What's Your Heritage? ... Where Ya From?

French/Irish.  I like to drink and start fights, and then flee   

JK.  Not a fighter... Do like a good pint though...

Originally from the Rift Valley Africa to several countries of Europe (walked)  then Mayflower to America (ship) then Petaluma (car)

Both my parents came from Ireland in 1958 and settled in the SF Sunset District.  My mom was from Tipperary and my dad was from Limerick.  They decided to move to the USA after getting married since my dad had several younger sisters and they would have had to wait until they were married off before he could inherit the farm (still kind of a dowry type system back then).   I loved growing up in SF.  I moved to Petaluma in 1994 when I got married to a great gal from Pacifica and we bought a home there.  Now I love living in the North Bay.

This is a great forum - outstanding members of whom I have only met a few.  Looking forward to meeting more of you fishing yakers!

-Pat- 

F.O.B. UFO

Fresh Off Boat of Unspecified Filipino Origin 1/2
F.O.B. Via Spain Portugal

True American 

I'm half Filipino. Someone called me the thrilla from manila the other day. I thought it was hilarious. I was born in Sun Valley, CA though.

100% Mexican, 1st generation born in the US. Both my grandfathers were part of the Bracero Program  back in the 40's-50's working the fruit and vegetable fields all over California and Arizona. They ended up becoming legal aliens and eventually US citizens.

Brasero Program
wikipedia.org/wiki/Bracero_program

Portuguese, Irish, German, Native American

Both sides of my family have been here so long. My family has fought in every war. One family member was a captain under general Geo Washington. So I consider my self as American. Not native American plain old American. We fought in the Civil war and one member was Lincoln's First VP. A devout abolitionist maybe more so than Lincoln himself. My allegiance is solely to these United States. That said The sir names in my Family are German, English, Irish, A true Heinz 57.     

Irish/ American. Dual citizenship.

Mostly Swedish with a little French and Irish thrown in.

When I visit Sweden I go to a town named Tranas on beautiful Lake Sommen. They are more American than we are! Really unexpected to find this time/place warp in a far-off country.



   

    PORTUGUESE!!!!

Eh Brudfdas,
Thanks for the opportunity to share and learn about diverse heritages. Great up hear that there are some Bruddahs!!!
I ready shared some of this in my original intro some months ago.
My brothers and sisters were born and raise on the Big Island-16 miles north of Hilo on the Hamakua Coast in a small sugar plantation community called Ninole. Our neighbors were of Filipino, Portuguese, and Hawaiian descent.
Iam a 4th generation Japanese (Yonsei) and my great grandparents emigrated to Hawaiii in the 1800's. As kids we ran around barefoot most of the time, played in the rivers and climbed a lot mango and guava trees. I didn't wear shoes to school until the  7th grade. When we had to go to school.
Our Dad loved fishing and would scale the high cliffs of the Hamakua Coast with long Indian Banboo poles. My Dad and his fishing buddies would them stand on the large boulders watching the powerful waves smash against the cliffs. If you got swept away that would be 'pauhana' for you (pauhana in Hawaii means the end.) Our Dad brought some really great fish and they mostly fished at night, Some of the varieties like 'Moi'and Aholehole are hard to come by now in Hawaii. The Hamakua Coast on the Big island had some of the largest Moi and Aholehole. Our Dad also took my brothers down to one particular stream near us to catch"Gori'.Gori was a fresh water looking like some kind of cross between a Ling Cod and  big bullhead. We would first dig up some earthworms from the garden because that was the best  bait to catch Gori. Gori liked to hand out in deep holes under rocks  off the main current of the stream/river and there seemed to be a few different varieties (some had a larger head and was very dark in color, while others were more slender and lighter in color. The largest ones could get up to maybe 20" long. We also caught crayfish and frogs.
One of the best experiences my brothers had with our Dad was catching the small freshwater shrimp called Opae. Our Dad used to grind it up and use it like chum for ocean fishing and was called Palu. We would drive up to the forest line in our jeep and find a pristine stream. Then we would find a small pond with rushing water and then make a small dam at the mouth of the pond and my brothers would hold this net that was attached to 3 guava poles

Cont.   Sent unfinished post by accident. Once the net was in place in the main current of the stream, we would then turn over all the rocks in the pond and there was so much Opae sometimes the water would be black. After spending some hours doing this we would come home with a 100lb rice bag half filled. Opae is about the same size as grass shrimp.
Anyway, wanted to share some special times growing up on the Big Island.
Take Kea,

Da Bruddah (Michael Yamagata)

Mostly Swedish with a little French and Irish thrown in.

When I visit Sweden I go to a town named Tranas on beautiful Lake Sommen. They are more American than we are! Really unexpected to find this time/place warp in a far-off country.



 

So now I know why my wife's car went to that part of the world. California Special 1968 mustang.

  We are country folks from Taishan, China (country pumpkins near Canton).  5 generations before me was already here.  Some even work on the railroad.   I was born in Hong Kong on the poor side.  Came to San Francisco in 1967.  Grew up in North Beach and started fishing on the piers with drop line. My whole tackle box fit inside my pocket.  When I was 13, I started volunteer taking kids out fishing in the PAL fishing program (not to be confused with the Police Fishing program).  We took kids out every weekend on a shoe string budget.  Sometimes, we even took 2 group of kids out on the same day.  Stripe Bass on wireline with a 2 lb ball was my gig.  Caught double hitter many times.  Even triple hitter trolling with hulla skirts near the south tower.   Most highlights of those days for me as a teenager like me was teaching pretty girls how to fish  .  Ahhh, I missed being a kid.