August 1955
At the end of World War Two, lots of men did not come home, 400,000 of them. Those who were lucky enough did come home. In 1946, Merced Mendias was happy that the war was over, and his oldest son Arthur, who flew B17 missions over Germany had finally come home in one piece...Art was a turret gunner, and showed no sense of stress or remorse whatsoever about killing men out of the sky, or being in the line of fire.
The interesting thing about Merced's kids, was that they were of two types; there was Art and Carmen, loud and firey personalities, and there was Robert and Sally, quiet and demure personalities...these two types are not in their extremes of course, there is always a bit of a combination of the two...but those two distinctive traits were later always defined in subsequent generations.
Arthur was the first to have a son. This was in 1948, Merced was thrilled, it was his first grandson! and then two years later another grandson, Michael....
These two sons, little Art (or little 'Toody" as some called them) had all the makings of his dad...brash, funny, a bit ruthless....and then Mike, quiet, sensitive....
In the early 50's, Merced's second son Robert had escaped from Tulare after high school... he put himself through college while working at a cannery, and bought a house in Santa Clara, (which is right next to San Jose). Bob had a certain creative drive. He married and had two kids, Bobby and Susie....
Upon visits, his young nephew Mike would marvel at the gadgets and books his uncle Bob had around the house. In the 50's, television sets were beginning to be all the rage, but Bob would go to electronic shops and buy parts, he wanted to build his own tv set.
"Hey Uncle Bob?"
"uh huh?"
"Why are are you going through all this trouble? when you could just buy a tv set?"
"Well anyone can do that, it's much funner to build one."
Later, Bob was building a roof over the deck of the back yard, but at two strange angles.
"Hey Uncle Bob?"
"uh huh?"
"Why are you building the roof that way?
"So it can capture the maximum amount of shade when the sun angle is at its height."
Well, young Mike wasn't sure what he meant by all that, but he sure was in awe of his Uncle Bob.
The interesting thing about Merced's kids, was that they were of two types; there was Art and Carmen, loud and firey personalities, and there was Robert and Sally, quiet and demure personalities...these two types are not in their extremes of course, there is always a bit of a combination of the two...but those two distinctive traits were later always defined in subsequent generations.
Arthur was the first to have a son. This was in 1948, Merced was thrilled, it was his first grandson! and then two years later another grandson, Michael....
These two sons, little Art (or little 'Toody" as some called them) had all the makings of his dad...brash, funny, a bit ruthless....and then Mike, quiet, sensitive....
In the early 50's, Merced's second son Robert had escaped from Tulare after high school... he put himself through college while working at a cannery, and bought a house in Santa Clara, (which is right next to San Jose). Bob had a certain creative drive. He married and had two kids, Bobby and Susie....
Upon visits, his young nephew Mike would marvel at the gadgets and books his uncle Bob had around the house. In the 50's, television sets were beginning to be all the rage, but Bob would go to electronic shops and buy parts, he wanted to build his own tv set.
"Hey Uncle Bob?"
"uh huh?"
"Why are are you going through all this trouble? when you could just buy a tv set?"
"Well anyone can do that, it's much funner to build one."
Later, Bob was building a roof over the deck of the back yard, but at two strange angles.
"Hey Uncle Bob?"
"uh huh?"
"Why are you building the roof that way?
"So it can capture the maximum amount of shade when the sun angle is at its height."
Well, young Mike wasn't sure what he meant by all that, but he sure was in awe of his Uncle Bob.
posted by Olias at 9:42 PM
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