Picture: Scoops ice cream shop near LACC (Los Angeles Community College). This is one of my favorite places/ice cream in town. the owner is a man who loves what he does, being creative and making these daily creations of goodness. bringing flavors together you would never imagine eating.
The crazy thing about when I come over here is to think about how I grew up around here.
Yes, I have lived in the nice hillside area of Monterey Park most of my life but most people do not know of my childhood spent off of Melrose Ave. in Los Angeles.
as a child of two full-time parents, i needed a babysitter to take care of my brother and I. my parents found an elder filipino couple in los angeles. I spent my days since i was a baby til i went to pre-school plus summers until i was 7 or 8 at their home off of melrose. i think that is why i have a soft spot for filipinos.
they did not have money as most of their money came from their daughter who was a nurse and from the babysitting. so we lived in a simple way. we grew plants and fruit in the yard. would walk to to the community college to find and recycle bottle and cans where my brother and i would find tennis balls at the tennis courts to play with. we would hang out with the other kids that would some time stay, or the other filipino friends and relatives that would frequent the house. it was with this older couple that i had a wonderful childhood as i felt they were my surrogate grandparents.
when i went to pre-school it was hard for me. i would cry every day for weeks because i missed them. my dad would pick me up at lunch every day to take me to see them. finally i was able to let them go and go to school full time.

when i was around junior high age, we saw them for the last time. their daughter was moving up north and wanted them to go with her. even as i saw them for the last time, she made me a huge thing of spaghetti we loved to take home. she cried as we hugged good bye and it was so sad to see her in that way. i never heard from them again.