Grampo's Thanksgiving 2008

I celebrated Thanksgiving with Kathi and her family here in Huntington Beach. It was a very nice and intimate gathering where we shared a very delicious dinner prepared by all. The turkey was carved by Carl0s; and a good job he did. He said that carving the "guajolote" was not as easy as demonstrated on TV but he coped with it.

It was good to once more see Nikki and Geoff and Mark and Grace. They are good mijos and I love them greatly as did their Gramma Curley. Many proud moments they gave us throughout their growing years.

I've been watching lots of football and basketball with Carlos, but at times he startles me by his loud yelling when he gets upset by the dumb things the players do during the games...and I'm hard of hearing, but it is nice to watch a team play that we mutually like.

Kat has fixed up one of the rooms in her house into a nice and cozy nook of a den with a love seat and a comfortable classic chair which I seemed to have taken over. It's very comfortable sitting in the classic chair reading the newspapers that Kathi supplies me with. All I need to complete the scene is my robe, a cravat, a pipe and let's not forget a hassock to put up my feet!

We've gone to Starbucks which I appreciated greatly and many memories swirl through my mind about my Lippie, when she was also taken to Starbucks. She did not particularly like the coffee from there, but drank it with a frown. She preferred the coffee from the Hilton or Mac Donald's. Many years ago I took her to a coffee shop on Mt. Vernon. She liked coffee, I did not. So when she was not looking, I made faces when sipping the coffee. At least I didn't frown in front of her.

Thanksgiving also takes me back many years ago when the Friday after Thanksgiving everybody at the Santa Fe took big left over turkey sandwiches for lunch. There was no way and no fun to exchange "tacos" in the hope that they would be better than yours.

Now, at my age, I am not as active as I used to be. My life is nothing to be excited about and my guess is that it really never was; even when I was younger. All I can do now is rely on what I can remember of the past and remembering is getting to be more difficult than ever.

It is going to be the month of December very soon. Things and time were not too merry when growing up and it got worse when our father "vamoosed" to Mexico. I was never too enthused about working and when in high school, I wasn't too happy thinking of the pending Christmas vacation...I had to go pick oranges during those two weeks! Every day I would bring home some select oranges and every day my Mother would pack me a lunch of "tacos" and an orange for dessert. Figure it out.

"Tacos" at that time were what everybody today refers to as a "burrito". I have no idea how that came about, but I do know the word "burrito" was not mentioned in polite circles. A worker was designated to start a campfire before noon so that everybody could roast their "tacos" on the hot embers at lunchtime. One had to keep a sharp eye out on ones "tacos" because some sharpies had a habit of "mistakenly" picking up somebody elses "tacos".

I was a very slow picker and did not pick close to the hundred boxes of oranges some workers picked. At the end of the day everybody yelled out the number of boxes picked to the straw boss except me. I would sidle up the boss and whisper the number I had picked. Even a one-armed worker of the crew used to pick more boxes that I did.

I hope each of you had a peaceful Thanksgiving surrounded by family or friends.

The Frist Blog

The holidays make me nostalgic. Years gone by and what's to come. Each of us get so busy with our every day lives, there's hardly and chance to sit back and take in the day. I thought this would be a great way for us to catch up on what's going on in our everyday life; be it mundane, but still grateful for the day. Feel free create a post so that we can keep in touch one way or the other. All my love to each of you!