Family Story

 I, along with many other people, would consider my grandpa to be an extremely “crazy” or active person. From the beginning, he has always stood up for what he thinks is right. This is because when he was a child, he grew up relying on himself alone for support and guidance in life. He says his parents focus more on alcohol than he and his sisters. His parents constantly went across the street to drink with their friends. While they were gone, he say he and his sisters melted butter over lightbulbs, rolled marbles down the roof, then climbed down the roof to get them out of the gutter, etc. . He was left unsupervised, which was how he came to rely on himself. Later on in his life, he went to an all boys catholic school , directly across the street from a mortuary; he says the area constantly smelled of burnt skin. At his school, he succeeded in properly learning. He only regrets not passing geometry, which he still has not passed(he attempted to take a college class last summer, but it did not work out). 

He persisted in life for success; he up ended going to Stanford for a college education. He eventually met his wife here. Afterwards, he was sent to Vietnam in the navy eight years before the war started to find landing locations on the coast for the future war with Vietnam. Luckily, he was not killed because the second day after arriving at Vietnam, he became friends with many of the locals, who were supporters of the Viet Cong. He did this by simply playing volleyball on the beach. While there, he traveled down the coast, constantly looking for landing locations. When the war was near, he reached the capital of Vietnam; the day before he reached it, the Viet Cong had sprayed the hotel he was going to stay at with bullet fire. Also, they dug one foot deep trenches throughout the road systems so no one could move around easily. Luckily, my grandpa was unharmed and left before the war actually started. 

After leaving, he, along with many of his friends, etc. began to protest the war. I guess you could say at one point he became the classic image of a “hippie.” He was particularly involved with protesting in Alameda. He bought his house in Alameda during the early 50’s for an extremely cheap price, about twenty-thousand dollars, and has stayed here ever since. He raised his four daughters here too. They all became something of what my grandpa is like; I guess you could consider “crazy.” His family has always had a reputation in Alameda for being like this, or maybe a little too liberal. 

Later on in his wife, he and his wife both became involved in psychology; they basically both became therapists. I remember the backyard of his house used to be landscaped as a relaxing japanese themed garden; this is because he built a house in the back for their practice. I remember I was at his house once, he one of his patients had to use the bathroom, so she came into the main house. We had a dog on the side, which had a cat door that connected the side of the house to the bathroom. When she used the bathroom, my dog stuck his head through the cat door, which is right by the toilet, and the patient screamed bloody murder, running out of the bathroom and hiding in a closet. 

Later on, around the start of the twenty-first century, his wife developed a severe form of brain cancer. He tired everything he could to save her; both of them went to find help throughout the country, but they could not stop it. She died a couple hours after a halloween night. This changed his life dramatically.

Afterwards, he became an avid painter and still is. He has tried everything from realism to cubism. It is a huge joy to him. He can find inspiration in almost everything. He bought a house in Mendocino County; this is a huge source of his inspiration. The house came with ten acres of land, all of it beautiful rolling hills, different types of tress, and vineyards. What I find very funny about it is that throughout the area around of his property, there are pot fields scattered around other property’s, hidden behind trees. I accidentally walked in one once and was chased by a man; luckily he was too out of shape to run quickly. Anyways, my grandpa paints much of his property, and gives many pieces of his art to friends and family. Besides painting, he also like making wooden sculptures. Besides painting, a big source of his inspiration is swimming, which has been a big part of his life since he was a boy. He says when he was young, the swimming pools were segregated that he swam in. 

Besides his everyday activities, he has run for city council in one in the past couple of years. He unfortunately lost, but seemed to be fairly popular with voters. He is also still fairly involved with Alameda’s city council meetings. He makes his voice known to many. His last big “project” was his protest against suncal in Alameda, who wanted to develop the base. As you can tell, he can be very active in the community.

The amazing part about it is that he is eighty years old. He seems much younger to me. My favorite part about him is that he is always extremely lively and energetic. He is not the type that retires and watches T.V. all day. He will always find something interesting and fun to do in his life that will keep him healthy and entertained. He is a huge role model to me. I hope to be  like him when I am older and live and interesting and entertaining life like him too.