This is my Lolo.
This is me.
We three have 18 years of history. There are so many things I'll never forget, like Lola's magical roll of umbrella stickers. There were so many umbrella stickers it was like a sticker wonderland. I remember them exactly, tiny umbrellas with a rainbow design and an iridescent layer on top.
Soon after I saw the Forgetful Allergist, I checked the back of a CRUNCH bar and declared I couldn't eat it anymore, because it is Made on Equipment That Also Processes Peanuts/Nuts. Today I ate the first CRUNCH bar I've had in years, and boy I miss when chocolate bars had two wrappers. I forgot to try to eat around the letters though.
Lolo and I used to play so many games. I of course preferred Ice Cream land or whatever, because I really, really like ice cream. But Lolo liked to put together puzzles on top of giant pieces of cardboard we'd slide under the couch for safekeeping. We also played Wheel of Fortune, because to this day they still watch Wheel of Fortune followed by Jeopardy every weekday. (Channel 8, 7-8pm.) Man I suck at Wheel of Fortune, but Lola always figures it out first! And then we all gripe about how stupid the categories are. "Thing," honestly. That was one of them, the category was thing at the word was Honesty. Okay it's a THING, but it's not a tangible THING. God.
Once not long after they moved to the Moorehouse House Lola gave me this magnicent Polly Pocket mansion. I still play with it, even though I'm 18 and they don't even make Polly Pocket's the size anymore. They're not POCKETsized, they're like purse sized Polly's. And their names aren't even Polly. Anyways, it's on my shelf.
I remember when they lived in the Blue House, everytime Lolo and I got in the elevator he would tell everyone that I was his granddaughter and really smart. And when we used to go to the factory, all the Filipino ladies would look over and go, "TINAAAAAAAAAAAAAA" and start gabbering away about how tall I was (lies), how pretty I was (truth!), how cool it was that I used to hang out at the factory...(kinda). I liked walking down to the "river" which was really a useless sewer drain that was dry half the time. And climbing up into the boxes and ditching my shoes somewhere and running away or poking at the giant fish tank. Lolo used to take me into the secret room where he mixed the secret recipe, and we'd both put on a lab coat and I'd adjust my hairnet, which was always falling out of place, and I'd hop up onto the chair and point at everything and ask a million questions. Or he'd go into the walk-in freezer to get/put in stuff, and I'd stand at the door faithfully because I was terrified he'd get stuck inside.
OH MY GOSH! At The House, the laundry/bathroom/pantry/darkroom is in the basement right? I used to tiptoe very carefully downstairs and yell BOO! behind Lola and she'd jump and swear in Tagalog and I would giggle for like, half an hour. Then while she was doing the laundry I would slip in between the wall and the water tank and poke around the pantry, staring at the wonders of diced/sliced/crushed pineapple and jars of nails.
And every night I slept over at The House, (last time was in early August this year) I'd listen very carefully through the wall to hear Lolo's snoring and Lola's litany/rosary, then sneak downstairs for more lemonade.
There's a lot more, but I want to go downstairs now. Bye!
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