Mi Abuelito (My grandpa)

When the topic for this blog came up I had tough time thinking about what I could possibly write about. I rarely remember any dreams except for the extremely odd ones. By odd, I mean power rangers, movies, and video games. I don't remember or really have many dreams that relate to my life situations, it's frustrating at times because it feels like I must not have something important to have dreams about. This will probably continue to be true, but considering that I've been thinking a lot about what this blog would be about I think I must have tried harder to keep things in mind whenever I would end up with random thoughts in mind or had dreams.

With blog in mind, I woke up for class this past Friday at six in the morning. I don't get up right away, so I lay there thinking about how badly I don't want to get up. This morning was different though, instead of staring at my clock as the time goes by, my grandpa came to mind. I thought about my grandpa for about ten minutes, from my oldest memories of him till my last memory of him. I haven't seen my grandpa for over 6 years, so to have him on my mind at 6 in the morning on Friday like any other Friday was odd to me.

My oldest memory of my grandfather took place in Los Angeles, my birthplace, my grandparents managed a sewing factory and I would spend a lot of time there while my parents worked. There was a candy vending machine inside and my grandpa would always open it and take candy out for me because like any other kid, I loved candy.  I must have been 2 or 3 years old while I lived in Los Angeles because my family moved to Yuba City when I was 4. I always am amazed that I remember my grandpa pleasing my candy cravings when I was 2, an age where I think most people have a hard time recalling. 

My grandpa was in my life until about the age of 16, when my grandma and he decided to split (they were never really married).  They had both been living in Los Angeles after spending about 12 years in Yuba City, where my grandpa continued being my go to relative for candy. I don’t know the full story, but from what I know my grandpa was quite the alcoholic and my grandma was done with it, packed her bags and came back to Yuba City.  My grandpa stayed in Los Angeles and somehow it was decided within the family that he was no longer part of the family. 

I was young and going through at lot on my own at the time, so I never really asked too many questions or thought too long about what or where my grandpa could be doing. My memories of him were always fun though and I will always hold onto them. He is probably the reason why I still love eating an absurd amount of candy and get excited any time I enter a candy aisle at a store, any time I saw my grandpa I knew we would walk down to the local gas station or nearest corner store to get some candy. 

My grandpa was out of my life for about a year until one day, I believe it was sometime in the fall when I was 16. I was at home with my brother Ivan when an unexpected knock came to our door and we ran to open it and find out who it was. It was my grandpa; I was both filled with excitement and confusion because I did not know why he would show up unannounced after almost a year. If I knew this was going to be the last time I would see him, I probably would have been more welcoming than awkward about it. The reason for him being there was because he was waiting on a nephew (from a previous marriage he had) to pick him up and needed somewhere to wait. 

Like I said, I felt awkward about him being at my house randomly, so I told him that we should go to 7-11 and kill time while we waited. We walked down the street to the store and I couldn’t help but feel like when I was a little kid. Walking down to the local store with my grandpa to get some candy, how happy I was to have this feeling again. Eventually they picked him up and I said goodbye, not knowing it was going to be my last time with him, I said to him that he should stop by more often if he’s going to be in Yuba.

I haven’t heard from him or about him since then.  I haven’t been able to figure out why is it that I woke up at six with my grandpa on my mind. I know that I will cherish my time with him and the ridiculous amount of candy he fed me. I can only think that the reason why he somehow popped into my head on that Friday is because I need to figure out what happened to him. 

 (Unfortunately I don't have pictures of my grandpa on my computer or at my apartment, so I have to go with an image that always reminds me of my grandpa. Not only because he somewhat looks like the character, but because my family always said he WAS this character. "El Borracho" means "The Drunk" in Spanish. The image is from an old Mexican card game that is somewhat like Bingo.)