and Words
No one on the streets and the city is quiet
I should be asleep by the heat of the fire
But I′m on my way out
And I’m gonna stay out
I can feel the pulse as I walk in the door
Take me through the crowd to the middle of the floor
The red and the green lights
Are hitting me just right
Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.
From my earliest memory, my dad ran his own restaurant. We lived in Puerto Rico, and he converted the front end of the residence, in the middle of our street, into a restaurant. This means that my family has been in the service industry my entire life. Most people have fond memories of Christmas Day. They remember Christmas Day traditions with their families, with little else to do. After all, most businesses close on Christmas Day. Chinese restaurants do not close on Christmas Day. My dad didn’t close our restaurant on Christmas Day.
Once my dad passed away, we moved to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. My mom didn’t speak English and had only a limited education. She took on work as a seamstress and found side jobs in the kitchens of Chinese restaurants. However, the rest of my siblings and I started work at an early age. I started working at the age of twelve by washing dishes. My sisters similarly worked in the food industry. In fact, my mom ran another restaurant in Florida.