My father Guyler Magruder (whose grandfather was H.A. Monyhan/Magruder, the dentist. Lucia was his first cousin) grew up in El Paso with the rest of the Magruders. He took me down there from Albuquerque once for his (60th?) high school reunion and we did a walking tour of downtown. He told me about the alligators as we entered the plaza. The typical Magruder story was that the guy in charge of cleaning that moat and feeding the alligators only had one leg. (Similar to the story of H.A. Magruder, who had a "I DON'T WORK FOR NEGROES" sign in the window of his dental office, but the black guy who shined shoes in the lobby of the Caples building had all gold teeth and everyone knew Magruder put them in for him. Haha, I guess...). Anyway, when we got to where the alligator moat was in the plaza, it was interesting to see a fiberglass sculpture by Luis Jimenez of alligators on the site. (There is a kind of grotesque statue of two Mexican dancers by him on the UNM campus in Albuquerque, too. He was building the huge horse statue near the airport in Denver when the horse fell on him and killed him. None of this is relevant, but I had to share!)
And so nice to see my cousin Brooks!! I'm so glad you got to meet Brooks and Leah.
These are amazing anecdotes — thank you so much! The Magruders are such storytellers (you too). And it was heaven to meet Brooks and Lea... And now I get to meet you! Can't wait.
My father Guyler Magruder (whose grandfather was H.A. Monyhan/Magruder, the dentist. Lucia was his first cousin) grew up in El Paso with the rest of the Magruders. He took me down there from Albuquerque once for his (60th?) high school reunion and we did a walking tour of downtown. He told me about the alligators as we entered the plaza. The typical Magruder story was that the guy in charge of cleaning that moat and feeding the alligators only had one leg. (Similar to the story of H.A. Magruder, who had a "I DON'T WORK FOR NEGROES" sign in the window of his dental office, but the black guy who shined shoes in the lobby of the Caples building had all gold teeth and everyone knew Magruder put them in for him. Haha, I guess...). Anyway, when we got to where the alligator moat was in the plaza, it was interesting to see a fiberglass sculpture by Luis Jimenez of alligators on the site. (There is a kind of grotesque statue of two Mexican dancers by him on the UNM campus in Albuquerque, too. He was building the huge horse statue near the airport in Denver when the horse fell on him and killed him. None of this is relevant, but I had to share!)
And so nice to see my cousin Brooks!! I'm so glad you got to meet Brooks and Leah.
Cheers! Cousin Jill Magruder
These are amazing anecdotes — thank you so much! The Magruders are such storytellers (you too). And it was heaven to meet Brooks and Lea... And now I get to meet you! Can't wait.