Saturday, we spent the day visiting my grandmother and Mr. G at their home about one and a half miles north of Watts in the City of Los Angeles. This is primarily where I grew up and lived until I was seven years old. The neighborhood certainly has changed and going there sure brought back a lot of memories.

Michelle had a great time visiting her great-grandmother Mema and her husband, Mr. G. Josie's mom and aunt accompanied us during our visit. Mema is one of those individuals who just has that special touch with people. Pretty much anyone she meets can and usually does becomes her friend.

As for these nicknames, they were both created by yours truly. When I was about four years old, I had some difficulty pronouncing Mr. Guiterrez's last name so I opted to call him, Mr. G. The name stuck and now everyone in the family refers to him by this name. With Mema, this one is more of a mystery, my grandmother claims that one day, just out of the blue, I just began calling her this. No one is clear as to why but then again, we all use it and it just fits. I suppose someone as unique as Mema deserves her own moniker anyway.

While there we feasted on homemade Sopes, Tamales, and Carrot Cake. Mr. G even treated me to Jalapeño grown from his own garden. In an attempt to show-off, I bit into the Jalapeño and five seconds later lived to regret it. Never before had I encountered a Jalapeño of this magnitude. In short, Jalapeño 1... Ernie 0...

Soon after, I took some time to rummage through my grandmother's photo albums to seek out some candidates for my ongoing photo preservation project. I managed to find a few gems and wasted no time scanning them into my PowerBook.

Later, Mema shared some news regarding our ancestors that would later require us to reevaluate our family line. Essentially, it all related to a forbidden romance that took place over two-hundred years ago that was covered up and with it the original surname of my great-great-great-grandfather. Personally, it's all inconsequential to me at this point and I take it all with a grain of salt. Sure, it's interesting, but really, what difference does it really make now? If anything, the story was entertaining and note-worthy.

The best part of our visit was realizing that my beautiful baby Michelle was playing in the same house and yard that I used to play in when I was a toddler. It realized what a blessing it was for my child to spend time with Mema in the same manner that I once did. Sadly, reality dictates that this won't always be possible. Saturday was very special for me in more ways than I could have ever expected. I will always cherish it.