By Staff
Years ago one of our neighbors and very good friends were Rodrigo (Rod) de la Torre and his wife, Veronica.
People will remember Rod as a Judd Lumber employee.
On their many visits to our house, knowing my interest in old Dowagiac history, they gave me old things like Wahoos, Dowagiac papers articles and even an old Orchard Street wooden sign that preceded the current green metal ones on each corner.
I was also given some old books, sheet music and old magazines.
The story of how Veronica and Rod met was when she and three of the girls who worked in an office in Chicago took a trip to Mexico in the '50s.
Rod was a tour guide in Mexico and ended up as theirs.
Rod could speak English and Spanish fluently and was a very good dancer, as Veronica verified.
Part of his tour job was to dance with all the ladies on their night club tours.
Now the story about Rod and Veronica is a bit complicated.
It seems Rod had been married to Evangelina, a Mexican lady, but was divorced for some time when he was the tour guide.
How Rod and Veronica finally got together I'm not sure.
Rod came to Chicago and he and Veronica finally married and ended up in Dowagiac.
Years passed and Veronica became quite ill and she passed away.
Rod still made many visits to our house and we to his.
Rod took a trip back to Mexico a few years after he lost Veronica.
I'm not sure, but I think Rod was set up by some of his Mexican friends when he met his ex-wife Evangelina in church while there. To make a story short, he and she later, after many years, remarried.
Rod sold his Dowagiac home and moved to Mexico.
Several years later Evangelina died and Rod came back and lived in Chicago with their son until Rod died. My memories of Rod are still in my mind.
He said as a tour guide he had Abe Saperstein.
Abe owned the Harlem Globetrotters and they became good friends. Rod got the biggest tip he ever received.
Rod told me after he moved back to Mexico a big buyer of bananas hired him as an interpreter and took him to Costa Rica. Here was old Rod in his 80s, still making good money.
Also at 80 he was still changing his second-story screens and storm windows.
One time Rod showed me an old 1865 EXTRA paper when Lincoln was assassinated.
He had made a large frame and had the paper between two pieces of glass so you could read both sides.
As was Rod's wishes, he and his wife's ashes were scattered over the Canadian river he and Veronica liked to fish every year.
Rod used to tell me about his friends in Canada and their fishing trips they so enjoyed.
I really miss my de la Torre friends, as I miss so many of my old Dowagiac friends of years gone by. You know, sometimes I think I've been around too long myself.