How I Became a Shop Girl

Me circa 1988

3 things come to mind when I look at this picture:  1. I am clearly partial to bob; 2. so here was the origin of my chronic obsession with stripes; and 3.  how I wished that I still have that laminated Thai art hanging above my head.  You ask:  what is up with all that soda behind me?  And really, why this throwback photo?  Well, my current obsession with restarting our small business (Sala) reminded me that I came from a long line of small business people - the storekeeper kind.  My grandparents (with whom I grew up living next door to)were always tending to some selling business or another for as far back as I could remember.  My lola sewed house dresses, curtains and rugs which she sold to the ladies in the neighborhood and even at the market.  One of my earliest memories of my mother was her baking ribbon-shaped cookies made to order for the neighbors.  All my growing years, our house or my lola's house had a sari-sari store (general goods store) at the front.  This picture was shot at our old kitchen in the Philippines which was then taken over by cases of soda bottles for our store at the front.  My dad turned to this business full time when he retired from the service in 1986.  This was at the height of our modest sari-sari store business just before the entire family left for the States.  I am thinking about all of these now as Mel and I obsessed about our "business" future.  Starting a business always strikes me as a romantic venture which I know sounds so un-business-like.  But how else can you describe an act that is fueled first and foremost by a "dream"?  And yes, the "dream" is in me.  Now making that "dream" come true is the stuff for real life.