Tales from Dad’s Toolshed and Mom’s Footlocker

By Ted Cayobit Visaya

This book is a collection of creative, humorous, and informative stories inspired by following the footsteps of my parents in America. My scrapbook of stories centered around being Filipino American. I wrote this book as if I'm talking to my kids. No one else will tell your stories except for yourself and I've been waiting for the right time to share them. We all have stories to share, we should all keep a Scrapbook and share them.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Aug 12, 2019
• ISBN: 9781796051506

Ted Cayobit Visaya

I'm a native Californian raised in the Silicon Valley, graduate of the University of San Francisco, and a product of the Silicon Valley geek generation, I say that with great pride and admiration for the San Francisco Bay Area, “mi barrio”, that breeds high-tech. We all develop a unique presence on social networking, our work, our culture, our friends & family, our spiritual beliefs, and we create a branding of our digital identity. Centered around growing up in the Silicon Valley, these infographic short stories capture the memorable feelings in me and ignites emotions. I hope this proves to be an invaluable biography to pass down to the children.

Book preview

Tales from Dad’s Toolshed

and Mom’s Footlocker

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Ted Cayobit Visaya

Copyright © 2019 by Ted Visaya.

Cover art by Ted Visaya

Editing by Faye Alvarez Olympia / Ted Visaya

Library of Congress Control Number:   2019911464

ISBN:      Hardcover      978-1-7960-5152-0

                Softcover        978-1-7960-5151-3

                eBook              978-1-7960-5150-6

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

This scrapbook is a collection of creative, humorous, and informative stories inspired by following the footsteps of my parents in America. This isn’t a research book, but rather a collection of unique stories centered around being Filipino American.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 08/09/2019

Xlibris

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

798640

Contents

INTRODUCTION: SCRAPBOOK

Introduction

Uncle Storyteller

Keeping a Scrapbook

SECTION I: TOOLSHED AND FOOTLOCKER

Tales of Dad’s Tools

Stories in Mom’s Footlocker

Confused Filipino Kid

SECTION II: AN ORIGIN TO PONDER

One Hundred Thousand Years Ago

Out of Sundaland

The Austronesian Migration

The Early Colonizers

Follow the Spices

Ten Datus Sailed from Borneo

Islas de los Pintados

Pacific Islander Explorers

The Lost Continent of Mu

Luzon of China

Ship Size Comparisons

The Flying Karakoa

Magellan Was Mugged

What Happened to the Filipino Scripts?

SECTION III: HAWAIIAN SAKADAS

Hawaiian Sakadas

The Hanapepe Massacre

Pidgin Talk

Hawaiian American Fusion Food

Authentic Hawaiian Poke

Mainland Poke

SECTION IV: CALIFORNIA MANONGS

Welcome to California

Tydings-McDuffie Act

Taxi Dance Halls

Watsonville Riots

The Price of Love

California Filipino Infantry Regiments

US Army–Issued Bolo Knife

Volcano Patch and Insignias

Kearny Street, San Francisco

My Ninong Jimmy

Delano Grape Strike

SECTION V: HOMEMAKER HERITAGE

War Brides Act of 1945

Filipino Mom Weapons

The Calrose Rice Sack

Calrose Rice

The Art of Cooking Rice in a Pot

The Art of Cooking Rice in a Rice Cooker

The Coconut Grinder

Mama’s Biko

The Best Recipe

Balut Ramen

Balut, What’s the Big Deal?

Puto = Rice Cake

Bisquick Puto Recipe

Chocolate Meat

SECTION VI: SILICON VALLEY WILD MUSTARD FIELDS

Silicon Valley Wild Mustard Fields

Napkin Sketches

A Manong’s Backyard Garden

Bucket of Filipino Crabs

Talk Storyteller

This book is

dedicated to my kids just in case I’m not around anymore.

These are my Filipino American talk stories.

Introduction

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THERE COMES A POINT IN time when Filipino kids being raised in America start to wonder about their Filipino identity. Throughout elementary school, I couldn’t find a hint of my ethnic culture being taught at any grade level. I asked questions like, Is this really my country? Do I really belong here? Where did we come from, and how did we get here? So as I entered high school, I was totally confused about my identity. I thought I was some kind of Mexican. It wasn’t until I was much older and the wonders of the internet made it easy to research. I researched my dad’s migration to America and followed his footsteps as he traveled from the Philippines to Hawaii and then to California, following the crop harvest and looking for work. I remembered the tools he left in the backyard shed, and I matched events that took place in relation to his tools.

What I found was astonishing. So I imagined myself walking in his shoes and relived the past through his eyes. I could only imagine the emotions he must have experienced as a young man living through these events. If he was still alive, I’m sure he would have had some interesting stories to talk about.

Uncle Storyteller

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FIRST OF ALL, I’M NOT a historian or a linguist or a DNA expert. I’m just an enthusiast who collected a bunch of talk stories on topics I was confused about growing up and that I want to share with my kids. These are stories that captured my interests as a child and as a teenager and had to research on to find my answers—topics that they didn’t teach in regular school from kindergarten to twelfth grade.

So read this book as if you’re imagining a Filipino dad, uncle, kuya (older brother), or manong teasing Filipino kids with his talk stories. If you’re a Filipino, you know you have one. Look at me as one of your uncles telling you stories.

I wrote this book as if I was talking to my kids. No one else will tell your stories except yourself, and I’ve been waiting for the right time to share them. We all have stories to share; we should all keep a scrapbook and share them.

Keeping a Scrapbook

THIS SCRAPBOOK IS A COLLECTION of cultural tales, humorous memories, and thought-provoking theories that push the boundaries of possibilities—a collection of nostalgic memories that keep triggering in my thoughts when I least expect it. I kept telling myself to write these stories down before I forget them. I imagined tales coming from my dad’s farm tools in the backyard toolshed and tales from my mom’s footlocker as she migrated and settled in as a homemaker in America. This scrapbook is a result of those efforts. The problem is, How do I organize this mess into one storybook?

I’m really more of an artist than I am a storyteller, so I would create artworks of my thoughts then write a story around that picture. All the images in the collage on the next page are vectored art on different layers, like what you see in a ladybug and an aphid’s exploded view. The artwork helps to create an image story in the reader’s thoughts as he or she reads the book. It’s an artwork storybook. I like to think of it as the first of its kind.

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Tales of Dad’s Tools

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TOOLS THAT WERE HANGING IN my dad’s toolshed reflect the history he lived through. I followed his footsteps and researched current events around each one of those tools and found some interesting incidents that occurred. Although I can’t account for his involvement in these events, I do know he was there during those times.

Dad’s Tool Icons

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