Anecdotes

When my parents had my brothers they lived in a very unpleasant neighborhood of unkempt yards and abandoned shopping carts. During this time, my grandparents, my dad's mom and his step-father, lived on the other side of San Jose. When my brothers were 4, I was born and houses were being built around where my grandparents were living. My grandma did not feel it was appropriate to raise a family in a house surrounded by such conditions. One day, she showed up at our door and offered us the house one block over, directly behind them. My grandparents bought the house, and my family moved in. About 6 years later, my grandpa died and my grandma decided she did not need the extra space that her two story house had, and we needed more space as a five person family living in a three-bedroom house. She offered to trade us houses, just like that. So we one weekend we spent the whole day transferring boxes through the backyards that were now connected by a gate.

My dad's parents got divorced when he was a kid. Both of his parents got remarried. His step-father also had kids. We never got to know them very well, especially after they moved to Illinois. My Aunt Marji, my dad's step-sister, and her husband Mark, had two children, Alexandra and Will. They moved right after Will was born and my grandpa died. My grandma takes cross-country trips every summer, and one summer she offered to take whatever route I wanted and then let me stay with my cousins for a while in Chicago, then fly home as she continued on to Maine. My parents were hesitant to let me go, since it was soon after 9/11. My grandma convinced them it was the best way for me to get to know my cousins and they let me go. My grandma paid for the plane ticket, as well as hotel costs and food for the 10 days we took driving there, stopping at places I had chosen throughout the United States.

My brother's are 4 years older than me, and they're twins. So for my parents that means two times everything. Two bicycles for Christmas, two school pictures to buy, two times the love, and two cars for them to drive. This was difficult since we had two cars at the time; my mom's and my dad's. When both my brothers started driving, my parents decided they needed another car. They eventually got enough money and bought a third car. However, that still left one brother without a vehicle. Luckily, my father works from 10:30 at night to 6:30 in the morning, so he usually slept while one brother took his car and then he took it at night. Then as my brothers got older, they started staying out later. They weren't thrilled about the 10:00 curfew they had by default. My grandma noticed this and offered us her old Mustang Convertible. My mom politely declined saying the insurance would go through the roof. She offered to pay for that too. My dad brought up the point about the transmission not always being dependable, she got that fixed for us. After a while, my parents had no reason to decline the generous offer, and my brothers were ecstatic about not sharing cars.