[Borders Reivers]

As a teenager, I worked at John E. Mitchell Company in Dallas. Built Mark IV aftermarket auto air-conditioners and other things.

One of the "other things" was ICEE machines. JEMCO bought the ICEE machine patent from a guy in Fort Worth for $25,000.

One of my after-work friends at that time was Mariano Martinez who owned a Mexican restaurant in Dallas called, not surprisingly "Mariano's".

One hot summer afternoon couple buds and I rolled into Mariano's for a drink. Mariano hisownself was behind the bar.

Get to talking about ICEE machines and Mariano gets the idea why not do frozen alcoholic drinks?

So a friend and I liberate an ICEE machine out of JEMCO on a repair ticket and deliver it to Mariano's.

Mariano Martinez tried making frozen versions of all the 1970's cocktails (Harvey Wallbanger, Tequila Sunrise etc etc) but what he really wanted was ICEE frozen beer.

Frozen beer was just the worst thing ever. Carbonation tried to blow up the ICEE machine and the final product was rancid tasting.

One thing after another until Mariano got the combination right with frozen Margaritas and Daquiris.

The rest is published history and that frozen margarita machine is today in the Smithsonian museum.

ETA: And that repair ticket is still open