Monday, September 12, 2011

Filling in the blanks

Found some more details on Grandma's family...




1)Alicia Bancells
2) Maria Pons and Blas Rameriez
3) Maria’s parents are Miguel Pons and Francisca Acosta
3a)Siblings: Amparo “Alice” (was a nurse in military), Juan, Vehillo,
Juan Horacio married Esperansa Perez (died early in marriage) then married Margarita Pons, they had 8 children: Dora, Aledia, Norberto, Francsia, Alicia, Celido, and Charlie (all Spencer or Pons)
3b) Francisca’s siblings are Domingo, Candonga, Teresa, Maria Ignacia, and an unknown sibling
4) Francisca’s parents are Juan Acosta and Ignacia Cordova
4a) Juan Acosta and Maria Ferrer also had children
4b) Domingo is child of Maria Ferrer and Juan Acosta, born before 1879 in Cuba. He was a teacher and Superintendent of Escuala Normal in Havana
4c) Teresa born before 1879. Died in 1901, Married Leopoldo Hernandez. Child: Elba Cardenas y Pons died 1913 in Havana by suicide off the Malecon. Children Estella and Leopoldo (born in 1896 in Cuba, died in 1972 in KW)and Juan. Leopoldo worked on ships and as night manager or Duval Sundries. Juan Maria Cardenas Pons born in 1896, died 1986 owned a pharmacy on Duval St
4d )Maria Ignacia Acosta
Born May 18, 1879 in Cuba
Married Manuel Maresma y Gispert 1899 in Havana.
Manuel Maresma was born in Havana and died before 1932. He was a judge, lawyer and teacher
Spent time in Mexico, Cuba then 1953 worked for Pan American Air
1923: worked in cigar factory in Tampa as child care for workers

4e) Miguel Pons Sr and Maria Candelaria Ferrer
            Miguel was born in Marseis France and of the Guimera Family
            Maria also married Juan Acosta and is from Cuba

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

"Looka"

One of my favorite Pa-words is "looka." (Look + ah). It usually means "look at this" or "look at me" and it drives grandma nuts. I can remember her telling him, "its look, not looka." I'm not sure how its spelled but I am sure he uses it at times just to make her nuts and make me giggle. It's a little like how he said Home Depot. Most of us pronouce it  home d-poh but he always said deh-poh (okay its hard to explain it in words but I hope that makes sense). I'm fairly certain he is capapble of saying it correctly but it wasnt his habit and ya know, it makes grandma nuts.


Any other good Pa words out there?

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Side trip to grandma's family



So grandma asked me to find out more about her mom, Maria Pons.

Maria married Blas Ramirez and they had 12 kids (Rolgelio, Elena, Delia, Jose, Hector, Berta, Miguel,
Frank, Umberto, Alicia (GRANDMA!), Armando, and Antonio.

Maria had 3 siblings: Amparo "Alice," Juan, and Vehillo. Their parents were Miguel Pons and Francsia Acosta.

Miguel had one sister, Teesar.

Francsia had 4 siblings: Domingo, Candonga, Teresa, Maria.

Miguel Pons' parents were Miguel Pons and Maria Ferrer. Miguel Sr was born in France of the Guimera family.

Francsia Acosta's parents were Juan Acosta and Ignacia Cordova. Juan Acosta was also married to Maria Ferrer (before Miguel Pons Sr was (as far as I can tell)). Juan is of the Delgado family, Ignacia is of the Toledo family.
_____________________________

Grandma's Dad's side:

Her dad was Blas Ramirez. He had 5 siblings: Jose, Eloisa (grandma loved her), Dolores, Abel, and Enriqueta (grandma didnt like her, queta. had a daughter conchita (?) who had a daughter, andrea who went to kindergarden with my dad, she was a dancer, cousins).

Blas's parents where Jose (a shoemaker/repair who lived on Bahama St in Key West) and Gregonia.

Blas' family is from the Canary Islands and his mother's name was Consergera of Cuba

Friday, May 13, 2011

Two short stories I love

Baseball is way more fun than violin lessons. As a child, he was supposed to go to violin lessons but would skip them, stick his violin in a tree, and play baseball. He got in trouble when the violin teacher would call his father.


If you shoot a spitball at the fan in study hall at the right angle, you will land it in the curls of the girl in front of you. You will have detention........from the nuns.

"Barefootin'"

Grandpa doesn't care much for wearing shoes these days. I couldnt quite understand where this insistence came from the first time it popped up. It comes and goes like may things with dementia come and go. So, Mom or I turned to Grandma. She explained that when they were children, shoes were expensive and fancy things meant to be well cared for. In those days, you didnt wear shoes unless you were going to school or church and if it wasnt one of those places, you went barefoot. There is little need for shoes when most of your hometown is sand and your backyard the ocean.


Sunday, May 8, 2011

Mail Trucks and Baseballs

In March, we went to visit mom and dad in spring training. During one of the games we noticed that the bus driver for the opposing team had opening the emergency hatch of the bus and was sitting on the roof watching the game. It was just about when we noticed that Dad texted me from the dugout and told us to look out there. He then shared that Pa would do the same during his games as a kid and high schooler, sitting on the top of the mail truck during the games so he could see a few innings before going back to delivering mail.

The new key west post office:

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Hemingway's House

Ernest Hemingway is one of my favorite authors. Maybe its because The Old Man and The Sea reminds me of Pa or maybe its because Pa tells so many stories about Hemingway. When Pa was a child, Hemingway lived in Key West and had the only pool on the island. So when we went to Key WEst last fall, I felt the need to see Hemingway's home and the pool.

Grandpa and his buddies would scale the fence at the back of the property to swim in the pool. At that time, the butler lived in the small house (now a gift shop) on the property and would lean out the window to yell at the boys before chasing them from the property.