Pete Bega Interview: Part Two

Interviewed by Karen Bernstein 

Interviewer – Tell me about your kids.

Pete – My oldest daughter, Jessica, she grew up very independent. I remember, when she was very little, she was a baby, she couldn't even talk yet. She was under a year old. I knew that I either had a very special kid, or a very stubborn kid. Because I would babysit her, when Ester would work, and I would be on my day off. She'd be with me.

I had her in the car one time, and somehow, she got upset with me one time, when she was, like I said, she couldn't even talk. She cried, and she made a fuss and so forth. I said, "Why is she being so difficult?" Well if you know Jessica, you know how independent she is. When she sets her mind to do something, she's going to do it.

But anyway, she grew up here in Elgin. She's a very good athlete. Whether it's basketball, or softball, or tennis, or whatever it was, she was going to be the first one to be out there. She was lucky enough to have had three or four very, very good athletes that came out of Elgin during that period of time. Rosa Baker and Wanda-Lynn Harold, and just go on and on and on, as far as some of the quality that we had here in Elgin. But she was certainly one of the leaders on her teams in Elgin. As a student, one of the things that we would talk about was that, like I told you before, I graduated fourth in my class. Well Jessica graduated fourth in her class too, and so we had something in common. But she was the type that, when she has a goal, she's going to achieve that. Her goal was to go to school. From high school, she went on to Southwest Texas. She stayed there until she got her degree. That was something that just seemed like it was natural. I said, "Well that's good, because I've got my oldest one doing that. The other ones surely will follow." Well, they're all different. Because then came along Christine, and Christine, like I said, was my social butterfly. Although she's got her degree now and she teaches elementary, her beginning was not always that great. She was the type that, I would get home sometimes from work, and here comes Christine coming out of the house. She would have our VCR. If you all remember what VCRs were back then. She would have it tucked under her arm, and away she's going. I would say, "Christine, why do you have the VCR?" "Well Dad, I'm going to go to my friend's, and we're going to watch movies." I said, "But that's the only VCR we have." "Dad, I'm bringing it back." "Okay." So she was that kind of young girl. She had so many friends. Although she didn't need to, she wanted a part-time job, because she liked that extra money always. But at one time, she had three part-time jobs. I would say, "Christine, why do you have three part-time jobs?" "Well Dad, I'm doing this, I'm doing that." She would work at one of the 10 cent stores, and she would work in the daycare center. Then she would do something else. I forget what the other job was. She was always doing that type of thing while she was in high school. They never got in trouble with the law, or anything like that. But she was always active. There's one thing that, she didn't like to have to go to school all the time, although she graduated, and she did well. But school was not what she wanted right after high school. So she stayed out.

Well lo and behold, my third daughter, Stephanie, she wanted to go to school. But she didn't know where. To make things easier, we sent her off to Blinn Junior College in Brenham, Texas. That's where she started her school career. Christine being Christine saw that, and she said, "Well Dad, I want to go, too." I don't think it was very much for the educational value, as much as it was for the excitement and being part of it. It didn't hurt to go to school, that her boyfriend was also going to school there. He was living on campus or living there in Brenham. So naturally, she went. So they both went two years. After that, Stephanie met her husband, Todd. Or, they had met in high school. But they started getting serious, and they started talking about getting married. Christine, the same thing with Paul. So sooner or later they both got married, and school went on hold for them. It wasn't until later on in life that Stephanie went back to school because she knew that she had to. Not only did she go get her degree from Southwest Texas, but she got her Master's from Concordia.

Christine finally went back to school, well it's been about 10 years ago, but it took her about six or seven years to graduate, because she was doing night school. Going to school one night a week, and so forth. But she kept at it, she kept at it. She got her degree, because she saw the value in having an education. They both got their education. They're both teachers, very successful here in Elgin. So that was my daughters.

Then I have my son. My son was, I don't want to say, was like me, but he had a lot of ambition. He wanted to do things that were different. So he graduated as the valedictorian here in Elgin, and was very successful in sports. In almost every sport that he played, he made all-district. He was young for his age, because when he was in the first grade, the principal came and talked to us, to Ester and me, because Ester worked at that school. That was Mr. Brandt, who was the principal. He says, "You know, Stephen is very advanced. He would have no value going into second grade." He says, "I think we need to place him in third grade. If he doesn't acclimate socially, maybe we can bring him back to the second grade. But I would recommend that we put him in the third grade." So they did, and he skipped a year. But he didn't skip a beat, because not only was he socially acceptable to the other kids, he thrived in it. If you know Stephen, he's a lot like his older sister, Jessica. It's that they're driven. That they have this competitive thing about them that will not let them quit and will not let them be happy being second place on anything. So he competed. He went to school and so forth. Like I said, he finished his high school career as the valedictorian. I've got to brag about him, because he took almost all the awards that are given to a high school kid. Not only, he was a King Cat in his senior year. He was the class president. He was all everything in sports here in Elgin. He won numerous academic awards that recognize top scholars in schools. But if there was something that he could compete in, and the kids liked him so well, that they always voted for him. So that was him.

In his mind, he felt like he needed to do something with his career. So he said, "Well, I want to be a doctor." "Okay, you're going to be a doctor." But he also wanted to be a basketball player because he was very good at basketball, but he was very short. His first school that he wanted to go to, to go play basketball, he said Duke. If any of you know about Duke, that's a very highly academic, but also a very highly basketball team. Not just anybody is going to go play basketball, or even going to be accepted at Duke. We went to some of the orientations, and some of the things that they had around Austin, to try to see if we could get him qualified to go to school there. He got on their list. But he knew that he was too short for a team the caliber that they had. My spiel to him was this. I used to tell him, I said, "Stephen, I know you're good at sports. But you're not going to be a professional ball player." Whether it was basketball, baseball, or whatever it may be. I said, "You're not going to go to the major leagues. So I'm not going to permit you to go to a school, just to say that, 'I played those sports.' If you get an opportunity to go play baseball, or go play basketball at one of the junior colleges, or one of the smaller schools here in Texas, and you have an opportunity to go to a good academic school, I'm going to tell you that you need to go to the academic one. Because that's where your future's going to lie." We looked and we looked, and we finally settled on Trinity University in San Antonio. Not only that, he was able to play all four years of baseball there, which, he really liked doing that. So he graduated from there. When he graduated from there, he asked me a question, that I couldn't figure out what his motive was. He says, "Dad, how old were you when you got married?" That's a loaded question, because his girlfriend, another Elgin graduate, Cecily Williams was his girlfriend. He used to go with me to different places where I used to work. Whether it be in Phoenix, Arizona, or Pensacola, Florida, or wherever I was. He would go spend the summer with me, and work there.

When I went to Albuquerque, New Mexico, he didn't want to go. I wondered, "I wonder why he doesn't want to go away?" He had a girlfriend, that he wanted to get married to. So when he graduated from Trinity, he decided that he was going to get married, after graduation. Which he did, and married Cecily.

Then he calls me up when I was in New Mexico. Ester and I were in New Mexico. He said, "Dad, I'm applying for law school, and I got accepted from the University of New Mexico." I said, "That's great, Stephen." He says, "Can I go live with you guys?" Of course, he was already married. "Can I go live with you guys, and I can go to school?" Of course, I wasn't going to turn him down. That's something that he wanted to do. By then, he had changed course from being a doctor, to being a lawyer. He got accepted into law school there. He went, and that's where our first grandson was born, Christian, when they went to law school. They highly recommend that they don't have part-time jobs. Well, he had part-time jobs, because he had to. He had a wife, and a kid on the way, so he had to work. It's a three year journey, to go to law school. So he's in his profession, that he's really enjoying. I think he became a lawyer in 2000, and he still works in Austin. Pursuing what he wants to do, and how he wants to do it. So he's very well engaged in the community there, in South Austin. Very well adjusted, and very successful in the things that he does. So those are my kids.

I didn't talk too much about Stephanie, my third daughter. Like I said, I told you a little bit about her education. But Stephanie was the type of person that, when she was little, she would never complain. She would never ask for anything. She's still like that. She's not a complainer. She just does things for her family. When she was a kid, Ester and I talk about it nowadays, and say, "With Christine and Jessica and Stephen, we were always buying them new pants, and new tennis shoes and so forth. I don't think we ever bought Stephanie any new shoes during the school year, because she would never wear them out." She would never complain, and she would never ask for them. She was the quiet, unassuming little girl.

It took her a long time, because she had a little speech impediment when she was young. The doctor used to tell us, "Well, it's because the girls are always talking for her. They don't let her talk." But of course, she got over it, and so forth. Of all my girls, she's got a heart that's 10 times the size of a real heart. She's just one of those golden hearts. She's like her mama. She loves doing things for other people, and pleasing other people. That's where she gets her satisfaction. If anything needs to be done in the family, or somebody needs something, Stephanie's going to be right there.

Interviewer – You created a family of overachievers.

Pete – Well, you hope that that's the result. But I tell you, that you've got to be careful, how you push your kids. Because I'll tell you what I used to tell Stephen. He was such a highly successful kid in school, like I told you. Whether it was academically, or athletic-wise. I always, always used to tell him this. I said, "Stephen, I want you to be successful. I want you to do the good things. I want you to enjoy life, and I want you to enjoy what life has to give you. But the best thing I want you to do," I said, "I want you to be a good Christian, and always think about other people. Always be the role model you need to be." That's what I wanted for my kids. I wanted them to be successful, but with good hearts. I thank God every day, that my kids have good hearts. I have a saying for my kids. As a matter of fact, I have it rubber stamped in my telephone. I don't use it much right now, but my grandkids, I've got seven of them. Six of them were pretty close in age, so Ester and I were able to take them, load them up in our car, and take them on vacations every year and spend weeks at a time with them. I used to talk to them a lot. I used to text them a lot. Well, back then a phone call, because texting was not as prevalent. But I have a little saying that I described in my text form. I said, it's very simple. It just said, "A new day, a new beginning." I did that, because when you go through a hard day, or you have failures in this and that, they've got to understand that the new day brings a new beginning. I wanted to instill that in their minds, and make that something that they thought about.

Because as old as we are nowadays, it's still true. It is a new day, a new beginning. When I have rough days, and I have many, because of my work, or things that I do, or the stresses that life has in itself, I have to remind myself that today, I start anew. A new journey. It's going to be better than yesterday.

Those are things that I've lived through. That I believe in. Those are values that my parents gave me. That my grandparents gave me. Those things are something that we'll never forget.

I remember, my dad when, like I said, he died when I was very young. But I remember him telling me, he said, "When you're with the public, when you're in public, when you're talking to people, they only see from you from here up. From your stomach up." That meant that you don't share bad feelings. You don't share bad things with your friends. That you share what's best of life with anyone.

Through the years that I've worked in my profession, that thought always came to mind. Because this is the way I had to deal with the general public, that I represented our company. Those are things that I still do, because as I work with our church, particularly our church, and in our community, those are things that I have to cherish. Because it's all so true. Those are ideals and ideas and thoughts that come from being very young, but always remembering the past. But not living in the past. But using it to help in your future. Those are things that we have to hold dear to ourselves.

Interviewer – When you joined the school board, what were some of your aspirations?

Pete – Well, the school board, one of the things that I wanted to do, I didn't get to do it until I joined the school board in 2004, which is when I retired from Sears in San Antonio. I was in San Antonio at the time. The reason it took me so long is because I had to live here in Elgin. I wasn't living in Elgin, I was always working outside the state, or outside of Elgin. So that was my first opportunity.

I give the credit for helping me in that, to Geno Chavarria. He kept calling me, and wanting me to consider running for the school board. He finally convinced me, and I ran. As a matter of fact, when I was running, I was living here. Well, we had our house. We had built our house here in Elgin, and Ester lived here in Elgin, but I was still working in San Antonio. So that was my transition. But the reason I wanted to be on the school board is kind of a story in itself. When we were taking our kids to school, we would take them to school in our car every morning before we went to work. We'd drop them off. Elgin Elementary had been built for the kids. Elgin Elementary, that's the one on 11th Street by our Catholic Church. Back then, I have no idea what the makeup was, as far as the school, or what their politics were and so forth. But I could see that there was many kids that would be in front of the door. The doors would be locked in the school, because they would open it up at a certain time. Those kids would be outside, whether it be cold or rainy, or what have you. I could see that. My heart went out to them. I felt a whole lot of sympathy for those kids, for those conditions. I told myself, if I ever had an opportunity to do something about it, I want to do that. I want to see what we can do to better themselves. So that came about, by having the opportunity to be on the school board. When I tell people that I ran for the school board because I ran for the students of our district, that comes with a very sincere message, and a very sincere reason. To this time, I've been on the school board going on 20 years now. That's one of the reasons I stay there. It's because I want to see that we do well for our kids, academically, socially, athletically. However it may be.

But there's an extension for the teachers. For the people, custodians, maintenance workers. Whoever has to be in our school system, that they represent us in the best way, and that they do those professions because of the good in their hearts, rather than just the paycheck. That's my goal in school. It's not necessarily that, as a school board member, you become an expert on this or that or what have you. But you want to know enough information to make some good decisions, and for good reasons. Always keeping an eye that we're doing the things that we do, because it's going to help our kids, and become what they need to be, and represent Elgin in a way that we want to be represented. That's my reasons for school board.

Interviewer – You've seen a lot of changes. What are the things that you're most proud of?

Pete – Yeah, the changes that have occurred, are that we have a lot of programs that benefit our kids. Our youth. Particularly some of our minority kids. Because you've got to understand, that about 60% of our makeup in our school now are Hispanic kids. When I was going to school, we had, I don't know, 54%, 55% Anglo. We had 20% Hispanic, and maybe 18%, 19% black. Then the rest of it goes into different areas. The makeup has changed a lot.

If you go back to our school annuals that we have, you flip through there, and I had an opportunity to do that, because I've been on the committee that puts students in the hall of honor, athletes. We were going back before 1965. I got to see a lot of the annuals, enough to try to remember some of the kids that were in school. You flip through those annuals, and you'll see a book full of our heritage. Full of our schools. But full of our Anglo students. Where you have categories of the most handsome, the most talented, the most athletic. You go on and on as to what you see in an annual. All of them were Anglo friends. In my year that I graduated, I see a lot of them that are still my friends. Some of them have passed away, but they're still my friends, and they're very good people. But they're the ones who were winning all the superlatives. You go into their picture, and you see four years of FHA, three years of the Beta Club. All the accolades that you have. Then you would go to the pictures of the Hispanic kids, and all you would find under their names were their name. That's it. No captions of anything that they did. It's like if they never existed, other than just having a picture and their name on there. That still bothers me when I see that. But we grew up in that period of time. We grew up in what was real at that time. We had very many good athletes, that we could at least recognize them for what they did, with the captions. We had a few people that were very good academically, which was never mentioned in the yearbook. Who put them together? Who was the people that were doing that? It certainly wasn't the Hispanic kids that were putting the annual together. But those were things that happened.

In today's composition of things, going through those books, you find many, many, many things about our Hispanic kids. Which is now more of what it should be, because that's the representation. The only regrets that I have about our Hispanic population here in Elgin, is that we have not been, as an ethnic group, we have not been as organized, or pushing forward for what we know of our history. We haven't done that. We've taken a back seat to all the other ethnic groups that have done that, and we're behind the eight ball on that. Hopefully things that you're doing they will at least capture some snippets of our history, and all that. There's so much that. I'm aware of, of our history, that is never mentioned. I read a little caption here, not too long ago, that said, "When somebody dies, history dies." I thought about, what does that mean to me? It means that the things that we know, the things that my friends that are getting older here in Elgin, and are dying, the things that they knew about our history? We'll never be able to recapture those. That's how history dies.

I'm afraid that we're going that same path. Because I could tell you so many things about what happened in Elgin. The rich tradition that the Hispanic people here had in Elgin. But that's what needs to be captured. That's what needs to be said. That's what needs to be done, anyway. We can go forever. Because there is a lot of history. There's so much history here in Elgin, on the Hispanic side, that it's unbelievable. It should be in books and the books could be written about this, but it's not.

Interviewer – Thank you for your time.