My Turkey Trotter

Busting my buttons, proud as punch and tickled pink! I could probably come up with a few other clichés, but I'll just say that Daughter never ceases to please me with her accomplishments. She is back to getting fit and what she enjoys is running. Yesterday she finished in the San Antonio Turkey Trot. Not bad for an asthmatic kid.

Here she is around two years old. Although I remember mostly a healthy child, she did have the scary moments. One that I recall now is when she was around two or three years old, and had trouble breathing. I called the doctor's office and besides ordering medication, the nurse gave me the suggestion to get in the bathroom, run the hot water in the shower so that the whole room would fill with steam. The steam should help clear the bronchial tubes.

I followed the instructions, and Daughter and I sat in there. I knew she was scared because I could feel her little body shaking. I thought it was because she was having a difficult time breathing. I just held her in my lap, trying to comfort her. Maybe it was the medications and/or the steam treatment, but she did recuperate from that asthmatic attack. It was not until many years later, when she and I were recalling that episode that she told me the reason she was so scared was not because she had trouble breathing. She thought I was going to make her take a steaming hot shower! A good lesson to always communicate with your children.

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.

Sandias are Festive . . .

This last Father’s Day was special in several ways. For hubby it was the first Father’s Day since becoming a grandfather! Adding to that, our grandson was with us, so I decided to have a very informal Open House. The purpose of such an event was to have other California family members meet him.


I improvised a menu with entries that were easy to prepare, but at the same time a bit festive. How else can we justify having deviled eggs and watermelon included on the bill of fare? Back when Dad had the fruit stand, I particularly thought of watermelons being special and festive.

I remember Dad going to the produce market in San Antonio once or twice a week. Back then the melons sold for one to three cents a pound. I recall Dad stating that the melons grown in Luling were the best. After the loaded truck arrived at the fruit stand, there was the task of unloading them. There is no way of doing that except one melon at a time. Picture the bucket brigade in some little towns of yore struggling to put out a fire. That was the way it was done from the truck to the cold storage (which melons sold for a half cent to one cent higher than the others). After that came the unloading to the outdoor display. That was a beautiful display, and Daddy always made the signs with the price. The outdoor display could be fenced in, but for some seasonal displays the fence came down during the day and went back up at night.



My young brother loved playing around the watermelons when he was a small boy. I liked watching people who came to buy the watermelon. Some would inspect the stem part of the melon; others would listen to the sound as they rapped on the melon like they were knocking at the door. Still others would ask Mom or Dad to see the inside of the melon to taste and view its color. This was done without opening the melon. A square roughly 2 inches by 2 inches was cut at such angles that when it was pulled out it had the shape of a pyramid. After inspection by the customer—and I don’t remember a watermelon ever being rejected—the pyramid which now lacked the top was plugged back into the melon.

During the watermelon season, which seemed to last the whole summer, Mom always found a way to get a watermelon to her mother, Mama Yaya. Usually she succeeded in sending her a melon three or four times during the season. Mama Yaya loved watermelons, and I am told that she could and would make a watermelon a complete meal. Mama Yaya had no teeth. I don’t know when she lost her teeth, but I don’t recall ever seeing her with any dentures or her own teeth. Watermelon may have been one of her favorite foods because it was easier for her to eat than other food. At any rate, in her view, watermelons were a treat and she considered them festive food, too.



Our family Sunday traditions, I recall, was for Mom, my sister and I to attend Mass at St Anthony’s Catholic Church. Dad stayed at the fruit stand working. After Mass, the three of us would walk to visit Mama Yaya. On the way from church to Mama Yaya’s we stopped at a neighborhood tiendita. There we purchased pan dulce, milk, or other things to take to my grandmother. When our visit was coming to an end, Mom would announce our departure. But Mama Yaya not wanting to have our visit come to an end would humorously announce, “Al rato vamos a partir una sandía.” To me it meant: don’t leave now. The festivities will start before long and in a while we are going to cut open a watermelon.

Mama Yaya, you were in my thoughts this Father’s Day. I wish my grandson and you could have met. Even though you were not physically at our Open House, I know your spirit was here enjoying our gathering and the sandía.