What 8.8.08 Means To Me

No, this isn't another post purely about the Olympics. It's much more than that. You see, my grandpa, Tom Young, Sr., is where I get the Chinese part of my heritage make up. He was all Chinese. Born in China. Born in a little village called Toi San with a population of about 10,000.
Pop had 3 brothers, no sisters that we know of. We don't even know a lot about his brothers. What we do know is that one left home and moved to Mexico and he and his entire family were killed at a big soccer tournament when the bleachers collapsed. Another brother was a doctor in China but was also killed along with their father by communists after World War II in, what was described to me as, a red title wave. Basically, attacks, wave after wave kept occurring killing countless people.

Pop left home at the young age of 16 to find a better life for himself. He was alone not counting a few acquaintances from his village of Toi San. He ended up in America and settled in San Antonio in 1924. He really had no formal education so he tried to go to school as an adult and studied on an elementary level (1st or 2nd grade) and was ridiculed a lot so he stopped and taught himself how to read and write in English and Spanish. He married my grandma in 1939. They honeymooned in El Paso and almost decided to settle there but they came back and lived and worked in San Antonio. They had a little grocery store and they also managed a little Motel, The Green Courts on Fredericksburg and Medical, which is now no longer around because they were torn down.

Pop was a great cook! He made the best- Chinese food- of course! I remember (very little because I was so young) big family gatherings with a feast set on a never ending table. He really knew how to bring a family together. He loved his family more than anything and always put them first. That was the glue. He died May 18, 1981, a month after my 7th birthday.

It was cool to watch the opening ceremonies that took place last night in China. I know my grandpa would have been proud. Not of the ruling class but of the "everyday" Chinese people who were represented on a global scale. By the way, he would have turned 100 years old yesterday [8-8-08].
In the picture above (approx. year 1975), my grandpa is the one in the bottom right. My brother, Tommy, is to his right.

In this picture you see my grandpa in the center with me in his lap. Kelly is in the blue and my cousin, Sandra, is in front of our grandma. Mamo is standing behind Kelly.