted" into helping a few of my buddies put together a newsletter for our unit. It was then that my fascination with small publications was born.

A few years before I began writing my book I was a regular contributor to our local newspaper's "Letters to the editor" section. That was where and when I gained confidence in my ability to express myself and to tell my story.

How many books have you published?

QUADALAJARA - The Utopia That Once Was is the first and probably only book I'll ever write?
http://www.quadmexico.com/

Have any of them been national releases, if so through which publisher?

Brundage Publishing ISBN: 1-892451-34-4

What current book/books are you promoting?

Since its release, promoting QUADALAJARA has been my only promotional job.

What projects do you have coming up in the future?

Nothing concrete, as far as new projects go, but I have received some national recognition which I intend to parlay in to other media.

What author/authors influenced you to start a writing career for yourself?

Love him or hate him, but I'd say unlikely authors such as Rush Limbaugh and his positive message about following your passion and believing in yourself.

My favorite author is David Horowitz.

Are you a member of a writing group/organization?

I presently belong to the Military Writers Society of America and the Arizona Authors Association.

What are some of your favorite hobbies other than writing?

I'm a former "Roto Geek", so I find fantasy baseball and football to be guilty pleasures. They're a temporary change-of-pace and they also allow me to go back to my love of numbers and statistics.

Spending as much "free" time as possible at San Diego's beaches during July and August.

Has "The Authors of Myspace"/or Myspace itself helped you out with sales or networking/friends?

I'm one of the many new Myspace folks who have benefited from making new friends and experienced the wonders of "networking". I hope to become more acquainted with "The Authors of Myspace". I believe it's a fantastic idea and, hopefully, a beneficial networking tool for those who participate.

What tips do you have for beginning writers?

(1) Don't let anyone tell you that you can't. (2) Remember: everything that is was once just a thought. (3) Anything that someone else has done, you can do also! (4) If you don't already know, writing your book will be the "easy" part. Once published, the "real" work begins --- PROMOTION, PROMOTION, PROMOTION! (5) If you're looking for fame and fortune, you should also know that roughly 5% of authors show a profit.

Leave your Myspace URL below:

http://www.myspace.com/quadalajara

THE DIRTY DOZEN

2008-09-20T18:13:00.000-07:00

The Dirty Dozen --- Just Thinkin’

So I was laying in bed Sunday morning, awake early as usual, just thinkin'. I'm good at that. Just thinkin'. My mind drifted to a time many years ago that seems so vivid. Maybe because it was one of those 'turning point' moments in one's life that remain embedded in our minds forever.

Don't know what brought me back in time to a place I can barely remember. But it was here, at Fort Jackson, SC, that I had to make probably the most difficult phone call of my young life. I was nineteen.

It was March 1968. A year that history will never forget.

I thought that fessin' up and telling my parents that their only son had dropped out of college and joined the Army was tough. This was tougher.

Only a week or so earlier, I had made a polar opposite call home. "Mom, I'm going to Germany!" Music to the ears of a worried mother with a son in the military at the height of the Vietnam War.

The cycle that I was in during AIT (Advanced Infantry Training - or - Advanced Individual Training --- ours was the latter) had 'lucked out'. Only two 'unlucky' souls were ticketed for Vietnam, thirty-three would be replacing soldiers in South Korea, and ten 'lucky' guys --- myself included --- were bound for Germany. I even learned that my orders would take me to an Army hospital in Stuttgart?

As happenstance would have it, the Tet Offensive --- a turning point in the war in Southeast Asia --- had change everything.

As forty-five young men and teenaged boys waited in formation to receive their 'official' orders, the sadistic platoon sergeant held them up and proclaimed, "Those of you who thought you were going to Germany, think again!" As our orders were passed down to each individual soldier --- veterans of some four months of basic and AIT training --- those of us who received orders to Germany had already been placed 'on hold'. One guess as to where we would be in a little over a month was all that was needed.

I knew one of the guys originally headed to Nam. Blount, I believe? I felt sorry for him. Now, the ten of us who might even have met a sweet German girl (like Marci? :) had we spent a couple years in Germany, were cast out. Ten plus two. We were quickly given the moniker, "The Dirty Dozen" (1967 Hollywood World War II mega-hit staring Lee Marvin, Charles Bronson, NFL great Jim Brown, Ernest Borgnine, Telly Salvalas, Donald Sutherland and others....). The ironic twist, the movie version Dirty Dozen were escaping death row to go to Germany to take out Hitler's top officers while we were being rerouted from Germany to go to Vietnam.

My world was tipped upside-down in a split second. Life can be funny like that. I wasn't laughing.

Here is where the vague memories come in. Besides only remembering Blount and Harget, a soul brother from Brooklyn who would be assigned to the same outfit as I in Nam, I remember filling sand bags after sand bags and moving bunk beds needlessly from barracks to barracks repeatedly to help pass the time. Every day. Interesting use of manpower. I had 'escaped' having to go through the dreaded Gas Chamber --- twice! Now, it was mandatory for those going to Vietnam. As luck would have it, the 1968 version of the Dirty Dozen would be left sitting on the sidewalk waiting for a bus that never showed. Obviously, a communication breakdown in trickle-down military bureaucracy. Zero-for-three, the Gas Chamber and me!

The boring routine was interrupted with the arrival of our new 'official' orders. Time to go home to visit and, hopefully only temporarily, say Good Bye to family and friends.

Back home in Pawtucket, RI days before my 20th birthday.

My visit with family and friends is a blur. I don't remember my birthday, hugs, tears, fears, anything. Only one day: I was sitting with another neighborhood friend at the local burger joint, Burger Chef, on Newport Ave in East Providence. Eighteen year old Benny O'Sullivan had also enlisted in the Army and was home on leave before reporting to Fort Benning, GA. The news hit the wire that day, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had been murdered by an unknown assailant. April 4,1968.

As mentioned above, 1968 would go down as a year history will never forget. Seven weeks into my tour of duty in South Vietnam, a visible distraught Captain Day rushed into the room. "They shot Bobby Kennedy!" June 5, 1968.

QUADALAJARA --- FREE TRIAL OFFER!

2008-06-09T19:35:00.000-07:00

Thanks for stopping by!

TO READ THE FIRST FOUR CHAPTERS OF QUADALAJARA - The Utopia That Once Was FREE ONLINE, SIMPLY SEND ME AN EMAIL! :)

Thanks, Jack QuadMexico@aol.com

QUADALAJARA - The Utopia That Once Was
Honorable Mention Award from the 2007 Hollywood Book Festival "Celebrating books worthy of further attention by the film and TV industries"

QUADALAJARA - The Utopia That Once Was
A MWSA 2006 Distinguished Book Award Winner!
FIVE STAR Rating!
Bill McDonald, President, Military Writers Society of America
(Presented at MWSA's "Salute to the Military", San Diego, October 2006)

www.myspace.com/quadalajara

KOOL FM 94.5 Radio DJ Rocks QUADALAJARA!

2008-03-30T20:48:00.000-07:00

Hi Jack!

I finished your book this weekend. It was definitely one of those "can’t put down" ones; I loved it.

Your story was so interesting, with such moments of joy and sadness.

Personally, it brought back memories of two of my quad friends. My neighbor, Tim, as I mentioned, and a KDKB request line caller, Steve, who became a friend for 15 years.

Tim was fortunate to live independently, Steve, was trapped in a nursing home, but the most positive person I ever met. Your book made me miss them, both.

I always felt so blessed to count those guys among my friends. Most people don’t get a chance to befriend quads, or even many paras in every day life.

I never gave much thought about institution vs. independence until I read your book. So many things to think about! What a GREAT story that so needed to be told!!!

Jack, I would love to have you on to chat a tiny bit about your book. Go to KOOLradio.com and sign up for "My Three Songs". That way, we can play 3 of your favorite KOOL songs from that era and tell a quick story or two.

Thanks again for bringing such a glimpse to the world!!!

Liz

www.QuadMexico.com

www.myspace.com/quadalajara

www.myspace.com/lizboyle

SMILING WHILE SAD

2008-02-27T17:26:00.000-08:00

I intended to honor a fallen friend today --- and I will. But something turned my frown around.

(From Pages 67-68, QUADALAJARA - The Utopia That Once Was)

The news of Bobby's death left me emotionally numb. The reality took days to sink in. I was given permission to attend the wake and funeral by an empathetic medical staff. Stage three of my unusual medical procedure would have to wait, and any possible damage to what had already been reconstructed didn't matter. Everyone understood.

Subconsciously, perhaps, I wasn't ready to accept that my close friend was forever gone. Memories of competing in basketball, baseball, football, and all around horseplay that bonded Bobby and I were running through my head. I remembered leisurely walks down Prospect Street past Memorial Hospital on our way downtown on Saturday afternoons in hopes of meeting girls, hanging out on the West Side with the girls from St. Mary's Parish, and double dating with Denise and her sister Eileen. I had so many fond memories; memories that would last a lifetime for me, but were stolen from my friend at only twenty years of age....

.....I remained in my brother-in-law Alan's car for the funeral service. He was able to park close enough for us to be merely a few yards behind the crowd of mourners. Family, friends, and just about everyone from Bishop's Bend came to say goodbye to the first resident of our neighborhood to give his life in service to our country since World War II.The tragically sad and solemn funeral service was punctuated with the crackle of the twenty-one gun salute that filled the cold morning air. The finality this military tradition signaled was too much for Denise, as she collapsed and was caught by Bobby's cousin.

After composing herself, Denise walked over to Alan's car. We talked for a few minutes before Denise left and a few other friends stopped by to greet me. Ironically, Denise's sister Eileen, who once told me, “If you join the Army, I'll never speak to you again,” was not among them.

After returning to my all-too-familiar bed at the VA hospital, a few more days passed. I was watching the Saturday afternoon college basketball game—a game in which Notre Dame defeated the seemingly invincible UCLA Bruins—when tears began to flow from my eyes like water pouring uncontrollably from leaky faucets. Reality finally thawed my previously numb emotions. Bobby Taylor was dead.

ROBERT THOMAS TAYLOR
July 5, 1949 - February 27, 1970

Rest in Peace, My Friend.....

* * * * *

Upon returning from lunch earlier, I was greeted by a quite unexpected email. No further words from me are necessary:

"Jack,

Just wanted to say thanks. I've been trying to locate my father (Herbert Rhoton) for 35 years now. I purchased your wonderful book last year and it led me to finally find him. He is 81 now and still lives in Chapala. If it weren't for the clues that you provided me with, I'd still be looking. BTW, I loved the book and the insight it gave me about my Dad's life.

Bless you,

M. Rhoton"

REMEMBERING CHILDHOOD FRIENDS - MIKE AND BOBBY TAYLOR

2008-02-11T12:44:00.000-08:00

Taylor and Sons --- Joe Taylor (top right) with sons --- Mike (front row left) and Bobby (front row right)

(From yesterday's - February 10th - BLOG post that didn't get posted on time!)

As some of you know, Mike and I left Providence College in the Fall of 1967, opting to fulfill our military obligation sooner -- rather than later -- with the idea of returning to college in the future under the GI Bill.

Those were difficult times for young men coming of age during the Vietnam War and just at the onset of the "Sexual Revolution". If you didn't have a military deferment, such as those afforded young men in college, Uncle Sam would be calling about the time you were a 'grown man' of 19 years, 7 months --- give or take a month or so.

Rather than applying for student loans and having all that debt weighing us down, and a seemingly endless war awaiting our participation after graduation, Mike and I weighed the merits of enlisting in the Army --- and getting it (our birthright of being young, free, patriotic and duty-bound to defend our country young men) over with. The discussion gained both momentum and others in similar circumstances and spilled over to the embankment overlooking our playground basketball court. The site of many epic battles of teenaged boys hooping it up for countless hours almost daily --- even while snow made the footing a 'bit' difficult --- was our 'ground zero' in discussions that would alter the course of our lives.

When everything was said and done, Mike, Charlie, Paul, myself, and a friend of a friend, joined the Army on the "Buddy System" (where they promise to keep you in training together for as long as possible. And they did!) --- and left home weeks later: Halloween Nite 1967!

Among those opting out of our plan to enlist and, hopefully, get a better gig with Uncle Sam than those he went calling for (and yes, Mike and I did go to Vietnam), was Mike's younger brother, Bobby. "I'll take my chances with the draft", declared the then 18 year old kid. I'll always remember Bobby's words. He was killed in action on February 27, 1970 in Vietnam --- at the ripe 'old age' or 20!

My last visit to Guadalajara was in 1993. A phone call from Mom brought with it the tragic news --- Mike Taylor had died of a heart attack after playing basketball with a group of guys in their 20's and 30's.

That was 15 years ago, today!

Michael Dennis Taylor
February 16, 1948 - February 10, 1993

Robert Thomas Taylor
July 5, 1949 - February 27, 1970

Rest in peace, my friends...

EXCERPT FROM CHAPTER THREE - SEX, DRUGS AND R&R

2008-02-02T21:28:00.000-08:00

QUADALAJARA --- The Utopia That Once Was

(Excerpt from Chapter Three)........... I awoke with the sunlight. Lee was asleep next to me. As I focused on the clock that said 11:00 a.m., I couldn't help but think that in a little over twenty-four hours I would be packing for my return flight to Vietnam. These carefree nights in Thailand were nothing but a pleasant distraction from what awaited all of us GIs. How could the time have passed so quickly? Why couldn't Bangkok be reality and the war just some sick fantasy? I wondered for the first time how many guys had lost their lives in the war while I was here having a good time. At least I knew I would be returning to an area in Vietnam where there normally wasn't much action. What about those guys who put their lives on the line every day and night out in the boonies--guys like the crazy GI who was about to pull a knife on me because of Lee? ... (related photo under Myspace "pics")

www.myspace.com/quadalajara

QUADALAJARA - Feedback From a "Friend" of OPRAH

2008-01-25T13:57:00.000-08:00

Hello Jack!

I loved your book and the adventures you went on and couldn't believe your courage to move forward such as when you were traveling home and needed a visa for your attendant and just pushed until you got it... and when you had the 2nd accident on your way home and dealt with that like the soldier you are... you are just full of spit and vinegar!

I knew that your story would reflect the class of a boy from Providence College, since I knew the caliber of the men that came out of that school... good Catholic boys, lets say.

Your desire to help your community down in Quadalajara, and the many friends you have made and how you loved the brotherhood that you found there. The women who you met throughout your journeys were adored by a romantic with an white knight attitude towards the ladies! Yes, classy is what you are, a good New Englander on the road.

I am glad I read that book and got to know you through those words... you are quite a man, Jack. That was quite a story. I ate it up, barely stopping to take a drink... it was that good!

Hearing this side of the story was heart lifting and tells a story about the human spirit that goes beyond just surviving, but tells a story of brotherhood, community and actually making a place such as a UTOPIA happen! The fact that you men worked together to keep each other going: sharing your living spaces when one or the other of you needed a helping hand, finding people to help you get along, YOU getting your car adapted to court a woman! It was like nothing was impossible in that atmosphere, and if you had stayed in the VA or at home, you would of been sheltered from all your experiences ... you actually did make a place on this earth that was filled with love, care, adventure and possibility.

So many people with various problems, from loneliness to real hard to deal with diseases that unfortunately humanity creates an unwelcome atmosphere to live in, would love to have found a place on earth where they felt welcome and "a part of" such a community.

Oprah should read this book and she should meet you. You are a self made man and she loves stories like yours and people like you. Your book needs to be read not just because of the place called Quadalajara, but because of a man named Jack Tumidajski, who kept pushing along no matter what happened! I am very impressed Jack. You are a very good writer, BTW. I read the book in like one day and a half !!!! Awesome!!!!

Laura, MA

http://www.quadmexico.com/

Published Authors Directory - Arizona Authors Association

2008-01-13T16:18:00.000-08:00

Injured FIVE days after returning safely home from Vietnam, Jack Tumidajski spent the next two years in hospitals and rehab centers. Now a quadriplegic, he faced a bleak future living the life of a shut-in, until he "rolled the dice" and journeyed to Guadalajara, Mexico in search of a second chance at life. Jack's book, QUADALAJARA - The Utopia That Once Was, chronicles the lives of hundreds of spinal cord injured veterans from WWII, Korea and Vietnam who ventured into uncertainty and discovered paradise South of the Border. After residing in Mexico for most of the seventies --- where he was thrice honored as the "Outstanding Member" of the Mexico Chapter, Paralyzed Veterans of America --- Jack settled in Arizona. QUADALAJARA has received an Honorable Mention Award from the 2007 Hollywood Book Festival "Celebrating books worthy of further attention by the film and TV industries", as well as, a Military Writers Society of America Distinguished Book Award (Presented at MWSA's "Salute to the Military", San Diego, October 2006).

Contact Jack at QuadMexico@aol.com

LOOKING FOR GIFT IDEAS?

2007-12-14T16:31:00.000-08:00

Books make wonderful gifts!

Anyone interested in purchasing personalized signed copies of QUADALAJARA - The Utopia That Once Was, $19.95 (Plus S & H) http://www.quadmexico.com/ for the remainder of 2007. Or contact me QuadMexico@aol.com for details.

Thanks,

Jack

QUADALAJARA - The Utopia That Once Was
Honorable Mention Award from the 2007 Hollywood Book Festival, "Celebrating books worthy of further attention by the film and TV industries!"

QUADALAJARA - The Utopia That Once Was
A MWSA 2006 Distinguished Book Award Winner!
Bill McDonald, President, Military Writers Society of America
(Presented at MWSA's "Salute to the Military", San Diego, October 2006)

http://www.quadmexico.com/

QUADALAJARA - VETERANS DAY, PAGE ONE, THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC

2007-11-30T16:32:00.000-08:00

Disabled Vet Pays Tribute to 'Quadalajara'

Dennis Wagner
The Arizona Republic
Nov. 11, 2007

Jack Tumidajski rolls his wheelchair up to the desk at his Glendale house and gazes at faded photographs of men in wheelchairs laughing and partying in Mexico.

He lets the images draw him back in time to a place nicknamed "Quadalajara."

"The city was just waiting for us," he recalls dreamily. "A utopia waiting to be discovered. . . . It gave us a second chance at life."

The year was 1972. Tumidajski, a Vietnam vet whose spine was severed in a traffic accident while he was on leave, had languished in his room at his parents' home for months with no hope for the future.

There were thousands like him across the nation. Before World War II, patients with broken necks seldom lived through the initial trauma and nearly always died within a couple of years because of complications. With medical advancements, however, quadriplegics like Tumidajski became survivors, often wasting away in institutions or as shut-ins with family. Decades later, the Iraq war also would produce thousands of casualties with spinal or brain injuries, but soldiers would receive more medical, social and vocational support.

During Vietnam, recalls the 59-year-old Tumidajski, "You had a new segment of society with no place to go. Live in a room, watch TV, have family members take care of you. . . . For so many guys, and a few gals, there were no options."

And then word spread about this place south of the border, Guadalajara, a haven for non-walking wounded veterans. Guys could live cheap, soak up sun and drink tequila. The flat terrain was ideal for wheelchairs. And, as a bonus, Mexican women weren't put off by crippled soldiers.

Tumidajski, then 24, caught a plane and found himself at what the vets referred to as "gimp camps." For most of the next decade, the Rhode Island native lived in Guadalajara along with countless hundreds of other refugees. They played cards together, partied together, relied on one another.

Their lifestyle was sensationalized in the Oliver Stone film Born on the Fourth of July, drawn from just a few pages of Ron Kovic's autobiography by the same name. The movie focused on debauchery in a community of wheelchair jockeys portrayed as philanderers and drunks. Mexican women were depicted as whores.

Tumidajski shakes his head. That is not what he remembers, not what he describes in his own book, Quadalajara: The Utopia That Once Was, released last year. The 394-page volume was written to honor disabled vets who created a haven of hope, Tumidajski says.

It is a personal reflection but also the lone historical record to debunk Hollywood's tawdry myth. "I wanted to preserve that moment in time. The only living record is encapsulated in that movie, and it's a distortion."

Tumidajski, who has limited use of his arms and hands, typed the book using a stick, pecking letters one by one on his computer keyboard.

The story opens with a 19-year-old U.S. Army enlistee contemplating life while on a military flight to South Vietnam in April of 1968. It is not a war story: Tumidajski came under enemy fire only once.

A year later, he was on leave at his home in Pawtucket, R.I., riding in a friend's Volkswagen on a night out. The car fishtailed out of control and struck a utility pole. Tumidajski's vertebrae were crushed, his body numbed from the neck down.

He spent 23 months in hospitals, enduring bed sores, surgeries, complications, therapy, and training on how to use a wheelchair. Then he faced the grim life of a quad, at his parents' home, watching endless soap operas, trying to be upbeat in a world of gloom.

"I just sat there in my bedroom," Tumidajski recalls. "What am I going to do with the rest of my life, try to invent the next board game?"

In the summer of 1971, a hospital buddy named Vinnie talked incessantly about a colony in Guadalajara, established years earlier by a handful of disabled vets from World War II and Korea. Most subsisted on Veterans Administration compensation, Social Security checks or other types of fixed income. Living on $500 a month, Vinnie said, a quad could rent a room, hire an attendant and live la vida dulce south of the border.

"You can go just about anywhere, and if you come across some steps, just say: 'Hey, kid, you want to make a peso?' There's always someone around willing to help you out."

Tumidajski gave it a try in 1972 and found an enclave of brothers wounded in body and soul yet full of vigor. To this day, he seems unclear whether they left the United States in search of adventure, to escape sympathetic stares or to reinvent themselves.

"It was a second chance at life," he says simply. "I found I could be independent. I was in an environment that was full of opportunity."

Tumidajski does not dispute that women were part of the attraction. Although some men found prostitutes, he says, more fell in love with young ladies who were hired to assist them with daily life.

Tumidajski tells of his own girlfriends, hinting at the difficult and important sexual rediscovery for men traumatized by paralysis.

He says these were genuine relationships with Mexican women who seemed to have an uncommon empathy.

"People who have known suffering - from poverty, for example - they're more accepting of others who have had misfortune," he says. "Down there, you were a gringo first, and you were a guy in wheelchair second."

The vets organized themselves under the Mexico chapter of Paralyzed Veterans of America, which served as a social and philanthropic club. Tumidajski says he became heavily involved in part because he felt awkward as a non-combatant quad among so many who had been wounded in warfare. Public service, he says, was a way to honor their sacrifice.

Life south of the border was not perfect. American food and other products were hard to come by. Phones didn't work. One of the Paralyzed Veterans events was hit by robbers. But the gringos, emancipated in wheelchairs, proved resourceful.

They might still be there, Tumidajski says, if times hadn't changed.

In Guadalajara, the cost of living escalated. In the United States, laws and social acceptance created new opportunities for the disabled. They could get degrees, find careers, fit in.

One by one, they headed north. Tumidajski followed others in 1981, migrating to Arizona for warmth and accessibility.

Still a bachelor, he lives with retired caregiver Miguel Lopez, who has assisted him for more than two decades. Tumidajski has contact with one old vet from the era who still lives in Mexico.

"Memories were all that remained: memories of getting a second chance in life," Tumidajski wrote in his book. "Memories of a unique place in a unique time - Quadalajara."

http://www.quadmexico.com/

www.myspace.com/quadalajara

IN THE BEGINNING...GOD Created Paras And Quads

2007-11-21T17:59:00.000-08:00

According to the Paralyzed Veterans of America:

Prior to World War II, Americans who suffered a spinal cord injury (SCI) faced a bleak future and a life expectancy averaging about eighteen months. But veterans who sustained a spinal cord injury during the war years received the first ray of hope for a fuller life ahead—the development of antibiotics, modern medicine, and new techniques which added significantly to their life span. Because of this medical progress, for the first time, spinal cord injured veterans could leave the confines of the VA or military hospital, return home to work or rejoin society. Unfortunately, much of society proved to be unwilling, unable, or ill-prepared to accommodate the needs of paralyzed veterans.In 1946, paralyzed veterans from across the country joined together to form an organization to deal with the unique problems and challenges facing them. The organization they formed, the Paralyzed Veterans of America, is an organization of veterans who have served honorably in the armed forces and who have incurred an injury or disease affecting the spinal cord, causing paraplegia or quadriplegia.

(An excellent reference point for a better understanding of the evolution of SCI post-injury life can be found in the 1950 movie, The Men, which just happened to be Marlon Brando's first Hollywood role.)

Paraplegics and quadriplegics who were fortunate enough to leave their institutional environment had a second chance at life, one radically different than before SCI, but they faced a new problem—where to go and what to do? There was no blueprint to follow. A small percentage was able to find employment, and another small percentage was able to pursue educational goals. Some were fortunate to live in, or relocate to, areas of the country where getting out and about in a wheelchair was possible. Many discharged SCI veterans were able to modify their homes and make them reasonably wheelchair accessible, but once home, many never left—unable to overcome architectural barriers, inclement weather, or a fear of leaving home. Many others, out of necessity or unwillingness to face the outside world, simply lived out their lives in institutions.

Steady progress was being made, spearheaded by the Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA). The clout of the newly formed organization of paralyzed veterans helped secure legislation that enabled members to purchase automobiles with the special equipment necessary for them to drive.

PVA's monthly periodical, the Paraplegic News (PN), went to print in 1946. The publication united paralyzed veterans from chapters initially formed in VA hospitals from New York to California. Information ranging from legislation, adaptive equipment, individual chapter news, and travel tips for those who were able and willing could be read by every PVA member or periodical subscriber who opened its pages.

One interesting article, complete with travel tips, was penned by active PVA member James E. Seybold (Vaughn Chapter PVA, Hines VA/Chicago area) and appeared in the November 1954 issue of PN. Not content to push his wheelchair through the snow or sit around for another long cold winter, Mr. Seybold drove his hand controlled automobile 2,500 miles from Wisconsin to California by himself.

“It's not such a great problem after all,” he reported. “I would like to enumerate a few of the main difficulties which may arise, and how to face them: Your car should be in A-1 shape. Good tires, and a well-lubricated engine and chassis for a safe comfortable drive. Pack your car so that the things you intend to use while traveling are easily accessible. Recognize your handicap and don't knock yourself out by seeing how far you can drive in one day…Try to plan your trip so you will reach a certain destination for a decent place to eat or sleep at a certain time. Toward the middle of the afternoon start looking for a place to sack out…When you stop, inquire before you get out if the bathroom is large enough to accommodate a wheelchair.” He goes on to mention the necessity of water while crossing the desert and checking brakes before mountain driving. “Never hesitate to ask for help when you need it. You don't have to go into details about your condition…I have found people only too glad to assist in all instances where I needed help.”

Jim Seybold was probably not the first active para, or possibly quad, to make such a trip, but his detailed report in the Paraplegic News appears to be a first. His journey would not end there.

Travel tales appeared regularly in the PN. Group travel, to and from about every European country where SCI survivors lived, was becoming commonplace. A late-40s letter, which gave kudos to the PN magazine editor, came from a PVA member living in Brazil. Our neighbors to the north also made the PN pages. The only conspicuous absence of travel news came from our neighbors to the south. Some adventurous para or quad must have explored Mexico, with the exception of anyone who may only have been shopping or looking for mischief in one of Mexico's infamous border towns.

Hernan Cortes and the Spanish Conquistadores certainly were fascinated by their new find. Cortes and his followers explored practically every inch of this enchanting territory resting on our southern border.

Who were the first to explore Mexico, not on horseback like Cortes, but using an E&J wheelchair to travel and explore a whole new world of adventure? The many unconfirmed reports of a paraplegic or quadriplegic having visited or moved to some city or town in Mexico's interior were just that—rumors.
* * *
Countless PVA members were surely mesmerized while turning their May 1955 issue of the Paraplegia News to page four: “Mexico, a Paradise for Paraplegics,” by James E Seybold.

“Did you have a hard and trying winter?” the article begins. “And you Californians; did the smog and fog drive you to distraction? Your worries are now over, for here, in Mexico City, is the ideal retreat…Until you have actually seen it, it is hard to realize how beautifully modern, and how far ahead in architectural design Mexico, D.F. is.” Seybold touts the “spring-like climate” and states that “the city was once the bottom of a lake” accounting for its wheelchair-friendly level landscape.

His article continues with detailed travel tips for adventurers like himself, who wished to drive down and explore Mexico's capital city. Seybold explains the advantages of services provided by the American Automobile Association, including obtaining Mexican auto insurance, arranging accommodations, and planning scenic routes while driving within Mexico. He cautions about highway conditions and the dangerous mountain stretches absent of guardrails.

Once there, Seybold notes, “Mexican drivers are the worst I've ever seen. Every day is like the Indianapolis '500' to them…The Mexican people are, in general, a happy, carefree race. Their exotic music grows on you and virtually becomes part of you. Speaking of exotic things, I must say a word in behalf of the lovely señoritas—WOW!” Seybold was not the first, and would not be the last, to discover one of Mexico's most beautiful natural resources.

“Activities are numerous; from bullfights to Jai-Lai and soccer to visiting such nearby places as Maxmillian's Castle in Chapultepec Park, the Shrine of Guadalupe and the Aztec pyramids. As Mexico City is centrally located it can be used as a base of operations from which these side trips can be made. Some of these points of interest are Vera-Cruz, Acapulco, Puebla, Cuernavaca, Guadalajara, and Taxco.”

This interesting and informative article must certainly have served to pique the interest of a number of institutionalized SCI veterans and discharged shut-ins. The question is—how many curious adventurers, if any, were motivated to act?

James Seybold returned to Mexico City in the winter of 1956 and again sent his “Report from Mexico City (The El Dorado of the Western Hemisphere),” which appeared in the February 1957 issue of the PN:

“Did you just pick up your Paraplegia News after pushing your cold-rimmed wheelchair through a snow bank? Why not get away from it all? Visit Sunny Mexico!”

The article is a basic follow-up of his previous visit, with updates on the Mexican peso, highway conditions/improvements, new traffic lights in parts of the city, and a reiteration of “the magnificent architecture of Mexico, both the modern “hotels of Mexico City and Acapulco,” and the ancient “beautiful cathedrals, like the one I visited yesterday in Taxco.”

Seybold concludes his article, “All in all, I'm delighted to be away from the cold and the winter. The only Spanish I know, to some up how I feel about Mexico is Pura Vida, which literally translated means, This is the Life.”

While James Seybold was marveling at the magnificent architecture, climate, accessibility, and lovely señoritas in and around Mexico City, another PVA member was crisscrossing the same terrain. Harold E. Doolittle “has been roaming around Mexico for the past several years looking for the most likely spot to live. He has settled on Cuernavaca because of its climate and its location. Doolittle speaks fluent Spanish,” according to an article in the April 1960 PN.

Mr. Doolittle had indeed been exploring Mexico himself since the mid-50s, something that would be verified in a future magazine article from another source in the August 1961 PN. His plan was to “arrange a set-up in Mexico where U.S. paras and quads can vacation or live on a permanent basis.” Cuernavaca was where Doolittle envisioned renting a place that would become a co-op to house men and women with any type of disability, as well as their children. The city is “50 miles south of Mexico City” and has schools for children of all ages. “This is because of the large American colony in Cuernavaca…There are many, many things to see and do in Mexico.”

Doolittle's article, which was intended to ascertain the number of paras and quads interested in his venture, concludes with a mailing address for Harold Doolittle at the VA hospital in Coral Gables, Florida. Apparently his dream did not become a reality.
* * *
At approximately the same time as Seybold and Doolittle were exploring areas in and around the hub of Mexico City, there was talk of a "Señor Roberto", an American para named Bob, who was renting rooms to fellow paras and quads in his four bedroom home up the road a ways—in Quadalajara.

(From QUADALAJARA - The Utopia That Once Was, pages 132-136)

BOOKS MAKE WONDERFUL GIFTS!

Book Offer: QUADALAJARA $19.95 (Plus S&H) for the remainder of 2007!

www.QuadMexico.com

TOM KIRCH And JoANN RAWAY - A Uniquely Interesting Story

2007-11-17T14:13:00.000-08:00

My best friend passed away twenty years ago, today. Thomas H. Kirch (on right) was my best friend. He was every body's best friend...(Taken from one of my early BLOG posts, November 17, 2006, which can be viewed here.) Read on. I'll let another of Tom's friends tell you a uniquely interesting story:

JoAnn Raway (on left, with Jimmy Lietz in middle) first experienced Quadalajara in November 1964. “I went on a three week vacation to Las Fuentes with my sister Luella and our friend, Roselyn Mahowald.” While Charlie Newbold and Bronx VA buddy Joe Cicero were discovering their newfound freedoms at George Ray's Place, the three women from Minnesota simultaneously vacationed in Las Fuentes. “Paul Patino and Larry Kegan ran the place,” JoAnn recalled. That was where JoAnn initially met fellow Minnesotan Tom Kirch, along with Joe Darichuk and Señores Patino and Kegan. “We were ready to return home when we saw the living conditions at Las Fuentes—and the dining room. I can still remember the plastic plates with cigarette burns.” Apparently, guys (especially those who escaped institutional living) tended to overlook such minor details.

JoAnn first heard about Quadalajara from Bob Peters, a fellow member of Minnesota's social club for the handicapped.

“He first went to Quadalajara in '63 or '64 and stayed for a few months.” Larry Kegan, who was also from the Twin Cities area, “went to different local places, including the VA, telling people about the ideal climate and reasonable cost of living for winter visitors there.” Asked about accommodations for disabled women there, JoAnn Raway indicated that other women had visited Las Fuentes earlier. “I first met Eileen Van Albert in 1964. She was already established with her own home in Colonia Chapalita by then. There were two women from New York who also stayed there.”

With all that Quadalajara had to offer, the three vacationing women from Minnesota wanted to make the most of their precious three week visit.

“When we first got there, we presented Kegan with a list of places in and around Quadalajara that we wished to visit.”

Although Kegan's ads had mentioned local tourist attractions, the surprised landlord responded, “No one's ever done that to me before. He was so floored,” added JoAnn.

The three visiting women got their wish. Larry Kegan proved to be a worthy host and tour guide. According to their hometown newspaper, “They got to see such sights as Jalisco's Lake Chapala with its resorts and fishing villages, the town of Tequila and the factory where the famous drink was distilled, Tlaquepaque with its popular Mariachi Plaza and glass and silver factories, bull fights at Entrada a la Plaza, the city's huge Mercado Libertad, and fiestas in mountain villages. Additionally, the women were impressed with Quadalajara's flower-filled parks and plazas, colonial architecture, palm trees, and fountains. Other points of interest included the Cathedral de Guadalajara, the seventeenth century Basilica de Zapopan, and the Hospicio Cabañas Orphanage which housed the famous paintings of Orozco.” (José Clemente Orozco was one of the 20th Century's most famous painters. Known for his mural paintings, he decorated many public buildings both in Mexico and in the United States. His work frequently embraced the themes of the Mexican Revolution.)

JoAnn's secretarial job in cold country was still easily manageable, despite living with Spinal Muscular Atrophy (a type of Muscular Dystrophy, simply referred to as MD). It wasn't the climate, cost of living, or beauty of the city that caught JoAnn Raway's eye. It was the handsome skinny quad, Tom Kirch. JoAnn and Tom began a friendship that would continue by mail and occasional phone calls (calling the U.S. from Mexico and vice versa could easily set one's pocketbook back to the tune of a dollar per minute). Finally, they had a reunion of sorts in 1967. “Tom was in the Minneapolis VA from spring until November,” JoAnn continued. “That's when things really heated up.”

While JoAnn continued her work and long distance relationship with Tom Kirch, Roselyn Mahowald would return to Quadalajara with another friend, Mary Margaret Sommers, in 1965. “Roselyn passed away sometime later and Mary Margaret stayed for a few more years.”

JoAnn Raway and Tom Kirch picked up their friendship-turned-romance by mail and occasional phone calls after Tom returned to Quadalajara, until 1970—decision time.

“I went down to Las Fuentes for ten days,” JoAnn recalled.

“To deliver an ultimatum?” she was quizzed.

“We had a lot to talk about,” JoAnn responded. “About quitting my job, applying for Social Security, which took six months, and getting the documents we needed to get married in Mexico.”

JoAnn returned in early September 1971. “Tom wanted to get married that week. He had to check into the VA hospital in Long Beach in a week and wanted to get married before he left. We could take care of the legal stuff more easily that way.” JoAnn Raway was visiting Tom at the Jardines Alcalde house he rented along with Jim Adkisson, Bill Kahler, and Ray Clifford, when Bill and Maria Elena Bailey stopped by.

“Tom asked Bailey if he could help make arrangements for our civil marriage before Tom left for Long Beach. Maria Elena said, 'How about tonight?' and went to find a judge to perform the ceremony. We all piled into one car and went to Bob and Teresa Beilsmith's house. They weren't expecting us.”

Tom's roommates and friends soon followed them to the Beilsmith's home. “Maria Elena came back with a judge and we were married that night.” What began as a three week winter vacation to sunny Quadalajara in November 1964 would alter the course of JoAnn Raway's life.

On September 12, 1971 Josephine “JoAnn” Raway from Hastings, Minnesota became JoAnn Kirch. The seven-year Quadalajara-to-Minnesota courtship with Tom Kirch of Kellogg, Minnesota culminated with the impromptu wedding at the home of Bob and Teresa Beilsmith. A church wedding would follow after Tom returned. On March 11, 1972 JoAnn and Tom Kirch were “officially” wed at Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in Colonia Chapalita.

(Taken from Chapter 14, "Cold Weather and Cold Warriors", QUADALAJARA - The Utopia That Once Was, pages 162-164.)

*Incidentally, my dear friend JoAnn called me on Veterans Day! She now lives "back home" in Minnesota.

http://www.quadmexico.com/

BOB DYLAN'S Friend Was A "Mere Mortal"

2007-11-14T16:48:00.000-08:00

life and death of a mere mortal

"On nine one one, while the whole of America froze in fear and shock from the final acts of those true believers, Larry Kegan wasn't able to get his tracheotomy suctioned; he couldn't breathe. The lack of oxygen caused him to have a heart attack and he was gone before José came out of the Seven Eleven with the batteries. Not one news report announced that nine one one was the day Kegan returned to his God." --- Mouth Magazine (The entire article can be accessed from the link below.)

One of the better known characters from the Quadalajara Era was Larry Kegan. Injured in a diving accident while still in his teens, Kegan made his way down to Mexico from Minnesota circa 1960 and soon after founded the popular "Gimp camp" (as the guys affectionately referred to them), Hacienda Las Fuentes.

I had heard the name Larry Kegan a number of times from friends of mine who had been friends of his. At that time, Kegan was sort of famous because he knew someone famous. Kegan was close friends with singer/songwriter Bob Dylan. They had been friends since their early teens (and remained lifelong friends til the end). In fact, Dylan made at least one trip to Quadalajara to visit his quadriplegic buddy.

Kegan had married and left Mexico in favor of Florida five years before I arrived. I still have a letter from Hacienda Las Fuentes, dated February 1971, signed by Paul Patino. Since Patino helped Kegan run the Hacienda Las Fuentes operation, and took over after Kegan departed for the States, Hacienda Las Fuentes was simply known as "Patino's Place" for years after. My letter was the standard response to the countless inquires from VA hospital patients and shut-ins from all over the US and beyond.

I met Larry Kegan in 1974. He stopped by Joe Anderson's house in the first wheelchair adapted van I remember seeing in Mexico. I happened to be house-sitting while Anderson, well known in his own right for being a magnet for pretty senoritas, just happened to be in the States with his latest teen-aged girlfriend. Kegan was looking for a girl. Who wasn't? I introduced him to a friend who had stopped by for a visit. After they briefly chatted in his van, Alicia came back into the house. No chemistry, I guess, and Larry Kegan drove off into the sunset. (OK, not exactly into the sunset, and Kegan's attendant did the driving.)

While researching my book, I learned more about Larry Kegan from both people who knew him well, and old newsletter and magazine articles. Although I lived in Quadalajara for a number of years, I had never heard of the Alliance For Compassion (a group of some 30 American quadriplegics and paraplegics, of which Kegan was a member, who donated time and funds to help children at the Hospicio Cabanas Orphanage). And I doubt that many people remember/know that Larry Kegan once taught English to the Instituto Cabanas girls' choir and once accompanied them on a stateside trip with stops at Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm and the Long Beach VA Hospital. QUADALAJARA --- The Utopia That Once Was (Page 323).

This colorful character from the early Quadalajara Era, who accomplished much and contributed much to the community that embraced him, went on to have a most interesting life post-Quadalajara.

And, if any of you happen to know Bob Dylan or how to contact him, there's a book on my desk with "his name on it"!

http://www.mouthmag.com/issues/69/no69pg28.htm

MYSPACE AND OTHER QUADALAJARA LINKS

2007-11-07T19:25:00.000-08:00

Myspace link:

http://www.myspace.com/quadalajara

Arizona Republic link:

http://www.azcentral.com/community/glendale/articles/1111veteran1111.html

Guadalajara Reporter link:

http://www.guadalajarareporter.com/fullbooks.cfm?section=Books&id=151

Reprint of Pawtucket Times article:

http://sci.rutgers.edu/forum/archive/index.php/t-70484.html

Review From Vietnam Veterans Org:

http://www.vietvet.org/visit/px/reviewquadalajara.htm

Website:

http://www.quadmexico.com/

BORN ON THE 4th OF JULY

2007-10-26T20:46:00.000-07:00

A question from one Myspace friend: "In the movie Born on the 4th of July they showed the guys down in Mexico - is this book based upon that?"

Unfortunately, about the only living record of this unique place in time that the general public (and future movie viewers) are aware of comes from Oliver Stone's movie, Born on the 4th of July (adapted from Vietnam veteran Ron Kovic's book by the same title). I've taken exception in interviews, as well as in my book, to a number of myths and negative stereotypes presented and perpetuated in the movie. It was one of the reasons for writing the book. For example, the demeaning portrayal of Mexican women in Stone's movie was that of whores and prostitutes! Vietnam and other vets were nothing more than drunken whoremongers! And this long ago utopia was moved from Mexico's heartland to the ocean!

Biographies/autobiographies/memoirs give the writer a chance to set the record straight. Not everyone's experiences are the same, and one man's experiences from his brief visit to Mexico (embellished in a Hollywood movie) should not define a period of history that lasted some thirty years and was shared by countless hundreds of others.

I have no problem with Ron Kovic or what he wrote of his experiences at "Villa Dulce". But they differ greatly from what most of "us" experienced. I lived there for most of the '70s and continued to spend significant time there up until 1993!

QUADALAJARA --- The Utopia That Once Was is a well reviewed 394 page hardcover book, the first 287 pages typed by a quadriplegic (me) using a typing stick (no voice activation system), followed by weathered old newspaper and magazine articles and more than 100 photos of people and places that shaped this almost forgotten moment in time. (Maybe that's why it took over two years to complete?)

For anyone interested, there are a number of old (some very old) photos on Myspace http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=134413608 and reviews on my BLOG. Additionally, there are more reviews, interviews and chapter previews under "BOOK" in the dropdown menu of my website.

I welcome any questions, comments, feedback, emails --- Heck, I'll even accept a book order or two :)

http://www.quadmexico.com/

THE MEN - BRANDO'S FIRST FILM

2007-10-22T22:09:00.000-07:00

THE MEN --- (MARLON BRANDO, TERESA WRIGHT, JACK WEBB) is the first big screen movie that deals with the issue of Spinal Cord Injury (SCI). It's an obscure film made in 1950 that would be even more obscure if not for the fact that it marks the beginning of Brando's movie career. The Men takes place shortly after World War II. The story deals with the lives of some of the first "survivors" of SCI --- paralyzed war veterans learning, or attempting, to start life over again wheelchair-bound in a veterans' rehabilitation hospital. It was and continues to be an eye opening and educational film for those with little knowledge of SCI. It certainly was in 1950. I don't intend to pretend to be a movie critic or reviewer. There are a number of reviews here on the Internet, and anyone interested in viewing the film can find cheap-enough DVD's as well. (Don't expect your local Blockbuster to carry it.) I will say, however, that since the first of the four or five times that I've watched The Men three things bothered me, as for its educational value. First, the word "quadriplegic" is not uttered once. Maybe back then there were none? Maybe we all were considered "paraplegics"? There is one scene in particular where an actual quad --- The Men was filmed primarily at the Birmingham VA Hospital in Van Nuys, CA --- is shown moving his fingers ever so slightly. (Forty-five or forty-nine ---depending on where you look --- actual paralyzed veteran patients of the hospital take part in the film.) Secondly, in the opening scene, Dr. Brock --- presumably a look alike to actual SCI Doctor Bors --- is speaking to family and loved ones of the paralyzed vets. During Q&A a mother of a nineteen year old paraplegic asks the good doctor how long can her son expect to live? His patronizingly reassuring answer, "With proper care and proper nutrition, there is no reason why he couldn't live to be ninety!" A life expectancy of 71 years? I know it's only a movie and the well intentioned man of medicine is attempting to sooth the poor women's concerns --- but let's get real! I can't say what/if patients were told in the 40's about life expectancy post-SCI, but I know people injured in the 60's who were told seven/eight years and one gentleman injured in 1953 who was told he had about three years to live. He spent many years living in Quadalajara and passed away in 1998! The third thing that bothered me about The Men was that one came away with the impression that ALL the paraplegics would finish rehab --- except for a small percentage of patients who died from their injuries or an isolated illness --- and be discharged into the world that Brando's character, Ken Wilcheck, shows was not yet ready or willing to accept them. (When I went through rehab at the West Roxbury VA Hospital in '69-'71 there were many patients who NEVER went "home" or EVER intended to --- ditto just about every VA SCI hospital in the country at that time.)......... Now that I have vented sufficiently, I can say that I really believe this film to be valuable for a better understanding of where "we" started and how far "we" have or haven't come in sixty years! Much thanks to the Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA) for leading the way and making life better for all paras and quads and people with disabilities in general. PVA played a prominent role in the movie itself (Jack Webb's character, Norm, was PVA president and head of the hospital disciplinary board). PVA members also lended a hand as technical advisors behind the scenes.

www.QuadMexico.com

CHARLIE AND JOE GO TO MEXICO

2007-10-08T21:28:00.000-07:00

The ironic twist of fate changed the course of Charlie Newbold's life. He would spend part of that year at the St. Alban's Naval Hospital before being transferred to the Bronx VA Hospital in December.

“I was in the VA a long time. I just didn't know where I was gonna go or what I could do,” recalled Newbold. “I was there in '61, all of '62, '63, and most of '64.”

When asked about when he thought about checking out Quadalajara, Newbold replied, “My friend Joe Cicero is the one who really pushed us to go.” Charlie Newbold was in the same situation as many. “I grew up in the Bronx. My mother lived in a three-story walk-up.” Not exactly wheelchair friendly accommodations. “I'd never have gotten out on my own. We had guys living at the hospital for thirteen, fourteen, and even seventeen years. After a while, you just figured that was the way it was going to be.”

On November 12, 1964, Charlie Newbold and hospital buddy Joe Cicero made their move to Quadalajara. “Because of some labor dispute or something, the plane landed at the Zapopan airfield and we came into the city on Avenida Vallarta. George Ray had sent a worker named Poncho to bring Cicero and me back to his place. One thing that impressed me was the big, wide boulevard with a median and the palm trees and bushes all around. I was very impressed with that. And then I got the culture shock. We're on this big avenue just cruising with no cars around, and then all of a sudden there's a guy on a burro.

“Anyway, when I got to George Ray's Place, it was evening. One of the first people I met was Larry Blinn,” continued Newbold. “Since it was after dinner, Blinn and some of the others guys sent one of the aides out for roast chicken. They had a platter full of chicken and all I could say was, 'This place is heaven, look at the kind of food they serve you."

(Both Charlie and Joe are alive and well today. They beat the odds, so to speak. What would have happened had they stayed in the Bronx VA Hospital and not rolled the dice and journeyed to Quadalajara in 1964??? )

From "QUADALAJARA - The Utopia That Once Was" (page 160)

http://www.quadmexico.com/

DUDE, YOUR BOOK SUX

2007-10-02T17:21:00.000-07:00

"I just got through reading the first four chapters and, "Dude it sucks"...Kidding! I will definitely be ordering a copy of your book. I have to confess, aside from the kidney stones and your devotion to your grandmother, there wasn't much I could relate to at first. However, through your words by chapter three I started to feel like I was a young solider in Vietnam ...Only cuter...Just kidding! Seriously, I was able to see things through your eyes and that is to your credit as a writer. I could feel the fear you experienced on guard duty and the elation you felt at heading back home.

I wonder whatever happened to Belle and Lee. What a sad way of life.
I have to confess I was a little worried when you were in the hotel with Bob, Mai and Lee that things were about to take a kinky turn :) I was relieved that wasn't the case. Forgive me it is late and I get silly when I am tired.

OK, so what are my thoughts so far: I'm hooked....I can tell it is going to be a powerful and moving story. I think I will gain a new respect, not only for the servicemen who fought in Vietnam, but for the brave men and women who are risking their lives everyday in Iraq.

I'll probably be touting your praises - once I have read the book in its
entirety - on my BLOG. I am anxious for you to get to Mexico :)
I am not looking forward to reading about your accident though."
-Myspace Friend 'Tara', SC

QUADALAJARA - The Utopia That Once Was
Honorable Mention Award from the 2007 Hollywood Book Festival
"Celebrating books worthy of further attention by the film and TV industries"

QUADALAJARA - The Utopia That Once Was
A MWSA 2006 Distinguished Book Award Winner!
Bill McDonald, President, Military Writers Society of America
(Presented at MWSA's "Salute to the Military", San Diego, October 2006)

TO READ THE FIRST FOUR CHAPTERS OF
QUADALAJARA - The Utopia That Once Was
FREE, ON LINE, SIMPLY SEND ME YOUR
EMAIL ADDRESS --- Thanks, Jack

WARNING: Chapters Two, Three and Four (and Nine)
Rated - R (Make that PG - Considering this is 2007!)

http://www.quadmexico.com/ email: QuadMexico@aol.com

VET'S BOOK CHALLENGES MOVIE, "BORN ON THE 4th OF JULY"

2007-09-30T16:45:00.000-07:00

Contact: Jack Tumidajski
(623) 939-xxxx
email: QuadMexico@aol.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

VET'S BOOK CHALLENGES MOVIE, BORN ON THE 4th OF JULY

Both are paralyzed Vietnam veterans, each had difficulty adjusting to life in the real world, both journeyed to Mexico looking for the elusive peace and acceptance they sought, each had a story to tell. The comparisons end there.

Sometime after World War II, when paralyzed survivors of battlefield injuries were now --- thanks to antibiotic treatment and modern medicine --- living long enough to actually be discharged from military and veterans' hospitals, a few nomadic paraplegics and quadriplegics set out to find freedom and happiness outside a world not yet ready to accept them. By the 1950's a number of these brave souls, many forgotten by time, discovered sunshine and paradise South of the Border in Guadalajara.

Two decades later Vietnam veterans Ron Kovic and Jack Tumidajski were drawn to this intriguing city in the heart of Mexico. Kovic, a combat injured paraplegic, and Tumidajski, a non-combat injured quadriplegic, would return stateside and eventually publish books which chronicled their vastly different experiences.

Until now, few people even knew that there once was a vibrant community of paraplegic, quadriplegic and other wheelchair users living in and around Guadalajara, Mexico. Other than memories of a dwindling number of older spinal cord injured veterans and non-veteran wheelchairs users and families whose loved ones lived there, the only record of an almost forgotten moment in time is encapsulated in film maker Oliver Stone's adaptation of Kovic's book, Born on the 4th of July.

Tumidajski's book, QUADALAJARA --- The Utopia That Once Was, is the result of 20 years of personal experience, interviews with survivors and Mexican widows of those who lived there, and hours of research. The author takes exception with what he characterizes as some of the myths and misconceptions which were portrayed in Stone's movie. Tumidajski claims, "Whether it's Villa Dulce (as in the movie) or Quadalajara (as in his book), the myth that this was an ocean side sex resort lives on. The movie's only depiction of Mexican women as whores and prostitutes and Vietnam vets and other paras and quads as depressed, whoring alcoholics is an injustice to both groups. One man's experience should not define a thirty year period of time lived by countless hundreds of others."

QUADALAJARA is, first and foremost, a tribute to those paraplegic and quadriplegic explorers and pioneers who first ventured into uncharted territory and settled in Guadalajara. The book contains over a hundred photos and bios of 260 of those who lived or visited there. It helps preserve the memories and experiences of those who were part this unique history. Long before Christopher Reeve made the terms "quadriplegic" and "spinal cord injury" commonplace and helped raise awareness around the world, many unknown and forgotten others worked tirelessly to help one another and those who would follow."

# # #

If you would like more information about QUADALAJARA, schedule an interview with the author, or request a copy of the book, please contact Jack at (623) 939-xxxx, email: QuadMexico@aol.com, or visit his website: http://www.quadmexico.com/

CHARLIE RENO "ENJOYS" A MOMENT OF SOLITUDE

2007-09-15T20:34:00.000-07:00

A Quadalajara Pioneer, Reno was the Mexico Chapter Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA)'s first delegate to the National PVA convention held in Santa Monica, CA in July 1964. (QUADALAJARA, Page 277)

www.QuadMexico.com

CLIFFORD D. CRASE --- REST IN PEACE

2007-09-09T21:15:00.000-07:00

Clifford D. "Kip" Crase, editor/publisher of the Paralyzed Veterans of America's Paraplegia News magazine, passed away on August 15th of pancreatic cancer. Cliff and I knew one another from PVA functions over the years but became much better acquainted once my book went to print. I was granted access to the Paraplegia News achieves and spent many hours at his office researching old copies of the PN dating back to the inaugural issue in 1946 up until the mid-1980's. Matter of fact, Cliff was first to review QUADALAJARA - The Utopia That Once Was and wrote his "Reasons & Remarks" column in the April 2006 PN (See December 9, 2006 BLOG Post) about the book and the story behind it. Seems like just last week (it was April, actually) that I was showing him some old photos of paraplegics and quadriplegics who he may have rehabbed with in the late 50's/early 60's at Chicago's Hines VA Hospital. Cliff's story is slightly different from most quads I've met. It wasn't until three years post-rehab that Cliff went out on his own. He knew about Quadalajara --- had a number of friends venture down there --- but was just independent enough to attend the University of Illinois, the most wheelchair accessible university at that time. Cliff married Nancy Thatcher in 1969 and the couple moved to Phoenix that same year. An excellent athlete both prior to and after his injury, Cliff soon founded a wheelchair sports magazine, Sports 'n Spokes, and years ago took over as PN editor as well. Been working every day for the past 38 years! Rest in peace, my Friend.....

CHARLIE "GRANDPA" CESKA

2007-08-29T17:46:00.000-07:00

Funny thing about the Internet......it's opened a whole new world to everyone, whether they're aware of it or not. It's not as big a thing as Columbus 'discovering' America......or might it be? It can be used for GOOD or EVIL. The Internet opens a world of exciting possibilities for all of us. And some not-so-pleasant ones, as well!

During the past year I've heard from a number of family members and friends of just some of those who traveled through the special place in time that I affectingly refer to as the Quadalajara era (1950's thru 1980's). Almost all have come from sons, daughters, nephews and nieces, and grandchildren of folks whose names appear in my book or on the website.

Today, however, I received a short note from the son of Charlie "Grandpa" Ceska. Although Charlie had long since passed on before I discovered this unique utopia in the heart of Mexico, I knew of him and know people who were touched by his selfless dedication to serving his fellow veterans and the community which embraced them.

A founding member of the Mexico Chapter, Paralyzed Veterans of America, Ceska was elected the Mexico PVA's first vice president in June 1964. Affectionately nicknamed "Grandpa" by the "younger" paraplegics and quadriplegics who settled there, this early Pioneer of an almost forgotten moment in time, also went on to serve the organization as its first Service Officer --- assisting fellow PVA members with benefits, medications and medical supplies, hospital visits and much more.

Charlie "Grandpa" Ceska was just one of those many heroes almost forgotten by time..........

(In a somewhat related --- but unrelated --- BLOG post on May 27, 2007, a photo of Ray Clifford and Jimmy Lietz should now be available.)

http://www.quadmexico.com/

QUADALAJARA Gets Mentioned On The "Little" Screen

2007-08-29T16:16:00.000-07:00

From the 2007 Hollywood Book Festuival : QUADALAJARA gets mentioned on the "little" screen --- "We watched the interview on LA News and I was on for a couple of seconds talking about your book. Unfortunately, the name on the screen was wrong! It was not mine or yours. They put the actress/MC's name (author/actress Michele Dominguez Greene) and after 5 seconds they changed cameras to interview her in Spanish. I was upset, at first, that they did not put my name or your name, but then they talked about your book and resumed my interview.........so it was okay." - Lucy Bailey Elizondo

www.QuadMexico.com

A BIT OF QUADALAJARA FOLKLORE

2007-08-19T20:09:00.000-07:00

I'm back after an obvious lengthy sabbatical. I can blame it on the weather - caught between the oppressive Phoenix summertime HEAT and my archaic arctic A/C system! For a quadriplegic, Phoenix ain't the place to be during the summer. And to think, if things had worked out I'd have spent July and August in San Diego --- at the beach!

One of life's "Oh well's."

I'm looking at a new old photo taken in the mid-sixties at the beer garden in Tlaquepaque, Jalisco - outside of Guadalajara. In the photo, which I plan to have scanned soon, you can see three couples sitting at a table with a few other men in the foreground or off to the side. On the table are a number of empty and not-so-empty beer bottles. Behind the group you can see some of Jalisco's famous Mariachis, ready to surround you with song from their string and horn instruments that must be experienced to be appreciated.

Even though this photo was taken long before I ever heard of Guadalajara or knew what a quadriplegic was, it appears to be just a typical sunny Sunday afternoon in Tlaquepaque with quadriplegic Gringos socializing with attractive Mexican senoritas.

I only wish that I had received this photo while working on the book. It might have even graced the cover?

I get mixed emotions while glancing at it. I knew some of the people. I heard of others and stories associated with them that have been confirmed in recent years. I know Teresa Beilsmith. Her husband Bob was a good friend, as well as, poker playing and horse track betting buddy who once won a "little" restaurant from a close friend on the turn of a card (QUADALAJARA, page 146)! Crazy times for quads who far outlived their institutional life expectancy!

My good friend Bill Christensen often mentioned a guy named "Cookie" who was instrumental in helping Bill first leave the safe confines of the Hines VA Hospital. Soon "Chris" --- as he became known in Quadalajara --- was on his way to an uncertain future South-of-the-Border. He currently lives in Scottsdale, AZ with his own Mexican senorita from days gone by. In fact, the Christensen's recently became grandparents!

After reading QUADALAJARA - The Utopia That Once Was, Paraplegia News editor/publisher. Cliff Crase remarked, "I always wondered what happened to Cookie?" (I subsequently found out the "Cookie" was Donald "Cookie" Meinberg,.)

I had heard of "Ernesto" Ernie Swanson. One of my early Mexican caregivers had worked previously for Ernie and held him in high esteem. We never met. Until I saw this photo, I had no face to associate with the name. Now I do.

One thing that I did know was that there was tragedy in Ernie's life. One of the pretty senoritas in the photo took her own life --- for reasons that I'd rather not speculate on. Ernie and Cookie had been seriously dating sisters, and the tragic death of one sister would doom the relationship of Cookie and the other sister. Cookie eventually left Quadalajara and lived out his life in southern California.

Bob and Teresa Beilsmith married in 1967 and lived together in Phoenix until Bob passed away in 1995. Which reminds me, I owe Teresa a phone call...........

http://www.quadmexico.com/

REPORT: HOLLYWOOD BOOK FESTIVAL

2007-07-29T22:20:00.000-07:00

From the Hollywood Book Festival website:

2007 HOLLYWOOD BOOK FESTIVAL

"HOLLYWOOD (July 29, 2007) _ The 2007 Hollywood Book Festival has named Will Clarke’s novel, “The Worthy: A Ghost Story,” as the grand prize winner of its annual competition honoring books worthy of greater attention from the film, TV and multimedia industries."

Congratulation to Mr. Clarke!

I spoke earlier with my Godchild, Lucy Bailey Elizondo, who represented "us" at the festival and read excerpts from QUADALAJARA - The Utopia that Once Was. Lucy was also sought out for an interview by a news reporter from Los Angeles' Spanish language TV station. (Tentatively scheduled to air in the L.A. area this Tuesday, July 31st at 12:30 PM)

I was informed that QUADALAJARA received an "Honorable Mention" in the category of "Biography/Autobiography".

It's been an interesting week :) And, of course, if I hear anything more, I'll post it here.

Thanks for all the well wishes and support!

Jack

www.QuadMexico.com

HOLLYWOOD BOOK FESTIVAL

2007-07-27T14:26:00.000-07:00

As some of you know, I was invited to the Hollywood Book Festival to read from my book. Since I will be unable to attend tomorrow's event, I have asked and received the OK for my Ahijada Lucy Bailey Elizonda to represent me, the book and the Quadalajara "family".

I now refer to my Goddaughter as "First Daughter". Lucy is the daughter of Bill and Maria Elena Bailey, the first quadriplegic veteran to marry a pretty senorita in Quadalajara (October 23, 1958)!

Below is a touching response from a Myspace friend who has become a true friend! Thanks, Laura!

"WOW Jack,

What a great choice! She is a living, breathing example of the happiness and the existence of love and care in that Utopia! She has a heart felt interest in the story and will represent her parents, the story and you well. She must be very proud of your accomplishment too!

I am in tears when I think of you, her Godfather, hammering away at the keyboard for her parent's legacy... and how special she must of felt when all this effort and love was revealed in your words.

I wish I could be there, as I am sure, you especially, would be too... to hear Lucy Bailey Elizondo, read from your book. We would feel the circle of life spinning out from this special place in time, her smile on one end, her arms wrapped around the book on the other, as she reads your words. What an poignant moment in time, a living metaphor of Quadalajara.

This a great time for all of the living members of that community, their children, and all those who are living through these situations today, who wish there was a place to go - that felt like a Utopia and resulted in such love and care.

I think this is bigger than you think, my best to you and your Goddaughter Lucy."

Love, Laura

http://www.hollywoodbookfestival.com/

WHEELERS THROW KING-SIZE PARTY FOR ORPANS

2007-07-22T21:46:00.000-07:00

Paraplegia News - June 1964

Wheelers Throw King-Size Party for Orphans
By John Reese

GUADALAJARA, MEXICO

Those guys are at it again.

The same incorrigible bunch of American quadriplegics and paraplegics who gave the big Christmas party at the state orphanage took 300 of the kids for an all-day picnic and swim at one of the newest and most beautiful resorts here, Los Camachos, in the spectacular setting of the wild Barrancas.

This was an even more ambitious project than the Christmas posada. It meant transporting everyone but the nursery babies 15 miles out into the country, feeding them all day, providing lifeguard protection in an acre of clear mountain water in a blue-tile pool, and getting them all back, exhausted but happy and safe, that night.

3,200 Pesos Raised

The paraplegics “Alliance for Compassion,” as they now call it here, raised 3,200 pesos in one of the quietest fund drives in money-raising history.

What baffles everyone in the big American colony here is that nobody seems to want any credit, nobody wants his name in the local papers, nobody even wants to admit he was a part of it.
Nevertheless, although only 18 contributors showed up to see their money at work, it is know that “around 30 or 40” donors contributed.

The picnic was unprecedented in the 177-year-old history of the Hospicio Cabanas, the state orphanage. The kids drank 900 bottles of soft drinks and ate three-quarters of a ton of food. They kept the pool filled in relays, some of them wearing swim-suits paid for out of the paraplegics money.

Record in Foreign Aid

When you figure that the cost per kid was only about 10 pesos - that’s 80 cents U.S. - you're getting pretty close to a new economy record in Foreign Aid. It couldn't be done, but they did it.

The attention this “impossible” act of charity drew makes the American paraplegics one of the most influential groups in the big American colony here. From now on, their support is going to count heavily.

After the success of the Christmas party, it was relatively easy to line up help for this. The American School and the Municipal Police contributed the buses. State and Highway police detailed men to help handle the kids. A big brewery brought in folding tables and chairs, set them up, and hauled them away afterwards.

From page 150: QUADALAJARA --- The Utopia That Once Was

http://www.quadmexico.com/

QUADALAJARA --- A Hollywood Book Festival Award?

2007-07-19T16:05:00.000-07:00

Soooo, I was minding my own business, reading and deleting emails and spam when I noticed an email from the Hollywood Book Festival.

A couple months ago I submitted QUADALAJARA --- The Utopia that Once Was for consideration in a contest which, I believe, focused mainly on relatively unknown books/authors.

Just thought I'd 'share' this unexpected email. Meanwhile, I'll attempt not to get on too euphoric a high. It's an honor just being considered and asked to read from the book at the event.

Hello:

Your book is receiving strong consideration for an award from our panel of judges. As such, we would like to offer you the opportunity to read from your book at the event on Sat. July 28.

Please let us know if you would be interested in appearing. The stage schedule would call for about a 10 minute-15 minute reading, followed by a brief signing appearance at a table provided by the festival.

Best,

Bruce Haring
Hollywood Book Festival
323-665-xxxx

EXCERPT FROM CHAPTER EIGHT --- QUADALAJARA

2007-07-07T17:30:00.000-07:00

Vinnie and Jack, two hospital buddies reunited in Quadalajara enjoying the warmth and sunshine in front of their $40/month 3 bedroom house on a typical day in paradise --- seventeen days after arriving in Quadalajara. (Vinnie's attendant, Salvador, in the middle.)

October 14, 1972. I met Earl at Boston's Logan Airport for our flight to Guadalajara. In addition to the nervousness, there was a definite excitement because I'd been waiting to check out Mexico for over a year and a half.

Earl was a mountain of a man, 6'5” and now close to 300 pounds. It was a wonder his wheelchair didn't collapse beneath him. We made quite a pair as I only tipped the scales at about 125. Earl's little brother, Chris, would accompany us as our attendant for the flight. Like Earl, Chris was close to 6'5”, but he was a slender high school basketball player.

After changing planes in New York, we were finally on our way. The Air France flight from New York to Guadalajara would take about five and a half hours. I thought a lot about what Vinnie Nash had told me about Mexico: how a quad could get a full-time attendant for $50 a month, how accessible the city of Guadalajara was, and how one could live like a king on $500 a month.

Our destination in Guadalajara was a place called Casa de Vida Nueva, or House of New Life. We had selected this particular “gimp-camp” (as the guys so affectionately referred to them) at random from The Paraplegia News (PN), the official publication of the Paralyzed Veterans of America. There were half a dozen places in Guadalajara that regularly ran classified ads in the PN. They all tended to sound alike: 365 days of sunshine, skilled personal care attendants, American-style food, beautiful gardens, etc. Earl had made the reservations reluctantly, since he had wanted to go to Hawaii. We had taken two previous trips together, both times to Las Vegas, but somehow I convinced Earl we should try Mexico. I just had to see for myself what Vinnie and some of the other guys from the West Roxbury VA Hospital were so excited about. Little did I realize that I was about to enter into a special place in time.

* * *

At some point in the history of this intriguing Mexican city, someone cutely gave it a nickname which—at the time—seemed quite appropriate. By replacing the letter “G” with the letter “Q,” Guadalajara became Quadalajara. Advertisements that appeared in the Paraplegia News and elsewhere made Quadalajara seem like an attractive alternative to U.S. institutional living or living as a virtual shut-un with ones' own family for newly injured quadriplegics and paraplegics—victims of auto mishaps, swimming and diving accidents, and those whose lives were permanent reminders of the horrors of war.

* * *

The sun had already begun to disappear beyond the horizon as the plane touched down at the airport. To my horror, I discovered we would have to be carried—wheelchairs and all—down a deep flight of some twenty stairs to get to Customs and Immigration on the ground floor. Three or four uniformed men came to help us. I took a deep breath; if they could get Big Earl down those stairs, they would not have a problem with me.

After clearing customs, and getting our tourist visas, we were greeted by our driver from Casa de Vida Nueva. The man spoke English and, as we piled into his red station wagon, he and Earl began to talk about Pele, the famous Brazilian soccer player. This guy was a real soccer fan. (We soon found out that in Latin America it was “futbol,” not soccer—soccer is what Gringos called it.)

The drive to Quadalajara from the airport took longer than I expected. As Earl and the driver talked about futbol, I stared out the window at the darkening landscape. We passed cornfield after cornfield where adobe houses were spread out here and there, all the way into the city. My expectations began to drop as the reality was sinking in—we were in a poor, third world country.

We arrived at our vacation destination, and after that my enthusiasm was dampened even more: this place was depressing. The October night air had turned cooler as Gabino greeted us while we unloaded the station wagon. Like the driver, Gabino also spoke English; he was the head honcho in charge of directing the other attendants and running the place.

Casa de Vida Nueva was like some strange ghost town. There were a series of individual bungalows arranged in a houseshoe shape. At one end of the property there stood a building in the shape of a boat. Rumor had it that Casa de Vida Nueva, or “the Boat” as most Gringos referred to it, was a former dance hall/bordello. That might explain the group of bungalows located on the property.

The silence that hung in the air added to the eerie feeling that was eating at me inside. Gabino tilted my chair back and pushed me across the grass to my quarters as Chris helped his brother. Once inside, the slender Mexican disappeared into the night, leaving us alone inside my bungalow. It was the first time Big Earl and I had had a chance to talk and compare notes. I had a feeling he wasn't very impressed either.

The wall in the living room was covered with mosquitoes and a variety of other insects. Earl just shook his head, “This place is depressing.” Where had I heardthose words before?

Gabino suddenly reappeared with a short young man. “Jose Luis is going to be your attendant,” he informed me, as he began to blast the walls with some concoction of insect spray. It was the first positive thing that had happened since we safely made it down the stairs at the airport. Maybe I was judging this place a bit too prematurely.

After getting some fresh air and gazing at the stars on this cool Mexican night, it was time to turn in. There were a few voices in the darkness, and some of the bungalows' lights were still on. It had been a very long day; I had already been up for fifteen hours. I said good night to Earl and Chris as they made their way to Earl's bungalow. Chris still had to help his brother unpack and be back to the airport by midnight for his return trip to Boston.

Little did I know I was about to be hit with another series of unwanted surprises. As Gabino helped Jose Luis unpack my stuff and put me to bed, I found out that the stockyyoung man who was to be my attendant didn't speak a word of English, as advertised, and didn't have any experience.

I lay in bed watching the two Mexicans unpack my things and felt a cold draft pass over my left shoulder. The window was broken; jagged-edged glass protruded all the way around the cement wall, which served as its frame. As I turned my head to examine further, I noticed what looked like blood smeared on the flimsy, flowered curtains. I didn't want to speculate on how it got there.

Gabino listened to my complaints. How was I going to communicate with Jose Luis? What about the broken window? And this certainly wasn't a hospital bed; wasn't I paying an extra $44 a month for that?

“I'll talk to Sergio in the morning,” Gabino replied. I asked, “Who is Sergio?” “Sergio is the lawyer who owns Casa de Vida Nueva,” I was informed. Figures, I thought to myself. I'm getting ripped off by a Mexican lawyer.

My roller-coaster day was headed back down again. What else could go wrong? As Jose Luis and I tried to communicate with the few words I remembered from high school Spanish, Gabino reappeared with a list of commonly used expressions with their English translations. “Ah, quiero un vaso de agua.” I remembered that one.

As my attendant left the room, fulfilling my first request of him, Big Earl came rolling in with Chris and another man behind him, carrying bags. “I'm getting out of here,” Earl stated. “This place is a dump. I've got a taxi waiting; we still have time to make it to the airport by midnight.”

“Damn it, Earl! There's no way I could possibly get dressed and packed in time,” I said in frustration. Besides, I had waited a year and a half to come to Mexico. I was at least going to stay until the sun came up.......

http://www.quadmexico.com/

MYSPACE BLOG POST - COMMENT/LINK

2007-07-06T14:21:00.000-07:00

IN MEMORY OF BOBBY TAYLOR AND ALL THOSE BRAVE SOULS WHO SACRIFICED THEIR LIVES FOR THE FREEDOMS THAT WE, TOO OFTEN, TAKE FOR GRANTED.

(The comment below comes from a Myspace BLOG post - of a Memorial Day BLOG post here -re-posted on July 4th in "Memory of Robert Thomas Taylor.....July 5, 1949 - February 27, 1970")

There are so many poignant moments, just like this, in Jack's book. I think his manner of writing is like spending an afternoon with him, sipping a cool ice tea on some lawn chairs in the shade as he tells his story. You can feel his emotions, flip through the photos, and almost see the passion on his face as he tells this historic moment in time! One thing you never do is get bored, you get attached to Jack like your watching him and saying, "Wow, Wow... this guy is amazing!" ...and he is. He's tough but kind, he's loves women but he's a real gentleman, he's smart and he's assertive (the two don't always go hand in hand). He wrote a fabulous book and yet he never stops saying, "In memory of Bobby Taylor and all those brave souls who sacrificed their lives for the freedoms that we, too often, take for granted." So therefore he is considerate and humble... I say this because you get to know Jack in Quadalajara, I say it because he wouldn't... I say it because it's true!.....Laura, MA

http://www.myspace.com/134413608

113 DEGREE SATURDAY AFTERNOON RAMBLINGS

2007-07-01T17:38:00.000-07:00

I just finished reading the BLOG posts of a globetrotting friend of mine "vacationing" in Asia. It made me realize that --- even if I have nothing special to write about, unlike my friend --- that posting something was better than nothing at all!

So as I ramble on here --- a special skill that I honed through countless emails sent over the past decade --- I realize that normally I'd be on my way to Saturday afternoon mass at Our Lady Of Perpetual Help (OLPH) Church about now. Unfortunately, this is Phoenix (OK, Glendale but right on the Phoenix boundary) and June 30th means 113 degrees in the shade! If you doubt me...............

Annually --- at least since 2002 --- I wouldn't care that much because late June meant packing for an extended July/August visit to my favorite hangouts in San Diego. Not this year --- at least, not unless a couple of really cool caregiver types knock on my front door volunteering their skills/services. Highly unlikely. Those who know me can attest to that.

Which brings me "back" to Myspace. It's been an interesting, time consuming "experiment" in networking on the Internet. I even sold a few books and received some very encouraging feedback from Myspace friends both here and abroad. There's even a rumor that there is a pending QUADALAJARA/Jack Tumidajski Myspace Fan Club. But, it's only a rumor! I should know because I kinda/sorta started it. It does sound like a COOL idea though:)

I do intend to spend less time "networking" on Myspace and more time BLOGGING and delving into the area of magazine article writing. Since QUADALAJARA - The Utopia That Once Was started as a bunch of short stories and not-yet-written short stories, breaking down the book and featuring stories as diverse as 'Bangkok's Exotic Nightlife' to 'Mexico - a Haven For Disabled Vets' should give me a good jumping off point. It would also serve as a vehicle to bring more traffic to my sleepy website:

http://www.quadmexico.com/.

THE WOMEN BEHIND THE MEN

2007-06-30T17:28:00.000-07:00

Josefina Ziegler and Maria Elena Bailey, two of the Mexico PVA's 'First Ladies', representing the women behind the men who kept chapter functions running smoothly, receive awards from an unidentified United States Consulate official at a mid-70s awards banquet. QUADALAJARA --- The Utopia That Once Was, page 364.

http://www.quadmexico.com/

FRANKLIN B. RESSEGUIE --- REST IN PEACE

2007-06-21T14:23:00.000-07:00

Frank Resseguie founded Brundage Publishing in 1994. He was not only my publisher but a true gentleman always willing to answer questions and lend guidance. Without his help, my book would never have been published. Frank passed away on June 18, 2007. Rest in Peace, my Friend...............

From Brundage Publishing's website - Feathers In The Wind:

The author, a young American fighter pilot stationed with the 78th Thunderbolt Fighter Group at Duxford, England, came down in northern France on October 18, 1943 when France was fully occupied by the Germans. Out of nearly 80,000 U.S. Airmen who came down in Europe during WWII, nearly half were killed and nearly half were captured and taken prisoner. Franklin discloses how he became one of only about 4,000 airmen to escape from Europe without being captured. Read of his last second escapes in the air and on the ground as time and again he outwits the German Luftwaffe and German ground patrols. The contents of this book are best described by those who know the military. It's been called a classic escape story.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Franklin B. Resseguie grew up on a farm in South Gibson, PA, one of twelve children.
Out of high school he worked a short time at the Link Aviation plant in Hillcrest, NY. Following the bombing of Pearl Harbor he joined the Air Cadets.

He became a fighter pilot and was a member of the 84th Squadron, 78th Group of the 8th Air Force stationed in England.

After coming down in France and escaping through the Pyrenees Mountains into Spain and back to Englad, he became an instructor of senior West Point cadets.

When the war ended, he attended college and then Cornell Law School. He practiced law in Binghamton, NY for thirty-four years. He is now retired from law and is a publisher.

As a Lt. Col. USAF Ret. he is presently a liaison officer for the Air Force Academy, where he evaluates candidates for admissions. His life has been full of exciting adventures.

http://www.brundagepublishing.com/

VET'S BOOK CHALLENGES MOVIE, "BORN ON THE 4TH OF JULY"

2007-06-13T20:20:00.000-07:00

VET'S BOOK CHALLENGES MOVIE, BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact : Jack Tumidajski

(623) 939-xxxx
email: QuadMexico@aol.com

Both are paralyzed Vietnam veterans, each had difficulty
adjusting to life in the real world, both journeyed to Mexico
looking for the elusive peace and acceptance they sought,
each had a story to tell. The comparisons end there.

Sometime after World War II, when paralyzed survivors of battlefield injuries were now --- thanks to antibiotic treatment and modern medicine --- living long enough to actually be discharged from military and veterans' hospitals, a few nomadic paraplegics and quadriplegics set out to find freedom and happiness outside a world not ready to accept them. By the 1950's a number of these brave souls, many forgotten by time, discovered sunshine and paradise South of the Border in Guadalajara.

Two decades later Vietnam veterans Ron Kovic and Jack Tumidajski were drawn to this intriguing city in the heart of Mexico. Kovic, a combat injured paraplegic, and Tumidajski, a non-combat injured quadriplegic, would return stateside and eventually publish books which chronicled their vastly different experiences.

Until now, few people even knew that there once was a vibrant community of paraplegic, quadriplegic and other wheelchair users living in and around Guadalajara, Mexico. Other than memories of a dwindling number of older spinal cord injured veterans and non-veteran wheelchairs users and families whose loved ones lived there, the only record of an almost forgotten moment in time is encapsulated in film maker Oliver Stone's adaptation of Kovic's book, Born on the 4th of July.

Tumidajski's book, QUADALAJARA --- The Utopia That Once Was, is the result of 20 years of personal experience, interviews with survivors and Mexican widows of those who lived there, and hours of research. The author takes exception with what he characterizes as some of the myths and misconceptions which were portrayed in Stone's movie. Tumidajski claims, "Whether it's Villa Dulce (as in the movie) or Quadalajara (as in the book), the myth that this was an ocean side sex resort lives on. The movie's only depiction of Mexican women as whores and prostitutes and Vietnam vets and other paras and quads as depressed, whoring alcoholics is an injustice to both groups. One man's experience should not define a thirty year period of time lived by countless hundreds of others."

Although partly autobiographical, QUADALAJARA is, first and foremost, a tribute to those paraplegic and quadriplegic explorers and pioneers who first ventured into uncharted territory and settled in Guadalajara. The book contains over a hundred photos and bios of 260 of those who lived or visited there. It helps preserve the memories and experiences of those who were part this unique history. Long before Christopher Reeve made the terms "quadriplegic" and "spinal cord injury" commonplace and helped raise awareness around the world, many unknown and forgotten others worked tirelessly to help one another and those who would follow."
.
# # #

If you would like more information about QUADALAJARA, schedule an interview with the author, or request a copy of the book, please contact Jack at (623) 939-xxxx, email: QuadMexico@aol.com, or visit his website: http://www.quadmexico.com/

"QUADALAJARA" --- FEEDBACK

2007-06-12T15:52:00.000-07:00

In the fall of 1998, when I was a social work intern talking to you, someone who had lived in Guadalajara, Mexico, I clearly remember standing at your hospital bed and telling you, "You are part of a remarkable moment in history. You should write a book to tell this story. There's a screenplay in there." After reading parts of that book, now I realize I had no idea at all about just how truly remarkable that moment in history was. I knew it was very important for you, as the youngster of the group, to tell the story.

M.O. Social Worker
San Diego VA
_ _ _ _ _

Wanted to tell you I very much enjoyed your book. You have a gift. The research you did amazes me. Although I wasn’t there, I feel that your documentation of the adventure that you and your fellow pioneers underwent in that place and time will and should always be preserved not only to acknowledge those that participated, but also preserved for those that your courage has and will inspire.

Dennis Burton
Mesa, AZ
_ _ _ _ _

Interesting book. Jack is one of my clients and he shared some of this with us as he was writing it Many of the veterans living in Guadalajara during those years are guys that I know today (or knew before they passed away), so it was an interesting read. Certainly shows a different picture of life in Mexico following Vietnam for SCI veterans than was shown in "Born on the Fourth of July.

KLD
From the Internet
_ _ _ _ _

My editor loved the story and I get the feeling that a lot of other people read and liked it. I'm glad we were able to generate some buzz for your book. You have a fascinating story and it's worth telling. I want to thank you again for your cooperation. If there's anything else we can do for you, just let us know.

Dave Casey
Pawtucket Times
_ _ _ _ _

I started reading your book as soon as I got it and read all the way across country when I left Phoenix. I loved the book and felt as if I was there in Mexico -- I can just see you guys. The book was very interesting not just to me who knows you but to some others who have read it. You "quads "are something. I admire your courage and your attitude about your change in life's plan.
Roberta N, Former SCI Nurse
Phoenix VAMC

_ _ _ _ _

Hi Jack! I was so bummed when I learned you left before I could say bye! I wanted to let you know that I am really enjoying reading the book – thank you for sharing. I ... already I have learned so much. It is so eye opening to me to realize that I know so little about the experiences of the people that I serve. When I have read it around friends, I have been able to educate them on what I do and what I have learned from your book. Kathy said it should be a required text for all our staff - I think she is right. I am doing a very involved .........study program this year. It leaves little time for outside reading, but yours is the first book I grab when I get a chance. Thank you again!Sincerely,
Lani D, Recreational Therapist
San Diego VAMC
_ _ _ _ _

My mum snatched your book off of me and is half way through. She loves it!! I asked her if you were more naughty further along in the book, she wouldn't answer me. I'm just teasin', although I really did ask her....

Kimberly G, Physical Therapist
Miami, FL
_ _ _ _ _

Jack, I just finished reading your book/memoir. I find it thoughtful and well-written. It is a good depiction of your personal experience as a disabled expatriate in Mexico. Also, it brought to life the misconceptions and negative opinion about the real purpose of living in Guadalajara.

Eileen H.
San Diego, CA
_ _ _ _ _

Thank you very much for taking the time to speak to me this morning. We're all very appreciative that you were able to write Quadalajara. I was fortunate not only to have lived in that wonderful city, but also to have met most of the early "Pioneers" you mention from the "Golden Era." I was blessed to have been raised by two wonderful parents who raised me during my formative years in that wonderful city. As with all great books, I will from time to time pick up your book and reread it with the same excitement I felt the first time I read it. I hope to keep in touch with you in the years to come.

Dr. J. A. Foland
Florida

www.QuadMexico.com

MAGAZINE ARTICLE ABOUT QUADALAJARA

2007-06-07T16:03:00.000-07:00

(The following is a first edit preview of an article which, hopefully this time, will appear in a national publication.)

They came from Long Beach, Chicago, New England, New York, Iowa, Oregon, Minnesota and even Puerto Rico. Who were they? Paralyzed veterans, mostly, paraplegics and quadriplegics hoping for a new beginning. In search of freedom and independence from years confined in veterans' hospitals and their bedrooms, unable or unwilling to face the outside world. A world vacant of opportunity for the simplest of human needs --- life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

For the earliest survivors of spinal cord injuries, and others stricken with cruel disabilities that left them the pitied wheelchair-bound members of society, life could be cold and hope for the future even colder. There were some who beat the odds and managed to live full, productive lives --- but they were the rare exception of the reality that being confined to a wheelchair in the 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's represented.

According to Jack Tumidajski, author of QUADALAJARA - The Utopia That Once Was, the first ray of hope for many appeared in a Paraplegia News magazine article in 1954. In an open letter to fellow Paralyzed Veterans of America members, James Seybold touts the ideal climate, accessibility and beauty that he discovered in the 'El Dorado of the Western Hemisphere', Mexico City. And, added Seybold, "One word about the senoritas - WOW!" At about the same time, a few other nomadic paraplegics were exploring other auras up the road a ways --- in Quadalajara.

As word spread, other brave souls, paraplegic and quadriplegic veterans of World War II and the Korea War, soon followed. By the late 50's some twenty paras and quads were renting houses and rooms in this newfound Utopia some 300 miles northwest of Mexico City in what someone cutely dubbed "Quadalajara" (melding the words quadriplegic and Guadalajara). Although the passage of time has claimed the names and identities of the earliest explorers of this enticing South-of-the-Border quad paradise, others' names live on in old newspaper articles, magazine achieves and in Tumidajski's book. George Ray, who took over the reigns of what was probably Quadalajara's first group home-away-from-home, from a fellow American para who the locals referred to as Senor Roberto, was soon spreading the word to any para or quad --- trapped in a VA hospital --- interested and adventurous enough to leave family and friends behind and journey to this relatively unknown and uncharted territory.

The gradual trickle of curious paras and quads continued. Young Mexican men, capable of lifting a quadriplegic in and out of bed or vehicle, were recruited and trained to care for quadriplegics.

George Ray teamed first with fellow para Joe Miller in running "George Ray's Place" until Miller struck out on his own, opening an eight room wheelchair-friendly home close to Guadalajara's soccer stadium . Bill Macleary then partnered with Ray and would make period trips to the Long Beach VA Hospital to personally escort men like Bill Bailey and Patrick Wolf to their group home.

In October 1958 Bill Bailey became the first American quad to marry a local senorita, marrying one of the nursing attendants originally hired to care for those who required nursing care. Wolf, an independent para, returned to the States and Macleary opened his own community house across town in the suburb of Las Fuentes. Other paras and quads who had heard of this place in Mexico that promised sunshine in paradise arrived from the US. to take their place.

By 1960 there was sufficient interest in Quadalajara for the opening of a fourth wheelchair community. The spacious Hacienda Las Fuentes, located a block away from "Macleary's Place", was founded by Larry Kegan, a quadriplegic and lifelong friend of singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. Within a few years the number of paraplegic and quadriplegic residents of this unique fraternity had grown to over fifty, as friends and new friends began moving out on their own or to share three and four bedroom houses. More quads and paras married locals girls --- another attraction for lonely paralyzed men in seemingly hopeless situations back home.

By the mid-60's the Quadalajara population had reached the century mark. Some American wheelers resided there year round while others visited briefly or became regular snowbirds --- spending winters in Mexico while bringing their Mexican attendants back to the States with them during summer months to spend time with family and friends . Paralyzed veterans who had heard of this place in Mexico from fellow hospital buddies or read advertisements in the Paraplegic News and elsewhere, as well as, non-veterans made for a steady stream of newcomers.

The vets organized and petitioned the national organization of the Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA) for their own chapter South-of-the-Border. The Mexico Chapter PVA became a reality in 1964. By 1967 they had their own clubhouse and BINGO hall. The once rowdy Pioneers had new focus and purpose in life and turned their energy toward helping, not only one another, but children at Jalisco's state run orphanage and poor local grade school children in their community. At the Time, QUADALAJARA author Jack Tumidajski was totally oblivious to what he would someday encounter. He was barely out of kindergarten when James Seybold was exploring territory in and around Mexico City, was a ten year old fourth-grader when future friend and Compadre Bill Bailey discovered this quad paradise and married a pretty senorita, and was a student at Providence College when the Mexico PVA members purchased their clubhouse. Financial concerns led to Tumidajski dropping out of college in his sophomore year. He joined the Army and soon found himself in Vietnam. Within days of his safe return home, he was hospitalized in an Intensive Care Unit . An idiot driver had broken his dreams --- and his neck --- in a split second of stupidity!

The author shares some of his experiences, setbacks and triumphs during his two year hospitalization and rehabilitation and year and a half a living as a virtual shut-in before his decision to ''Check out" Quadalajara.

Tumidajski does not go into his entire life story, rather opting to focus on the time leading up to his own journey to Quadalajara. He spends sufficient time introducing his character through both his Vietnam experience and an exotic R&R spent in Bangkok Thailand.

The two stories become entwined shortly thereafter as the author, according to Military Writers Society of America President Bill McDonald, "Does a wonderful job preserving the history of these people and this subculture. Thanks to him, future generations will not forget this American community that once was so vibrant and active in the heart of Mexico."

www.QuadMexico.com

EXCERPT FROM CHAPTER FOUR - A TASTE OF REALITY

2007-06-04T21:32:00.000-07:00

QUADALAJARA --- The Utopia That Once Was

The alarm sounded during the middle of the night. Qui Nhon was on full Red Alert --- there was enemy activity in the area.

Our platoon fell out to its designated locals: my squad to the front bunkers and myself and another soldier to the first bunker. We were startled boys and young men, with our hearts pounding as we joined the confusion of that night. As I took my position in the first bunker, the gate to the compound and the MP post suddenly looked much closer than ever before. The sky was illuminated with flares and there was gunfire at the port's entrance, just fifteen or twenty yards in front of us. The makeshift village of scrap wood and cardboard lean-to's adjacent to the compound was on fire. Distant gunfire sporadically filled the night air. A truck approached the main gate and drew fire from the MPs. It was total chaos. It was as if nobody was in charge or knew what was happening. I could have been back in Rhode Island if I had only extended my tour. Seventeen days from leaving this mixed up war and now this.

It was only the second time in a year I had to chamber a round in my WWII vintage M14. Relief, albeit temporary, was learning that the truck was driven by South Korean civilians just trying to reach the safety of Qui Nhon's port. The MPs waved them by as the gunfire slowed and the confusion lessened.

By morning the fire was out, as villagers inspected what remained. Unofficial word filtered down to us that some GI, in a nearby compound, had opened fire at something suspicious. An errant flare shot into the night sky by another nervous soldier had apparently caused the fire. The events of the past few hours only served to heighten my appreciation of what other sacred young men lived and died with on a daily basis.

http://www.quadmexico.com/

IN MEMORY OF RAY AND JIMMY

2007-05-27T22:40:00.001-07:00

You won't find the names of Ray Clifford nor Jimmy Lietz on The Wall. The Vietnam War Memorial preserves the names and helps keep alive the memories of over 58,000 Americans who gave their lives in service to our country.

I never did get to visit The Wall. I did, however, have the opportunity to see a replica of it here in Phoenix some twenty years ago. The magnitude of panel after panel of names --- each representing one of the thousands of mostly young men who never made it home alive --- is overwhelming. Words can not adequately describe what it feels like to see it. To touch it. To trace the name of a family member or friend who sacrificed all.

I immediately searched out and found the name of my childhood friend, Robert Thomas "Bobby" Taylor. (See post below.) After spending time praying and reflecting by Bobby's place on the Wall --- seemingly a million miles and years away from Bobby's Rollaway, where we used to rent skates as teenagers and laugh at one another when one of our group of friends fell --- I returned to the reception desk and searched for names of other GI's who I met in Vietnam or who I had befriended during boot camp. I looked for those who I knew or felt had the greatest chance of having their names inscribed on it. Thank GOD I found no others but, I'm quite sure that if I knew where to look, familiar names would have brought back familiar memories.

Memories and photos are all that remain of Ray Clifford and Jimmy Lietz. They were two of the handful of Vietnam vets who I met while living in Mexico. Ray, a paraplegic, was a Navy corpsman who was shot in the back while attending to wounded Marines on the battlefield. Jimmy served in the Army and became a quadriplegic when the Armored Personnel Carrier he was in got hit.

Ray Clifford was already discharged from the Hines VA Hospital in Chicago and living in Guadalajara while I was still in Vietnam. Jimmy Lietz left Walter Reed Army Hospital and showed up at Villa del Sol (probably the "Villa Dulce" as (mis)portrayed in the movie Born on the 4th of July) at about the same time as I began my two year rehab stint. We became close friends in Guadalajara and afterward, until Jimmy passed away in 1994 and Ray in 2000 --- each from kidney problems brought on by being Spinal Cord Injured.

I mention Ray and Jimmy, not because I believe that their names also belong on the Wall --- in which case it would have to have many more panels to represent and honor those whose lives were shortened by battlefield injuries and illness --- but to pay tribute to just two of many veterans --- paralyzed wheelchair users --- who continued to serve other veterans and the Mexican community which welcomed them during the time that they lived in Mexico.

I could hardly list the number of para and quad friends who I met in Guadalajara, Mexico who are no longer with us. But I will be thinking and praying for them, as I will for Bobby Taylor, my parents and other family members and friends.

May they rest in peace.............

IN MEMORY OF BOBBY TAYLOR AND ALL THOSE BRAVE SOULS.....

2007-05-26T16:14:00.000-07:00

In memory of Bobby Taylor and all those brave souls who sacrificed their lives for the freedoms that we, too often, take for granted.

........When back on duty, one of the jobs I acquired was that of Air Force liaison. Daily contact with my Air Force counterpart at Phu Cat Air Base north of Qui Nhon was maintained to alert those further up the logistical line of what supplies were needed and what supplies were being sent from our port city up north. I remembered my first phone conversation with my Air Force contact at Phu Cat. I was still a naive newcomer. After informing him of what cargo was headed his way, I was told that three cadavers would be on the return flight. I remember being taken aback by his routine manner of speech. I wasn't sure if I heard him correctly or understood the magnitude of what I'd just been told. After sheepishly asking him to repeat what he had told me, I froze for a moment. This was anything but routine for me. I was assured that I understood correctly. Thus began one of my daily duties: learning the always-unpleasant news than another mother's son was returning home to a heartbroken family.

* * * * *

.......As I lay in bed one evening staring at nothing, my eyes focused on a welcome sight: my friends and cousins Rich and Joe were joined by Pat Mckenna. It was unusual to receive such a late night visit, especially on a cold mid-week night as the calendar was changing from February to March, but my mood quickly perked up.

"Great to see you guys," I began, as they approached my bed. I sensed that something was amiss by the lifeless expressions on their faces.

Before I had a chance to think, Rich spoke up, "Bobby's been killed"

The news of Bobby's death left me emotionally numb. The reality took days to sink in. I was given permission to attend the wake and funeral by an empathetic medical staff. Stage three of my unusual medical procedure would have to wait, and any possible damage to what had already been reconstructed didn't matter. Everyone understood.

Subconsciously, perhaps, I wasn't ready to accept that my close friend was forever gone. Memories of competing in basketball, baseball, football, and all around horseplay that bonded Bobby and I were running through my head. I remembered leisurely walks down Prospect Street past Memorial Hospital on our way downtown on Saturday afternoons in hopes of meeting girls, hanging out on the West Side with the girls from St. Mary's Parish, and double dating with Denise and her sister Eileen. I had so many fond memories; memories that would last a lifetime for me, bur were stolen from my friend at only twenty years of age..........

..........I remained in my brother-in-law Alan's car for the funeral service. He was able to park close enough for us to be merely a few yards behind the crowd of mourners. Family, friends, and just about everyone from Bishop's Bend came to say goodbye to the first resident of our neighborhood to give his life in service to our country since World War II.

The tragically sad and solemn funeral service was punctuated with the crackle of the twenty-one gun salute that filled the cold morning air. The finality that this military tradition signaled was too much for Denise, as she collapsed and was caught by Bobby's cousin. After composing herself, Denise walked over to Alan's car. We talked for a few minutes before Denise left and a few other friends stopped by to greet me. Ironically, Denise's sister Eileen, who once told me, "If you join the Army, I'll never speak to you again," was not among them.

After returning to my all-too-familiar bed at the VA hospital, a few more days passed. I was watching the Saturday afternoon college basketball game --- a game in which Notre Dame defeated the seemingly invincible UCLA Bruins --- when tears began to flow from my eyes like water pouring uncontrollably from leaky faucets. Reality finally thawed my previously numb emotions. Bobby Taylor was dead.

* * * * *

In memory of Bobby Taylor and all those brave souls who sacrificed their lives for the freedoms that we, too often, take for granted.

HELLO, MY NAME IS JACK AND I"M A MYSPACE ADDICT!!!

2007-05-19T21:38:00.000-07:00

In a December 28th BLOG post, I pondered, "Is Myspace for me?"

Looking back, I can honestly answer, "Yes and No." I played around with it a bit while still managing my posts on here. After a few health issues and a three week hospital "vacation" in San Diego, I returned ready to "hit the ground running"! Although I did have a long interview, which led to a long local newspaper article yet to be published (maybe Memorial Day, I hope? :), I've found myself spending more and more time "networking" (as I tell my friends) on Myspace and paying less attention to my BLOG and other promotional "stuff".

On the bright side, I've "met" some interesting people and my web of contacts (Myspace friends) keeps growing....309 and counting..... I've plastered my book cover image on most all of the 309....and counting.....while picking up more steam and new friends each day. Although "promises" that someone is "ordering the book" outpace actual orders by about 4 to 1 (same odds as the Preakness winner today), I'm actually doing better than on my "killer" website! All the while I'm gathering momentum and making "Quadalajara" a more recognized, if somewhat of a curiosity, Myspace name.

I now have "friends" from Maine to Seattle, and from Minnesota to --- you guessed it --- Mexico! I can't leave out the Canadians, Brit's and Aussie (one that I'm sure of), nor my Polish connection and friend in South Korea --- Hi Lise :)

Networking or addiction? Maybe both? Or maybe I'm here baring my soul to y'all while attempting to justify my behavior because I'm still IN DENIAL???

(If you're a Myspace type and interested, I guess you can "search" my name? I'll be there now thanking the THREE new folks who added me while I was doin' this!)

MOTHER'S DAY - With - FATHER'S DAY Not Far Behind!

2007-05-08T21:09:00.000-07:00

Mother's Day is upon us and, before we know it, Father's Day will come along and we'll frantically try to remember if we got Pop a tie or a wallet last year???

Don't be caught off guard this year. Remember, books make wonderful gifts!

Most of us have family members and/or friends who served our Country and many of us have loved ones serving now. Why not order a book for Pop or Uncle Fred?

If QUADALAJARA is not for you, please feel free to contact me and I'll happily provide you with some worthy suggestions!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all the Moms out there. GOD Bless you all!!!

www.QuadMexico.com

TODAY IS MY ANNIVERSARY

2007-04-22T17:08:00.000-07:00

FROM THE BACK COVER --- QUADALAJARA: The Utopia That Once Was

"On April 22, 1969, just five days after returning safely home from a tour of duty in Vietnam, a tragic event changed Jack Tumidajski's life forever.

Jack spent the next twenty-three months in hospitals and rehabilitation facilities. Upon his discharge from the West Roxbury VA Hospital in Massachusetts, the now-quadriplegic veteran had to cope with life in the real world --- a world nearly vacant of opportunity for its severely disabled citizens.

After another year and a half of living as a virtual shut-in, Jack decided to journey into uncertainty. In order to gain more independence, he moves to a city in Mexico that would someday be known as "Quadalajara." Little did he know he was about to enter into a special place in time.

Relive the journey taken previously by veterans of WWII, Korea, Vietnam and other quadriplegics and paraplegics who discovered paradise south of the border. Share lessons learned and memories experienced by those who got a second chance at life --- in Quadalajara."

www.QuadMexico.com

QUADALAJARA'S FIRST "LOVE CONNECTION"

2007-04-06T18:25:00.000-07:00

Bill and Maria Elena Bailey became Quadalajara's first "Love Connection" in Ocotober 1958.

Bill Bailey first ventured to Mexico with former Long Beach VA Hospital buddy, Patrick Wolf (see earlier post - Kid Sauza), in March 1958. He and Maria Elena became the first Gringo "wheeler" and Mexican Senorita to tie the knot. Others would follow..........

www.QuadMexico.com

LOVE KNOWS NO BOUNDRIES

2007-04-06T18:07:00.000-07:00

Pioneer Charlie Whestine and fiancee Anie were married in 1959 and moved to Los Angeles one year later.

www.QuadMexico.com

FORGOTTEN HEROS!

2007-03-21T21:14:00.000-07:00

Marion Fuget (Left) and George Small are seen in this 1963 photo surrounded by curious (and some bored) children at Jalisco's state-run orphanage, Hospicio Cabanas, then located on the outskirts of Quadalajara. Small, acknowledged to be one of Quadalajara's earliest Gringo settlers, was chairman of the Alliance for Compassion --- the forerunner of what would eventually evolve to be the Mexico Chapter, Paralyzed Veterans of America. Other Explorers and Pioneers, including Fuget, Ernie Chavez, Bill Bailey, Larry Kegan, Bill Coe and Joe Miller --- to name a few --- banded together in charitable endeavors to aid some of Quadalajara's most needy. For many, the days of Tequila, Senoritas y Mariachis, had grown old. It was time to give back to the community that had --- with a few notable exceptions --- welcomed their differently abled neighbors from the North with brazos abiertos. I could write a book --- and I kinda/sorta remember doing that --- about just some of what these "old-timers" overcame and accomplished. The Alliance for Compassion, as noted in a 1964 article in the Paraplegia News, comprised of folks who shyed away from the limelight. "What baffles everyone in the big American colony here is that nobody seems to want any credit, nobody wants his name in the local papers, nobody even wants to admit he was part of it." "Wheelers throw king-size party for orphans." (QUADALAJARA --- The Utopia That Once Was, page 150.) Both Small and Fuget passed away in their adopted hometown South-of-the-Border. George Small, upon his death, left money specifically for Mexico's poorest children. http://www.quadmexico.com/

FORGOTTEN PIONEER? - KID SAUZA

2007-03-19T21:15:00.000-07:00

Not many folks remember Patrick Wolf. Only one living person who I know of even remembers him. Patrick Wolf checked out Quadalajara in March of 1958 --- a mere 49 years ago! Wolf and fellow Pioneer, Bill Bailey, were personally escorted from the Long Beach VA Hospital to George Ray's Place by Ray's then-partner, Bill Macleary. Unlike Bailey, who became the first Gringo wheeler to marry a local Mexican senorita and make Quadalajara his new home, Wolf visited for a while and returned stateside. One can only speculate on why Patrick Wolf never returned to Quadalajara. If I were (still) a betting man, I'd give you the two primary reason why Wolf never returned --- health (always reason number one) and need. It's not necessary to explain the health reason. The pitfalls of being a quad or para were even greater a half century ago! Unlike his quadriplegic "cousins", Wolf ---an independent paraplegic --- did not need an attendant or nurse to care for him. I'm sure that he found Quadalajara to be an intriguing getaway, but the young man with the Hollywood looks could probably get around and get by in sunny Southern California without much assistance. Whatever happened to Patrick Wolf? Maybe some day someone out there will tell us? www.QuadMexico.com

QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, COMPLAINTS???

2007-03-17T21:25:00.000-07:00

Chuck Hawkins "enjoys" a night out on the town with "Bro" Jack and former "Anderson Girl" turned Mariachi Singer, Esperanza, at Quadalajara's club "El Sarape"! 1979

I appreciate folks taking the time to stop by the website, as well as, taking the time to check out the BLOG. If you have any questions, comments or complaints please don't hesitate to email me at QuadMexico@aol.com . I do my best to answer any questions or address any concerns. Plus, it's always nice to hear from folks and what they think about Quadalajara --- the book or the era itself. If there's a question that I can't answer, I just may be able to find someone who can. If you have no questions, comments or complaints and feel like simply saying "Hello" --- please do so. As a well known TV commentator always says, "Name and town, name and town, name and town, if you wish to opin!" That would not be necessary --- but welcome :) http://www.quadmexico.com/ (Contact the author)

QUADALAJARA "STOCK" PLUMMETS ON AMAZON.COM!!!

2007-03-07T19:42:00.000-08:00

After being bid up to a high of $48.36 on Amazon.com late last month, prices for QUADALAJARA --- The Utopia That Once Was have fallen dramatically amongst rumors that the current book offer of $19.95 is due to expire on April Fool's Day! (See post from February 25th.) Jittery Amazon sellers of "used" --- and in some cases, "new" or "brand new" --- copies "of suspect origin" of the book appear worried that they might not so easily profit from my hard work? QUADALAJARA - still, only $19.95 & S&H, inscribed and signed by the author: http://www.quadmexico.com/

WHAT PHOTOS???

2007-03-05T21:20:00.000-08:00

"Newcomer" Jack Myrick (left) with '50s Explorers & Pioneers, Ray "Doc" Foland, George Ray, Bob Barrett and Joe Miller in mid '60s Quadalajara photo.

For those Myspace types, there are some cool black & white photos of some of Quadalajara's earliest Explorers and Pioneers from the '50s and early '60s (photos 13-24) at my space http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewPicture&friendID=134413608 As soon as I can I'll put some up here.

FANTASTIC NEWS!!!

2007-03-01T09:04:00.000-08:00

You can now purchase my book, 'QUADALAJARA --- The Utopia That Once Was' at Amazon .com for ONLY $48.36! Take advantage while supply lasts. www.Amazon.com

AZ AUTHORS ASSOCIATION --- FEBRUARY MEETING

2007-02-28T20:24:00.000-08:00

EILEEN BIRIN --- Writer, Editor, Publisher and former 8th grade English teacher was February's guest speaker. Anyone interested in becoming a published author would greatly benefit from taking one of Eileen's classes or attending one of her workshops. I've enjoyed all of the workshops and meetings that I've attended since first making contact with the local librarian last Fall. One event inevitably leads to others which lead to others where I've learned that I knew NOTHING when I finally got published in April of last year! The "networking" (me?) is working! The one comment by Eileen that brought a chuckle to the attendees was "I leave books everywhere so that someone might pick it up and read it. You never know. I even leave books in the Ladies Room!" After the meeting I made my way to the front of the meeting room. I wasn't about to make the same mistake that I made at my first workshop: waiting for the guest speaker to made his/her way to the back of the room/auditorium. So many people got in front of "shy" Jack that by the time he answered all their questions he had to make a quick dash out the door because he needed to be somewhere else, like pronto. I beat the crowd and got to ask my question: "Do you have a Ladies Room at your house, and if so, could you please leave this (my book) in there?" Got a laugh out of a few people waiting to speak with her. Eileen enthusiastically took the book. I could tell that she was immediately drawn to the jacket cover. Everyone is. (Thanks, Angela Capria!) The bold colors that surround and separate the old Black & White photos catch everyone's eye. "I'd love to read it, " she replied. YES! Mission accomplished. I could go on and on and on about the topic --- self-publishing --- but I'll spare you. One note, however, 78% of all books (approximately 150,000 in the US per year) are either from small publishing houses or self-published. Eileen's is the owner of Neelie Publishing based here in Glendale. http://www.winmarkcom.com/whatnots.htm

$19.95 OFFER EXPIRES ON APRIL FOOL'S DAY!

2007-02-25T19:40:00.000-08:00

TRICK OR TREAT? --- As mentioned in the previous post, on April 1, 2007, QUADALAJARA ---The Utopia that Once Was will go back to the original pre-holiday bookstore price of $23.95. Hey, "A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do," right Cheerito? Thanks to those who purchased books during the past few months. Family, friends and family members of those who journeyed through this unique place in time, as well as those wishing to purchase multiple orders, may continue to email me directly from the website for special rates. Books of "questionable" origin continue to be available for around $25.00 on Amazon.com! http://www.quadmexico.com/

MY AMAZING ADVENTURES IN THE AMAZOM.com!!!

2007-02-25T17:41:00.000-08:00

LAST SEPTEMBER, while attempting to open a pro-merchant account with Amazon.com, I learned that a QUADALAJARA account already existed. How? I'm the author! How can someone open an account for my book? My intellectual property. Copyrighted and everything! After fifteen to twenty phone calls to Amazon.com's customer service people over the next few months --- and many frustrating hours lost trying different avenues recommended by different Amazom.com reps --- I just gave up! Apparently, anyone can open an account as long as they're first to do so, no questions asked. But I had questions. Lots of questions! Too many to list here --- but I asked and kept asking! Apparently, some lowlife cretin was attempting to profit from my hard work and mounting frustration with a copy of my book obtained from the mailroom of a book reviewer --- at best --- or had stolen or obtained a copy from the original shipment, of which, 214 books NEVER were delivered --- at worst! I would hate to think that the now growing number of available (Barnes and Noble, Froogle, Able Books and one or two others that I know of) copies of QUADALAJARA were stolen from donated books to military hospitals or veterans' organizations (approximately 40)? When my book finally showed up on Amazon.com --- yes, I gave it one more shot --- listed at the selling price of $23.95, right below one of the other "sellers" whose asking price was $22.00, we soon had company. A "new" copy was now available for "only" $18. Mr. $22 immediately dropped his price also to $18 listed as "brand new"! The battle was on. I contacted Citibank, explained my situation and informed them of my intentions: to "buy" back, at least, one of my books! So I did! I "purchased" a copy of QUADALAJARA from Karen's Book's on the Barnes and Noble website. She sent the book, I refused to pay --- for obvious reasons --- and my credit card was refunded without a fight from Ms. Karen. I attempted to do the same with "Manny", one of my Amazon.con "competitors" but made the mistake of telling him, Amazon.com and Citibank of my intentions. I kindly asked Mr. Manny to just return my book. He never did but the charge remained on my credit card for a couple of months pending investigation. I apologize for the long-winded lead-in "vent" to get to the "punchline"......... I was all set to post that starting on April Fool's Day the purchase price of "QUADALAJARA --- the Utopia That Once Was" is going to revert back to the original bookstore price of $23.95. No more Mr. Nice Guy! Holidays are over. Family, friends and family members of Quadalajara era folks email me for discounted rates. We're almost there --- for those still following along. Last night, just before going to bed, I checked my website visitor's site meter and was taken eventually to an interesting website. Interesting only because I believe I grew up with the company's owner. I was surprise to see QUADALAJARA at the top of the page. Had my childhood friend done me a favor by linking my website to his? Immediately I clicked the link. It took me to --- of all places --- Amazon.com! (I'm no longer selling there, never really did, and my "buddy" Manny, as far as I know, slithered back under a rock)! My former Mr. $18 "competitor" was still there --- but he had new competition to worry about. A woman from Michigan (where one book was donated to the Michigan Chapter PVA, one book was sold legit --- and from where the original 214 missing books were to be shipped from) had entered the fray. To my surprise, her asking price for a "slightly used book" was $24.88!!!. And Mr. 18 had jacked his price to $25!!! Let the bidding war begin. Makes me want to renege on my April Fool's Day offer --- I could always say it was a joke --- and raise the price back up to take on the competition. At first, I was ticked off. Then I was weighting the pros & cons. Would I get much sleep last nite? (Actually, got about five hours.) Heck, let's make lemonade! Turn a negative into a positive. Sure makes $19.95 look cheap compared to what it's going for on Amazon.com. Great marketing stratergy! ANYONE THINKING ABOUT PURCHASING MY BOOK, COMPLETE WITH INSCRIPTION AND SIGNED BY THE AUTHIOR, ACT NOW WHILE SUPPLIES LAST!!! Those still reading along now know why I titled this post as I did. It was akin to finding your way through the Amazon Jungle just to escape. Or, as Tarzan said to Jane --- after a long day at work --- "Jane, my love, it's a rainforrest out there!

SAN DIEGO IS A BEACH!!!

2007-02-25T14:06:00.000-08:00

FIRST OFF, for those who know me and those who read my previous post about being San Diego Bound, I can officially say, "I'm back!" When a friend asked about my hospital "visit" and my overall feelings about how things went, I replied, "On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd give it an 8." So I guess that I am fairly satisfied with the way things went. I must say, and I've said this about past hospital stays there, that despite spending three weeks (that did seem like three months) in the San Diego VA Medical Center, that the staff are SUPER! From the doctors and nurses to the therapists and other caring folks, EVERYONE there gets two thumbs up from me. Heck, I'm as picky an eater as you'll find -- and I still managed to gain ONE pound :) THANKS ALL!

GOOD INK FROM South-of-the-Border

2007-01-26T21:11:00.000-08:00

QUADALAJARA --- The Utopia that Once Was

Reviewed by: ALEX GESHEVA, Guadalajara Reporter

Jack Tumidajski came to Guadalajara in 1972. He spoke no Spanish and knew almost nothing about the area. He just knew Mexico represented independence, freedom and a great chance to meet some dark-eyed "señoritas."
Do you think you've heard this story before? Not from this perspective. In his book, "Quadalajara: The Utopia That Once Was," Tumidajski lovingly relates the story of one of the city's earliest gringo communities: wheelchair-bound quadriplegic and paraplegic war veterans, accident victims and degenerative disease patients.
Readers will find Guadalajara as it will never be again. Rent is 40 dollars a month. The Paralyzed Veterans of America become the first group to purchase their own clubhouse (as The Reporter wrote back on July 29, 1967), and aides of PVA members are ignominiously arrested after an "illegal" poker game. The Informador newspaper is there to point a judgmental finger. Wheelchair bound gringos fire guns and bring their own muscled, equally wheelchair-bound bodyguards to intimidate political rivals.
But readers will recognize the heroes. Tumidajski writes of his own experiences as a gringo fumbling his way through the city's social tangle, caretakers, girlfriends, housemates and apartments. He tells of those who married locally and made it work and those who never quite managed to blend in, car accidents, road trips, fishing trips to Manzanillo, organizing picnics to help local orphanages and disabled children and nights spent chugging tequila.
In 1977, Jack Tumidajski got a Jalisco driver's license in his hand-controlled car, a jittery Transito cop in the passenger seat. He was even surprised by local police while parking with his girlfriend and paid bribes to escape arrest for "cosas inmorales." He is honest and humble about both his strengths and shortcomings. He is someone readers will want to know.
Quadalajara itself is a character in this book: "a unique place in a unique time" when those considered odd and unwieldy in the United States forged an independent life for themselves in another country.
A love for this city is just a small part of why this book makes for a good read. Most of the temporarily able-bodied (as a paralyzed friend once called them) are deeply curious about what life is like in a wheelchair. Tumidajski is brutally honest: from his accident only days after his safe return from Vietnam, to rehabilitation, isolation and bouncing back, he shares many minute details of himself. Ultimately, we learn that life in a wheelchair is like any other. The focus is on independence, love, entertainment, a place to call home, a meaning to the day.
Tumidajski's story is unblemished by flights of imagination, sparely told and more compelling for it. Spanish is seamlessly integrated into the text, with footnoting translated. The back section of the book is a treasure trove of historical documents, including everything from PVA correspondence to newspaper articles and personal photos.
"Many quads, paras, and other wheelers rolled around this unique city," writes Tumidajski. "Just as the Quadalajara era will never be duplicated, forgotten others will remain unknown – many of them the original Explorers and Pioneers of an almost forgotten moment in time." That comment is followed by almost 40 pages of the names of those he remembers, with a short description of each one. Like the book itself, it is a touching tribute to a time and people that deserve to be remembered. By the 1980s, peso devaluations and rising prices no longer allowed low fixed-income gringos to care for themselves as they needed to. Gradually, the Pioneers drifted away or were left behind in dwindling numbers.
On September 29, 1979, Jack Tumidajski, then Mexico Chapter PVA President, was in a Reporter photo. At the side of the then-Consul General, the Transito Chief and the Vice Consul, he was at hand to inaugurate what was probably the first handicapped parking space in Mexico. More than two decades later, he's back in the local English-language newspaper, this time with a very good, well-told story.
To order "Quadalajara: The Utopia That Once Was" visit the book's website at www.quadmexico.com or ask at Sandi Bookstore.

____________________________________________________________________________________________

SAN DIEGO BOUND???

2007-01-20T19:17:00.000-08:00

What's that expression: "Life Happens While You're Making Other Plans?" It happened to me early in this new year. Consequently, a few projects were put on "hold" and a few plans had to be changed. Looks like I'll have my next "book signing" as an inpatient at the San Diego VA Medical Center. I'm kinda/sorta a mini-celebrity around the Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) unit anyway with a few books having been passed around amongst the upper echelon of the medical staff there. Will that translate into being assigned one of the prettier nurses each day while I'm there? Doubt it. On my last two inpatient stays I was assigned male nurses for the first SIX days before finally getting female student nurses for much of the remainder of my "visit". Wonder what they have written in my chart, anyway? On a different note, got any inquiry on my website for someone from Tulsa Oklahoma trying to locate one of the old Quadalajara guys. Ironically, he had called me a week prior after a mutual friend lent him his copy of the book. Last I heard they'd been yakking it up over the phone. Reuniting lost loves is another job I never expected to inherit? But it's another rewarding aspect of my book project. www.QuadMexico.com

PHOTOS TO BE ADDED SOON?

2007-01-07T19:31:00.000-08:00

I've thought since day one that I'd like to add some pictures of the early years in Quadalajara and also to have a photo to coincide with some of the folks I've already mentioned, as well as, some of those who I mention from time-to-time. Oh, the wonders of meeting people who are computer savvy. It's probably not as difficult as I expected it to be? I actually "uploaded" (I think) some photos onto myspace. Once I had someone show me how, it was fairly easy. Next project: scan old photos onto a disc and slap 'em up here. Stay tuned................ www.QuadMexico.com

MEXICO PVA CHAPTER HISTORIAN

2007-01-02T20:05:00.000-08:00

NEW YEAR'S 2007! What a better way to start the New Year then by going back in time some thirty years? It was after one of the Mexico Chapter Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA) meetings that I was approached by then Mexico PVA President Keith Ziegler about taking on the position of "Chapter Historian". I was one of the last "new guys" to become active in the chapter while Keith had about a decade's worth of work and dedication under his belt. Looking back, I wonder now how it would have turned out? I never really considered Keith's offer, dismissing it without much thought. I never heard the words "Chapter Historian" uttered before or after our brief conversation. I was having too much fun taking advantage of my second chance at life, exploring all aspects of this adventure of living in Quadalajara, to be bothered with keeping a record of the Mexico PVA........Fast forward to June 2003: Keith Ziegler and I were now both living in the Phoenix area. Our relationship had evolved from a working one to that of being friends and neighbors. In fact, once I started working on the book, Keith and I became even closer. I grew to respect and admire this humble dedicated family man the more that I researched QUADALAJARA. The old Mexico PVA files & documents that Keith "discovered" while cleaning out his closet form the backbone of the book. Our formal and informal interviews added flavor to this unique piece of history lived by and shared by so many quadriplegics, paraplegics and other wheelchair users. In a strange twist of fate I finally became the unofficial "Chapter Historian" and "expert" on all things about this special place in time. If anyone has a question that I can't answer, I know a few folks who just might be able to help. www.QuadMexico.com

MYSPACE --- 4 ME???

2006-12-28T20:12:00.000-08:00

I can not believe that I actually launched a MySpace place! Don't need to become addicted to something else that will distract me from posting here and doing my real job promoting the book. My "Conquistadores" have already been eliminated from the Taunton Fantasy Football League playoffs and I have one more week to go in the "office" pool attempting to salvage an off year with a late season run at the TOP TEN. Truth be told, I took a Christmas break after a so-so December for book sales. But I still keep receiving "Thanks you" Christmas cards and letters from some of the folks who enjoyed reading QUADALAJARA --- The Utopia That Once Was. I even received a card and letter from Jim and Jane Hamblet whose tenure at the US. Consulate in Quadalajara ('67-'71) preceded my arrival on the scene. The Hamblet's were close friends of so many of my old friends. They used to be regular visitors to the Mexico PVA Clubhouse, from BINGO and game nights to our many fiestas, Jim and Jane were part of our closely knit "little" family. Back to MySpace: If it increases website traffic than it'll be well worth it. But if pictures of pretty girls keep popping up every time I attempt to do accomplish something, well.............. www.QuadMexico.com

FELIZ NAVIDAD!!!

2006-12-24T19:43:00.000-08:00

I'd like to take a moment to wish all of my family, friends and those who stumble across this BLOG a FELIZ NAVIDAD!!! www.QuadMexico.com

QUADALAJARA --- The Utopia That Once Was $19.95

2006-12-23T14:07:00.000-08:00

IN THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS we have adjusted the book's sale price to $19.95. Actually, family, friends and those who have contacted me directly via email or by phone have know this since Thanksgiving. The change will now be reflected on the website as well. I also want to thank everyone for the Christmas cards, emails and well-wishes. I continue to be blessed by the support of family, friends, new friends and special people who have so enthusiastically embraced my onetime "writing project". THANK YOU ALL!!! www.QuadMexico.com

FREEDOM SHORES

2006-12-21T20:02:00.000-08:00

I met Bill Bussear via email last June while we were each 'grounded' and recovering from the 'occupational' hazards of quadriplegia. Bill had responded to the Paraplegia News article about "Utopia Remembered". Apparently, he had found his own South-of-the-Border Utopia a decade before I found mine. Quite an interesting story! Short version: Bill met a pretty senorita and the love of his life in Cuernavaca, Mexico after escaping a frigid VA hospital in Cleveland, OH. Forty plus years later, Bill & Thelma are a few weeks away from opening their wheelchair friendly island resort, Freedom Shores. Words could not adequately describe this oceanside paradise in the Yucatan peninsula, but a clink on the link below may just lead to your next vacation getaway! http://www.isla-aguada.com/

ARIZONA PVA OCTOBER/NOVEMBER NEWSLETTER 2006

2006-12-16T15:18:00.000-08:00

Apparently, due to printer problems, the October/November 2006 Desert Oracle will only be available online at http://www.azpva.org/documents/OctoberNovemberNewsletter2006Priv 000.pdf Announcement of Distinguish Book Award is on page 5 as you scroll down.

QUADALAJARA FEEDBACK

2006-12-14T20:03:00.000-08:00

SOMETIMES BEING an unknown author with an obscure publisher is akin to being stranded on a deserted island. But it kinda/sorta works in reverse. Instead of being like Gilligan and his friends who got stranded on what was supposed to be a "three hour tour" (repeat a few times to get the feeling that you're there or in front of the TV trying to figure out if you'd rather be stranded there with Ginger or Mary Ann........but I digress) --- jumping up and down from day one trying to get noticed every time a real or imaginary plane fly's overhead --- in this business, it gets lonelier and lonelier when you haven't had your book or yourself mentioned for a little while. Imagine, for a moment, being a laid back unassuming shy person. You incorrectly thought that your publisher or an ad in a magazine would generate interest and sales. So now you find yourself jumping up and down like Gilligan & his shipmates trying to get noticed. You go to workshops, join AZauthors.com, meet other authors and network (me?) with folks in the publishing business. And you soon learn what no one bothered to tell you early on --- that writing the book was the 'easy' part, now the real work begins. But rather than get frustrated or feel defeated, you find yourself getting letters, notes, emails and phone calls from people who you knew before, as well as, folks who you never met. I went out to lunch yesterday, brought along a few articles and business cards (yes, I have 'em) and sold one book, got a couple of "I'm gonna order one", and the possibility of a well known restaurant chain putting up a local newspaper article about the book. This morning I received a phone call from David Lucier whose twin brother Eddie was a longtime Quadalajara resident (1963-2001) and close friend of mine (see November post). We talked about everything from Eddie to life for a quad living in Mexico during the "Quadalajara Era", as well as, filling him in on certain details and people whose names he remembered vaguely. David had just finished reading the book and had obtained my number by calling a cousin in Smithfield, RI who called my sister in Georgia who gave the number to my cousin who called David. (Some people still have listed phone numbers?) By the way, I keep forgetting to place a business card in each book I send out as a mini-bookmarker! That would have saved my new friend the hassle. And, I received my second and third Christmas cards from widows of some of the guys who I mentioned in the book. They always express their gratitude that the book helps preserve the memories of their husbands and what they accomplished. They are all so cool. GOD bless them! Anyway, back to the beginning. I've been, as I mentioned a week ago, working on the "Speak up or be forgotten" message that came from the website of a future speaker at the April 2007 AZ Authors meeting. I pasted his site below for any other shy author. Larry James' advice to shy people and those who feel uncomfortable speaking in front groups, "GET OVER IT!!!" In my case, it may take hypnotherapy?

http://www.authorsandspeakersnetwork.com/about.html

OK, SO EXACTLY "WHY" DID I WRITE QUADALAJARA?

2006-12-11T20:44:00.000-08:00

AS I MENTIONED in a previous post, I started writing short stories in the mid-90's of experiences which I wished to preserve. At the time, I confess, I had no idea where it would lead to. In 1998 I met a social worker intern at the San Diego VA Medical Center named Mona Oge. During our bedside visit Mona was surprised to find that I knew so many of the spinal cord injured (SCI) patients who she had already met and interviewed. "How do you know Mr. Ziegler?" Followed by, "How do you know Mr. Lucier? Mr. Clifford?" And the Q&A continued..... Mona's half hour interview turned in to a two hour narrative by me, peppered by her curiosity and questions. I told her about a bunch of us who knew one another from our years spent living in Quadalajara. Other patients were mentioned in the conversation, mostly those living in the Phoenix area, who I knew and some of the collective experiences and network of friends we shared. Upon leaving, Mona said, "You should write a book. There's a screenplay there!" So I guess that's when the seed was planted. When I dusted off my 'writing project' in January 2003, I now knew where it would lead to --- I would collect as much info, including photos, that I could find and focus on preserving this unique place and time from being forever forgotten. It became an obsession of sorts. I now had a passion for doing this. Writing became a fun thing. It was as if the book was writing itself. I solicited info from friends and widows of some of the early Quadalajara settlers. I continued to interview survivors of this fading moment in time, collect info and photos from any source I could find, and dug through old documents discovered in closets and magazine achieves. Some of the final pieces of this puzzle fell into place in early 2005 --- Paraplegia News articles uncovered in January and photos from South-of-the-Border Quadalajara Pioneer Joe Cicero, and Eddie Lucier's long-time caregiver Gabriel Chavez, were obtained in April. A few more 'final' edits and the waiting process would now begin. Again, that would be another story for another day. Thanks Mona! www.QuadMexico.com

PARAPLEGIA NEWS - April 2006

2006-12-09T14:24:00.000-08:00

Reason & Remarks - Editor Cliff Crase ..........Utopia Remembered - "Did you have a hard and trying winter? Did you just pick up your Paraplegia News after pushing your cold-rimmed wheelchair through a snow bank? Why not get away from it all? Visit Sunny Mexico! The El Dorado of the Western Hemisphere! Mexico, a Paradise for Paraplegics!" The aforementioned were some of the intriguing introductions of numerous articles in PN in the mid-1950's, written by nomadic paralyzed veterans searching the tantalizing territory south of the Rio Grande for a warm climate. What was discovered were friendly folks, accessible housing, and affordable personal attendant care - a perfect place to vacation or settle down. In subsequent issues from the 1960's and 70's, appealing advertisements accompanied the "come hither" articles: "Why Mexico?...Because it offers a new kind of wheelchair living. Special facilities for quadriplegics and paraplegics mean that Guadalajara's famed hospitality, perfect year-round climate, and relaxed colorful living can be yours now - at an amazingly low cost for vacationers or long-term residents. Modest rates include personal care, wholesome meals, laundry, a private swimming pool, and chauffeur service. Nursing care available, sightseeing tours, and entertainment arranged. Accommodations from single rooms to family units."The claims in the ads were answered prayers to hundreds of wheelchair users who were holed up in a long-term medical facilities, inaccessible houses, or apartments up north, in many cases with limited funds. This definitely sounded like an affordable haven just south of the border. Decades ago one of the many reason Mexico was such an enticing destination was that a person could enjoy a comfortable life after surviving a catastrophic injury. Few World War Two veterans who incurred spinal-cord injuries (SCIs) on the battlefield could anticipate longevity. Subsequently, when PVA was founded the mission was to work with the medical establishment to address the lack of knowledge about the care, cure, and first-response treatment of SCIs, and, just as importantly, to strongly encourage Congress and the Veterans Administration (VA) to recognize the lack of facilities to accommodate paralyzed patients and their special needs. Thus, with the progress of modern medicine and vastly improved medical facilities, survival years dramatically increased. For those of us who never took advantage of the Mexico experience, and for the folks who were not around at the time and are just curious, we're in luck. A book coming off the press, QUADALAJARA --- The Utopia That Once Was, is written in first-person by Jack Tumidajski. Yes, so many quads flocked to the historic city of Guadalajara, 50 miles south of Mexico City, the gringos spelled their new-found paradise with a "Q" instead of a "G."Don't even think about correctly pronouncing Tumidajski. Don't even ask. I did, and...well, the Polish Kid took a deep breath and explained, "I was taught by my family 'Tum i dice key, ' accent on 'Tum.' But recently two Polish sweeties, one a therapy student in San Diego and the other a Red Lobster employee, pronounced it 'Tu may das key' and 'Tu me dice key, ' accent on 'Tu.'" Then, he mentioned how his siblings and cousins had their pronunciations Americanized. But I disagree. I gave up and just called him Jack. The book covers Jack's family life prior to enlisting in the Army, and his Vietnam experience, including the R&R trip to Bangkok. He survived combat action and the exotic Bangkok nightlife only to become a C6-7 quad as a passenger in a car accident while home on leave. Jack details his never-ending road to recovery, the multiple setbacks, and his longing for independence. After talking a couple of trips to Las Vegas to hone his gambling skills and, ahem, socialize with the locals, Jack continued to seek more independence from an existence that can only be experienced by someone who constantly has to rely on attendants. Jack headed for the border, where he found a whole different world and could live the good life paralyzed and in a wheelchair. He had plenty of good company and found his niche in the friendly community of Quadalajara. Jack takes readers through the creation and politics of the Mexico PVA Chapter, the success and eventual demise of the clubhouse known as Paradise Central, gambling gringos, and his and others' love affairs. The lad from Pawtucket, R.I., bundles up the saga with numerous photos, press clips, and a narrative that exudes a feeling that you were there - and, finally the migration north and adios, Mexico. To order a copy of Quadalajara: The Utopia That Once Was, go to www.quadmexico.com

FAAST ACTING ON MAGAZINE ARTICLE

2006-12-07T20:02:00.000-08:00

FAAST ( Florida Alliance for Assistive Services and Technology ) contacted me earlier this week concerning publishing an article about the book and moi. It's always flattering when someone who you don't know or ever heard of thinks that your book and life experiences warrant an article. I have received very positive responses and reviews from reporters, editors and book reviewers which tend to lead to more interest in QUADALAJARA. Being basically a shy (yes, me) person works against you when you're supposed to be promoting your work. Thank GOD for websites and BLOGS! When my book finally came out (I received mine on April 24th) I was stuck in bed healing from a February hip fracture. I told my then "Administrative Assistant", Aqueela, that "if anyone calls concerning the book, tell them I'm busy. And if someone comes to the door that I'll just pull the covers over my head!" I wasn't joking --- well, maybe a wee bit? I actually expected that a FREE half pages color ad in the Paraplegia News magazine (circulation 30,000) was gonna generate enough response to keep her busy for 20 hours/week? If not for all the books that I gave (as belated Christmas presents) to faithful family & friends and some promotional freebies, the book orders would have only taken one hour to address, package and send out. If you ever find yourself in my situation, don't believe all the rosy senarios that your publisher paints for you. They tend to be an extremely optimistic lot. And, speaking of personality traits, I've decided to take the advice of both my web designer, Cherrie, and my new advisor-of-sorts, Mary, and become more aggressive in the self-promoting/book promoting area. AND, I'm gonna start tomorrow. I hope!!! www.QuadMexico.com

THE "WHEN'S" AND "WHY"S OF WRITING MY BOOK

2006-12-05T20:49:00.000-08:00

I have been asked lately WHEN and WHY I wrote QUADALAJARA? As I mentioned in a previous post, I enrolled in a "Special Interest" evening class at Glendale Community College in 1995 titled, "How to Write Your Own Autobiography". "Fellow" author and accomplished writer, BetteLou Tobin, was the instructor. I have been fortunate to have traveled quite a bit in the not-so-distant past and, as the passenger, found my mind wandering to places and times that brought back fond memories. If only I could have penned that daydream into a short story, I thought to myself? And so I did. After class I would go back home eager to capture an interesting time or event on paper --- 1995, pre-computer days for me. I would stare at the blank page until a thought would pop into my head that triggered the creative juices to flow. Doctors, notorious for poor handwriting, wrote more clearly than I. After writing a few short stories, and with the writing class behind me, I soon lost interest. In 1997 I met someone I'll call "Leilani". I had lunch with Leilani one afternoon, and after listening to her talk about her life growing up in the Philippines, I decided to open an old album from my Vietnam days. I was soon busy typing at my new PC and wrote what turned out to be Chapters One, Two and Three of my book. I typed for two or three hours every afternoon and evening, glancing at old photos that brought back old memories. My new friend seemed interested in reading what I had put on paper. She fell asleep half way through my chapter about Bangkok and I lost interest once again. Fast forward to December 2002 --- four years ago this month. I made friends with a bright young lady from Mesa, AZ named Annelise. Reading and writing were high on her list of favorite things to do. We exchanged emails daily, and when Pop took ill on December 6th of that year, Annelise was there to "talk to" --- sometimes we emailed twice a day! As Pop's health continued to decline, Annelise was there whenever I needed her. Just an email away. The only way that I could talk about what I was feeling and the only person who I could talk to about it. "That's what friends are for", she told me. After Pop's passing and the worst December of my life, my friend from Mesa, AZ became my part time helper. I "gambled" by showing Annelise my now six year dormant "writing project". She took it home with her and called the next morning --- early! "Jack, this is great! Can I show this to my best friend and my brother?" It was then that I decided to dust off the old manuscript and do something constructive with my life. When I got bogged down writing chapters five and six, I found the perfect solution --- I emailed Annelise everyday telling her my story, the part that I had difficulty putting on paper. I would then copy and paste the emails into my MS Works manuscript. Whatever works!!! I guess that covers the HOW I wrote the book as well. The "Why I wrote the book, Part II" is another story for another day. Thank you Annelise Hopkins! www.QuadMexico.com

SUNDAY'S BOOK SIGNING

2006-12-03T21:12:00.000-08:00

THE AZ AUTHOR'S book signing this afternoon at the new Lennar / US Homes' Stetson Valley was my first. Although the 'crowd' could have been better, from the perspective of many of the authors, kudos to Toby Heathcotte and those folks at US Homes for the invite and making the event happen. A special 'Thanks' to Janet Swendson for making sure that I was comfortable and to a certain Green Bay Packer fan for keeping a lively and interesting conversation going during the 'slow' part of the afternoon. I had the opportunity to visit with my former instructor, BetteLou Tobin, and 'show off' what years of writing, procrastination, more writing and waiting for what the frustratingly interesting publishing business can ultimately produce. Ms. Tobin did indeed remember me (how could she forget?) and was pleased to hold in her hands my epic work about life in QUADALAJARA --- all 394 pages! BetteLou also became my first book purchaser, and I, hers. I only wished that I had thought back far enough (to 1995) when drafting my acknowledgement page. BetteLou's name deserves to be there. Thanks, Ms. Tobin!

CASA de VIDA NUEVA

2006-11-30T20:14:00.000-08:00

Our destination in Guadalajara was a place called Casa de Vida Nueva, or House of New Life. We had selected this particular "gimp-camp" (as the guys so affectionately referred to them) at random from the Paraplegia News (PN), the official publication of the Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA). There were a half a dozen places in Guadalajara that regularly ran classified ads in the PN. They all tended to sound alike: 365 days of sunshine, skilled personal care attendants, American-style food, beautiful gardens, etc.
Earl had made the reservations reluctantly, since he had wanted to go to Hawaii. We had taken two previous trips together, both times to Las Vegas, but somehow I convinced Earl we should try Mexico. I just had to see for myself what Vinnie and some of the other guys from West Roxbury were so excited about. Little did I realize that I was about to enter into a special place in time. ... www.QuadMexico.com

BOOK SIGNING on Sunday, December 3rd

2006-11-27T21:31:00.000-08:00

The Lennar/US Homes book signing is rapidly approaching. If you have never been to that area of our ever growing Valley of the Sun --- or checked the place out, as I did this afternoon --- I'd suggest that you follow the directions given by AZ Author Association President Toby Heathcotte (which I'll print below). My spur-of-the-moment fact-finding (mis)adventure started when I "thought" that I was in the general area. After finding out that there are enough mountains to make 35th, 43rd, and 59th Avenues "disappear" --- while wending my way through maze after maze of new home construction --- I somehow found myself at the south side of 51st Ave & Happy Valley Road. Piece of cake! Until I saw the rush hour traffic going wizzing by east and west on Happy Valley Road. Even if one could attempt to continue north on 51st Ave, it would be akin to crossing I-17 from one side to the other (slight exageration, slight). Anyway, unless there is rush hour traffic on Happy Valley Road on Saturday's and Sunday's, following the directions should get you there and where you want to be. Hope everyone has a fun time!

Directions: Take I-17 north to Happy Valley Road. Turn west. You’ll pass through round-abouts on either side of the freeway entrance. Avoid going off onto an access road. Go west on Happy Valley Road three miles to 51st Avenue. Turn north and follow the signs to U S Homes.

Legacy Homes are at 51st Avenue and Range Mule Road. Turn right.
Signature Homes are a bit farther north at 51st Avenue and Cortez.
Estates and U S Homes Sales Office are a bit farther north on 51st Avenue. Turn right on El Cortez Avenue.

REVIEW FROM 'South-of-the-Border'

2006-11-25T20:51:00.000-08:00

http://www.guadalajarareporter.com/fullbooks.cfm?section=Books&id=151

QUADALAJARA ---The Utopia That Once Was

2006-11-24T21:05:00.000-08:00

An Inspirational Memoir of a Place, a Time and the People
Vietnam veteran Jack Tumidajski writes a very moving account of his personal journey both in a wheelchair and in his soul. The real story is however, all about a place and group of people he found. His inspirational and historic book QUADALAJARA --- The Utopia That Once Was brings to light a history that most Americans were not even aware of. I know this was all new to me.In order to financially survive and become truly independent, a group of WWII, Korean, and Vietnam veterans along with other quadriplegics and paraplegics moved to Mexico; where they formed their own cultural womb of fellowship in the midst of a true paradise. This band of brothers (and even a few sisters) formed the heart of a new social order that flourished and grew to be something much deeper than and relevant than any of them would have imagined.It is kind of an odd quirk of "fate" that Jack survived without as much as a scratch his entire tour of duty only to be seriously injured in a simple auto accident shortly after he was home on leave from the war. But I do not believe that there are truly any accidents in life; and that our fate is really more of a life mission and not some random spin on the roulette wheel of chance happenstance. So, one could assume that Jack was preordained and destined to head south and meet these people and become involved in their way of life. More importantly, he saved their personal histories in this book!The author does a wonderful job preserving the history of these people and this subculture. Thanks to him, future generations will not forget this American community that once was so vibrant and active in the heart of Mexico. Jack shares not only his life and lessons but opens up stories about others and sheds some light on their experiences and memories.You will never read a book like this. This is unique history that he makes both entertaining and inspiring for the reader. The MWSA gives his book its highest rating of FIVE STARS! I personally recommend this book to read. A MWSA 2006 Distinguished Book Award Winner!
Bill McDonald,President, Military Writers Society of America

THANKSGIVING DAY

2006-11-23T15:12:00.000-08:00

THANSGIVING DAY --- I hope that everyone is enjoying (or did enjoy) this day with family & friends or helping others. My thoughts and prayers go out to those serving our country during these difficult times. My thoughts also wander back to a different time when a number of former Army, Marine, Navy and Air Force veterans --- paraplegics and quadriplegics --- rolled the dice and gambled on an uncertain future South-of-the-Border. They left behind family, friends, and the security of hospitals or shut-in living looking for something else. Whether they realized it or not, they were about to enter into a special place and moment in time. John Zackowski, Ken Gulrud, Everett Vorrie, Frank Stoppiello and Jim Beletti knew nothing of one another. The only thing that they had in common was that they all had served their country. After they traveled to that special place in time --- Quadalajara --- they had much in common. Some crossed paths while there, some stayed in the same community house as others had before them, while all knew someone who knew someone who was friends with someone in this unique fraternity of paras and quads, men and women. I mentioned John, Ken, Everett, Frank and Jim because of something else that they have in common: family members --- sons, cousins, granddaughters and nephews --- who have recently contacted me through my website, http://www.quadmexico.com/, asking for or offering information/photos of loved ones. The wonders of the Internet....... I personally never met John Zackowski but have spoken to his wife and emailed his granddaughter, never met Ken Gulrud but have exchanged emails with his nephew, have/had many friends of friends of Everett Vorrie, know Frank Stoppiello very well, and knew Jim Beletti as a fellow Mexico PVA member and friend. I'm thankful for having been part of this unique community that spanned some three decades, and for having had the privilege of meeting and knowing so many of those whose lives were changed by the challenges and opportunities that it presented.

JERRY FESENMEYER

2006-11-19T15:07:00.000-08:00

JERRY FESENMEYER took his first trip to Quadalajara in 1965. Fesenmeyer was neither a "Cold Warrior" nor someone trying to escape the cold weather, although no stranger to cold weather, having grown up in Iowa. Jerry was a World War II veteran who had been shot during combat in Okinawa in May 1945. "I couldn't tell you what day I was shot, I was out before I hit the ground. They built a hospital, of sorts, over the hole I fell into. It was the second or third week in May. I was later transferred to Corona Naval Hospital. There were forty-two of us with spinal cord injuries on two wards. Nobody knew nothing about nothing." Indeed, most people with spinal cord injuries prior to World War II died within a year or two. Fortunately for Fesenmeyer his paralysis was at L1 (first Lumbar vertebrae), and the medical community was now responding to the growing need for a better understanding of spinal cord injury.
A couple of years of hospitalization left the para from Iowa unprepared for what to expect. "You couldn't go anywhere. You couldn't find a place to live. Hell, nothing was fixed for wheelchairs."
After bounding around different hospitals, from Southern California to Chicago, Fesenmeyer wound up at the Birmingham VA in Van Nuys, CA. Upon his discharge the good shape para managed to survive--and thrive--post SCI. "I was married three times," he confided. "I had a number of jobs, mostly in electronics. I remember being hospitalized in Hawaii before they brought me to Corona. After my third divorce, I figured it would be a good time to quit my job and go lie on the beach!" From page 169 QUADALAJARA --- The Utopia That Once Was www.QuadMexico.com

KEITH ZIEGLER

2006-11-18T17:53:00.000-08:00

KEITH ZIEGLER was one of those few quadriplegics who went on to college after sustaining a spinal cord injury in 1960 at the age of twenty-one. Ziegler, another "Cold Warrior" who had earlier been stationed with the Air Force in Morocco, spent the next six months hospitalized in Denver before being transferred to the Long Beach VA. With the help of his parents, Keith returned to his now-modified and wheelchair accessible home in Colorado, and to an uncertain future in higher education. After three years, it became apparent that Ziegler's pursuit of a college English degree was becoming increasingly more difficult. His parents could only do so much, and full-time attendant care for a quadriplegic student on his own was way beyond his financial means.
In 1965, Ziegler read an ad in the Paraplegia News about this place in Mexico ...From page 165 Keith Ziegler became one of the Mexico Chapter PVA's most dedicated workers. His service to his fellow paralyzed vets and to the community spanned two decades. In addition to being Mexico PVA's president a half dozen times, Ziegler volunteered to be chapter Service Officer, took a few turns as Sombrero News editor, represented the chapter at the national organization of the Paralyzed Veterans of America's annual convention, and kept tabs on the PVA Clubhouse (among other things --- like being a husband and father of two growing girls). Keith contributed much to my efforts in writing QUADALAJARA --- The Utopia That Once Was by supplying old documents and photos, as well as, the valuable information he provided in his interviews. In addition to losing a friend and former co-worker when Keith passed away this May, I selfishly felt cheated since his passing was only days after the book's long-delayed release. Rest in Peace, KZ

MY BEST FRIEND

2006-11-17T15:13:00.000-08:00

TOM KIRCH was my best friend. Tom was everyone's best friend. I first met him in 1973 in Quadalajara, although I'd seen him in the Mexico PVA Clubhouse poker room a few months earlier as I pushed by the open doorway on my way to BINGO. I was advised to "stay away" from the Big Game. High stakes poker! The skinny mustached quad had stacks of multicolored chip in front of him. Although a penny-ante poker player myself, I had never seen yellow, black, light blue and green poker chips in my life. By the summer of '73 I was a regular at the Big Game. As fate would have it, Tom's wife JoAnn and my girlfriend Maria (one of many, many Maria's in Mexico) were each leaving town for about a week to visit their respective families in Minnesota and Tijuana. Tom and I did that male-bonding thing for the entire week. We went somewhere in-and-around Quadalajara and did something different each day. The skinny quad from Kellogg, Minesota and the equally skinny quad from Pawtucket, RI would remain close friends for the duration of our time South-of-the-Border. In January 1981, after much discussion about the future of living in Quadalajara and the possibility of returning stateside, we made our decisions. Tom and his attendant, Javier, left to scout out the Phoenix, AZ area. I and my attendant, Juan, left the next day. Same destination! Nineteen years ago today, Tom Kirch passed away. Rest in peace, my friend. ***THOMAS H. KIRCH: January 26, 1933 - November 17, 1987***

NOVEMBER --- A Month For Giving Thanks!

2006-11-17T08:22:00.000-08:00

NOVEMBER IS known for two of our country's more significant holidays --- Veterans Day and Thanksgiving Day. First, we give thanks to our veterans for their service and sacrifice. Second, we give thanks to GOD for the many blessing that we so often take for granted. For some, Veterans Day is merely a day off and Thanksgiving is bonus coverage of all-day long NFL football games. But that's OK. Americans fought and died to secure GOD's gift of freedom. Freedom to go to a ceremony or a parade --- or not. Freedom to gather with family and friends for a special feast or volunteer to serve dinner to the hungry --- or not. And since we're smack-dab in the middle of both of these special days, why not adopt a meaningful title for the month. NOVEMBER --- A Month For Giving Thanks! Funny thing about veterans though, most appreciate the recognition but also shy away from the 'Thanks' thing. They were merely doing what other patriotic Americans had done before them --- their fathers and grandfathers, and more increasingly, their sisters and mothers. I'm thankful that I had the freedom to write this. Anyone who happens to run across it has the freedom to read it --- or not. They have the freedom to think about it --- or not. For someone wondering about the number of shopping days til Christmas, you might want to check out a different BLOG --- or not!

JoANN KIRCH

2006-11-16T19:42:00.000-08:00

JOANN RAWAY first experienced Quadalajara in November 1964. "I went on a three week vacation to Las Fuentes with my sister Luella and our friend, Roselyn Mahowald." While Charlie Newbold and Bronx VA buddy Joe Cicero were discovering their newfound freedoms at George Ray's Place, the three women from Minnesota simultaneously vacationed in Las Fuentes. "Paul Patino and Larry Kegan ran the place," JoAnn recalled. That was where JoAnn initially met fellow Minnesotan Tom Kirch, along with Joe Darichuk and Senors Patino and Kegan. "We were ready to return home when we saw the living conditions at Las Fuentes--and the dining room. I can still remember the plastic plates with cigarette burns." Apparently, guys (especially those who escaped institutional living) tended to overlook such minor details. ...
...What began as a three week vacation to sunny Quadalajara turned into a seven year long-distance relationship. On September 12, 1971 JoAnn Raway - from Hastings, MN - married Tom Kirch - from Kellogg, MN. From page 162 --- JOANN KIRCH www.QuadMexico.com