This is written and posted in response to a question that arose amongtst the McAllen elites and others who either wish to learn or who rush to defend the rotting legacy of what was once the finest Border Town in the World. What follows is actual and true, play-by-play, true McAllen, Texas history.
_________________________
Nolana was named after my mother, in a way. Back when McAllen was in a fairly rapid expansion the poobahs and shamans of City management tried to stay ahead of planning necessities. As they platted the possible / probable extension of the city, especially north and south (the only alternatives) it was necessary to do mundane things like naming the streets in order to keep to the theme of "alphabetised for east and west streets and numerical for north and south streets".
They wanted to avoid the disaster of what happened, starting at La Vista and ending at Harvey Drive, where some lazy-boned city poobahs failed to think ahead to find really good alphabetically-sensitive trees for the X, Y, and Z streets. SO, anyway....while at the barber shop on Austin Street, Bill Schupp and the barbers were jawing about this problem for the "streets straddling North Tenth" when their number came up. As they went, when it came to the "N" - word, the flower names that had been chosen included "Narcissus". That particular thoroughfare, at that time, was a gravel road, "maintained" by the County....and the horribly horrible Commissioner Charlie Curtis. Bill said he would like to find a better name because "narcissus" had all kiinds of negative connotations.
He inferred that that particular conduit would need a military name or something very neutral because it was slated to become an extremely major East - West thoroughfare of near-north McAllen. Supposedly, all these white men...professional barbers, businessmen, high city officials, Latin and Anglo, jawed and speculated for a long while.
Finally, the Bootblack, a Mr. Henry White (Blacker than an 8 - ball on a white pool table), says, "You all ahr tryin' to make somethin' really easy into somethin' really complicated. (Henry is talking while going about his duties, sweeping up hair, arranging the last used chair, etc.). "You all need to think...there's a lady who sits on the Traffic and Safety Commission, she ran the March of Dimes for the County, she did the Census for the Federal Government, she be the President of the Hidalgo County Parents and Teachers Association, she works at the 'Piscopal Church there on North Tenth, she works at the Electric Company now, she's raised up three boys, and helped her husband with the citrus business....an' that's Miz Newton." And the City Manager responded, "Then we name the street 'Newton' as in Sir Isaac, Henry?" somewhat dismissively. To which Henry White, according to those who were there, said, "No, sir....but what be the name of that lady's first name?"......The City Manager said, "Everybody knows Nola, Henry...so what is your point?"
NOW HERE, WE DIVERGE:
HENRY WHITE was easily the top five of the most admired people in McAllen. Not because he was of Black African Ancestry nor in spite of it. He was just a good man, husband, father, friend, and community member. He backed down from no one, and helped anyone.
Besides working at the barber shop, he and his wife had a janitorial service that included the McAllen State Bank, the First Methodist Church, the First Baptist Church, the First Presbyterian Church, and several other important accounts. Henry and/or his wife had all the keys to those places.....to such a point that the police had to come to them should there have been a need during the "early morning hours".
NOW HERE, WE RETURN:
Back to the story. "Well, Mr. Manager, there is a plant or a palm, I don't know which, but it would do for the purpose. It is called a Nolana....Miz Hendricks says it's a palm, but Mr. Knops says it's a purslane or moss-rose that grows under the orange trees after the irrigations. But it is a Nolana, and you could kill two big birds with one little stone, just by saying, 'Let's make a small honour to Miz Nola and a small change for McAllen, and call your fancy new street of the future, "Nolana".
It is very necessary to understand that Henry White, a Black Man was, by that time, already famous for having sons as officers and non-commissioned officers in the Army, another son as a doctor, and a daughter as a charge-nurse RN.....all of whom he and his wife had helped and the children themselves had finished, the job of becoming the professional they were.
Mr. Henry and Mrs. White were easily among the top five or ten personalities in McAllen at that time....something along the lines of "Uncle Bill" Whalen. In quick and due course, my mother was summoned to City Hall for the Ordinary Session of the City Council, about a month after this barber shop encounter / session.
Dillard Dean, still chewing on his un-lit cigar, called my mother to the big table, and advised her that the City of McAllen was changing the designation of the gravel road to be known as the N - street, had been determined to have a name that would honour both the flower and the person who inspired that naming, Mrs. Nola Frances Newton, a proud flower of McAllen.
That much, that session, I myself can attest to the truth of it....as a somewhat bored, somewhat interested 11 year-old, pre-delinquent, because I was there when it happened. My mother feigned being distressed at such a matter being planned and done without her knowledge, and that it wasn't fair, and so forth, to which Bill Shoup and Mr. Dean told her to be quiet and accept the accolades that were deserved.
 |
(L to R) Mac MacFarland, Danny the Psychologist,
and El Gringo #1 (age 5) at the Newton "Estate" |
And that, Virginia, is the entire truth of the source of the name of NOLANA for that particular boulevard. The Newtons sold their land and retired from that address on Charlie Curtis's gravel road in 1966, long before Nolana became the boring strain of limping businesses and congestion that presents itself now. I remember running up and down the gravel road, barefooted with my cats and a dog or two...on our compound of 22 acres on the southeast corner of what would become "Tenth and Nolana". It is a funny.....and very sad....look into the fog of the past. Gone With the Wind......
El Gringo Viejo
___________________
