A Strategy

When you play MONOPOLY do you have a strategy? Most people do. Either buy nothing and accumulate cash or buy everything and hope that enough people land on your real estate and pay you rent before you run out of cash. Some people have a variation where they only buy sets of real estate or only the utilities. The point is, if you have a strategy, you have clarity of intent. You know which little steps you need to take along the way. Without a strategy you just flounder from place to place, maybe buying, maybe not. --A. C. PING in his book “DO” 

I found an old card from Dorothy Rua from the Summer of 1995. That’s only about two years ago. I figured that’s when it was written even though Dorothy did not date the card (unlike her). I only figured that it was 1995 because she asked me if I’d seen BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY yet—a book we both read and really loved. BRIDGES was released on June 2, 1995. I loved the elegant woman from years gone by and the soft lavender colors on the card she found:  

Dear Michael, 

Have you seen BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY yet? I saw it with RoseMarie this past Sunday. I’m going to reserve my thoughts until you let me know you’ve seen it. I’ll write my comments down before I hear from you, then share them after I know you’ve seen the movie. My friend, Jan, wants to see it with me, so I may end up seeing it twice! By the way, Clint Eastwood seems to have kept himself in pretty good shape over the years. 

I want you to know I also saw (finally) MURIELS WEDDING in Berkeley a couple of weeks ago. It was a day I really needed to be by myself. I LOVED the movie. It made me laugh, cry and cheer...very entertaining. Wouldn’t mind seeing that once again, plus I really liked the song FERNANDO! 

The recent video I’ve seen is SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, I thoroughly enjoyed the story, especially with the great ending. 

Oh, the other movie I saw recently was CRIMSON TIDE. That was just okay. 

Love,

Dorothy

And my feeling is that after stumbling on the above that I should see BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY and MURIELS WEDDING movies once again because, I too, loved them so much. Great stories! 

My cousin, Edna from Santa Fe, was in Denver, Colorado and sent a sweet postcard of COORS FIELD baseball stadium. I thought that was thoughtful: 

Hi Michael, 

We made it to Denver! 

Last night, we went to a place called “FUN PLEX”. Now I know what a laser room is like. So do Rickie and Mike.  There is snow everywhere. 

Take Care, 

Edna 

Next weekend, April 18-20, I will visit Alameda. Mom thinks I’m a little crazy to get so caught up with our family history and all the relatives but when I learn something new, I know she is finding it fantasy. I cannot say that I have a strategy regarding my research. I think my cousin, MaryAnn Gehling, had it right in a recent letter. It’s one thing to acquire names and dates but it is the stories that are the most interesting. I am trying to gather more information about the people. Where do they work? Who are they married to? Why did they marry? How long were they together? Why did they break up? Who murdered who? Ha-ha, yes, there are a couple of those stories, too. And then there’s my famous prize fighting second cousin, Johnny Lee Anthony Tapia, born in 1967. His father was murdered while his mother was pregnant with him. When he was eight years old his mother, Virginia, was murdered. He was raised by his maternal grandparents, Michael Tapia and Esther Martinez. Johnny’s mother, Virginia, had eleven siblings. It’s no wonder my family research can be so mind-boggling.  

Photo: Johnny Lee Anthony Tapia

b. Feb. 13, 1967, d. May 27, 2012

The plan for my visit to Alameda next weekend is to meet with my cousin Oscar Cordova (for the first time) who will be in town to see his mother that he hasn’t seen for 25 years or so (and it’s all because of my family research). Aunt Nellie had another family in NM when she was young with three children with husband Reynaldo Cordova who died in 1949 that she somehow left behind with their paternal grandparents. I really don’t know the details behind the abandonment of those children (Oscar, Rita, Mary-Jean) but she started a new life in California with Conrad Ortega and children (Mario, Rebecca, Victoria, Yolanda). Aunt Nellie had children from four different men (also her son John Vigil from John Benjamin Romero AND her son Michael De La Paz from Jesus De La Paz). I guess she had movie star looks when she was younger to attract so many men and have children with them all. It must have been an odd upbringing for those cousins of mine to have a father who was there, then gone. 

I will also see mom and attend a softball game that my niece, Holly, will be playing in. I’m looking forward to that trip back home.  

“And what was it like to have no father?” 

“It made you more grown-up.” --Leonard Cohen in his 1963 novel, THE FAVORITE GAME