ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, August 14, 1996 TAG: 9608140053
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: TIJUANA, MEXICO
SOURCE: ROBERT LITTLE STAFF WRITER
note: above
Virginians take note: The governor has journeyed to Mexico and stumbled on a key to the mysteries of international trade, foreign relations and the free- market economy.
It's frogs. Stuffed frogs, dressed like Mexicans and drinking beer. The more revolting, the better.
Time was, Gov. George Allen said Tuesday on his informal trade mission (aka shopping spree) south of the border, that the streets of Tijuana were just brimming with stuffed frogs. Back when the roads were dirt and haggling was regarded as a science on par with nuclear physics back home.
But now, those frogs he grew to love are all but gone. And so is the border-town hullabaloo.
``So much has changed,'' Allen said. ``I liked it when it was more of an adventure. Now it's so ... so organized.''
In San Diego for the Republican National Convention, Allen traveled 15 miles south into Mexico to give his Virginia underlings a taste of some serious, hard-core commerce. He'd been to the border town four or five times before and always left laden with exotic trinkets, a stuffed reptile or two, and a renewed respect for the shameless capitalism of it all.
He billed the trip a trade mission, but planned to spend no time with Tijuana officials. He also called it a ``Virginia expedition.''
But what the trip amounted to, once Allen realized that so-called progress had eroded the stuffed frog market, was Virginia's top-ranking Republican, tailed by aides, state troopers and about a dozen reporters and photographers, walking the streets of Tijuana and hailing ``Frogs? Stuffed frogs?''
When a guest named Jose told him the Spanish word for frogs, he changed the mantra to ``Sapos, senor?''
Allen did have other purchases in mind - like Mexico's renowned vanilla extract. At Plaza Mondero, he negotiated his best price on Mexican jumping beans - 13 for a dollar - but balked at $14 and change for the elaborate ``rain stick'' noise maker.
``Don't you know? This is like wheeling and dealing,'' shouted proprietor Eric Gomez, crestfallen when Allen walked away. ``It's like Monte Hall.''
Minutes later, a block off Avenue Revolucion, he worked poor Miriam Aguiler from 10 bucks each to two for $12 on the ceramic angels he wanted for his wife, Susan.
``What, are you going to tell me you're losing money on this?'' Allen asked.
Then Aguiler whipped out a calculator, punched in some numbers mumbling about pesos and exchange rates, and announced that, yes, she was losing money.
``You ripped me off just now,'' she said. ``You're stingy.''
He kept the political image in mind all the while, of course. He declined the media's urgings that he ride a zebra-painted burro named ``Bimbo.'' He denied the photographers the pleasure of walking under a sign that said ``Topless Show Girls.''
But with each shack and shanty scoured, each corner turned, the disappointment mounted over the glaring sapo drought.
Then he found it. Deep in the back of a store-front shop called Kentucky Curios & Coins, which Allen quickly dubbed ``Colonel Sanches,''' was a whole shelf, head high, jammed with 50 or more frogs of all shapes and sizes.
It was ``sapo heaven,'' he said. ``The Madre load.''
So many choices. Sapos playing bongos. Sapos drinking hot sauce.
``This one is an ugly, sickening color,'' Allen said with a contented grin, grabbing a particularly plump sapo playing a strange Latin instrument. ``This could induce vomiting.''
With that, he made a half-hearted haggle down to six bucks, jammed two stuffed frogs into his bag and walked out the door toward the bus.
Finally, success, he said. But somehow, it just wasn't the same.
``It's gone down hill,'' Allen lamented. Then he looked over his shoulder and shouted.
``Jose, how do you say disgusting?''
Jose shouted something back.
``Repulsivo?'' asked Allen. Then he settled into his chair again, as if resigning to the changing times.
``Before, you could find it all,'' he sighed. ``Mucho repulsivo.''
LENGTH: Medium: 83 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE Gov. George Allen searches theby CNBalley shops of Tijuana, Mexico, on a "mission" for stuffed frogs
Tuesday. color