Local businessman lived like ‘Opie’ as a child

Community Corner

By SCARLET O’ROURKE
Special to the NEWS

Leo Ramirez of San Benito is shown at the Heavin Resaca Trail Thursday. It's a place he's visited ever since he was a kid. (Photo by Scarlet O'Rourke)

There have been many people from many walks of life who have been able to enjoy the Heaven Resaca Trail in San Benito, and 51-year-old Leo Ramirez is one of them.

Since he was a child he was around the area now home of the trail. He reminisced that his childhood resembled that of Opie from the Andy Griffith Show.

He grew up across the tracks near the resaca in a family with nine children. “Having a big family is a wonderful thing,” he said. As one of the youngest, he remembers coming out to the resaca before it even had a trail to fish and skip rocks with his brothers and sisters. “We used to sneak out at night to go fishing here,” Ramirez said, “until we got caught by my mother. She put a stop to that.” To put his mother’s mind at ease, one of his oldest siblings would accompany the children when they went out to play near the water’s edge.

For more on this story, pick up a copy of the Jan. 12 edition of the San Benito News. Or view our E-Edition by clicking here.