Since we arrived in Aydzic, we constantly meet new people in everyday conditions from all over the world. On the golf course, in particular, we met a lot of golfers in a regular pickup game. We do not make a reservation here, although it is possible. As a double, we can always get out of the first tee within a few minutes after arrival and always have a caddy, which is a new experience on our own. This is a sight when eight people stand on the green at once, and each caddy gives a very accurate line and speed of instructions. They take their competency very seriously!
One pair of regulars with whom we played several times - Keith and Martin. The whale is a 76-year-old wonderful gray-haired Selder Saunders with a white beard. A very happy, too friendly guy with a stem that makes me sleep between beats. It turns out that old Kate was a former test pilot and aeronautical engineer who was in the original development team for the F18 fighter, the lead military machine of Canada (and on the plane we heard the earth and shot thousands of lives at the runway in Baden-Solingen) Kate spent years sunset in air navigation in Annapolis, in America, in the naval officer training university.
His buddy Martin seems to be always sleeping. And it’s no wonder that you have to listen to Keith for four hours, four days a week. Martin always wears a seedy western straw hat and has saddle-skin on the face of life in the open sun. He always seemed slightly dazed and played as if he were all alone on the course.
Turns out Martin was a shepherd. kind of He just went out of business, selling his 97,000 acres of primary pasture in Wyoming. It ranged from 3,000 to 12,000 feet, and was more than 30 miles along its southern edge. I just can not get around these numbers! Thirty miles!
However, it was not all as rosy as the size of the estate was supposed to be. A few years ago, the price of wool fell, and when he had sheep, he offered all wool to herders in exchange for a shift instead of paying them, and they rejected it. Wool sat in storage for one and a half years, until he could wipe the wool at a break-even price.
It also took him three years to sell the ranch. In the meantime, he and his wife created B and B on the ranch and conducted a winter snowmobile operation. They had to bring all the products, supplies and customers from the main road six miles from the snowmobile! SIX MILES. When Martin described this stage of his career, he lit up like a Roman candle that exploded with all the little money making schemes he had prepared. Almost all of them were booked almost from November 1 to early April. Thirty-four customers every night! And they were the only ones who ran the ranch, providing 2 meals a day and providing all fresh linen.
Martin started when he explained that he had sold all the gas for snowmobiles. .. And he launched the bar, open all day! Push, push, wink, wink!
He assured that he finally sold B and B for a million, and the sale price of 98,000 acres was not disclosed. But this was enough to buy a luxurious three-room condominium for his children, to visit Manzanillo on the coast and the estate here in Aydzhik, still large enough to feed his former sheep herd for at least a day or two.
When Ann asked Diana, his watercolor wife, how she felt in Brokeback Mountain, she exploded with delight. She felt that the film was made on their ranch, it was also similar to her former manor. She swore that they used their truck and that he had the same license number. It must have been the life experience of living in a Wyoming ranch after many years of hard work and many ups and downs to see their homeland so animatedly appearing on a giant screen. They raised three children in the land of God and sent them to the university. I know this is true. Martin and Diana know the hard work. When they offered a ranch and / or B and B to each of their children. They all refused. When Diana said: “They looked at how we worked, and they didn’t want to do all this when they had university degrees”
Donald, another golfer, also packed and left the far wide open west. He sold his building materials and hardware store in a small town in North Dakota ten years ago and moved to Scottsdale Arizona and resigned. They lived there for eight years, and as he described it, he and his wife woke up one morning and told about their life and that they had only a few years left. They talked about their lives in Scottsdale. Everything was so clean and safe, and everyone was the same age and had the same Republican convictions and the same Christian views. Life was too perfect. But they decided that they needed more, and they got together and moved to Aydzic, not far from the main street, where they hear traffic all day and night, and as a young neighbor playing their radio in an intolerable explosion, but that they never felt happier and more alive than here in Mexico.
Narciso, old man. Narciso was my caddy yesterday and dragged my monster bag around the course without any signs of fatigue. He happily offered clubs and tips. His advice was unmistakable. On two occasions at an early stage of the game, I decided to go with my reading in my opinion. On the 8th hole, a high tee overlooking three three green 150 years, as is customary in this hole, I offered Narciso the opportunity to take a picture. He eagerly accepted, and I offered him an Ann club, since I am left-handed. He said: “No, I will try this on the left.” “You are playing in a lifting narciso,” I asked. He laughed and said “never before” and quickly threw him in the middle of the green.
This sparked some talk about his golf. Narciso plays with the handicap ZERO! He sighs because he lets him play golf for free. Last year, he finished second in the three-day Caddies tournament in Los Angeles and is leaving shortly to compete again this year.
As a boy of seventeen, he left Mexico to make a life for himself in the United States. He worked as a cleaner for ten years, then became a caddy at the Beverly Hills Golf Club and spent the rest of his working life as a caddy. He loved the whim for Joe Sands, and no one could touch Sylvester Stallone, since no one was playing with him! He married, became an American citizen, had 4 children and is now looking forward to turning 62 when he becomes eligible for a pension in California in the amount of $ 700 per month. He is now 57 years old, and he looks 70. All these years in the blazing sun have agreed with Narciso and, for that matter, the Mexican men who have worked outside the home for their years.
Narciso worked hard all his life as a caddy. What should he show for this? Well, he loves golf, he loves his job. He is happily married, and although most of his children are married and living in America, he has a young ten-year-old daughter who lives here in Aydzhik. Is it enough to show for life? Yes, of course, but his hard work also resolved in his ownership of five magnificent three-bedroom houses here in a city that is experiencing a housing boom. Two houses are sold, one for rent, and we can rent it next year, and he lives in the fifth.
This morning I went to a very early round of 18 holes, when Ann was devoted to the aqua aerobics class. I joined Rick, a sporty handsome man who turned out to be as gentle as a lamb. I could not guess his age, but he lives in Aydzhik after his life in Los Angeles most of his life. Every morning at 7 am, he plays 18 holes.
We chatted with friends, enjoying each other and sharing personal stories and interests. After I told him that I was a teacher, he explained that he took the place where I was staying. Rick was the president and CEO of Marvel Media, formerly the comic book Marvel, who, under his leadership, became a giant filmmaker and successful superstar Dow Jones. He listed many of the films that he produced, first of all, spider movies starring Toby McVeur. This soft gentle man, who could just as easily be my caddy, as the general director of a media giant playing golf without any pretensions, without any entourage.
Here was a guy who was in the same league financially as Donald Trump, but led a quiet lifestyle in a small town in Aydzhik. When he is in Los Angeles, he rides his bike 15 miles every day before starting work. Rick expressed concern about environmental issues in Adjijik and in America, about the growing gap between rich and poor in America, about Bush’s stupidity "Not a single child left behind a charade." I can only imagine what this man of action is capable of doing with his unspeakable wealth and powerful skills and passion. It reminds me of the gap between the old entrepreneurs who still linger, like Donald Trump, Conrad Black and the men behind Enron and the new entrepreneurs like Buffett and Gates and so many Kremlin valley billionaires with their remarkable contribution to injustice around the world.
When you come to the tee in the first hole in Aydzhik, you never know who you're going to play with ... nor who will be your caddy!
