ForeverMissed
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Birthdays

September 9, 2016

Today is your birthday.  I just want to thank you for always celebrating our bithdays.  I know we were poor as dirt, but you always had a cake ready for us.  If you think we dont remember those little things, you are wrong.  I cannot forget the fact that you always had us in your mind.  Thanks for celebrating us.   It is our time to celebrate you!!   I miss you so much.  I will celebrate you today.   

Today is your 88th birthday

September 9, 2016

I miss you so much.  I know you would enjoy having cake and coffee.  So I will today.  I wll add a shot of some good Polish Vodka!!  Cheers.
 

El Veneno

February 9, 2016

When we reached our teenaged years while in Mexico City, we began to hang out with friends from school, get into all sorts of mischief and eventually we began to hang out at parties. In the late 60's, any young adult could count on finding a "Fiesta" somewhere on Friday night, they were everywhere.

My Bff Jose Guerra, was a budding lead guitarist for a band of fellow musician friends, and he'd always have some gig lined up for Friday and or Saturday night. Since I was just starting to learn guitar, I would attend their rehearsals and most of the time join in on the jam sessions and was appaled at how bad their english pronunciation was when they attempted to sing the popular songs of the day.

To help them out, I devised a means of transcribing the songs from english to a form of "Spanglish" were I'd find a way to write the english words in phonetical Spanish, then have them memorize those words. Pretty soon they got good at it enough to were the group was extremely popular.

At 3-4 AM, when the parties were over, we would all be hung over but restless, and looking for someplace to unwind, but since every eatery establishment would be closed at that hour, we all knew we could come over to my house, for my dear mom would have "Pan Dulce" and "Veneno" ready on the stove. Veneno (poison) was nothing more than hot water, Nestle Instant coffee, some evaporated milk and a ton of sugar. It became the popular "After Party" drink, and my mom's kitchen table was were the day's review discussion and future planning would take place until mom, sensing we were sober enough, would send us all home to sleep it off.

She Enriched Our Lives

February 8, 2016
"Holiday On Ice" began shows down in México City  in 1947 where it created a sensation. 

Business was muy bueno!  

Mom would take us to see this show every year as far as I can remember. She also loved the theater and remember how she bought tickets for me and my sister to see "Grease" en espanol.  Remember, we were very poor but she continued to enrich our lives despite of that fact.    We grew up listening to her records:  Bach, Beethoven, Big bands (Tommy Dorsey), Elvis Presley , The Beatles, and more.  But mostly we listened to the beautiful music of Frédéric Chopin. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBmcYirzias 

She Loved the Movies

February 8, 2016

Ever since she was a little girl my mom enjoyed the movies.  She would spent most of her young adult years going to the double features, sometimes triple features - who remembers that!!!

Growing up in Mexico we lived in a 7 story apartment building.  I remember vividly when my mom would take all the kids in our building who wanted to go to the movies with her. She would drag between 5-10 kids at the time. How she managed that number of kids all by herself continues to  remain a mystery. We didn't have a car since  they were not a norm in such big city.  We would walk, take the bus or the subway.  She take 8 kids and came back with 8.  She loved the movies so much that all she wanted was to share that with everyone, it was her small way of enriching lives. She was amazing!!!

Kitchen Table

February 5, 2016

I will always have very fond memories of sitting around the kitchen table at 28th & C with Grace and Tina. Back in those days, Tina and I roomed together and when Tina called her mom to ask how she was doing, she also asked what she was cooking :-} Stuffed cabbage... we were there! We shared a meal, shared a glass/bottle, shared stories, and shared many smiles!!

Grace, you raised a beautiful family and I'm grateful to have known you and your family!! xoxo

The Bus

February 1, 2016

Our mother never learned to drive a motor vehicle. It may seem strange in this day and age but Grace really had one foot in the present and the other firmly planted in a time long ago.  She never owned what she called a refrigerator but she did have the "Ice Box".  In the day of cell and cordless phones, her phone was always tethered to the wall.  And of course the local bus was the best way to go about town without depending on anyone for help.  

You could tell her where you want to go and she knew the bus route and connection to get you there.  She knew the bus drivers and some of the regular passengers as friends and fellow travelers in life.  We worried that in her later years something bad would happen to her and, in fact, she did take a couple of spills; on the other hand her free spirit kept her on the road "takin' the 407 and then get a transfer to the 319 ...."

San Juan de Letran

January 25, 2016

Grace, our mother, while forced to pinch "centavos" for most of our stay in Mexico City, would always wait for her alimony check to come in at the end of the month, then she would turn around and tell us kids, "come on, we are going to Woolworth's". It was her way of treating her kids to a little something other than the house staples of beans and rice. She had a deal with my brother Dan and myself, in that she would buy us one treat and "one of anything, as long as it wasn't too expensive (that would have to wait until Christmas)".

I always got me a Banana Split or a Root Beer Float, and a Beatles 45 RPM, Dan would get Ice cream as well, and a Doors 45 RPM, plus we got to run around the store, gawking at all the new stuff. That's how we both built up our record collections.

Later on, when Woolworth turned out to be too passe, she would switch to "Window Shopping" down San Juan de Letran, the clothing district in Downtown Mexico City. She would take all of us kids, buy us street "Golosinas" and we'd walk for hours up and down the streets of downtown, looking at clothes, shoes, electronics, toys, books, records, and whatever was on display in a window. As much as I hated the walking, the trips were always free entertainment and we bonded as a family.

To this day, when I find myself looking through a shop window, I am reminded of the fun times we all had wearing out the soles of our shoes. Thanks Mom. Love ya!

 

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