Late Night Snack

I usually go to bed late (~1:30-2:00) so by 4:00 I am in my first deep sleep. Yesterday, Maureen wakes me up and says: I think your mother is upstairs opening drawers. It takes me a while to wake up and understand what she is saying. I trudge upstairs and she is completely dressed and roaming around in the upstairs main bedroom.
- Mom what are you doing? I say.
- Well, ‘tengo hambre’ I’m hungry, she responds.
- But, mom there is no food there.
- Well, sometimes there is food in my “poorse” but not today.
- Do you know what time it is?
- About 7:30?
- No mom it is 4:22!
I take her to her bedroom and sit her down on the couch; Maureen shows up with tea and cookies. We tell her to eat her snack and go back to bed. We don’t think she ever did, since Julia found her in the kitchen at 6:00 am when she came in. Also, later, we find tortilla chip crumbs in her bedroom.

Whizzer

Transportation in my town was simple and low tech. People walked, rode their bicycles, or hired a coche (most rides were 20 to 40 cents). In my family tio Angel had a three wheeled motorbike that he used to deliver his freshly made bread everyday (like those tut-tuts we see in Thailand or Guatemala), tio Nicolas had a Vespa, and tio Pancho (the rich one) had a woody station wagon. Everyone else had a bicycle, the women did not propel themselves but rode sidesaddle usually on the top tube. In addition to his bicycle, Papi had a red Whizzer, I thought the name was onomatopaeic, it is actually a brand name although its etymology is likely a reference to the sound of its powerful engine! Sometimes papi took the family out on a drive, mami rode in the back, Ruth on top of the gas tank and I balanced on the handlebars – great safety! Nonetheless we never crashed and I do not even remember ever being afraid. I do remember that soon after papi got the whizzer, tio cuco visited and cajoled papi into letting him ride it. We were standing in front of abuela Lola’s house and saw tio Cuco drive away from us and go for about four blocks. He then attempted to make a u-turn and drove into a large chopping block in front of a carniceria (butcher shop). Papi ran down the street while abuela fretted. Tio Cuco ended up with a broken clavicle and because he could do no wrong, abuela blamed papi.

The Great Fall

As I have mentioned before, I was supposed to be a very intelligent child. I don’t know why I kept that reputation in the face of abundance evidence to the contrary, but I did. I don’t remember which story came first but there were two similar incidents that clearly demonstrate my stupidity. There was a popular market/bazaar in town “La Plaza” it was built in 1859 and was crowned with a large cast iron dome. I believe this had been made in a foundry in Maine, I actually found a Maine postcard for sale on e-Bay detailing the dome and giving its provenance but I lost the reference. Anyway this was a cruciform two story market with a balcony around the periphery. Back in the day the place was bustling with activity, not empty like the recent picture shows. Of course it is easier for a market to be busy when it has things for sale! Thank you Fidel, viva la revolucion! Papi often took me there to shop, visit and gossip. One day while he was telling stories, or listening to them, I got away and decided it would be cool to explore the balcony from the outside. Next thing I knew there was a crowd below making a big deal of this little kid climbing around on the outside of the balcony. After what I imagined must have been a while papi came over and rescued me. I don’t know how papi ‘splained this story to mami once we got home.
A more serious incident, took place at the house in San Juan de Dios. The tall barred window was a great place to climb. Note the picture, you can’t see the top, but there is probably a couple more crossbars. In my wisdom I decided that it would be interesting to jump from various heights. This worked out fairly well as long as I was jumping off from the first few crossbars. However, I wanted to set a “world record” and climbed all the way to the top. When I jumped from that height I was not able to stay on my feet, toppled over and must have banged my head on the floor (it was tile.) I remember feebly calling for mami. Next thing it was late that afternoon or maybe the next day and I had no memory of the intervening time – concussion and surely the loss of a few brain cells. I was told about spending most of the day in the emergency room. If I was smart before, which is obviously questionable, I certainly was less smart after the fall. This must have evened the score between mami and papi, as mami was responsible for my care at home.

El museo

A wonderful attraction of our town was the museum, it was one of my favorite places. It also housed a biblioteca (although not a lending one) at which I spent a lot of time. The museum though is the subject of this vignette so I’ll leave the library for another time. The main exhibition hall was a large vaulted space enclosing an atrium illuminated by a several large skylights in the vault. This created a kind of enclosed two story cloister (how’s that for an oxymoron?). The peak of the roof in the center was probably 80 feet high. From the entrance, which was flanked by two bronze cannons pointed towards each other, one could see to the rear of the building where a double marble staircase led to a common landing and then more stairs swept up to a second floor gallery with balconies overlooking the main floor. It was very impressive. There were exhibit rooms off both galleries and access to enclosed yards on either side. One of the yards had a pool with a large crocodile (source of great trepidation especially for Ruth). The other had a couple of wandering iguanas, slightly less scary by comparison.
The exhibits were a mixed bag. One room was dedicated to numismatics; coins from all over the world dating back to ancient Greece and the Roman Empire were on display in large flat vitrines. Another hall contained an incredibly varied collection of shells mostly native to Cuba, little Erin would have loved it. Another room displayed butterflies (and other uglier insects) in incredible abundance and diversity. The second floor gallery housed a natural history collection (taxidermy) including an elephant and the exhibit that terrified Ruth almost as much as the live crocodile: the lioness. There was a story in our family that explained the provenance of the lioness. It was said that the beast had escaped from a circus and our great-grandfather had killed it with a single bullet in between the eyes. I do not know if the story is true or not - I do remember touching the bullet hole in the middle of the lioness’s forehead. Ruth and I always worried about ferocious beasts escaping from the circus and finding their way into our house, after all it happened once. The gallery also contained a number of specimens in formaldehyde filled jars – including the unknown baby - which although fascinating to us was not a proper topic for conversation.
The museum had a salon dedicated to the history of the Ferrocarriles de Cardenas (Railroad) and there (for a nickel) you could make a large model of a steam powered locomotive spin its wheels, blow its whistle and produce a pathetic puff of smoke. I loved this thing with passion, and no visit to the museum was complete without my seeing the wheels go around. However, since dad was just as cheap (or poor?) as the adult me, I usually had to wait for some other visitor to put the nickel in!
Amongst all the interesting and worthwhile things there were a couple of less significant items: One was a shrunken head that scared the bejeezus out of us, the other was a diorama of an ordinary couple wearing colorful dancing clothes. The cheesy part of it was that the couple was a pair of fleas, “Las Pulgas Vestidas”. The diorama was visible under a large magnifying glass and was a very popular attraction.

The Kindergarten Disaster

I vaguely remember - although I was told so many times by Mom, Dad, and tia Marta la Grande (not to be confused with tia Marta la Chica) that it could be a false memory - the ABC’s in my room when I was 2 or 3 years old. Mom had made an alphabet with cute pictures of things that started with that letter and posted them all around the walls of my room. This may seem humdrum to folks used to Sesame Street, baby Einstein, brainy baby, etc., but trust me in 1952 Cuba such things had not occurred to anybody. I apparently quickly learned to recognize and name the letters (all 29 of them including: ch, ll, and ñ). Thus, by the time Kindergarten came around, I already had a reputation for being the smartest baby in town. To be fair it should have been Mom who had the reputation for creating the best learning environment in town. Kindergarten was a recent innovation in our town something the railroad company employees union had started as a benefit to their members. It was housed in a back room of their large social club, a single classroom with ~30 children and 3 or 4 adults. Mom and Dad had been telling me how Kindergarten was coming and how I was going to be a star! Finally the day came and they took me in. I was fine while Mom was in the room with me, but then she left. I guess I had not been informed that Kindergarten was only for me, not Mom. I did not like being left behind and proceeded to cry inconsolably. I cried so hard, in fact, that I threw up all over the place. This behavior went on for several days (including additional puking episodes) I remember that Mom used to hang around the yard, so I could see her out the window. Obviously, I must have gotten over my separation anxiety eventually but I have no recollection of that.

House in Cardenas

The first house I remember living in was at 526 San Juan de Dios, Cardenas, Provincia de Matanzas, Republica de Cuba . I moved there before kindergarten so it must have been 1955-6. It was a row house (structured as a shotgun house) The front door, situated on the side of the front façade, opened to a sitting room containing a couple of rocking chairs (mahogany with wicker seats and backs inserts) and a sofa of the same construction. There were also some tables and sewing equipment for Mom’s Sewing Academy. Later, an upright piano was added and Ruth practiced her lessons there. The whole thing was illuminated at night (not well) by a single low wattage naked light bulb hanging on a wire from a very tall ceiling. Next to the front door was a very tall and wide barred window; it came almost to the floor, and could be shut with folding, wooden, louvered shutters.

Through swinging saloon doors one entered into the master bedroom. This was furnished with mom & dad’s pride and joy possession: a custom mahogany bedroom set consisting of bed (queen?), partially upholstered arm chair and ottoman (where mom breastfed Ruth, and I suppose me although I do not remember that far back) dad’s chifforobe and a larger escaparate (Cuban for armoire) belonging to mom held their things (of course there were no closets!). A tall triple mirrored vanity with built fluorescent light and upholstered low bench completed the set. All this was crowded into a relatively small room, the swinging doors were set on the same side as the front door (again think shotgun), the partition between living and bedroom did not go all the way to the ceiling. The vanity was next to the doors then the bed then the chair ottoman. The chifforobe and escaparate were side by side across from the bed, the space between them and the bed defined a “corridor” to the next room.

That room was separated from the main bedroom with a curtain, it was a step down from the first two rooms level. A much smaller room it contained two little beds and a table with a palangana (an enameled tin basin) on top separating them. Ruth and I shared this room until ca. 1960. Another step down (deeper than usual) took us to the open air kitchen dining room. This was covered by a shed roof and had a counter for food preparation, and a couple of kerosene burners (think Coleman camp stove) for cooking. A short corridor took us to the bathroom. The bathroom was a small corrugated roof enclosure with toilet, wash basin and shower (hot water provided by filling a tank with boiling water from the stove). Needless to say we did not take a lot of hot showers. The other side of the kitchen had a table and six chairs (again solid mahogany, custom made by the town carpenter). A couple of years later dad painted this set a particularly ugly turquoise (although he kept calling it aquamarine!). Finally the room had a large manually operated two roll mill an electric grinder and some large marble slabs. Dad used to make almond and peanut paste which he turned into confections to be sold during the holidays.

A further step down took you to the open air patio and behind the bathroom a pila where the dishes were washed. Opposite this there was a small plot where mom cultivated a flower of paradise and dad had some banana trees. Through a chickenwire fence one had access to the large traspatio (backyard) where we kept chickens, guinea hens, turkeys and the occasional pig (our chivos (goats) came much later). This yard also had producing mango, avocado, mamey, cherimoya, guanabana, and guayaba trees. A tall limestone wall with broken glass on top bordered the yard on three sides.

Brush reduck

Here is an artist's reconstruction of the ducky brush incident that started this blog. I just figured out how to post images. I know, I know, I am slow and a technical doofus, get over it!

All hail May

About 2:00pm it gets very dark and windy, we hear lots of thunder and then... hail, lots of it.
This year I managed to protect some tulips from deer destruction. So what happens? the hail gets them. Damn you hail!

Time-telling

Sunday, nasty rainy day, Maureen and I are sick. Mom sees me in the living room and says I see it is 11:56 but I want to know if it is noon or mid-night?
I looked out the window and asked if she could see the moon, then I asked if she could see the stars. The answer was no to both. Then she said she was just trying to figure out if she should go to bed. I left her alone.
About 20 minutes later we prepared lunch and I went upstairs to fetch her. I found her in her PJ's lying in bed. She is surprised that it is lunchtime.
Life is confusing!

No work, money coming in.

First Solar (FSLR) is an alternative energy company in Toledo. They do actually have products not just BS. They did report earnings yesterday and the stock jumped from ~150 to ~190. I didn't think the report was all that great so I bought a 185 May put for 800 today FSLR gave back some of its gains and I sold the put for 1300. Nice!

Clean garbage

So mom comes home from the center and Julia is cutting up a pork loin into cubes. In the sink sits the plastic wrap that the pork came in. What does a good housekeeper do before throwing away the plastic wrap? One washes it of course! I ask why and the response is: because it is durty. I point out that it is garbage and we don't care that the garbage is durty, she says I should just thank her instead of complaining about all the hard work she does.

The ducky brush incident

So I walk by the kitchen and I spy the ducky brush inside a plate with a sheet of plastic wrap over it. I asked Mom: what gives? She explains that it is prutty and the plastic protects from the environment or from the people who might inadvertently throw it away.
Foolishly I try to point out the lack of people who might throw away this unusually prutty brush, she argues that, of course, no one throws it away because it has been protected by the plastic wrap, which also allows us to enjoy the beauty without the potential for spoilage!!