Happy Birthday, Son

Forty-one years ago: I remember this day very well, forty-one years ago. It was the week-end that we change time, so the nurses at the hospital were grumbling about having to work an extra hour. California fires were raging and our cars were covered with ashes and soot, although the fires were not that close to populated areas. The Santa Ana conditions made the temperature hot and there was little to no humidity. But in all this negativity, we were just overjoyed that our son was born. He was a big baby (almost nine pounds), and it was not the easiest delivery, but the pain is soon forgotten when that newborn is placed in your arms. We welcomed our sweet bundle of joy on this day around one o'clock in the morning.

Today, my little baby boy may have grey hair and grown to be over six feet tall, but he is still a sweetheart. His dad baked this cake and I iced it. Chocolate cake is still his favorite. For a gift he received a CD of Enrique Iglesias hits. We already played it, and enjoyed it.

 

A happy, happy birthday fellah!

Day of Dead Presentation

This afternoon I did a presentation at the Buena Park Public Library. The topic was El Dia de los Muertos - Day of the Dead. This is the first year they have had this, so we had no idea how many people to expect or who our audience was going to be.

We got to the library about an hour before the scheduled start so that I could set up an altar and set up the computer and projector, etc. Here is the table just starting to set it up for the altar.

 

Next is the table set up. I didn't think the table was going to be this big, so the ofrendas had to be spaced out a little bit. But otherwise, I think it worked out okay.

 

Here is the section for Mom and Dad:

 

This one is especially for Dad. American flag and the fresh produce.

  

This one is for Mom. Figs, Pizza Hut pizza, and behind her picture is Chocolate Mexicano.

 

 And here I am trying to get everyone interested in finding out about their ancestors and doing family history.

 It was fun building an altar to honor my parents and my grandparents. It is the first time that I built one, and what I have learned is that anything goes. If this set up hadn't been at the library I probably would have included live plants and lots and lots of candles. Maybe more food items, also. As it was, I was glad to have my two greatest helpers, Hubby and Son, carry all of these ofrendas.

The  staff at the library was just great, but the best were the audience. They were genuinely interested in the topic. We had about 100 people, more than half were children. After the talk about the altar, there was a high school group dancing folkloric numbers. The children and parents then painted masks and enjoyed refreshments that included Pan de Muertos.

When we finally got home, Hubby and I were literally exhausted, but it was a good tired, a satisfied tired.

At the Farmers' Market

We were at the Farmers' Market yesterday. We bought the tastiest persimmons. These are the fuji persimmons, and have the texture of an apple, not squishy like the other persimmons I remember as a child.





















The other things that caught my eye were not related to farm products at all. There were many things for Halloween, but I saw these little figurines for the Dia de los Muertos.

I liked this bullfighter and Frida Kahlo standing behind him. Note the smaller figure in purple between the charro and bullfighter. I think she is supposed to represent the Catrina. I was hoping to find sugar skulls, but the lady at the booth said she wasn't going to bring them to the market until next week.

National Disability Employment Awareness Month

I just today found out that October has been designated as National Disability Employment Awareness Month. This is the first I hear of it. Or, if I heard of it before, I had forgotten because there has been little fanfare given to it. It seems that this designation was given a few years ago. One good thing that I must congratulate the Bush administration for. Check out the two websites.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/10/print/20081001-12.html

http://www.dol.gov/odep/

My favorite employer in this world is Pizza Hut because they have employed our developmentally disabled son for more than 18 years!

 

Here he is in the walk-in "cooler" transferring pizzas to be placed in the "warmer" so that the dough will rise.

Early Voting

Hubby and I voted yesterday. We took advantage of early voting now available. Every time I vote I get a sense that I have completed a civil responsibility, and I have voted at every election day since I became voting age. Even in the very beginning when we had to pay a poll tax I took voting seriously. I think the right to vote should be exercised even when the person you vote for may not have a chance of winning. But this year I think I voted for the winner!

Remembering Sam's Words

I got a phone call today from a member of a genealogical society. The caller maintains their website. He was interested in posting parts of the book which my brother and I put out a few years back containing Dad's memoirs. I was agreeable to the idea, but that got me to thinking about my Dad's life. He never did talk to us, his children, about his early life. He would say, "¿Para que quieres saber?" Even Mom was not aware of his childhood experiences until she found his little red diary--a year and a half after his death. Well, that call sent me back to  the book and to memories of Daddy.

I have several favorite photos of Dad, but tonight I have chosen two:

This first one, I titled At the River. This photo was taken in the earlly 1950s, and Dad and Mom both look healthy and happy. Dad was demonstrative in his affections, hugging and kissing Mom all the time. I guess that's why I am always hugging people, too.

My other favorite photo of Dad was taken when he was a teenager working for Western Union.

 

Here are Sam's own words from his little book:

"Mostly every day at noon and after school, about three or four of us boys from the Catholic school would go and flirt with the pretty girls from that little school (in those schools, no mas
chicanos).
 
A year later, I went to public school. My teacher’s name was Mrs. Borum.  In that school it was nice, ‘cause there was the regular system. But again, after one year or so, I had to quit
school to go to work. This time as a messenger boy at the ‘Western Union.’

At $30.00 a month. The rush of telegrams was in winter, at least six to eight months. I enjoyed my job, especially when I received tips. I worked one year and then I had to quit that job, ‘cause $30.00 was not enough. I cried when I quit that job. Then I had to go work in the fields picking vegetables.
 
Again, it was something new for me. I didn’t make enough for my lunch, and it was rough, cause it was cold and rainy or really hot sun, we had to work. Y como dije antes, no ganaba ni para el lunch. "

Trees got staked.

Yesterday morning while the temperature was in the 90s Hubby decided we had to stake our new trees because he had to return the stake pounder later that morning.

 

It was hard work especially for people our age with replaced knees, arthritic joints, etc. But I think he did a fantastic job. His hands and joints were sore last night and today, but there is a great sense of achievement. Now we just have to remember to water wisely. We are still in a drought here in California. 

This is one of our trees with the stakes, but that trunk is still very small. Hope it gains girth before the Santa Ana winds start this month.

Apple, apple, apple cobbler

On the south side of our house we have had two apple trees for about eight years. Last year and this year we have had a bountiful harvest of apples. We do not do very much in taking care of these trees as far as pruning or fertilizing. We do try to keep them watered, so they have somehow survived our years of neglect.

The picture below is of the bigger, sweeter apples, the Pettingills.

 

The smaller apples below are the Fuji.

But the best part of these beautiful apples is the consumption. This year we have given away some of the apples, and eaten some fresh, too. But tonight Hubby made his own delicious concoction, and called it sort of a cobbler. Whatever he wants to call it, I call it scrumptious. And it is disappearing fairly fast.

Poll Tax and Voter Rights Act of 1965

 

I watched the Biden-Palin debate tonight, and although it did not change my mind, it did bring some memories of how in Texas, one had the right to vote, but only if he/she paid a poll tax. 

The half-page advertisement above appeared in one of the issues of the Robstown Record in January 1950. Oh the tales that have been told of corruption and fraud in the 1940s and 1950s in Texas.

My first presidential voting opportunity came in 1960. John F Kennedy came to Austin, and stopped by the UT campus. I did get to shake John Kennedy's hand, and I still remember it vividly. He looked right at me and had a strong but brief hold of my hand. I think everyone in the crowd got the same eye contact and hand shake. I also remember Sam Rayburn and Lyndon B Johnson were among the other dignitaries, but I only had eyes and ears for the charismatic, handsome Kennedy.

My mom and dad always voted Democratic. My dad told me that the Republican was the party of the rich people and they did not care for Latin Americans or poor people. He told us that the Democratic party was the way to go because even if there were rich politicians, they at least did more for our people.

Since the presidential election of 2004, I have been intermittently employed by the Office of Personnel Management to assist the Department of Justice in observing polling places in cities or counties that have been found non-compliant with the Voting Rights Act of 1965, passed under LBJ's watch. It gives me great satisfaction that this time in my life, I can assist in making sure that Americans of different colors, ethnicities, religions, disabilities are not disenfranchised. 

It really disappointed me when on one of my recent trips to Texas, I was told that many Democrats don't even go to the polling place anymore. They, I was told, think that their vote will not make a difference because the Republicans have been winning all the state and national elections.