Tribute to Gilberto
Although Pop was a difficult person to be close to, many of us have a funny, unique or sentimental memory of him. At Rosi’s suggestion, I'd like to ask anyone who is willing to share it to post it on this blog site as a tribute. Just go to the comments at the bottom, type a memory that you feel comfortable sharing. I think it would be a great tribute to our dad. On moments that Pop is oriented and of sound mind, I'll share some of those stories with him.
posted by Ron @ 7:38:00 AM
11 Comments:
Okay, I’ll start, I remember when Pop was a radio announcer, had a radio show and he took me to go to the studio with him. I remember sitting next to him while he spoke with such confidence into the microphone. At the time, I remember thinking that everyone in the world who spoke Spanish had the radio on to hear him. I remember thinking; I want to be a radio announcer someday. So, when I graduated high school, I attended the Columbia School of Broadcasting in Philadelphia. Although it was a “fly by night school”, in two years, received a certification of completion to be a radio announcer. Of course, now I realize that it didn't mean crap, but I remember Pop was proud that his son wanted to follow in his radio announcer footsteps.
Tio was funny when he "Thought" he knew something and thought you did not. One time when he lived behind Auto Discount, I went to visit and he said "Dave, how many quarts of oil does my car take?" I said "5 quarts max." In a VERY scarcastic way, he said "tu si sabe!" Meaning "What do you know!" He contiuned... "I am changing my oil, and I have put 7 quarts in, and it is still not indicating anything on the dip stick!" When we went to check.... he had forgotten to put the plug back in the botton of the oil pan. Gotta love the man! I LOVE you Tio !!!
My earliest memory of Tio was playing baseball in Philly’s Hunting Park. He would take a group of us young boys to the park in the back of this old station wagon and teach us how to play baseball. I must have been 8 or 9 years old. He always came back to the house bragging about how good I was. I remember when he started recording. When that first album came out I remember listening to it over and over again. I loved it (still do) and I still remember the lyrics. He actually was a pretty good writer. When I was in my 20’s and started to play guitar, I recorded myself singing a few of those songs and sent him a cassette. I think he enjoyed that. Then there were the times he would come over with Papa Oro. That just puts a smile on my face thinking about it. Father and Son. What a pair.
I remember when Tito was first born and Papa came over. He was so excited over his first grandson that he was talking very loud. Poor Tito thought he was yelling and his little bottom lip went out and he started crying! Too funny. :) Roxane
Iremember one time in Phila we went to the unemployment office and I passed out,and he start screeming,Somebody help me my sister is dead".
He made me laugh with a story he told me. To this day I still laugh when I remember. Here's HIS story and why he says that after that day he loved me more. Oye nena, yo no se si tu lo sabes lo que me paso contigo cuando tu eras chiquita. Una ves yo te fui a coger. Me dio por chequearte el pa~al para ver si estabas mojada. Meti la mano y la saque caga. Tu sabes, yo creo que por eso es que yo te quiero tanto. LMAO. True story guys.
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Sorry, had to make corrections. This is the corrected post that I previously deleted:
Now on a serious note. Tio has always truly loved me and I love him. We've (Papo and I) have ALWAYS gotten along with him.
They two always sat together when at the same places/parties/get togethers and joked around a lot. Tio loved to joke about sex and my Papo just followed along side with him. They are truly friends.
When Papo and I decided to move to FL, we needed help with our kids who were in school. Tio offered to come and stay at our house with them for 5 days while we were in FL purchasing a home. In those 5 days, he made our kids pure Boricuas as he imparted in them his love for Puerto Rico. Funny how he did it in a way that they loved. Our kids enjoyed his company and grew to love him too. We will always be grateful to him for the help he gave us freely and from his heart. As Papo would tell him jokingly. . ."I don't care what people say about you, you are a good man". That always made Tio laugh and say "Que condenao es este Papo".
I remember Jimmy, Ron, Patti and I sitting on my father’s bed while he told us bedtime stories of “Juan Bobo”. I couldn’t recall a single story, but the early memories of us all being together is priceless.
I’ve always had good memories of Tio Gilberto… or as we call him “Culo Prieto” … I’m not sure were that name originated but I can imagine. My first memory of Tio Gilberto is when he came to visit the family in San Sebastian. He was staying in Mama Con’s house so he was basically a 20 second walk away from our house. It was summer break so I was out of school and had the opportunity to spend quite a bit of time with him during that trip. I have several stories of things that happened during those days, but one has always stood out in my mind… the time we had lunch together.
During this time period I was probably 7 or 8 years old and my favorite meal was an Empanadilla de Pizza (fried turnover stuffed with a mix of cheese and tomato sauce) and a Cola Champagne (like a Coca Cola on steroids)… In years since I’ve learned that this delicatessen of Pepinian cuisine (for those of you who don’t know this, the full name of the municipality where our grandparents lived is San Sebastian del Pepino and some people call the town Pepino) has in excess of 1,200 calories… that accounts for much of that “baby fat” during my earlier years in life. When Tio Gilberto found out about my favorite meal and the fact it was served by a cafeteria that was a 10 minute walk away from our neighborhood he offered to buy me as many empanadillas and Colas as I could eat and drink. I gladly accepted the generous offer and we agreed that we would have lunch at la Gran Muralla, that was the name of the cafeteria. La Gran Muralla was a makeshift restaurant sitting on the side of a clift with a hug tree by its side.
When I arrived at Mama Con’s house to meet-up with Tio Gilberto I was astounded by the style of his ensemble. In the middle of summer he was wearing leather pants, a sleeveless leather jacket, dark sunglasses and had a conspicuous Eastern Airlines pin on the lapel of his jacket – I had never seen anybody wearing an outfit like this – aside from Michael Jackson in the insert of his cassettes - and it was the embodiment of cool. Of course, as any 7 year old, my attention was immediately diverted to the shiny object with wings on his vest.
He told me that the pin was a gift from an Eastern Airlines pilot and that was given to him for being a special passengers. He then proceeded to take it off and place the pin on my shirt- at that moment I remember thinking that by having that pin on my shirt I was somehow as cool as Tio Gilberto. We walked to La Gran Muralla in 90 degree weather – I’m sure he must had been suffocating in those leather pants and vest and although he sweated profusely, he never complained. When we arrived at the Gran Muralla, as I was stuffing my face with empanadillas, I remember that Tio Gilberto was talking with the folks that were there having lunch. I remember thinking… this guy is definitely the coolest cat in Pepino.
The last time I saw Tio was when my mom died. I remember all the support he gave me during those tough days and although I’ve blocked off many of the memories of things that took place during that time, I do remember he gave a beautiful speech about Mami. Mami always had good things to say about Tio Gilberto. Then on cue, after Tio finished his last words, there was a downpour… it was as if the sky was waiting for him to finish his speech for it to start raining.
I remember being about 10 years old and spending the afternoon with just my dad (Tom) at our house. We spent a part of our day playing board games and eventually ended up playing dominoes. For some reason, Papa stopped by and dad was bragging to Papa that I knew what I was doing with dominoes. Papa didn't believe him so dad challenged him to a quick game against me. We played a good game and just before I beat him, he stood up, shouting that I was cheating somehow and left our house. A few weeks later dad visited Papa and went on to tell me that Papa was still talking about how proud he was that his granddaughter could beat him at "his game".
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