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A month’s stay spans 50 years

Tammara Green/writer@qvpr.com
Feb. 02, 2012

Narcso Madrano came to Quincy for just one month in 1961 and stayed the rest of his life.

Narciso Medrano was born to Librado and Trinidad Medrano in Elsa, Texas in 1936. He followed generations of family members who worked the same 400 acres in the Rio Grande valley.

“We grew cotton and vegetables such as cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage and tomatoes,” said Medrano. At the time, the family farmed half the area of the whole town. In 1936, Medrano’s father bought their first tractor. It wasn’t until he was 16 years of age that he was allowed to drive the tractor. Up until that time, Medrano did all of the plowing using horses. “People were happier then. They performed a lot of physical labor and they ate better,” he noted. During the time he was growing up in the Rio Grande valley, Medrano recalled that most farmers worked from 6 a.m. until 7 p.m. It wasn’t unusual for people to work nearly 16 hours a day.

In 1958, Medrano’s family lived through two drought years in the Rio Grande valley and there was no more water to irrigate the crops. That was when he decided to seek work elsewhere. In 1960, Medrano married his wife of 52 years, Irene. In 1961, they arrived in Quincy with their young son, Guadalupe (Wally) in tow. “We planned on coming up here for a month and the month is still not over,” laughed Medrano. He was hired on by Gordon Fullerton and afterward began working for Sun Gro. “I was used to being my own boss. I worked for myself,” said Medrano. Macky Higashiyama gave him a job on his farm until he finally went to work for Lamb Weston as a supervisor until he was offered a job as a mechanic. He finally retired from Lamb Weston after 44 years.

Medrano worked hard on a shift at Lamb Weston that lasted from 6 a.m. to 1 a.m. On the side, he and his wife opened the first Mexican food stand, which was located a half mile from where Wilber-Ellis is on the edge of town. “We rented one half of the fruit stand. On Fridays, we would get a lot of business because the school children would stop by,” said Medrano. For three years the couple ran the operation until the time they were expecting their son, Ricky, and Medrano had to help clean the restaurant at night. The grueling hours proved too much and the business folded.

Medrano was still involved in his community and helped build the float for Quincy’s community celebration in 1966. He was also actively involved in the 4-H gardening projects.

Although Medrano wasn’t cooking anymore, he managed to call on those skills one time when he hurt his back and was out of work for a few weeks. He asked his wife to pick up some corn flour and meat and he set about making tamales. He was swamped with dozens of orders and ended up making $300 in the week compared to the $90 a week he was earning on a regular basis. “I learned how to make the tamales by watching my mother cook them,” he said.

Medrano loves the atmosphere and the people in Quincy. He loves to cook and fish. Once a year he heads out to Westport to fish for halibut or salmon. In fact, some years ago he caught a halibut that weighed 90 pounds, 8 ounces. It was the local “fish of the week” and he won $500 for it. No one surpassed the weight all month long, so he was also awarded “fish of the month.” He was given a $1,000 prize for that. He looks forward to going back this summer.