Stan
Our family lived in San Francisco;’s Chinatown in the 1940s
I was the first to come along. Brother Stuart came 1 and 1/2 years afterwards. Alicia came two years later. Stedman, the baby, came along about 6 years later. evidently, our parents were very very busy.
For the first part of the 40s there were just the three of us. Actually the 2 of us and a sister...
Brother Stuart and I were boys and close in age so we hung around together...did things together. Alicia was the “girl” the little sister. We let her tag along because....we HAD to.
Since we lived in Chinatown, that was our playground and we did quite a bit of exploring through out the area. Two brothers and the tagalong sister, Alicia.
We did have an harrowing incident that I will never forget. At that time The YMCA building on Sacramento Street had a stairway that led up to the main entrance and beside that stairway was a steep encline probably used to drain water away from the entrance. It resembled a slide but with a concrete runway. Stuart and I would climb over the barrier to run down the encline stopping just short of the wall. We convinced Alicia to try. We helped her get over the barrier and away she went. However, she couldn’t stop and crashed onto the wall head first bashing and putting a big bloody dent in her forhead. Blood was pouring out and we panicked. I sent Stuart back home to get help while I tried to help Alicia back to the apartment. Our parents came rusing and met us halfway. She required quite a few stitches and, of course, Stuart and I were severly punished.
As brothers, we were very protective of our sister, Alicia. Being boys, she waspicked on by us a great deal. We told her she was too skinny, too dumb, etc. We were not nice.
However, as the years went by, we grew up. Each of us began to have other interests and other friends. I was gone for a while and missed a lot of the siblings growing up.
So, we each went on our own direction. Alicia met Alvin and got married and moved to the East Bay. First to Oakland then to Moraga.
During this time, Alicia and Alvin raised two boys who each form their own successful families. Alicia also joined the Port of Oakland and quickly advanced through the ranks to become, from what I heard, a very valuable contibutor
Alicia was always the instigator, coordinator, and organizer in bringing our core families together for celebrations, during the holidays and just general get togethers. Because of her efforts, our families have always remained close.
I shall miss Alicia, my sister very much. Miss our conversations, our get togethers. and most of all, I will sorely miss her famous crab dip.
Brother Stan
