September 2007 Issue

Don’t look for a repeat of last year from Southwest Texas high school football teams. There are new head coaches and new offenses at Del Rio and Sonora high schools, Brackettville is coming off what they considered a sub-par year, and the Eagle Pass schools, rebounding from their split-up may have the goods to get into the playoffs this year.

Spanish gazpacho, a refreshingly chilled tomato and vegetable soup, had origins as a peasant soup, not nearly as appealing as Food Editor Debbie Sontag’s recipe. This is a great surprise of healthy food with zest for many, an acquired taste for others, but worth a couple of tries before chilly weather dictates robust, thick and warm soups and stews again.

Veterans of foreign wars share many in-kind experiences and emotions, but each war besets old soldiers with similar horrors that memory cannot erase, and Del Rio’s Rolando Menchaca is no exception. Friends know him as a talkative, jovial, skilled attorney, representing children in domestic strife who have no other voice of succor. He’s personally seen fighting of the worst kind, and now fights to protect children from it while he can. Meet Del Rio’s American fighting man.

True marching musicians are a breed apart. Though dedicated and driven, they are undergirded by the passionate support of parents, teachers, school administrators, and appreciative fans never observed directly at halftime, never heard above the din of a rousing march. Del Rio High School’s Mighty Ram Band will be heard at nine Friday and Saturday football games through the fall, and in concerts, parades, and competitive events. Their music, flash and pizzazz may be attributed largely to remarkable preparation, only glimpsed here by LIVE!

There’s change in the wind around Cripple Creek Restaurant, but it’s not expected to send even a ripple of difference in customer satisfaction, according to owner Armando Riojas, Aug. 23. The Riojas family has enjoyed more than a decade of fine dining service to thousands of customers, and achieved reputations for community service through civic leadership. They share their reflections on all that with LIVE! readers.

A mother/daughter pair of distinguished visitors graced the Jack Laughlin Suite at Laughlin Manor on Laughlin Air Force Base this week, bringing joy to many Del Rioans, and rekindling local awareness of the base’s namesake, U.S. Army Air Corps 1st Lt. Jack Thomas Laughlin. Jacki [Laughlin] Mitchell and her daughter, Holly, were hosted at the base by Col. Mike Minahan, and feted at the Laughlin Heritage Foundation Museum by the museum’s board of directors.