I sat on the edge of the bed waiting for Mama to settle herself in the room. She sat down with her cup of green tea in her hands which she drinks at least twice a day. Her bedroom was quite small and crowded, but we had no other place but here to have a conversation without our guests and ... Read More »
Tag Archives: Wisconsin
A Dreamer from Hong Kong
My uncle is a dreamer. He came to the U.S. for his education and had a hope to settle in the U.S. He came from Hong Kong, a world city in China. It’s really crowded and extremely different from the U.S. He first came to the U.S. in 2001, at the age of the beginning of his undergraduate school. He ... Read More »
Skiing to the Dream (Norway)
Gunnar Rebne immigrated to the United States from Stor-Elvdal, Norway, a small town of nearly 1,000 where most parents started to teach their children to ski at the age of five. Rebne was a young man who wanted to see what the American Dream was all about, so at the age of 20 he decided to take a boat to ... Read More »
Dulce: The Most Challenging Path is the Most Rewarding
Dulce chose a college that was about as far from her environment and comfort-zone as she could imagine….and what a great choice it turned out to be. Dulce was born in Uruapan, Michoacan, Mexico and immigrated to the Bay Area when they were 8 years old. Dulce’s family settled in Hayward, which is where Dulce attended middle school and high ... Read More »
Johann Erbes – Farmer and Soldier
The land was covered in green grassy hills, big farms, and livestock that would be perched on the hills, where the grass was more luscious and bountiful — It was fall of 1852 in Bubenheim, Johann and his three brothers worked the farm. For 31 years Johann was born and raised in their family farm in Germany. Johann Georg was ... Read More »
Sam Chou: The First Snow
He hopped from one heat vent to another, over the ones that lay outside the school buildings. It was below zero degrees Celsius, and he had only worn a down jacket and jeans. He was freezing and needed to stay warm. Sam Chou was starting his second semester at the University of Wisconsin in the year of 1990. He ... Read More »
The Miracle of Life
Morrie’s early years were gruesome and filled with fear, but they shaped a man who taught his son to stand down for nothing and stand up for everything. It wasn’t something you see often. Nazi soldiers flooding the streets as Polish residents were called out, manhandled, and forced to their knees. The air was thick with crackling tension, only broken ... Read More »
Guri Syversdatter Sundbreen & Lars Paulson Troo
In the steerage the family slept on a straw-covered plank bunk with barely enough room for four – let alone five. After much seasickness all of Guri’s children suffered from measles and her youngest son died. < Click Here to Listen to the Audio Version of the Story, as Read by Julie Buckley, the Great-Great Granddaughter of Guri. The greatest ... Read More »
Henry Drekmeier, Mathilde and Augusta Wagner
Click Here to Listen to Audio Version – Written by Charles Drekmeier and Voiced by Peter Drekmeier, Former Mayor of Palo Alto. Grandpa Henry Drekmeier spent happy hours skating on the frozen estuaries of the Rhein near Bremerhaven where he was born. I suspect this may have been in the late 1860’s since he fathered the first of his five ... Read More »
Millie Lueck MacInnis: Salvation Army Captain
Click Here to Listen to the Audio Recording – Read by Carolyn Williams, the Great-Granddaughter of Millie and a Resident of Palo Alto, CA. “You are all arrested, come along,” declared Officer Pete Walsh of the Butte, Montana police force. In the midst of a heavy snowstorm, Captain Millie Lick (Lueck) and her six fellow Salvation Army soldiers were taken ... Read More »