Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Pepe, as we lovingly called him, could easily played a part in West Side Story. Imagine a young guy with his lamb chop sideburns imitating the King himself, Elvis Presley. One day, as was customary in the late 60's, Pepe was over at the house with aunt Sara and my mom in a flat that we rented in Waterbury, Ct.. The entire family was watching TV and during a commercial break Pepe said to me, let's go outside. I was not so interested in seeing the show (Elvis Presley on some beach) so I went with tio to the porch which overlooked a river directly under our flat. (this river has many stories). We took the stairs down and then went over a bridge adjacent to the house and starting walking to the park. He proceeded to light up a cigarette. We walked a bit before he said to me, translated as, "I do this because I respect your father." Not understanding, I said, again translated, "You smoke because you respect my father?" He said no...I leave the house to smoke because your father did not want me to smoke in the house. A lesson learned by me very early and why I respected him so much. You see to earn respect you must learn to respect. He wasn't calling me out because he needed company. He was just sharing a lesson learned. He was subtle and smooth in those days and it is a vivid in mind today as we spoke that day. Ruben
