"I remember everything" A true story by Steve Silva. Chapter One. My parents spoke to me only in Portuguese. In 1977 at age 5 when I entered kindergarten I knew not a single English word. It did not matter, I quickly picked it up. In second grade my dad came home from back to school night and told me that the teacher had said the reason we were in a combination class was because the teachers felt we were responsible enough to work on our own while they instructed the other grade. Mrs. Balch the teacher had a game where we would solve 10 math problems and stand up. She would say go and we would begin than I remember standing up first. I got along well with my classmates even the girls like Claudia Silva who I became friends with. In early 1976 my grandparents and Uncle had arrived from Portugal. I remember many things from that day. A few months later I was in the garage with my grandparents and uncle. My dad pulled the car up to the driveway and got out. Then my mom walked towards the car and got in. My dad got in and I asked "where are they going?" My grandfather replied in Portuguese, "to get your sister". A couple of days later I went with my dad to Kaiser. When it was time to leave I sat in the front seat as my dad pulled up to the drop off zone. My mom stood up out of the wheelchair holding the baby and got into the back seat of the car and we drove home. One day my sister Liduina was laying on the bed and she lifted herself up with her arms and moved a little bit. I ran upstairs excitedly and told my dad and mom that she had crawled. Once she did learn how to crawl and walk we played a lot together. My dad made it very clear to me that I was never to hurt her. He told me that if I hit her he was going to hit me with his belt. I got the message loud and clear. When we were very young me and my sister used to pretend that we were married. Our teddy bears and dolls were our family. We each had a car. My car was the yellow, plastic bathtub we bathed in and hers was a toy, plastic, baby stroller. We used to dump our kids in our cars and scoot-ch along the house happy as clams.
Posted on: Tue, 03 Sep 2013 16:55:52 +0000