November in La Mirada 5
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
At around 11:30 this morning, Donna and I left to meet with Pareng Quir and Mareng Chit for lunch. He’s a former shipmate of mine, an old Navy buddy. I’ve known him since boot camp. He joined to become a sailor here in California while I came from Subic. I was assigned to his company in the Navy boot camp in San Diego. The guys I flew from Clark with were one company ahead of me because I failed the swim test, something I’ll probably never live down – a sailor who can’t swim! Anyway, we went to boot camp together, were assigned to the same ship, the USS White Plains homeported at the time in Yokosuka, Japan. When I acquired the apartment at good old Moriya Mansions (where Reggie resides nowadays), he and a bunch of other Pinoy shipmates hung out together in our place until Donna, pregnant with Reggie and a baby Eph in tow, arrived from the Philippines.
He got transferred somewhere and I got transferred to NAS New Orleans. When I got out of the service I found him in Long Beach, married with a new born son Edmund. I and Donna were the only sponsors when Ed got baptized. Just like us, they ended up with two more sons, Roderick and Michael.
So here we are decades later! He used to baby sit Eph when he was little and last month they attended his wedding! How time flies!
After lunch at Ten-Ten, a dim sum style restaurant in Artesia, we took a couple of pictures, parted and promised we’ll see each other again. Thanks for lunch, Ed.
Donna and I were craving for some halo-halo, so we headed to nearby Red Ribbon. While we were enjoying this cold treat (boy, how I miss Razon’s!), here comes my cousin Cong Frank’s ex Atching Lori with daughter May-May and husband. We got to talking, while they were having arroz caldo, and she told us the story of how I drove her to the hospital when she was pregnant with her second child because Cong Frank was too busy trying to finish a special order painting. Cong Frank was Cong Paing’s protégé. Before they got married Cong Frank studied under Cong Paing. This was when I used to live with Cong Paing and Cong Frank and Atching Lori also went into the art gallery business in Angeles City. I couldn’t quite remember that story about me taking her to the hospital but if she says it happened, it must have.
At around 11:30 this morning, Donna and I left to meet with Pareng Quir and Mareng Chit for lunch. He’s a former shipmate of mine, an old Navy buddy. I’ve known him since boot camp. He joined to become a sailor here in California while I came from Subic. I was assigned to his company in the Navy boot camp in San Diego. The guys I flew from Clark with were one company ahead of me because I failed the swim test, something I’ll probably never live down – a sailor who can’t swim! Anyway, we went to boot camp together, were assigned to the same ship, the USS White Plains homeported at the time in Yokosuka, Japan. When I acquired the apartment at good old Moriya Mansions (where Reggie resides nowadays), he and a bunch of other Pinoy shipmates hung out together in our place until Donna, pregnant with Reggie and a baby Eph in tow, arrived from the Philippines.
He got transferred somewhere and I got transferred to NAS New Orleans. When I got out of the service I found him in Long Beach, married with a new born son Edmund. I and Donna were the only sponsors when Ed got baptized. Just like us, they ended up with two more sons, Roderick and Michael.
So here we are decades later! He used to baby sit Eph when he was little and last month they attended his wedding! How time flies!
After lunch at Ten-Ten, a dim sum style restaurant in Artesia, we took a couple of pictures, parted and promised we’ll see each other again. Thanks for lunch, Ed.
Donna and I were craving for some halo-halo, so we headed to nearby Red Ribbon. While we were enjoying this cold treat (boy, how I miss Razon’s!), here comes my cousin Cong Frank’s ex Atching Lori with daughter May-May and husband. We got to talking, while they were having arroz caldo, and she told us the story of how I drove her to the hospital when she was pregnant with her second child because Cong Frank was too busy trying to finish a special order painting. Cong Frank was Cong Paing’s protégé. Before they got married Cong Frank studied under Cong Paing. This was when I used to live with Cong Paing and Cong Frank and Atching Lori also went into the art gallery business in Angeles City. I couldn’t quite remember that story about me taking her to the hospital but if she says it happened, it must have.
posted by reyjay @ 9:35 AM
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