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Uncle
Carlos was born on an island in a country called Cuba. Cuba is only
90 miles from Key West, where your Grandma 
was born. Cuba is a beautiful
island but has a very mean man, Fidel Castro, in charge of the country.
Uncle Carlos’ father was a doctor in Cuba but that didn’t mean they were
wealthy. When Castro
came into power, he took all the people’s money and possessions from them.
Uncle Carlos’ mother had to stand in line for things like toilet paper,
milk, and food. The government only allowed her 1/4 lb. of meat per
week per person. Abby, that’s the same amount of meat that’s in a
hamburger patty -- and that had to last an entire week! At Christmas,
the government issued three toys for the Cuban citizens to give to their
children. They could only take one of the three toys. There
weren’t any Wal-Mart’s in Cuba and if there had been, no one had money
to buy anything. So Uncle Carlos’ mother stood in line for hours
and hours to get one toy for each of her two sons. When she got tired,
another family member would take her place in line to wait for the toys.
It
is because of the changes that Castro made to Cuba that Uncle Carlos’ family
decided to move to
the United States via Spain. When Uncle Carlos arrived in the
U.S., he could only speak Spanish. He was 6 years old when he learned
speak English. You should hear some of the stories he tells about
going to school every day being unable to understand what his teacher or
the other students were saying. Some of the kids were mean to him
and made fun of him. A special teacher came to visit him once a week
and helped him learn English -- although Uncle Carlos gives a lot of credit
to The Beatles’
songs
that played on the radio for helping him learn English! He now speaks
both Spanish and English -- a very important skill in this day and age.
As
for your Aunt Maryla -- well, I was born in Amarillo, Texas in the middle
of a nasty West Texas ice storm. Let me tell you Abby, a lot of your
Okie family members will disagree with me but Texas
is God’s country!! ;-) My family moved to Ada, Oklahoma (where
your Great Grandma
and Grandpa Rose met) when I was
5. Ada was a really nice town in which to grow up because it was
small and safe. That’s also where I went to college and met your
Uncle Carlos.
The
world has changed a lot since I was born on December 18, 1967. One
funny story took place on July 19, 1969. That was the day man first
walked on the moon. Did you ever hear about Neil
Armstrong’s famous “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”
speech? -- Well, it took place on July 19, 1969. I wasn’t even two
years old yet when my mom woke me in the middle of the night. She
said she really had to work hard to get me to wake up so she could sit
me in front of their black and white television to see man landing on the
moon. She said by doing this I could always say I watched as man
first walked on the moon. Of course, I don’t remember any of it,
but yep, I guess I saw it!
There’s
so much more to tell you Abby -- it’s hard to know what story to tell next.
We’ll probably just start to get really interesting about the time you’ll
decide we’re old and boring. Nevertheless, know that your Uncle Carlos
and Aunt Maryla sure do love you and we can’t WAIT to see you make your
own history!! |
