This is my Tatang

This is my Tatang. His name is Florentino. He is from Pidigan, Abra, Philippines in the Northern mountainous region of Luzon. Our family on his side currently lives in the Philippines, Nevada, Canada and Italy.

My Tatang is a very quiet yet silly and goofy man.

He emanates charm effortlessly and he's the funniest in the most random of ways.

He makes some of the best Filipino food, almost as good as my Nanang's cooking.

You can see him wearing our old skate shoes (even if they're too big for his feet), my brother's old skate t-shirts and mesh trucker hats he got from my parent's liquor store (promotions from sales people). One stylish Grandpa.

He loves chimpanzees, gorillas, cop shows, wrestling, Family Feud and cheesy 90's action films. When we were younger all we would watch were films starring Stephen Seagal, Jeanne Claude VanDamme, Charles Bronson, Chuck Norris, China O'Brien, and Clint Eastwood.

He hates being surprised, he ABSOLUTELY HATES The Simpsons AND (when my brother and I were younger) HE HATED when we played video games. He would never watch The Simpsons with us on his TV. If we had it on, he'd just yell cranky jibber jabber at the TV until we turned the channel...and then he'd say, "...Shyiiiiiiiiitttttt..." haha.

So we had 2 TVs downstairs. One in the Den (where my brother and I would watch cartoons and play video games) and one in the Living Room (where my Tatang retired for the night in his reclining chair). He had a better TV.

One time we tried to hook up our Super Nintendo or Sega (I forgot which one) to his TV while he was sleeping and forgot to disconnect it when we were done. The next day, he couldn't get his channels to come on. It was just playing the salt and pepper fight channel no matter what he did. So instead of calling us to fix it, he crankily yanked the Super Nintendo cable from the TV along with the coaxial screw thingie so we couldn't even reconnect the antennae nor the VCR. Hence, no TV. That was one time...I don't know how many times we replaced the television.

I also remember... (these memories are all resurfacing in my mind right now for some reason) ...when my brother and I were super little, after school we'd be watching TV, probably Dark Wing Duck or Duck Tales and he'd come in from a long day working in the garden. He would walk in front of the TV like a duck and stand with his back to us. And we'd plead, "Move Tatang! We're watching TV!" And then he'd stick out his butt, fart and throw pieces of hard Wrigley's Doublemint or Spearmint gum at us (as if his fart shot out pieces of gum out of his butt). Every time this happened we went wild! We excitedly foraged for the pieces of gum. Like hyper goons we scurried to locate the destination they landed and were undeniably anxious to stuff those pieces of gum into our mouths. WE LOVED CANDY!!!

Even though it was gum...hard, tasteless Wrigley's Spearmint gum...haha.

Yeah, we loved it every time...

Whenever I go and to see him after work, sometimes he'll have a grocery list or a prescription refill list ready for me . Lately he's been hooked on some pretty yummy snacks.

I grew up with these. I love these but everyone says they taste like fish food.

He's super hooked on these at the moment...

Tamarind Candy

Chocolate wafers...Another childhood addiction of mine.

I told him to smile and this is what he did...

Ahh, that's better haha...I love my silly Tatang.