John Troesser, editor, Texas Escapes Online Magazine. (original) (raw)

John Troesser was born in Connecticut in 1947. His formative years were spent in Miami, Florida where his father owned a "working man's hotel" between a Greek Orthodox Church and an Italian Grocery. His neighborhood of Little River was shaded by coconut palms and tree-sized castor bean plants. His childhood pets included spider monkeys, possums, assorted lizards, flesh-eating land crabs and a family of manatees in a nearby canal.

His elementary education was conducted in pale yellow or white stucco schools - with broad verandas and transom windows that allowed lizards to enter and terrorize the Yankee teachers - much to the amusement of the children. School children in Miami could never relate to the films or textbooks that showed "typical" children. Dick and Jane never fed manatees. Spot never had a confrontation with an alligator.

Many classmates had no fathers and lived in public housing. They had strange names and accents. Only years later it became obvious that they were "displaced persons" from Europe. Other children had fathers that were singing waiters at the Eden Roc or Fountianbleu - and to Miami children - this was as normal as having a milkman father. Sunday drives consisted of going down "Hotel Row" on Miami Beach and gawking at the watered-down Vegas of gaudy cement statuary painted with Sherwin-Williams enamel.

Since Miami was heavily influenced by vacationing New Yorkers, his childhood was not typically Southern. He developed an appreciation for Cuban music, Jewish humor and guava paste.

The lack of a true "Southern upbringing" was corrected by his numerous sisters marrying into a family of stock-car racing Tennesseans who lived on the edge of the Everglades and occasionally worked for the Florida East Coast Railway or a variety of construction companies. The matriarch of this clan actually smoked a corncob pipe.

His view of life was also heavily influenced by Channel 7, a television station that only owned 8 movies and showed Key Largo and The Yearling on alternating Friday nights for 12 years.

Even "Scouting" was different in Florida. Scouting consisted of survival camping in the Everglades since the scoutmasters of that time were mostly WWII veterans who saw it as an opportunity to prepare the next generation for the military.

He enlisted in the Army in 1965 at 17 and spent one year in Germany and then two tours in Vietnam, where he was a demolition specialist in the 8th Combat Engineer Battalion of the First Cavalry Division. He also had a rare opportunity to live in several Vietnamese villages - independent of his Army unit. Ironically he received his draft card during his second tour of duty in Vietnam. Upon his discharge in 1968 he hitchhiked back to Miami from Ft. Lewis, Washington.

Perhaps influenced by the motley crew of tenants at his father's hotel, or the television shows Route 66, and The Fugitive, after he was discharged he set out on a long journey. He learned that the difference between blue collar and white color jobs was primarily whether you showered after coming home from work or before going to work. Many jobs were no-collar jobs. He once found himself welding steel drums on the industrial canal in New Orleans - the exact drums he had opened with an axe a year earlier in Vietnam. His tour included New Orleans, Memphis, Atlanta, civilized parts of Arkansas and Campeche, Mexico. Although his tour included many "foreign" states, he always returned to Texas and his years in Texas total 24.

During the 70s he was seen on campuses including LSUNO (now UNO), the University of Arkansas, Memphis State University and the University of Houston. He didn't always attend classes - we just said he was seen there. He has also read every Raymond Chandler book at least twice.

Before editing Texas Escapes, his most rewarding work was teaching English as a Second Language to refugees in Houston. He is insanely in love with his wife who just happens to be the Texas Escapes webmaster. They live in tiny Fayetteville, Texas (pop. 283) with a mixed herd of stray dogs and cats.

The people he's met while researching and writing town stories for Texas Escapes has convinced him that the preservation of Texas' buildings and the recording of our living histories, are two of the most important things that we can do for future generations (since they are presently occupied). What started out as a simple travel guide has become nothing short of a living historical and cultural journal of Texas.

John Troesser, 2001