The House that Brought my Family Together. By Vikram

“SFO welcomes you to San Francisco!” an electronic billboard announced as we were driving away from the terminals toward US-101, and as the car engine revved up to match the 55 miles per hour speed limit. Quite a long time after they bought the house, my grandparents were finally moving into it, and we had just picked them up from the airport after their long 5 hour plane ride. But the story really starts six years earlier, in 2013, when the Bay Meadows development site was being built.

My parents, who were living in the Bay Area, shopped at the Whole Foods Market in San Mateo. It was built around five years before the demolition of the Bay Meadows Horse race track, formerly an airfield. In 2012, numerous advertisements and signs screamed that a housing development, soon to be called “Bay Meadows” (named after the Horse Race track), would be built. At the time, my mother called up her parents, who were thinking of moving to the Bay Area from Chicago. It seemed fitting that a housing development 2 miles from our residence would be a good place to move into. So my grandparents caught a plane out to SFO for a shot at a new home.

Since the Bay Meadows housing development had not yet been built, the agents at Bay Meadows would hold an auction one Saturday every month. In 2012, my grandparents came to one of the auctions. They had decided that they wanted a house in the Amelia complex rather than in Landsdowne, which were the two complexes being auctioned off at the time. When they went back to Chicago, they left my mother to put in a number for them. One Saturday per month was now a very stressful time for my parents. Three-year-old me and my one-year-old sister Leela had activities on Saturdays, so Mom had to drive one of us to our activities, go to Bay Meadows, put her lottery number in the auction bowl, run to another activity, and then go back to Bay Meadows to see whether her lottery number was chosen. At the time this was happening, i had no idea how this whole house system worked. I only knew the Bay Meadows Main Office building, which sometimes had entertaining activities and cool tents, 

The staff at Bay Meadows had seen Mom many times, so they knew that she had two kids and that she had to run around on Saturday. During the third auction Saturday, a Bay Meadows staff member came up to mom.

“We’ve seen you since the start of the auctioning days, and we want to offer you a second lottery number since you’ve been trying for three months.”

“Sure!” my mom responded. She had put another number into the bowl, doubling her chance of a new house.

“We’ll pick the lottery number for Landsdowne first,” the agent replied in a sweet voice, giving Mom more time to get back to Bay Meadows before the Amelia number was drawn.

When my mom arrived back to hear the winner of the auction, she was shocked to hear that her number had been chosen. She was joyful when she called up her parents.

“We got a house!” My mom exclaimed, which started the long-lasting legacy of 4-1-7 Derby.

All my grandparents needed was to move out to California to their new home. But they wouldn’t move right away. Before they moved, my family lived in their new house for around 1.5 years while we were building our current house. It was a comfortable abode, with a spacious living room and bedrooms, and a playground, train station and field walking distance from the house. After that, we moved into our current house and my grandparents rented it out to some other people since they hadn’t yet moved. But there were still challenges. Upon moving out here, my grandparents would need to find new doctors, my grandfather needed to retire before moving, and my grandfather also had health problems which needed to be treated once they had settled. 

After the tenants moved, all of the fake wooden cabinets needed to be replaced due to water exposure. On top of that, my grandmother wanted a sturdy wooden floor and better carpet for stairs and the upstairs, since she has difficulty climbing stairs and needed more grippy but solid floors that wouldn’t collapse under her feet while she was trying to walk. Knowing this, we replaced the carpet in the living room and upstairs, so it wouldn’t mold to her feet like the uneven surface of sand, mud, or grass or dirt after a rainstorm. 

After six years, my grandparents were ready to move into their house. We could get all the tasty potatoes, cauliflower, and lemon rice from my grandmother in around 10 minutes instead of 10 hours flying round trip, and we could see our grandparents as much as we pleased. My grandparents packed up a BIG truck, sold one of their cars, and drove the other one to California. It was a big celebration after two drivers had driven for three days, because it represented a big step in the process of moving here. 

After going back to Chicago for the closing day and for some finishing touches, it was time to hand over the keys, do namaskar to the house for the 35 years of service, and make the final plane flight from ORD to SFO. During their moving process, there was a lot of chaos and decisions to be made, and of course, there was the excitement for more family time. It was all over now. We greeted them with joy and excitement when they arrived, and they slowly got used to not being close to their friends over time, along with changing mailing addresses. Their big move also brought along more family time with each other.

At this point, the house was well furnished. All of the rooms in the house were used similar to the way that my family had used them when we had lived there, with the exception of my grandparents turning Leela’s old bedroom into a den and prayer room. My grandparents were happy in their new home, and we enjoyed going over to their house to visit for a few hours or for dinner, or even for a couple of sleepovers. 

We could spend a lot of time with our close family, which I feel is an important part of who I am as a person. I also have a healthier relationship with my sister than I hear most other people my age do. For example, around 3 years later, I went on my school expedition to Alaska. While most other people in my grade were excited to be away from their parents, I was constantly thinking about how I would hold up without my sister and my supportive family. While the story of this house might end here, there is another house being built to hopefully house my grandparents next year, right next door to ours. Maybe the next story would be about the house next door…