Author Archives: Keesha Cuthbert

Hot Toddy

Nationality: African American
Age: 56
Occupation: Warehouse Supervisor
Residence: Rialto, California
Primary Language: English

Richard L Cuthbert was born in Savannah, Georgia.  His father was in the United States Air Force and Richard ending being raised by his paternal grandmother.  He moved to Compton, California with his relatives from his father’s side of the family.  It is here where he met his high school sweetheart, Twesa Cuthbert.  They had two children together.  Richard (now widowed) currently lives in Rialto, California with his daughter, Keesha Cuthbert.

“For a cold it is always best to sweat it out with a hot toddy.  So you half fill a small sauce pan with water and place it on the stove.  Take a lemon and roll it so that you get the juices flowing.  Cut it in half and squeeze the juice in the pot and then slice those lemons and throw them in there too.  Let all of that come to a boil.  When it does take it off the heat and pour a good amount of dark liquor into the pot, something like Brandy.  Pour this in your mug and add some honey.  Drink all of this and then go wrap up in a blanket.  You are gonna fall asleep and while you are sleeping you are gonna sweat a lot.  By the time that you wake up you will have sweated the whole cold out.  This is something that my grandma had been using on us since we were kids and it always works.”

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As a child my dad has used this on me many, many times and it has always worked.  I am not sure why or the chemical significance of this combination of ingredients has, but I do know that it always works.

Lanzones

Nationality: Filipino
Age: 35
Occupation: Retail Branch Manager
Residence: Yucaipa, CA
Primary Language: English
Language: Tagalog

Steven “Ricky” Phillips was the son of a military family.  They moved around from base to base quite a bit.  He lived in the Philippines for a number of years before moving to The United States of America.  His father was in the Air Force and met his mother in the Philippines while stationed at the Clark Air Base.  Ricky currently resides in Yucaipa, CA with his wife and two daughters.  He is a Branch Manager for JP Morgan Chase Bank, N.A.

I also remember a story my mother had told me about a fruit that she and I used to pick on the air base called Lanzones.  As we picked and ate the fruit, she taught be to pinch the fruit by the stem to open and peel the fruit.  She told me the story of how this began and why it continues as the process of eating this particular fruit.

A village in the Philippines not believed this fruit to be poisonous, but the beauty of the fruit often caused doubt to its poisonous nature.   The temptation would cause villagers to venture and try it despite the risks.  An old woman visited this village.  She needed food, water and shelter.  This village was helpful and let her stay as long as she needed and provided food and water.  The villagers had told her about the poisonous fruit.  She asked to see it, and when they showed it to her, she taught them how to pinch the fruit at the stem to render the fruit harmless and edible.  She proved it by eating one after another.  Ever since, the method of pinching and peeling this fruit has continued, and the story passed on along with it.

Tinikling

Nationality: Filipino
Age: 35
Occupation: Retail Branch Manager
Residence: Yucaipa, CA
Primary Language: English
Language: Tagalog

Steven “Ricky” Phillips was the son of a military family.  They moved around from base to base quite a bit.  He lived in the Philippines for a number of years before moving to The United States of America.  His father was in the Air Force and met his mother in the Philippines while stationed at the Clark Air Base.  Ricky currently resides in Yucaipa, CA with his wife and two daughters.  He is a Branch Manager for JP Morgan Chase Bank, N.A.

 

Somewhere in the middle of the earthquake and the eruption, I had the opportunity to discover more about our culture.  One popular activity is a dance called the Tinikling.  It generally involves two people partnering and dancing between two bamboo poles while another pair slap the sticks on the ground and then slide together.

The origin of this dance isn’t as festive.  It is believed to come from a time when in the 1500s the Spaniards conquered and surpressed the Filipino people, who spent most of their time in the rice paddies.  The Spaniards would punish those who did not work well by making the worker stand between two bamboo poles while they beat the poles against their legs.  After a while, in an attempt to avoid getting hurt, the workers would jump to escape the punishment.  The dance is now named after a local bird as it describes its leg movements, and the dance continues as a maneuver to avoid the sliding bamboo.

Aeta’s Revenge

Nationality: Filipino
Age: 35
Occupation: Retail Branch Manager
Residence: Yucaipa, CA
Primary Language: English
Language: Tagalog

Steven “Ricky” Phillips was the son of a military family.  They moved around from base to base quite a bit.  He lived in the Philippines for a number of years before moving to The United States of America.  His father was in the Air Force and met his mother in the Philippines while stationed at the Clark Air Base.  Ricky currently resides in Yucaipa, CA with his wife and two daughters.  He is a Branch Manager for JP Morgan Chase Bank, N.A.

My mother is from the Philippines, but it wasn’t until I was 9 years old when I first lived there.  My father was in the US Air Force and was assigned to Clark Air Base.  I wasn’t a stranger to natural disasters at this point.  I’ve already experience earthquakes, tornadoes, and typhoons.  So I didn’t think twice about the 7.7 earthquake that changed not only my life, but the lives of many others and the world in general.

For the months following, I heard of a local tribe living around Mt Pinatubo claiming that their diety, Namalyadi, was angry.  At the time, I was too young to understand their story.  It wasn’t until later in life when I researched this story and discovered corporations had been logging and oil diggings in and around the then dormant volcano.

Fast forward a year later.  I could walk outside my front door, walk just a few steps and turn to my left.  Clouds of sulfur began filling the air.  The amplified smell of a sewer was an inescapable aroma.  Add constant ash falling on the ground, your car, and home.  The tribe known as the Aeta was right.  Namalyadi had demonstrated his anger and power as his control of the 500 year dormant Mt Pinatubo causes it to erupt, causing an almost degree Fahrenheit drop in temperature globally and increase in ozone depletion.  It became the second largest eruption in its century.  The spirit of the Aeta tribe literally blew its top.  Combined with a typhoon, it caused many deaths, injuries, illnesses, and rendered many more homeless.  Not too bad for a diety.

Call of Duty

Nationality: African American
Age: 6
Occupation: student
Residence: Rialto, California

Amari Broadnax was born in Fontana, CA in 2006.  He has lived in Rialto, CA all of his life.  He is a six year old first grader at Lena M. Preston Elementary School.   Amari practices Tae Kwon Do at the Tiger Lee Karate Schools in Rialto.  He is the eldest of two boys to his mother, Keesha Cuthbert, who is a full time student at the University of Southern California and Assistant Branch Manager at JP Morgan Chase Bank, N.A.

Me:                        Amari, what games do you play at recess?

Informant:          (looks at me nervously, fidgets with clothes) Why? Did Mrs. Dietz call you?

M:                          What?  Why would she call me?

I:                             … I don’t know …

M:                          Okay, Amari, I don’t know what is going on.  I just want to know what you play at recess.

I:                             Am I going to get in trouble?

M:                          What? No. Why would you get in trouble? Amari, I promise you won’t get in trouble.

I:                             (hesitates) Mom, we are not supposed to play it though.  It’s called Call of Duty. Like the video game. You know?

M:                          Yes, I know.  Continue …

I:                             Okay, so, Mom, the boys umm are the zombies and umm we like try to get the girls.  So the girls umm run away from us so that they don’t umm become like us …like the zombies.  … and then, we  like turn the girls into umm the zombies and then the last human wins! (smiles) Mom, what’s wrong?

M:                          I don’t get it.  So, if you touch the girl she becomes a zombie?   How are there and humans left to win?

I:                             Mom, when I umm touch the girl I turn into a human and she is a zombie.  Do you get it now?

M:                          I think so … It sounds like Freeze Tag.

I:                             What’s that?

M:                          Nothing. Nevermind.

I:                             Mom …

M:                          Amari?

I:                             I’m not in trouble, right.  Cause that’s what you said …

M:                          No, you are not in trouble.

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This sounds like a variation of Freeze Tag, that I used to play as a kid.  Basically, you transfer the “freezing” from one person to another until there is one person that remains unfrozen.  The thing that I remember about this game is that the more people that were playing, the longer the game lasted.  So, with a playground full of elementary school kids, it seems the perfect game for recess because it would never end.