I've taken a couple of extra days off this year during the holidays. I just have so much time on the books that I need to take some and I just felt like it. The weather is rainy and it's kind of nice just being home alone. No John and all the spelling questions. Me and my cats. So I'm enjoying it. I decided to get down and begin my life story for my son. If he reads it that's great, if he doesn't and never finds it, well it will have made me feel good writing my story before I can't remember it. So where do I begin?
I was born Sindi Angela Uribe in Oakland California in the Oakland Hospital on October 7, 1951. I already have 4 older brothers and sisters from my fathers first marriage. They are Bernard Uribe Jr, Barbara, Alexander and Anita. At this writing my brother Alex had committed suicide in Sept. 2007 and has been gone, but more on other the family members later. I also have an older brother Gary and a younger sister Princess. I would say my childhood was normal but I don't think my family had much and we were poor, but I was happy and didn't know the difference. I got hand me downs, I had a loving family, my dad was very generous to us second generation kids and I just didn't know any different. My mother has always worked as a hair dresser and I remember that I wanted her to stay home like other kids mom, but she worked. My dad was self employed doing cement work with his father and later my brothers, but the boys didn't like the work and quit.
During the early years age 0-5 I would say I have few recollections accept that I spent a lot of time with my mother parents, my Nana and Nano. I remember more about that time with them than with my own house. I loved them, played in the back yard where they had their own vegetables, played in the front on this thing I thought was a slide, but my grandmother would always want me to stop. My mom would tell me she was very protective of us kids. They lived in a part of Oakland that many Italians settled when coming from Italy. Both my grandparent came to America, I believe they met here and married. They came from different villages and probably because of work and the possibility of a new life they came to America. Anyway my Aunt Inez was born in 1916 and my mother in 1919. I have done a lot of work on Ancestry.com to trace my family. Go there and find more information about this side of my family if interested.
I remember going with my Nana and Nano to shop. Stopping to talk with other Italians. I unfortunately didn't understand what they were saying, but we managed to communicate. I was very close with them and their love for me was an important part of my life and who I am. My Nana was a good cook, the house had a basement where she made her own pasta, ravioli and canning. I remember spending time with her there in the basement. My Nano would work in the back yard, but my mom told me he worked in the fish market in downtown Oakland. I don't remember seeing him there, but maybe he was retired by then. Playing, eating, counting my money in my piggy bank and always spending Xmas Eve with them are my greatest memories. They died in 1961 & 62 and I was only 10 and that was a big loss for me. I went to their funerals not totally understanding death. But I guess that's when I learned.
When I began school I attended E. Morris Cox elementary school in Oakland, California. I lived not far from the San Leandro border near E. 14th St, now call International Blvd. Cox was located on 98th Ave and San Leandro Blvd. Great school and I can remember seeing my brother Gary 4 years ahead at school. We had a diverse student body and I've always appreciated the differences between people and nationalities. I had a couple of black girlfriends that lived around to corner. They ate corn bread and we didn't. Good experience. I also learn about differences through my father. I remember having a Chinese boyfriend in 3rd grade and my father was very upset. He perhaps did not explain it well but the point he was making was that he is Asian and should stay with his own kind. He continued to explain black with black, white with with, Asian with Asian. That was one of those milestone memories you have during the course of your life that shape you. How do I feel about it now? I married a Filipino but never had my parents meet his parents so I was afraid of what my father felt.
I felt growing up to be pretty independent. Always doing my own thing, but somewhere in my life the fear I had of my father was enough to keep me in line. I'm sorry for that today, I wish he could have been more loving and able to discuss his feeling with me. I would have liked to have known more about my dad, what he had done, where he had been, what he did in the Navy. I must have been shut down early about asking questions cause even today I don't ask many questions. For one I don't want to appear stupid and two I'm afraid of being made fun of. Low self esteem from someone that wasn't afraid to step out and be the leader. Today, I'm just in the background and prefer to be that way. Til next time when we begin to look at sexual assult and how if effected me later in life.
No comments:
Post a Comment