On July 23, 1933, James Garrett was born in Douglass, Arizona, a little town on the Mexican border. He was the son of a Mexican immigrant and a Dublin-born and New York-raised policeman. In his youth, he spoke both Irish English and Mexican Spanish; and to this day, almost three quarters of a century later, his accent is still some mix of the two. Bagpipes in a mariachi band.
Did he miss Arizona, I wondered?
“I miss the rattlesnakes,” said Garrett, “and the scorpions.”
I just kind of looked at him — had I heard right? ...