Hello y’all. This is day 2 of my self-imposed task of reminiscing, talking and sharing my musings with you. I hope there’s someone out there who is reading all this stuff, if there’s someone, please leave me a comment and let me know your thoughts!!
Yesterday, I told you about how miserable I was when I arrived in this country, which its been some years ago. To give you an idea of how long, it was the year of the horrible riots in Detroit when people were burning their own neighborhoods, looting stores, killing each other and creating mayhem (come to think of it, not much different than today) I remember being scared when I would heard the roar of the national guard helicopters flying overhead and I thought: “And people say that our countries are bad” Another clue, I flew in via Pan American Airlines, see, its been a long time. I told you of how I felt a little better in the spring when the neighbors planted their flower gardens and I could smell the sweet aroma of the roses, when I could hear the birds chirping in the tree branches, now filled with beautiful, green leaves, and the outdoors filled with people’s chatter and laughter. Yes, I felt a little better but still missed my family and home country so much. I was lucky to have been born into a very close knit, loving family!
Fast forward at least three decades. Last night I was invited to share an evening with some wonderful people who used to be neighbors and friends when my children where young and going to elementary, middle and high school. These persons mother, who now resides in Heaven, was my good friend and adviser. Well, last night, we sat around the kitchen island drinking coffee and me tea, and chatting about so many different things, looking at school books, remembering the summers when we would sit around a picnic table eating popsicle sticks, or watermelon, the kids playing in the swings or monkey bars, but all laughing and enjoying the warm summer afternoons away. At some point, we remembered that I had made the high school cheerleaders uniforms, and how we the mothers, were each other’s support and anchor. The chat was filled with a lot of laughter that before we knew it was 1:30 a.m. If you know me, you will know that I head for my bedroom no later than 8:30 p.m. Soo, yeah, I enjoyed that visit last night. Thank you to the three girls, the brother and husband to one of the girls for thinking and inviting me to share this time with them!
Back to yesterday. When I first saw my in laws standing at my front door, I thought, what a handsome looking couple. My mother in law was this petite, blond and well groomed lady. She had the most beautiful blue eyes; while my father in law, was taller with darker hair but with kind, twinkling and laughing eyes, at least that’s what I remember. When we arrived at their home, I met a sister in law and her family; she had two children, a boy and a gil. The girl, as I remember, was this doll like child with the bluest eyes, page cut blond hair who was so loving to me, this having just met me. The son took over my sons and tried very hard to make himself understood; remember that we had just arrived from a Spanish speaking country and we didn’t speak English. A plane flew over and this young boy pointed up and would say: AEROPLANE… to which my sons would respond: No, AVION!! This went on for a while and finally the three boys gave up and went onto something else. Memories!
After a while, life became routine and the three of us began to acclimate ourselves to our new environments. When I first got married, we lived in my country and we had a cook, a lived in baby sitter and a watchman, I didn’t do anything arduos such as washing cloths or cooking, no I spent my time playing with my baby son, swimming and lounging around… lol… as a result, when I came to this country found out that I HAD TO DO EVERYTHING, and that’s when I found out that I was a lousy cook, so much so that one day my husband brought home a porter house steak, never having cooked one of those things, I chopped it up and pan fried it with tomatoes and onions!!! That’s the reasons why Campbell soup and bologna became my very best friends.
The neighbors we had were great and some made an effort to learn to communicate with me; the boys didn’t have much trouble and loved watching tv programs: Captain Kangaroo; Mr. Green Jeans; Bozo the Clown; Speed Rider and others while I stuck with my soap operas; it worked because we learn some English and to this days I maintain that As the World Turns was my best English teacher. Of those long ago days, I specifically remember one sunny, windless and hot summer afternoon when my next door neighbor invited me to seat in her back yard with some girl friends who were visiting. While we drank cold tea, one of the ladies shared that she would be flying to Miami to seat in the sun to get sun tanned. Soon after, I rolled up my blouse sleeves, this lady looked at me and told me: “O my God, you’re so dark, people are going to discriminate when they see you; and I really don’t like Hispanics.” Upon hearing that, my part indian (and I don’t mean from India) blood rose up and I told her: You don’t like brown skin people like me, but you’re willing to pay thousands of dollars to artificially get a little bit of what God gave me naturally” then I stood up and left. At that time, one hardly saw Hispanics around!
On that note, have a good, safe and blessed weekend and ’till next time!!
It was so much fun reminiscing. Talking about the past and how it all shaped our futures. Thank you for spending time with us. I look forward to seeing all the kids one day soon.
These are so heartwarming. Thank you for sharing and making a beautiful record of your story to share with our children. I want to read these to the boys so that they understand a special part of you. Not everyone is fortunate enough to read the thoughts and stories their grandmother leaves them.
Thank you. If you read todays, you will read about the birth of their dad. You know I’m not adding any names.