B4 Saturday, December 17, 2011
NATION/OBITUARIES/RECORDS
Roswell Daily Record
Duke City Christmas tree vendor still at it at age 99 ALBUQUERQUE (AP) — When Tony Garcia started selling Christmas trees, most people were sitting in front of a radio instead of a TV, Disney’s “Snow White” was playing on the silver screen, and the country was in the grips of the Great Depression. The year was 1937, and Garcia, who will be 100 in February, had just been honorably discharged from the Army for medical reasons. He returned to Albuquerque, looking for a way to make some money when he stumbled upon the idea of selling Christmas trees. He’s still at it, selling the Mora pines from his home on Fourth Street. Garcia used to sell his trees in various lots around town, but a particularly good season in the late 1950s brought him the money he needed to make a down payment on the property at 8826 Fourth St. NW. He’s been in business there since the 1960s, and he also made a living by collecting and selling Spanish Colonial artifacts.
OBITUARIES
Elena Vasquez
“I have regular customers who are always glad to come back here,” he said, referring to his trees. “I have good prices.” He said the business seems to be recession-proof, with him and his family selling between 150 and 200 trees a year. But the prices have grown to match inflation. A Christmas-worthy tree would go for 75 cents in 1937; the average price now is $55, he said. Garcia still runs the business, but he can no longer move the trees or load them in vehicles, so grandson Richard Sanchez has become his partner. “But don’t worry,” he said. “I still supervise through the window.” Garcia is referring to the large picture window in his living room that looks east onto his lot. He can see out of it perfectly from his favorite easy chair. Garcia said he has a lot of memories from the years of selling trees but can’t recall many of them in great detail. Still, there’s one story — “a very sad story” — that he recalls with great clarity, even
Maria Salazar and her son Marcos Salazar, and Luz Salamanca and her daughter Elizabeth Zavala; her brothers, Juan Chico and wife Elisa and their children, Raymundo and Carolina Chico of El Paso, Texas, and Giller mina Chico; plus many more family members and cousins. Elena worked as the head cook at Stardust Restaurant for 20 years. She then was selfemployed, creating her own cleaning company, Azteca Janitorial, before retiring. Elena loved working in her yard and enjoyed viewing the beauty of all her flowers and plants. One of her favorite things to do was have a cup of coffee on her porch on a rainy morning or after noon. She had a tremendous love for all her children. She dedicated her entire life to them. Elena was a very special lady to all who knew her. She will truly be missed by all her loved ones. Nuestra Querida Mama, Abuela, Hermana y Amiga, nos despedimos hoy con mucha tristesa. Pero le damos Gracis ha Dios que te hayga recuido porque sabemos todos que eso eras lo que mas esperabas, estar con Nuestro Señor. Anque la despedida sera solo por un poco tiempo, por que muy pronto te veremos alla Que dios te Benidiga hoy y Siempre. Te tendremos hoy y siempre en nuestro corazones. Arrangements have been entrusted to Ballard Funeral Home and Crematory. An online registry can be accessed at ballardfuneralhome.com.
Elena was born in a mining town in Santa Barbara, Chihuahua, Mexico, on April 16, 1938, to Juan and Luz Chico. Both parents preceded her in death, as did her brothers, Jose Chico, Jesus Chico and Guadalupe Chico. She married Jose Vasquez on Jan. 30, 1982, in Roswell. He also preceded her in death. She is survived by her sons, Joe Torres and wife Susan and their children, Tammy, Anthony, Nick and Krystal; Victor Torres and wife Yolanda and their children, Joshua, Victor and Melissa; Lalo Torres and wife Debra and their children, Matt and Laticia; Kirk Mundy and wife Candie and their children, Raymond and Adriana; Jaime Torres and wife Rosa and their children, Jaime, Ivan, Monique, Hugo and Allen; her daughters, Rosa Ornelas and husband Joe and their children, Cecilia, Joseph and Oscar; Ir ma Nevarez and husband Rutilo and their children, Juan and Maria; Ellie Mundy and her daughter Nicole, and Linda Mundy. Elena is also survived by 19 grandchildren and 34 greatgrandchildren; her sisters,
Graveside services are scheduled for 2 p.m., Monday, Dec. 19, 2011, at South Park Cemetery for Eleanor Jane “Lannie” Dunham, 88, of Roswell, who passed away on Dec. 16, 2011. The Rev. Bob Maples will officiate. Friends may pay respects online at lagronefuneralchapels.com. Arrangements are under the direction of LaGrone Funeral Chapel.
Marriage Licenses Dec. 14 Steven Perez, 20, and Mandy R. Trujillo, 25, both of Roswell. Dec. 15 Keith W. Bell, 50, and Anna M. Green, 37, both of Roswell. Brian T. Porte, 22, of Hagerman, and Margarita Sarah Picchiarni, 31, of Dexter. Emilio Sierra, 25, and Martha A. Car mona, 21, both of Roswell. Accidents Dec. 15 8:48 a.m. — Washington and Deming; drivers — Bertha Duran, 30, of Roswell, and unknown driver. 10:36 a.m. — Parking lot 1110 S. Main; drivers — Ismael Luevano, 26, of San
Elizardo, and Tracy Revels, 36, of Roswell. 10:36 a.m. — Parking lot 1110 S. Main; drivers — T rubey Gloyd, 83, of Roswell. 12:45 p.m. — Parking lot 2601 N. Main; vehicle owned by Benny or Estela Lucero, of Roswell and unknown driver. 1:01 p.m. — Parking lot 912 N. Main; drivers — vehicle owned by Scott Verhines, of Albuquerque, and Myong Montgomery, 64, of Roswell. 3:30 p.m. — Albertsons parking lot 1110 S. Main St.; vehicle owned by Greg Graves, of Dexter, and unknown driver. 4:12 p.m. — Main and Berrendo; drivers — Lidia Gonzalez, 33, and Melanie Estrada, 34, both of Roswell.
PUBLIC RECORDS
Eleanor Jane Dunham
decades later. He can’t recall the exact year, but he didn’t have any money to buy trees so he borrowed $100 from a friend, determined not to miss a season. He promised the friend he would pay him back by Christmas Eve, but made only enough to repay the debt. He kept his word and did so, but that left him with no extra money to enjoy the season. “So I went to this little bar I used to go to sometimes,” he said. “I asked the owner if he would sell me a jug of wine on credit. He said ‘No. We don’t do credit.’ That was a very sad year because I didn’t get any wine.” He tells the story with laughter, adding that it isn’t really all that sad. In fact, Garcia doesn’t have a lot of sad stories to tell. Instead, he chooses to focus on the positive experiences that life has offered him. He said that might be one of the reasons he’s lived so long, along with having won the genetics lottery. His father, sister
AP Photo
Tony Garcia, 99, works with his grandson Rick Sanchez to sell Christmas trees from his front yard on Fourth Street in Albuquerque, Dec. 9.
and brother all lived to their 90s. “I come from a family of conquistadors,” he said. “I have a strong family heritage.”
Hitchens, militant pundit, dies at 62
AP Photo
Christopher Hitchens speaks during a debate on Iraq and the foreign policies of the United States and Britain, in New York City, Sept. 14, 2005.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Christopher Hitchens, the author, essayist and polemicist who waged verbal and occasional physical battle on behalf of causes left and right and wrote the provocative best-seller “God is Not Great,” died Thursday night after a long battle with cancer. He was 62. Hitchens’ death was announced in a statement from Conde Nast, publisher of Vanity Fair magazine. The statement says he died Thursday night at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston of pneumonia, a complication of his esophageal cancer Hitchens, a frequent television commentator and a contributor to Vanity
Fair, Slate and other publications, had become a popular author in 2007 thanks to “God is Not Great,” a manifesto for athiests that defied a recent trend of religious works. Cancer humbled, but did not mellow him. Even after his diagnosis, his columns appeared weekly, savaging the royal family or reveling in the death of Osama bin Laden. Eloquent and intemperate, bawdy and urbane, he was an acknowledged contrarian and contradiction — half-Christian, half-Jewish and fully nonbelieving; a native of England who settled in America; a for mer T rotskyite who backed the Iraq war and supported George W. Bush. But his passions remained constant and enemies of his youth, from Henry Kissinger to Mother Teresa, remained hated. He was a militant humanist who believed in pluralism and racial justice and freedom of speech, big cities and fine art and the willingness to stand the consequences. He once submitted to waterboarding to prove that it was indeed torture. An emphatic ally and inspired foe, he stood by friends in trouble (”Satanic Verses” novelist Salman Rushdie) and against enemies in power (Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini). His heroes included George Orwell, Thomas Paine and Gore Vidal (preSept. 11). Among those on the Hitchens list of
shame: Michael Moore, Saddam Hussein, Kim Jong il, Sarah Palin, Gore Vidal (post Sept. 11) and Prince Charles. Hitchens was born in Portsmouth, England, in 1949. His father, Eric, was a “purse-lipped” Navy veteran known as “The Commander”; his mother, Yvonne, a romantic who later killed herself during an extra-marital rendezvous in Greece. Young Christopher would have rather read a book. He was a “a mere weed and weakling and kick-bag” who discovered that “words could function as weapons” and so stockpiled them. In college, Oxford, he met such longtime friends as authors Martin Amis and Ian McEwan and claimed to be nearby when visiting Rhodes scholar Bill Clinton did or did not inhale marijuana. Radicalized by the 1960s, Hitchens was often arrested at political rallies, was kicked out of Britain’s Labour Party over his opposition to the Vietnam War and became a correspondent for the radical magazine International Socialism. His reputation broadened in the 1970s through his writings for the New Statesman. Wavy-haired and brooding and aflame with wit and righteous anger, he was a star of the left on paper and on camera, a popular television guest and a columnist for one of the world’s oldest liberal publications, The Nation.
opposed to the more efficient — and expensive— curlicue fluorescents that have become increasingly familiar in recent years. But he said gover nment should not penalize those who prefer traditional, incandescent bulbs. “New lighting options are great news for the public, but the lesson is that markets and consumer demand are the best drivers of innovation and new choices,” Upton said. Sen. Jef f Bingaman, chair man of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said the move would have little practical consequence, since it does not affect a 2007 law that requires manufacturers to produce or import more ef ficient bulbs. The five largest light bulb manufacturers have already switched to making and selling the more efficient bulbs, Bingaman said, so the enforcement delay only serves to confuse the public. “Blocking funds to enforce minimum standards works against our nation getting the full benefits of energy efficiency,” said Bingaman, D-N.M., a key sponsor of the 2007 law, which was signed by President George W. Bush.
A group representing light bulb manufacturers spoke out against the delay, which applies only to 100-watt bulbs. T ighter standards for 75-watt bulbs take effect in 2013, and lower wattage bulbs must be more efficient by 2014. “American manufacturers have invested millions of dollars in energy-efficient light bulbs,” said Joseph Higbee, a spokesman for the National Electric Manufacturers Association, which represents 95 percent U.S. light bulb makers. Delaying enforcement of the standards “undermines those investments and creates regulatory uncertainty and consumer confusion,” he said, adding that a lack of federal enforcement “allows bad actors to sell noncompliant products” to consumers who may be unable to tell the difference between an energy-efficient bulb and one that isn’t. The new law blocks the Energy Department from enforcing efficiency standards, but it does not prevent states from enforcing their own standards. Rep. Joe Barton, RTexas, called the light-bulb provision “an early Christmas present for all Ameri-
In friendlier times, Vidal was quoted as citing Hitchens as a worthy heir to his satirical throne. No Democrat angered him more than Clinton, whose presidency led to the bitter end of Hitchens’ friendship with White House aide Sidney Blumenthal and other Clinton backers. As Hitchens wrote in his memoir, he found Clinton “hateful in his behavior to women, pathological as a liar, and deeply suspect when it came to money in politics.” He wrote the anti-Clinton book, “No One Left to Lie To,” at a time when most liberals were supporting the president as he faced impeachment over his affair with Monica Lewinsky. Hitchens also loathed Hillary Rodham Clinton and switched his affiliation from independent to Democrat in 2008 just so he could vote against her in the presidential primary. The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, completed his exit. He fought with Vidal, Noam Chomsky and others who either suggested that U.S. foreign policy had helped cause the tragedy or that the Bush administration had advanced knowledge. He supported the Iraq war, quit The Nation, backed Bush for re-election in 2004 and repeatedly chastised those whom he believed worried unduly about the feelings of Muslims.
Congress flips dimmer switch on light bulb law
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans in Congress are flipping the dimmer switch on a law that sets new energy-savings standards for light bulbs. They’ve reached a deal to delay until October enforcement of standards that some fear will bring about the end of old-style 100watt bulbs. GOP lawmakers say they’re trying to head off more government interference in people’s lives. But environmentalists and the light bulb industry say the move is not too bright. Language postponing enforcement of the light bulb law — it was set to take effect Jan. 1 — was included in a massive spending bill that funds the government through September. The House passed the measure on Friday, with approval expected Saturday in the Senate. Rep. Fred Upton, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said the light bulb delay shows Congress is listening to the American people. “We heard the message loud and clear,” said Upton, R-Mich. “Americans don’t want gover nment standards determining how they light their homes.” Upton said he was not
cans” and said it strikes a blow against expensive fluorescents that he said are not as reliable as the oldstyle incandescents that have changed little since Thomas Edison’s day. “This means Americans can continue to flip the switch on an af fordable and reliable product, instead of turning to one that costs five times more and may not live up to manufacturers’ promises,” said Barton, a for mer House Energy chair man who opposed the 2007 law and has worked to overturn it ever since. Jim Presswood, federal energy policy director for the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group, called the GOP-backed delay dimwitted. “It’s just a completely ridiculous move by Congress,” Presswood said. “It undermines the ability of the Energy Department to enforce standards that are going to give consumers tremendous savings as well as reduce pollution.”