Memory
A few weeks ago I was at my mom's house, and while she was looking for some paperwork, she came across a large manila envelope marked "Memory". She opened it up and found all kinds of things my dad had kept from our early days here in America. He had his first paystubs from Zacky Farms (where he worked just 2 days before quitting) and Harris Ranch, making less than $5/hr, rent check ($180!!) and electric bill check ($11!!!). He had receipts of things like the camera my mom's dad bought him (that she let me have) in Tokyo en route to CA from Korea. There was also a promissory note from the bank and Korean Airlines that they borrowed money from to fly out from Korea. Apparently it was fairly common for ppl to do that back then, to help establish credit. There was a farewell card from one of his jobs, we're guessing it was from U-Haul, signed by all his coworkers with such kind words. There was also a receipt from my preschool, they only paid $60 a month!! Granted this was almost 40 years ago, but it's crazy how much less things cost in 1980. He also had his and my mom's high school diplomas, and other papers.
It was amazing. My mom had no idea he saved all this stuff. The two of us just sat on the floor, looking thru the envelope's contents, crying and remembering. It was also a great reminder of how far they had come from those early years in CA.
I have very few memories of our short time in Coalinga, CA, we only lived there a few months, and I was just 3. My dad started off working at a chicken farm called Zacky Farms where he helped slaughter chickens!! He hated it and just couldn't do it, so he quit after 2 days. I think he must have told someone about his mechanical abilities, because he was soon hired to help out in the shop where they fixed all the tractors and farm equipment. He was always great with his hands and loved fixing things. I think had he had the opportunity to go to college, he would have been a mechanical engineer. But life didn't work out that way for my dad, so he used the skills he had to the best of his ability. The shop was just down the street from our house (that we got to live in courtesy of John Harris. He even offered to have our laundry done by his staff, but my mom refused, lol), and my mom could see it from the kitchen window. I do recall my mom sending me out on my tricycle to visit my dad, where he would strap 2 bottles of Coca-Cola onto the back platform and send me home. I also vaguely remember being in John Harris' house when there was an earthquake, and watching the water from his pool sloshing around. My parents and I had never experienced an earthquake and this really alarmed and frightened them, altho everyone else seemed calm about it! Though life was good and simple, my parents were lonely. There wasn't much for my mom to do, since there weren't any other ppl around except migrant Mexican farmers, who couldn't speak English. Not that my mom could speak much English! So my dad decided to leave Harris Ranch, as generous and helpful as John Harris had been to us, and we moved north to Fresno, CA. My dad chose Fresno because he had made several trips up there while working for John Harris to get parts and such.
We lived in Fresno for about 4 years. It was a great place to start our new life. There was a small community of Koreans that my parents immediately connected with, and some they still maintain contact with. But after a while, my dad decided he wanted to move us somewhere else, and took a weekend to drive down to LA and another to drive up north to the Bay Area. Thankfully he chose to move us north, cuz I cannot imagine how things would have turned out if we had moved south!!! So the Summer of 1984, we moved up to Fremont, CA, if the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area, where I would grow up, go to college, meet my husband, and then move to Colorado in 2005. My parents bought their first house in Fremont, on Eggers Drive, in the Summer of 1990. They would live there til they moved out to Colorado to be with their grandkids, in the Summer of 2016.
When I look back on those early years, I wonder what my dad was feeling. Was this a big adventure for him? Was life so much easier in America than what he left behind in South Korea? Was America meeting all his expectations? My parents worked their butts off to get to where they did. And altho my dad worked up until the day he died, he did it because he loved what he did, not because he had to. I can only hope that someday I find my "thing", that makes me want to keep doing it til the day I die. He was 50 when he found his "thing", so I guess I still have some time to find mine.
It was amazing. My mom had no idea he saved all this stuff. The two of us just sat on the floor, looking thru the envelope's contents, crying and remembering. It was also a great reminder of how far they had come from those early years in CA.
I have very few memories of our short time in Coalinga, CA, we only lived there a few months, and I was just 3. My dad started off working at a chicken farm called Zacky Farms where he helped slaughter chickens!! He hated it and just couldn't do it, so he quit after 2 days. I think he must have told someone about his mechanical abilities, because he was soon hired to help out in the shop where they fixed all the tractors and farm equipment. He was always great with his hands and loved fixing things. I think had he had the opportunity to go to college, he would have been a mechanical engineer. But life didn't work out that way for my dad, so he used the skills he had to the best of his ability. The shop was just down the street from our house (that we got to live in courtesy of John Harris. He even offered to have our laundry done by his staff, but my mom refused, lol), and my mom could see it from the kitchen window. I do recall my mom sending me out on my tricycle to visit my dad, where he would strap 2 bottles of Coca-Cola onto the back platform and send me home. I also vaguely remember being in John Harris' house when there was an earthquake, and watching the water from his pool sloshing around. My parents and I had never experienced an earthquake and this really alarmed and frightened them, altho everyone else seemed calm about it! Though life was good and simple, my parents were lonely. There wasn't much for my mom to do, since there weren't any other ppl around except migrant Mexican farmers, who couldn't speak English. Not that my mom could speak much English! So my dad decided to leave Harris Ranch, as generous and helpful as John Harris had been to us, and we moved north to Fresno, CA. My dad chose Fresno because he had made several trips up there while working for John Harris to get parts and such.
We lived in Fresno for about 4 years. It was a great place to start our new life. There was a small community of Koreans that my parents immediately connected with, and some they still maintain contact with. But after a while, my dad decided he wanted to move us somewhere else, and took a weekend to drive down to LA and another to drive up north to the Bay Area. Thankfully he chose to move us north, cuz I cannot imagine how things would have turned out if we had moved south!!! So the Summer of 1984, we moved up to Fremont, CA, if the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area, where I would grow up, go to college, meet my husband, and then move to Colorado in 2005. My parents bought their first house in Fremont, on Eggers Drive, in the Summer of 1990. They would live there til they moved out to Colorado to be with their grandkids, in the Summer of 2016.
When I look back on those early years, I wonder what my dad was feeling. Was this a big adventure for him? Was life so much easier in America than what he left behind in South Korea? Was America meeting all his expectations? My parents worked their butts off to get to where they did. And altho my dad worked up until the day he died, he did it because he loved what he did, not because he had to. I can only hope that someday I find my "thing", that makes me want to keep doing it til the day I die. He was 50 when he found his "thing", so I guess I still have some time to find mine.
posted by joyce at
10:41 AM
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