Do and Don’t of Old Mexico – My first visit to another country

Being from the West Texas town of Midland/Odessa, there wasn’t much to do but flirt or fight. We had to really get out of town to have fun as a 16 year old. We were fresh with driver’s license and a new car. Well one guy had a license, the rest of us were poor white trash but we had youthful enthusiasm and pocket full of money. Like $20 or so each.

Off we go into the wild blue yonder. We had six of us packed in a Buick Regal that sat four comfortably. With a six hour drive in front of us in the middle of summer, with no air conditioning. We were young and tough so the heat didn’t bother us too much as long as the windows were down and we were moving.

Here is my first set of things to do.

Do – Park your car and walk across the boarder

Don’t – Forget to stash some money in your sock for emergencies.

Once we got there, we knew not to take your car over since anything could happen and most of them would be bad for us. We didn’t know that you could need money for a shake down or if you got scammed. Lucky for us on this trip we were pretty rowdy so no one wanted to mess with us.

That leads into my next ones.

Do – Take as many of your buddies as you can fit into one car.

Don’t – Lose track of one of them and find him trying to marry a girl.

There is strength in numbers and as long as you all stick together things tend to work out. The problems happen when one of us decided to wander off and lose track of the group. Yep we found him in a car down the street and they were about to take him to a wedding chapel.

Now for those who know me know I can cut a rug. So that leads me to my next set.

Do – Have a dance contest with the locals.

Don’t – Beat them so bad they want to fight you afterwards.

I love to dance more than I can explain so when my dance song comes on I naturally hit the floor to impress the ladies. Turns out only dudes were interested in my sweet moves and wanted to have an old school dance off. We were neck in neck till I pulled off my signature dance move where I jump over a guy’s shoulders and land in the splits on the floor. I then spun up and made the “suck it” gesture and mic drop.

Do – Have an escape plan

Don’t – Count on all your buddies following it

As we were exiting out of that place we lost a few of us in the scramble. Mostly due to half of us likes to fight and the other half likes to fight but not in foreign countries. We eventually meet up and find a place to pass out.

Even though it was one amazing night in Juarez, the most unforgettable was the completely miserable ride back with us all needing a shower and reeking of tequila and twenty-five cent slammers. I guess that should be somewhere on the “don’t do” section but without it wouldn’t have been as worth it there.