The Chinese Warrens

I found some old pictures and I thought I'd scan them before they degraded any further. Ba and Me Grammy and Me My grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary

A June visit... June 14, 2011 I walk in the door and hand my grandfather a bag of potatoes I bought for him at the farmers' market over the weekend. He likes the better quality produce of the farmers' markets, but he just can't bring himself to pay for it.  Turns out I forgot my notebook, so I meander into my old room and fish around in the bureau drawers looking for a pad of paper. I find my neck-gear during my search and I'm flooded with memories of having to wear it every night.  Somehow I remember more nights having to wear it sleeping at my grandparents' house, which doesn't really make sense to me because I know I only slept over at my grandparents' house when both my parents were away. My grandmother asks if she can serve the soup now. She was looking for me. In addition to forgetting my notebook, I also forgot my camera again today.  I lament because my grandfather has made a Chinese soup he hasn't made in a while.  Grandma goes to get spoo...

A May visit... May 2, 2011 My grandmother spills the soup today as she is serving it. "I told you to sit down!" my grandfather scolds. "Instead of helping, I made things worse," she pouts mournfully. She goes back into the kitchen to get plates.  Her hair is short now.  It looks like she finally got a haircut.  It had been getting pretty long and scraggly over the past couple weeks.  My grandfather is making chow mein and has already made his potato pancakes as usual.  My grandmother is driving him crazy asking over and over again if he wants a platter. "What did you do today?" she asks me. "I worked." "You work every Saturday?!" she asks, incredulous. "Today is Tuesday," I say, gently. This conversation happened twice already and dinner hasn't even started yet.  She goes back into the kitchen to get another plate for me because she forgot she put potatoes on mine already, and thinks my plate is now a se...

And now, memories of Dad... When I was a toddler, my dad would show me a little bag of single serve "candy bears" and then I would know it was our special time together.  We'd run upstairs and make a little tent out of the bed sheets and hide underneath them and share the small package of multi-colored chewy sweets together.  Sometimes I wonder if I love candy so much now because of that. Even though I make fun of my dad for hating dessert,* we both share a love of gummy candies and marshmallows, especially old marshmallows.  Both my dad and I like to "age" Peeps.  As soon as Easter rolls around, we're eating Peeps from last year's Easter. As far as gummy candies goes, every holiday and birthday, my mom and I would get him a pound or two of assorted gummy candies.  My dad would hoard them in his room and eat them a little at a time so he wouldn't have to share with the multitudes of friends I always had over, since we were like a swarm of locusts...

A March visit... March 22, 2011 My grandfather makes potato pancakes again today, this time without a heavy-handed dose of cornstarch and they're much better.  I always ask for potato pancakes because I know that potatoes are my grandfather's favorite food. I also think lately he's been getting more stressed about cooking because he's forgotten how to make so many things.  He forgets that he relearns it because often if he doesn't make something every week, like he's been making these potato pancakes, he will tell me, "I haven't made this in fifteen years!"  But, I'll remember that he made it a couple months ago... I didn't know how much and for how long my grandfather loved potatoes.  He tells me that when he was young, his brothers would call him "shu jai tow," which means "potato head." My grandmother starts asking me when I'm getting married again.  I'm glad that she says "again" because it m...

A February journal entry... February 22, 2011 I forgot my camera again.  As I walk in, I notice the table is set for four people.  My grandmother is confused. "Really? No one else is coming? No one from the... game?" she asks. "What game?" "I don't know," she says. "Just you?" She takes away the extra plate and utensils where I have seated myself. "That side is better," she tells me, motioning to the seat that still has a place setting.  She motions to the seat I'm sitting in.  "That side is darker." There are sodas at my place setting and the one she has cleared.  I pick them both up to put them back, since I always drink water, and my grandmother takes me to the garage to put the sodas into the refrigerator that is out there.  When we return to the table, she looks at the table setting again. "Where is your soda?" she asks me.  She can't remember that ten seconds ago she led me into the...

Another January set of notes... January 25, 2011 The State of the Union Address is on the television when I walk in, blaring as usual.  My grandparents deny that my grandmother couldn't remember that I was her granddaughter last week. My grandfather serves snap peas tonight with dinner and tells me that the word for them in Cantonese is "ho lan dao" because they originated from Holland.  "Dao" means bean.  He also tells me that back when he was young, if you traveled to China for a visit, you gave your relatives bags of tiny dried shrimps, because they didn't have those in China.  "But, there are no more here," he tells me.  "They've fished them too much here in America and there's no more, so now they come from South America." My grandfather is also insistent tonight that my grandmother has a good memory and that she only forgets things that happened two minutes ago. Later, I go visit my old room where I used to stay wh...