Memoir Flashback: My parents' store burned down in the L.A. Riots

I interviewed my folks and created a podcast. I wanted to understand how they felt when their store was destroyed. It was also a time when they were constantly robbed at gunpoint.

Thirty-one years ago, my parents worried about whether they were going to have a normal day at their store… or die. 

I was in high school when Hammer’s was destroyed. It was the early ‘90s and my parents kept getting robbed at gunpoint. During one hold-up, my dad got shot; my mom was robbed in the parking lot of our store while returning from a bank run with $18,000 in cash. She didn’t realize she was being followed by the thieves.

Then, the 1992 L.A. Riots happened and it decimated our store. 

Hammer’s Market

By the time the riots occurred, my parents owned Hammer’s Market for a decade. My folks were friendly with many of the customers. Whenever I went to the store with my mom, it surprised me that she and my dad knew almost everyone by their first names, how many kids they had, and who their grandparents were. 

On the one hand, Hammer’s was full of laughter and smiles and “How you doin’, Mr. and Mrs. Jae?” (Jae is my dad’s name) but on the other, it was located in Compton, a rough area where gang activity, drug use, and alcoholism was rampant. It was a place where my parents feared for their safety.

Why these stories, why now?

I wanted to capture this story because, at the time, I never asked what happened, and how my parents felt about it. As my mom says, “We were so busy just trying to survive.” They never stopped to discuss what happened with me or my siblings, much less process how it affected our lives.

I ask how they felt about getting burglarized by their own customers. I ask what it was like to see the store, their source of income and livelihood, smoldering in blackness and fumes after firefighters put out the flames.

In writing my memoir, I realized I wanted to know more about my parents and their past. I also want to share these recordings with my brother, and in a way, it is my legacy to him. As the youngest in the family, he knew way less about traumatic events because he was so much younger when they happened. 

I want him to know my parents in a deeper way, in a way that, quite frankly, none of us (my sister and I) had the opportunity to while growing up.

New pathways appear from writing a memoir

My memoir and these podcasts seem to go hand in hand. It’s one of those things that naturally happened, and I’m so grateful it did.

It’s my way of being able to preserve my parents’ stories and write about them in my memoir—and of course, share them with you.

This is one of the first podcasts I’ve created in this format, so bear with me and please forgive the sound quality—it’s all over the place! (I used Garageband to edit, and it wasn’t the best platform for podcasts.) 

But I hope you enjoy it. I already shared it with close friends and family and they told me it had a This American Life vibe to it, which is exactly what I was going for. 😬

Chime in with your thoughts. I have more recordings to share in the future.

Next week on MJWA

Next week’s newsletter will be related to today’s story but from more of a productivity perspective. It’s about how I managed to get started on this podcast project when I have so many other creative endeavors going on (my book, and my other Substack about my brother, to name a few). 

It’s something I struggle with a lot—wanting to do more but also being realistic. I tend to get overwhelmed, and when that happens, I usually abandon the project before it starts. So be sure to check out next week’s newsletter where I’ll share insights on how I got motivated to get going on this project.

More family stories…

Podcast credits:

Background music for the podcast:

Free Music Archive 

Plainsong by Podington Bear

Intermission by johnny_ripper

Burned by Podington Bear

Bambi by Podington Bear

In My Head by Podington Bear

Nymph by Podington Bear