T-Shirt History

It was the late fall of 1977. The original Taco Box franchise based in El Paso had been defunct for several years and all but a few of the original Taco Box locations had been shuttered.  Thomas was 2 ½ and Gail was pregnant with Kacie.  Tom had been contacted by his original Taco Box partner, Ron Dudas, to join him once again.  Ron envisioned that they could gather what was left of Taco Box and open restaurants around the world, across the street from every McDonald’s.  One of the first steps was to reopen the Taco Box in Roswell.
 
Ron had met a young kid in Farmington named John Snowberger, whom he thought was management material.  Ron asked John and Tom to go to Roswell to check out the facility, and when they walked into the small dining area there, they were greeted by a piece of art.  Hand-painted by the son of the last manager (Howie Whiting),  it was a two-panel menu board.  On the right was the menu, and on the left panel was an Art Nouveau-meets-Peter Max painting of a young girl with flowing blonde hair sipping from a turquoise Taco Box cup.  The menu was of no use, but the painting of the girl was too beautiful to destroy.  It was saved and framed.
 
The painting has been in the Taco Box corporate office for years.  Just this spring,  one of the literally thousands of people who have seen it and commented on it said “That would make a great t-shirt.” Local graphic artist Liz Eisenbraun took the art and transformed it into a silk-screenable piece and thus was created the first in a series of Limited Edition Works of Art t-shirts.

To create this series of t-shirts, local artists were contacted and asked to produce pieces of art for the t-shirts.  As Works of Art, these will not be the average run-of-the-mill logo-emblazoned t-shirts. With no direction or instruction, the artists will create their concept and vision of Taco Box.  These are truly going to be art pieces to be worn and passed on.

On a side note, the alliance between Tom, Ron and the others fell apart after a few months.  And the Snowberger kid?  He kept the Roswell Taco Box, sold it and joined Tom as a partner in Clovis/Portales for about 10 years.  He then joined McDonald’s and has since gone on to own several McDonald’s franchises.  He must be doing OK, as he has not asked Tom for his old job back.  And the first Taco Box imprinted cup that was produced was inspired by the turquoise cup in the painting by Whiting.