Gordon Ing (son)

Entered July 8, 2022 from Toronto

Rest in Peace, Mom and Dad - your beloved son, Gordon.

Robert T Park (Son-In-Law)

Entered July 8, 2022 from University Park

May he rest in the company of saints.

Lester Keachie (Friend of Horne)

Entered July 8, 2022

Very sorry for your loss. Thinking about you.

Marigold Wong 

Entered July 8, 2022

Dearest Cousins,
I'm truly sorry to hear about the passing away of your Dad, my uncle 二叔. My heartfelt sympathy goes out to you and your family.
May God rests his soul in peace and may God comforts you and all family members.
Sincerely,
Marigold

lori sterling and keith mackinnon (friend of Pearl Ing)

Entered July 10, 2022

Our condolences to Pearl and your family. Your father lived a long, successful, community-minded and hardworking life- so much to admire.

Dad’s Eulogy by Horne Ing (Son)

Thank you for joining us for the celebration of our Dad’s life. Dad was officially born on July 3rd, 1927. We celebrated Dad’s 95th birthday in his hospital room on July 3rd – we sang Happy birthday to him with my sister May playing her violin. Dad passed away peacefully the next morning on July 4th.
My Dad was a complicated man with many and varied interests throughout his life.
I was stumped by a question asked by the funeral director – she was helping us fill out a government form to register Dad’s passing – the question was – what type of work did my Dad do during his life – there was no simple answer.
Dad immigrated to Canada in 1950 to seek a better life in a new country. The Communists had taken power and had seized his family’s land holdings. Dad had to leave my Mother and my sister Rose in China – it was three long years before Mom joined Dad again in Canada.
Upon arriving in Toronto, Dad enrolled at Central Tech High School to learn English - he also learned to repair radios – the old vacuum tube type of radio. By all accounts, it was a difficult life in the early years. He worked long hours in a laundry operated by family relatives during and after high school.
I was born in 1954 – we all lived with my Grandparents on Dundas Street West for the first year.
After securing loans from family and friends, my parents brought an old farmhouse at the northern reaches of Toronto – at Eglinton and Keele – they renovated and opened up a laundry washing clothes for other people.
My parents moved up to dry cleaning of clothes when they purchased a building on St. Clair Avenue West in 1964 – they soon expanded this into a wholesale business.
My parents opened up a restaurant in Chinatown on Spadina Avenue around 1973 – my Dad worked as a chef in the restaurant.
Dad “retired” (in quotation marks) about 5 years later, but he proved to be a restless soul. He got a real estate licence and dabbled in real estate. He got a hairdressing licence and opened up a hair salon – he thought that Mom would learn the trade and take over the business, but Mom apparently had other ideas.
Dad explored his artistic side and produced many paintings for his and our pleasure – we can see samples of his work in the picture book displayed here.
Dad learned to use a computer at the Public Library and wrote his memoirs (both in Chinese and in English) at the age of 76.
He remained active in the Chinese community – he volunteered in many non-profit organizations. He has received many awards to recognize his efforts. We found a certificate from Metropolitan Toronto dated June 1991 – it said “this is to recognize that Jim Ing has contributed unselfishly to the betterment of our great country Canada”. Dad also received an “Ontario Volunteer Service Award” in 1998 and a “Red Cross Award” in 2014.
I have always admired and marvelled at Dad’s spirit and courage to travel far overseas to a new country with strange new customs; to learn a new language from scratch; to persevere with hard work and long hours to build and succeed in many businesses. My parents epitomized the immigrant family work ethic – they worked long hours to build up their businesses. I am very proud of him. I, for one, have always wondered whether I could ever have walked in his footsteps.
Each of us has favorite memories of our Dad. My sister Rose remembers Dad helping her with her high school physics homework. She remembers cooking with my Dad – Dad had installed a huge gas burner with an industrial-sized wok in our kitchen.
My sister Pearl remembers Dad making a sweet bean soup for us to eat during hot summer nights. She recalls seeing him sitting out back in the laneway of the cleaners contemplating life.
Dad and my brother Gordon built a huge 50 gallon aquarium from scratch – they spent hours maintaining and raising exotic fish species. Gordon also has fond memories of time spent at our Lake Simcoe cottage - hunting for frogs, fishing and boating.
My sister May remembers Dad preparing special Cantonese dishes for us – his steamed fish, his daily soups, his stir frys, May says that Dad cooked with love.
I also remember cooking with my Dad – we grew up almost exclusively on home-cooked Chinese food. Despite living at Dufferin and St. Clair – the Italian district – I don’t think I had my first pizza until I was in high school.
I also remember the chill of the air and the smell of burning leaves in the Fall with Dad at the cottage. I have a vivid memory of my Dad’s version of “The Old Man and the Sea” – he is standing alone fishing at the end of the dock with the water extending as far as the eye could see – the sky is overcast, dark and menacing – there is a swirling wind ruffling his hair – there are large whitecaps on the lake. He must have been using a very heavy sinker because he cast his fishing line out at least a mile, it seemed to me, into the stormy lake – I should not be surprised, but he hooked onto a lunker and eventually managed to land the fish.
Mom and Dad were always a sturdy and steadfast unit. They were always there with their love and support. Mom passed away last year in June. Mom and Dad would have celebrated their 75th wedding anniversary this year. They are now together again.
Dad’s health had been deteriorating over the past few years – however, his kidney disease progressed quite rapidly over the past six months. Thankfully, Dad generally felt well physically and mentally until the final two weeks of his life. We had many heart to heart talks. He was aware of his mortality. He had made peace with himself. He felt he had lived a long enough life. He wanted to pass away peacefully.
Dad passed away peacefully on July 4th. I will forever remember his last goodbye to me. I love you Dad. I miss you Dad.
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Grandfather’s Eulogy by Galen Watts (Grandson)

I think it’s reasonable to say that, for much of our lives, Grandfather—or “Gung Gung” for Ali, Fe, Kelsey, and I, and “Yeh Yeh” as Matthew and Sonja know him)—remained somewhat of a mystery to us grandchildren.

In the few vague childhood memories I have of him, he’s stationed either at a large round table, in one or other Chinese restaurant, with a lazy susan and Heineken before him, or he’s reposing on the couch in either my parents’ or Horne and Joan’s living room. And in both mental portraits, he sits quietly, gazing out at us, while also lost in his own train of thought, seemingly off somewhere else.

This perhaps explains why, as a teenager, I felt somewhat estranged from him. Part of this, I don’t doubt, was because of the considerable language and cultural barriers between us; after all, we grew up worlds apart, separated by vast amounts of time and social change.

But another part of our estrangement, I think, was the result of his reserved nature. Grandfather was difficult to get close to. He kept people—including, or perhaps especially, his family—at a distance, exhibiting an outward stoicism that could make him seem both intimidating and indifferent. That’s one of the major differences between he and our Grandmother – she, much like the other Ing women, wore her emotions on her sleeve; he, on the other hand, kept them tucked away. As a boy, I interpreted this lack of expressiveness as a lack of feeling, even a lack of depth.

It was only a few years ago that I began to see how mistaken I was.

What began this process was the publication and translation of his memoir. Although I read it briskly as a teen, reading it again more recently proved revelatory. It completely upended my woefully superficial sense of what Grandfather’s life had been like. It taught me of the incredible hurdles he had to jump over—some personal, some political—along with the gut-wrenching turmoil and hardship he suffered for the sake of trying to secure a better life for he and his family—what those from his small village referred to as a realizing the dream of Gam Saan.

I’m ashamed to admit that for much of my life I’d largely reduced Grandfather to a stereotype: Chinese immigrant comes to Canada with nothing, starts laundry and restaurant businesses, works hard, raises family. This was the narrative I’d repeat whenever someone asked about my maternal grandfather. And while it’s superficially accurate, it does an injustice to the reality of those, like Gung Gung, who lived it. So, reading his memoir transformed him, for me, from a 2-dimensional character, into something far more relatable, and therefore, real.

But more than this, it helped me to see just how deep the wellspring of feeling within him went; although at times bogged down in numerical minutia (he seems to have recalled the exact price of nearly everything he bought)—his own recounting of his life story teems with sweetness and sentimentality. There are a few scattered sentences here and there that make apparent that Grandfather was a man whose inner life was rich and plentiful, who loved passionately, and more to the point, who desperately desired to make this known, yet always struggled to do so.

Reading Grandfather’s memoir opened my eyes to a version of him that was always there but, as a boy, I’d obviously failed to see. Thinking back on him, sitting across that lazy susan or on the living room couch, I could now recall that, between his silent gazes, he’d occasionally look up, make eye contact, and offer a warm smile. This small gesture, it dawned on me, was for him an attempt to reach out and connect, to communicate his love and affection in the face of intense internal resistance.

This resistance may have had its origins in his shy nature. But as Matthew pointed out to me, it may also owe something to the fact that Grandfather, like his immigrant elders before him, was forced to keep many secrets in order to be reunited with his family, and then again to keep them in the country. And under such conditions, I imagine staying silent and sharing little become habits that are difficult to break.

I wonder now whether this helps to account for Grandfather’s love of painting. While he enjoyed reading and writing, Gung Gung was not a man of many words. After being interviewed about his life for two hours for a Ward Museum Project, the creators chose to quote Grandfather at what I guess was his most verbose and eloquent: “At the time, my life was very simple – go to the laundry, go downtown, and then go back to the laundry.” I suspect they could have found something a bit more tantalizing in the transcript. But it remains true that Grandfather was extremely matter-of-fact in his speech, to the point where sentimentality was often nowhere to be found. So, I wonder whether he was attracted to painting, and art more generally, because they afforded a medium of emotional expression through which he could pour out his heart, without having to suffer the vulnerability that comes with speaking about oneself.

My relationship with Gung Gung changed dramatically after Chantel and I moved into the apartment above him on Spadina. After Grandmother entered a nursing home, I’d regularly check-up on him. Sometimes, when I visited, he would be sleeping soundly while one or other Chinese soap opera played on the television set at full blast.

Some of you will know that, in his older years, Grandfather developed severe hearing loss. And because he stubbornly refused to spend the money to buy a good hearing aid, or wear the low-quality aid he purchased second-hand, he would watch his dramas at an exceedingly high volume. As a result, for the five or so years that my office was directly above his bedroom, I got used to working to a background soundtrack of Chinese love songs, and what, to my Anglo-ears, sounded like men yelling at each other intermixed with the sounds of women squealing and swords clanging. Think: “The Young and the Restless” circa 19th century China.

But there were other times that I’d check in, and he would be reading the paper in his office chair (which, interestingly, was a barber’s chair—a remnant of his short-lived career as a Chinatown barber). So, I’d sit down for a chat. Having never spent one-on-one time with Gung Gung, I was often determined to get to know him better, and so would throw a barrage of questions his way.

His answers were almost always short and to the point. I asked him for career advice; he told me to work for myself. I asked him what it was like to be a parent; he told me it was a lot of work and that you don’t get much sleep. One time I even asked him what he thought about the state of the world today. He looked at me blankly, shrugged his shoulders, and said, “I don’t know.”

The one piece of advice he must have repeated a hundred times was that I should go to school and study hard. For many years, I slotted this into the “immigrant cliché” folder in my brain. But his memoir made clear to me that this was no cliché, but rather a lesson forged in the fire of first-hand experience: one of Grandfather’s greatest regrets was that he didn’t apply himself in school, and that he missed out on the opportunity to get a good education.

I’ll never forget the time I asked Gung Gung to help me find Guei Fung Lei on googlemaps, the village in China where he grew up. I’d been invited to visit a friend in a province near Guangdong, and so wanted to take a trip there. It’s difficult to describe how excited he got while telling me about the village; his eyes just lit up while speaking. It hit me that, despite having left this place in his early twenties and never having returned, it still commanded a significant piece of his heart. This made me wonder whether, during those family reunions, when I’d catch him lost in thought, he was simply back there, revisiting in his mind the place he was forced to flee, but could never fully let go.

Because of the one-on-one time I spent with Grandfather in the years leading up to his death, he became somewhat less mysterious to me. Or, at the very least, I learned that Gung Gung was hard to pin down because he had many different dimensions. To borrow a phrase from Whitman: Grandfather contained multitudes.

I can think, for instance, of the romantic who, as a boy, helped his friends write love letters, who, into his 90s, enjoyed sappy soap operas, and who painted portrait after portrait of the things he found beautiful.

Or, I can think of the duty-bound moralist, who lived his adult life torn between a desire to be with his wife and children, and his economic responsibilities as a breadwinner.

I also think of the chastened businessman, obsessed with never getting swindled and so irrationally unwilling to spend money, whose painful experiences of financial betrayal led him to harden his trusting nature.

And then there’s the curious autodidact, who owned and operated a host of different businesses, taught himself to use a computer, and—to my surprise, one afternoon—apparently spent years trying to crack the lottery.

Or, finally, I can think of Gung Gung the legacy-minded patriarch—a role no longer in fashion, but which I believe was quite central to Grandfather’s sense of self: so much of what he did was less for the present than for posterity; always in his mind were his descendants, those alive and those not-yet-born. In fact, it becomes clear while reading his memoir that he’s primarily writing for us grandchildren, to make sure that his hard-earned wisdom is not forgotten, and so that we might, through heeding his counsel, redeem his sins.

With hindsight, I see now just how much of Grandfather’s life was governed by a deep and abiding love for his family; that, in the face of what he calls in his memoir his “character defects,” he tried every day to do what he believed to be best, not just for himself, but for all of us. And for that, we should all be immensely grateful.

May he rest in peace.
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Eulogy by Patrick Poy Tang (Family Friend)

Dear friends and members of the bereaved family, my name is Patrick Tang Poy, a very close friend of our dear departed Mr. Jim Ing, we were so close that we considered each other as brothers, for I always refer to him as Big Brother, and he also treated me as his kid brother as well When we both were young, we went to the same most prestigious high school in our home district in China that was the Hoi Ping’s #1 High school. At the time when I entered as the first year junior high, Big Brother Jim was already in senior high, so, during those heydays, although we were both in the same school, yet we never crossed path, that is how it is real life, for big kids don’t really care about small fries. I was a small fry to him then. Well, fast forward to the year of 1990 when I joined the Hoi Ping Association here in Toronto, it was there Big Brother Jim started to notice me, I think it was about 2 years later, when he was elected as the president of Hoi Ping he requested the association to have me as the treasurer to serve the association together with him, but my term as a treasurer with previous administration has actually expired, but big brother insisted, and so happened the association bended the rule to please him, so, from that moment I realized big brother Jim must be thinking highly of me. I was surely impressed. And that also started a very great friendship.
I still remember big brother Jim used to telling people whomsoever care s to hear that he has a bad temper, but to my surprise, I never saw that side of his personality, for that matter, he never even raised his voice to me, he surely acted like a loving big brother. Thank you! big brother, for your gentleness.
During our years in Hoi Ping, I gradually got to know big brother was highly educated, for I realized that he knows a lot of the poems and ancient text which I only heard it from him, and I also got to know that he was an accomplished artist, in fact, it was he who designed the Hoi Ping lapel-button with the picture of a pagoda which was the famous Hoi Ping district landmark, big brother must have been doing lots of painting and drawing too, I think his master and cherished piece was the one he named it “Hope”. And to my biggest surprise is that he had it framed and gave it to me as a present, and even have it delivered to my home too. He must have spent weeks in painting that picture and then paid to have it framed, just to give it me, I treasure that picture, for it means friendship, thank you again, big brother.
I understand big brother Jim had been very active in his lifetime in at least 3 different societies here in Chinatown, namely: the Hoi Ping Benevolent Society of Ontario, the Chee Tuk Benevolent Society and the Low Kong family association. In fact, big brother was one of the main forces behind each and everyone of them Big brother Jim was so talented, he has had contributed so much to our Chinese communities here in Toronto, for me, just knowing him is a great honor.
Big brother Mr Jim Ing, was one of the presidents of one Chinese society here called Hoi Ping of which I have mentioned a little before, that society was founded in 1984, it has now been a 38 years of history, and during this long period of time, there has been many presidents before and many after big brother Jim, but he was the only one who has spearheaded to have a journal published under the title “Hoi Ping Benevolent Society of Ontario, 20th Anniversary Journal 1984—2004” Here I strongly urge friends to look for a copy of that journal, I do hope Hoi Ping still has copies in stock though, for in it you would read the great writing of our dear departed friend; its under the heading “Letter from the Chair”, it’s written in both Chinese and English.
Big brother Jim was the father of 5 children who are all well educated, he was an excellent father, loving & caring, big brother Jim, we’ll miss you, goodbye dear friend and mentor, may God comfort you in heaven.
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Kelsey Watts (Granddaughter)

Although I did not get to know Gong gong personally very well throughout my life, I will always remember him as a man of many talents, an active member of his community, and an incredibly hard working, independent, strong-willed man who took care of his family very well while making sacrifices himself. He was a man who did not need a lot in his life and who was very basic in his needs.

I remember, that he refused to get hearing aids even though he needed them because he did not want to spend the money on them! And rather than buy a computer for himself, I remember learning that he wrote his whole memoir of his life at his local Toronto public library, to my amazement. This memoir meant a lot to me because he had it translated into English and so I was able to learn more about his life before he came to Canada and his adjustment to raising a family while owning business (or more accurately, multiple businesses) in a foreign country where he barely spoke the language. He has never ceased to surprise me.

Gong Gong was a kind and generous grandfather, and a father and friend to many in his community. He will be missed dearly. May he rest in peace surrounded by his loved ones.

Kelsey Watts
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Toronto Ward Museum Block By Block 

Jim
Jim was born in 1928 in the Hoi Ping District of Guangdong. In 1949 he immigrated to Toronto to escape the political upheavals in China. Between working at his father-in-law’s laundry business and studying English, he made frequent visits to The Ward’s Chinatown. With the assistance of loans from Chinese-Canadian organizations located there, Jim went on to start several businesses to support his family. In 1991, Jim received Canada’s Birthday Achievement Award for 30+ years of volunteer service for his work with the Low Kong Brotherhood, the Chinese Community Centre, and the Hoi Ping Association of Ontario. Today he resides in the new Chinatown at Dundas & Spadina.

https://wardmuseum.ca/blockbyblock/archives/blockbyblock-2017/storytellers/

PREFACE

I was surprised when Mr. Ing emailed and asked me to write the preface for his memoirs. I was flattered by his request, for Mr. Ing is such a known figure in the Chinese society of Toronto, he sure knows lots of the cream of the upper class; yet he asked me. That sure is a great honor he has conferred on me.

Mr. Ing was born into a weaithy family in rural China; his given name at birth was Ng Chiu Yi 吴超宜. In addition, he also acquired the name Ng Yin Fai 吳賢輝 after he got married. His English name is Jim lng.
At the tender age of 6, his dad left home for Canada, that fact left a deep sadness in young Jim. To fill the void of missing his dad, he turned to such art of creating his own toys. He described himself as a rebellious child in growing up. Suffered during the Japanese invasion of China and in the Chinese civil war. After his marriage to his childhood sweetheart Sui King Cheung 張瑞瑞; he migrated to Canada. First he worked at his father-in-law's laundry. Three years after his landing in Canada, his wife came and joined him. The young couple toiled in their own laundry shoulder to shoulder for countless hours. Four of their children were born in Toronto; the oldest one was born in China.

Mr. Ing sure left his footprints here in Toronto, for he is quite successful in his business ventures in the laundry business; that is with the exception of his stint into one restaurant business which left a bitter feeling in him ever since.

He retired early at the age of 51 to enjoy the fruits of his labor. After retirement, Mr. Ing was not sitting idly home but ventured out into the Chinese society to volunteer his services. Here just to mention a few of the societies and organizations which he has so kindly given his valuable services: A newspaper called 醒華日報 , the Chinese Community Centre 中華會館, Toronto Tai Chi Chuan Society of Ontario 安省多伦多太极拳协, the Chinese Overseas Renaissance Society 中華文化海外復興協会, The World Chee-tak Cultural Centre 世界至德文化中心, the Ing Family Association of Ontario 吳氏宗親會, Low Kong Brotherhood of Ontario 樓崗公所 etc.

To sum up the story of Mr. lng's personal life; on the whole it is an excellent success story. In it there was a child's longing for affection from his father; suffering due to the conflicts of 2 wars; there were romance and happiness; also sadness and disappointment. He also described anxiety of the journey to an unknown land, and about how hard he worked with his wife side by side, raised a family, managed properties, ventured into a few businesses of which some were successful while there was also failure, but the one thing that hurt Mr. Ing's heart was the cheating by a so-called friend. However, the fact
that hurt him the most was one of his brilliant brood has gone astray from the straight and narrow.

Thank you , Mr. lng, or may I call you Big Brother Jim; for this chance you gave me to express a few words. Here I also wish you and your family being blessed by the good Lord always.

Your good friend, Patrick Tang Poy. 鄧煜棠
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THE PIONEER

I am the 3rd generation of our family in Canada. The pioneer was my grandfather, who came over to Canada at the age of approximately 30; after his grocery and brick-making business failed in Lau Gong (Lou Gang,) which is one of the districts in Hoi Ping, now also known as (Kaiping) which is within the province of Guangdong, in the People's Republic of China. I believe the time he went to Canada was about 15 years after the First World War.

Grandpa's name was Ng Chee Gon, (Wu Shi Guan) also known as Ng Lim Chee. He was born at the end of the Qing Dynasty and died in either 1930 or 1931. Grandma's last name was Seto Shee.

Grandfather traveled between Canada and China about 3 or 4 times or even more. He died at the age of 51 at our home village of Lau Gong. I guess it was to fulfill to his cherished wish that he should die at the place of his ancestors, which the Chinese would say, "No matter how high a tree grows, but when the leaves fall, it should come back to its roots". It was a pity that he died so young though!

Grandpa was very successful in his restaurant business in Toronto, for he was able to go back to our homeland and build 4 houses, a 6-storey tower, and a storage building complete with a kitchen and a dining room and an area for working purposes. In addition to the above, he built a pigpen, a chicken coop and a separate outhouse for toilet facilities. A 9 foot wall with front and back entrances enclosed all those. Within the compound there was a garden of beautiful flowers and fruit trees. He named that garden "Lok Lon Lau". Translated, that meant Garden of Optimism and the Tower of Optimism respectively. With that sort of estate and circumstances, I would dare, to say that our family was quite well to do. Beside the above-mentioned properties, Grandpa also bought 30 acres of rice field. We were surely above the ordinary standard of living in those days, regardless in China or anywhere. Those properties in Lau Gong had not stood the test of time. Although the bandits did not take

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them from us or the Japanese invaders destroyed them; the Communists took all away in the name of liberation. All these happened like in a bad dream. However, it was sort of fortunate, in a certain sense, for Grandpa had passed away long before that dreadful event took place. That spared him the great pain of seeing all his sweat and toil went down the drain.

Grandma passed away either in 1941 or 1942 at the age of 65 or 66. She too did not see the above-mentioned disaster take place either. She has also been mercifully spared of the pain of humiliation and of seeing the losses. May God bless their souls!

My father's name was Ng Gei Wai (Wu Ji Hui), also known as Ng Poi Doc, his English name was Fred Ing. My mother's last name was Yee Shee.

Father came to Canada at the age of about 15 or slightly older. For his going overseas, he had to cut short his schooling in China. In those bygone days, there were no public schools in China but only private and old style ones, which only taught the old Confucian teachings. Those subjects were only good for students whose ambitions were mainly to become a mandarin or a general etc. The modern day schools in China were more westernized and much more advanced. However, during the Mao era, students were more liable to be brainwashed although they got educated in the modern way.

While working in Canada at his Dad's restaurant, Father attended a public school, part-time to continue his education, with that advantage he knew English better than I did. Circa 1920, Dad made his first trip from Canada back to our homeland to' get married to my mom. At that time, he was 20 and she 19. To my estimation, Dad must have crossed the Pacific Ocean at least 7 times, basing on the fact that he had fathered 6 children (the eldest daughter had died at birth) during those trips.

In addition to what Grandpa had built and bought, Dad too built a structure for his leisure purposes and for academic pursuits of reading and writing etc. That compound was enclosed with an 8-foot wall, also with a garden of beautiful flowers and fruit trees. In addition, he bought 25 acres of rice field, a store, and a business place in the Lau Gong market place.

During the Japanese invasion of China, in the Second World War, Dad could not send any money back home to support the family, and so because

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of that, without-tuition fees, my elder brother, elder sister and I were forced to quit school. However, we were a lot more fortunate than many others who had been starved to death in those days. We thank our lucky stars that Dad had the foresight to buy those rice fields; so that we can farm in order to stay alive.

After the Second World War, many of our overseas countrymen carried their hard-earned savings from overseas back to China, built houses, bought rice fields and properties in the cities. By doing that they unknowingly and automatically became what the communists labelled as Landlords or Capitalists. That was a serious offence in those terrible days. The then authorities or their lackeys tortured many of those offenders. Some of them even got killed. As the saying goes: "Sometimes there is a silver lining in the darkest cloud". This silver lining is the fact that Dad did not go back to China as many of his compatriots did Instead, he used whatever money left to send for his family members, one by one, over to join him in Canada.

Dad died at the age of 87, and Mom passed away at 95.

MY ROAD LEADING TO CANADA.

I graduated from a senior high school in China, and got married during the summer of 1949, just ahead of the communists' taking over the mainland of China.. I migrated to Canada in 1950. I remember that was shortly after I got married. After the wedding I went with my wife to Guangzhou, formerly known as Canton, my intention was to enrol into a university. While I was doing the entrance examination, the communist's soldiers were fast approaching the city. During that chaotic confusion, almost every one ran for his life. My newlywed wife and I were of no exception. We ran back to our village, Guei Fung Lei, my birthplace, where Grandpa and Dad spent their hard-earned savings to build their respective houses.

During the civil war in China in 1949, as the communists were advancing, the nationalists retreated, at the end they withdrew to Taiwan. When the local communists showed up at our place, the people in the village actually recognized them as the former bandits who robbed them. At that time there was no fighting between the opposing armies at all, yet the Nationalists gave up without firing a shot. It was calm before the storm, and the general public could feel the tensions. No one knew what. to expect next. Under that uncertainty, my wife had suggested that we should leave China for Canada; of which I agreed wholeheartedly. We presented our decision to both her

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parents and my mine, to which they all gave their blessings. And so, leaving my wife at the village; my journey started in the winter of 1949; first to Hong Kong, staying there to wait for further instructions from both our dads.

A cousin of mine accompanied me; his name was Chiu Wan, who has graduated from a navy academy in Mo Hon (Wu Han.) His ambition was to find employment in a shipping company like his own cousin, Chiu Maan (Chao Wan) did.

Leaving home for the first time and parting from my newly-wed wife and also from my other family members, was very difficult for me. I felt such an overwhelming sadness that I could never able to describe it adequately with pen and paper. That memory is inscribed into my heart forever.

We, the two cousins, boarded a motor boat at San Cheung (Xin Chang), a sleepy little town not too far from our village. Our next stop was Macao where we spent one night. The next day we took another but bigger steamboat directly to Hong Kong. That journey lasted for only a few hours.

Dad wrote and told me ,to go and meet one Mr. Chan (Chen) who lived at a street called Wing Lok, in Hong Kong. When I reached my destination, I got a message from Mr. Chan, that I should get in touch with him as soon as possible, which I did.

That same Mr. Chan became very wealthy in his later years. He died in New York at the ripe old age of 85 in the year 2002. Mr. Chan let me stay at his saw mill business place at Mungkok, a place in Kowloon. He told me that he had received the details from my dad and my father-in-law in Toronto. Shortly, I was introduced to one lady whose name was Mrs. Cheung Hong Bing and a young man named Yee Jim Keung (Yu Zhan Jiang) the three of us were to be a "Paper-family" The lady was to be our mother, with me being the older son. Our paper-father was called Mr. Yee Geo (Yu Gou,) who was a Canadian citizen; he ran a restaurant business in Toronto at that time, A few days after we got acquainted, we reported to the Canadian Immigration Office for. an appointment regarding an interview. While waiting for the date of appointment; the three of us studied hard for the questions, of which we expected them to ask us. Eventually that important day arrived after 2 months of waiting. The three of us were interviewed separately, with each of us in a different room. But actually the rooms were

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only separated by a thin partition. While waiting for my turn, I practically overheard the questions being asked and how the others answered I thought all were going well except for one question which my "paper-mom" and ‘"paper-brother" contradicted with each other. Then it was my turn. There were questions asked, such as how many rice fields we possess, the size of each field, the locations, and to what direction they were in relation to our house etc. The officer kept on asking who was doing the farming work, and if my brother had any farming skill, to which I knew somehow the real reason behind all that questioning. So I intended to correct the contradiction that my "paper-family" made. We spent about half of the day being interviewed in that office. Afterwards, we went to see Mr. Chan, to report to him about what took place. Then we went to our separate way and to keep our fingers crossed and to hope for the best.

SUCCESS

Two weeks later, we received separate. notifications from the Canadian immigration office. We were told to go to a certain medical place for complete medical check up. Rumour had it that the medical examination is free, but it was not true, for that cost us a fortune. A hefty sums of money roughly five hundred to a thousand dollars in Hong Kong currency for the each of us. Never the less, we were jubilant, for should we be tested to be in perfect health, it would .mean that we would be granted for emigration to Canada. Shortly after the medical examination,. we were notified by mail to go to the Canadian Immigration office, where my paper-family received their visas, but to my, surprise I was excluded. Later I understood that according to the new Canadian immigration law then, I had exceeded the age limit. The only solution to that problem was to get a minister's special permit to enter Canada as a landed immigrant. We reported what happened to Mr. Chan, to which he said it was quite a normal procedure and that I should to be patient. It was in March 1950 when I went to the Hong Kong airport to see my paper-family off to their destination-----Canada.

A BRIEF FAMILY REUNION

After searching for a job in a shipping company for about 4 months in Hong Kong without success, Cousin Chiu Wan (Chao Maan) decided to return home. Feeling home sick, I too wanted to go home. I consulted with Mr. Chan about my decision to return home and wait for the outcome of the result of my application. He agreed to the suggestion and said that it was a good idea.

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When I arrived back home, the sweet home that I had intended to leave for Canada, I was overwhelmed with great joy to see and hold my. first born, our sweet and beautiful little baby daughter, Rose. It was a happy feeling that words can not describe, I had become a father! Baby Rose was only 3 days old, a bundle of joy. I thanked God for her safe birth and that mother and child were doing well. After only a month at home, and there came an urgent message from Mr. Chan. telling me to leave for Hong Kong immediately. With tears in my eyes and sorrow in my heart, I tore myself away once again from my beloved family. As I walked on the gravel-covered path to the highway, this time I just could not help myself from looking back again and again at the family that I was leaving behind once more. I turned and faced the Optimistic Tower one last time, and promised myself that I will be away for not more than 3 or 4 years, and I will be back! However, sadly it is now over 50 years after that day. That promise has not yet been fulfilled.

THE VOYAGE

I returned to Hong Kong, and this time I stayed at my 6th Uncle Ng Seung Sai's(Wu Shang Shi) new establishment, a business catered for our over seas compatriots. The business, Hop Hing Lung was also situated in Wing Lok St. After settling down; I visited Mr. Chan and this time I learned of Mr. Chan 's full name. It was Mr. Chan Guong Zeo (Chen Guang Jiu). He received a certain document from the Canadian Immigration Authorities, which instructed me to go to their office to get the visa to Canada. When I received the visa, Mr. Chan bought me a 3rd class ticket from the General steam ship line. The steam ship's name was the General Gordon. Being in the 3rd class, which is the cheapest ticket that money can buy; my bunk was about 3 stairways below the sea level. I was all ready to start my journey; that is only to wait for the day of departure. But during that time I fell ill. Lucky for me that I had another uncle who was Very close to me; his name was Gei Ban. (Ji Bin) He spent quite a lot of time to nurse me back to health. His kindness will always be remained in my heart, but I regret that I don't remember ever having expressed my gratitude to him. I admit that was one of my faults, for I always kept my feelings in my heart and just do not know how to express them. That is a character defect of which I am deeply ashamed.

During the voyage, there was quite a coincidence that I met a few acquaintances from my old village Lau Gong. There was a distant uncle and two elderly gentlemen to whom I respectfully addressed- as Great Uncle and Great great-uncle, but they were not really related to me by blood. There

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was also a younger man, who was related to my brother-in-law's wife. He was her brother. The names of the three elder gentlemen were as follows: Mr. Ng Ren York who could be 80 years old or older; Ng Chee Shuh, 70 plus and Mr. Ng Kia Wing in his 60's. They all had returned to China from Canada to live out their days after the 2nd World War, but things did not turn out the way they had hoped for. Besides being afraid of living under the communists rule, they also wanted to take advantage of the new Canadian law which would allow any foreigners who lived in Canada for a certain amount of years may then apply for Canadian citizenship. Their most important aspiration was to become Canadian citizens, and then after which they could apply, for their loved ones from China to join them.

We sailed from Hong Kong at the beginning of August 1950. Our first port of call was a city in Japan, where we spent one day, then continued to Honolulu and spent another day. In retrospect, the, sea voyage was not too bad until we reached the Bering Strait, which our compatriots named that part as the Russian Sea. I later understood that this strait was the most turbulent part of the ocean. Most of the time I was so dizzy with seasickness that Lost my appetite at mealtime. Whenever I felt a little better, 1 would go up on deck to watch the ocean scene. I remember that all I could see then was nothing but water and the horizon. At nighttime, .there was just the dark water below and the stars above. At that time I reflected on just how insignificant we the humans are compared to the ocean and the sky. I was feeling so uncomfortable; 1 swore that should I safely return home to China one day, I would never venture again across any ocean for whatever the price.

NORTH AMERICA

The voyage to San Francisco, our last port of call, lasted 19 days. As our final destination was Canada, the U S. police escorted us directly to a huge bus. Once we entered the bus, the doors and window were immediately locked I understood later that it was to prevent us from jumping ship, in our case, jumping bus. That was so humiliating!

The bus journey north to Vancouver in B. C., our port of entry to Canada took quite a few hours. My father-in-law arranged for his friend, one Mr. Cheung Tung Heung to welcome us at the bus station. He placed us in a hotel in the Vancouver China town. Our original travel plan was to take the Trans-continental train directly to Toronto, but the rail workers were in the midst of their industrial dispute at that time. Mr. Cheung then asked my dad

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and my father-in-law for instructions as what to do. They finally instructed him to tell me and the young man who was related to my in-laws; to go to Toronto by plane. En route to our destination we stopped at two different airports before we eventually arrived at the Toronto International Airport. It was in the middle of the night when we finally arrived. There in the welcoming party was my dad, father-in-law, brother-in-law and Mr. Chan Yee, the father of the Mr. Chan who helped me in Hong Kong.

LIFE IN TORONTO

My first residence in Toronto was in a laundry called Sam Chong at 697 St. Clair West Avenue, I lived there for a period of nearly four years. During those early days, I was a complete stranger to my family, for it was the first time since I was 6, and until 16 1ong years later that I was reunited with my dad. As for my father-in-law, since it was the first time I met him, he was a complete stranger to me. All that gave me a mixed feeling: they were my immediate family but yet strangers. The morning after I settled down at the laundry, Dad took me to the then Toronto City Hall. l can not be too sure now, but 1 think it was one of the offices in the basement. Dad spoke to the clerk in English, a language I did not understand then. I was asked to sign some document and when that was done, Dad told me that I was at that time onward a Canadian citizen and my legal name was Yee Jim Foy.

The next day after my becoming a Canadian citizen, my father-in-law took me to The Ryerson Public School located at Dundas St. W near Bathurst St. to attend a special English class for new immigrants. I spent 4 months in that school, until one day the teacher asked me if I would like to go to a regular high school or a technical school. I chose the technical one.

BAMBOO CURTAIN

Shortly after my leaving China, the communist regime cut off Its contact with the West. This was known as the Bamboo Curtain in those days. lt was lucky that my Mom was able to leave China just in the nick of time. Others were not that lucky, for many were tortured and some were even got killed. Some of the unlucky ones were the in-laws of my elder sister. They could not endure the torture during those terrible days of the Land Reform, the Cultural Revolution and the Great Leap forward. Those two dear old souls took the easy but sad way out by committing suicide together. By getting out on time, Mom was able to live the rest of her years in comfort until her death at the age of 95. There were lots of books with true records of those

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atrocities .. Some people estimated the amount of people who were tortured or killed amounted to twice the population of Canada.

EARLIER DAYS IN CHINA

So far have I have written only about a certain.section of my life, not even mentioning any thing about my personal character. Before 1 landed in my new home in. Canada, i had graduated from a Senior High School in China, which meant that I should have had at least 6 years of English as a foreign language. One might even ask why then dld I have to enroll in that special English class for new immigrants. All I can say here is that I was not really serious in my studies in those days. After graduation, I got married and then became a father; which brought on new responsibilities. Can that be passed as excuse? Well, let history be my judge.

I remember my very first day of school. My father accompanied me to see the teacher, Mr. Ng Ti Chang; who told me to stand in front of the portrait of Dr. Sun Yat Sen, the founder of Modern China. Mr. Ng told me to pay my respect due· to the teacher and father of the country, by making three respectful bows. This is in. accordance to every student who first embarks on his academic pursuits, whereas in the olden days, the students would have to bow towards the portrait of Confucius instead of towards that of Dr. Sun Yat Sen.

The very first thing the teacher taught me was how to hold the writing brush, which I practised daily. For how long a period I just could not remember now, but I eventually gave up.

There was a 9-foot wall separated our school from the Tower of Optimism and the school was housed in a shrine dedicated to our ancestor Mr. Ngog Ying, the founder of our village (Ghiu Fung Lei,) where we, his descendants lived in harmony.

Our school was called Gug Heung Ga Suk. Due to its small size, grades one to four were placed in one classroom and were taught by the same teacher. That first day of school was so deeply etched into my memory that up to this date, should I just close my eyes and reflect back, 1 could still see my Dad standing there next to me. Shortly after that memorable day, dear Dad left China for Canada again. We did not meet again until 16 years later at the Toronto Airport, as two complete strangers.

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In retrospect, I could not remember whether it was Dad or someone else who told me that I had to go to school. What was the great idea of getting an education? In those days it was a torture for me. Besides listening to teacher's boring lectures and I had to work too hard too . . Of course, I now know better.

I attended school at Gug Heung Gar Suk for four years. And then I moved on to Youk Ying Public School, which had grades from 5 to 6. In China, the graduating grade in elementary education was grade 6. Any graduate who graduates would then qualify to take the Secondary School Entrance examination. The secondary education had 6 grades also but was divided into 3 years in junior and 3 years in senior. After which, the next academic step is University.

My paternal grand-parents

The Chinese custom of calculating a person's age is different to that of the western way, In China when a baby is born it is considered one year old, and when the next new year comes, it is considered two years, therefore in this way of calculation, when a baby born on the last day of December, it is one year old and the next day on January the 1st it is considered two years while that baby is only two days old. Whereas in the western system that baby has to live to the anniversary of his birth before he is considered one year old.
My grand-dad passed away when 1 was only two years old in the Chinese way of calculating, in that case I must be was only four to fifteen months. Though he named me . at birth, but due to my tender age 1 have no recollection of him at all whatsoever. What I remembered though is that on dates like the anniversaries of Grandpa 's birth and death, and also on the first and last days of the year, my grand-ma would prepare many of Grandpa's favourite food and whisky, then she would arrange the food and drink on the altar in front of their portraits. After that is done, she would make us the grandchildren kneel, and then kowtow three times towards the altar where their portraits were. Those portraits were originally placed on the top floor of the Tower of Optimism by my dad, of which I also have copies, but in smaller versions. Long times ago, my dad sent some money to China to my cousin Jau Shit Yim (Zhou Xu Yan) who was the eldest son of my dad 's older sister; to have those portraits copied and sent to him in Canada, thus in this way I also got copies.

SOME MEMORIES OF MY DAD
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I guess my dad must have finally realized that there was no hope of his returning to the place of his birth again. However, he had forever cherished the dream that the country of his birth---China, would one day be reunited with the lost territories and the ran-away province, and be a strong country that he can be proud of again. I too, also shared his patriotism. But there is one thing that 1 can never forget or forgive, is that the Chinese Communists whom treated their fellow-country men so inhumanely. They acted like bandits, robbed the citizens of the fruits of their years of sweat and toil. They didn't even recognize the birthright of us born in China but reside in the West.
I hardly knew my grandfather due to the fact that I was only an infant at the time when he passed away. I also hardly knew new my dad for that matter, and that was due to he has to return to Canada to make a living while I was growing up in China. All that is now history, but in my childhood days, whenever I rode a tricycle, that would remind me of him, because it was he who bought it for me. And another milestone in my life was the day when dear Dad accompanied me to my first day of school. Dad was an example of a good father. He must have taught me a lot with lots of valuable loving advice, but it was a pity at that time I was too young to heed or even understand. To wish one's offspring nothing but the best is a natural human nature. One may not realize that until one becomes a parent oneself. Here i am praying to the Almighty to grant me the wish that my philosophy of life be installed into the hearts of my descendants, and that they would be good parents in the future.

CHILDHOOD DAYS

Based on the age difference of my siblings, I can calculate that Dad went back to China from Canada ever four years, and each time he stayed for a period of a little less then two years. All my three sisters were born when dad was in China, but my brothers and I were not that lucky, for such a coincidence that he was back in Canada when we the boys were born. I remember the time after he came back for a few years after I was born, then left again when I was six, at that time my elder brother as eleven, and my younger brother was still in our mom's womb. I was luckier than that sibling of mine in a sense was, for I saw Dad in China when he came back from Canada, I saw him left again at six. But my younger brother never saw him until he was seventeen years of age and that was when he met Dad for the first time, in Canada.
Our family was considered a reasonable large one, but it is a pity the head of our family was absent most of the time. I must confess that I am lack of many good qualities, but there is one thing I consider I am rich in is that I

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am very sentimental in nature. A poet I am not, but deep down at the bottom of my heart there seemed a poem always lamenting the lack of togetherness of the family. Oh what a family! Oh what a childhood! Oh what a fatherly love we missed! Being sentimental, whenever I think of things like that, my eyes would be swollen with tears.
In those long ago days, I did not use to have any fancy or colourful toys like those of the modern time. However, I was rather ingenious with my hands, for I used to make my own toys, such as small balls fashioned from the pages of Dad's old books. I also made earthenware, with clay from the embankment of the big pond at the front of our village. With which I made gods, goddesses, containers, chickens, ducks etc. When my creations were dried, I would add eyes, hair, noses, mouths and even clothes on them by drawing. After that I would get something which I called blood of the plum tree, which was actually the sap that came out from the plum tree. That substance is in a transparent and solid form. After I had collected it, I would put that in a container, then add a few drops of water for it to dissolve, then I would use that solution to paint over all my creations of art. When that is done and the ceramic work is dried, one would be amazed to see how beautiful they look. My ability to draw was due to the kind encouragement of a distant great uncle in the village, whose adopted son Duk Sing (Du Cheng) was in my class during the Gug Heung Ga Suk (Ju Xiang Jia Shu) days. Great uncle's name was Ng Hid Foo (Wu Tie Hu). He was a talented artist specialized in Chinese calligraphy and sketching portraits. 1t was very unfortunate for me that he passed away rather early, that 1 did not have a chance to know him better. However, during that short time I knew him, he did give me something of value, that is a few books concerning drawing and sketching. Those books were called Gai Ji Yun (Jie Zi Yuan) Picture Guides. After l got them, I used to follow the instructions; as a result, they helped me to do my art works on my ceramic creations.
About my childhood days, besides the sad feeling of missing my dad, I learned to live with the fact that I can not change it; hence I took solace· in creating toys. I was rather resourceful, if I may say so myself, I was also quite generous too, for when I have created those toys, I would share them with my siblings and also with all those cousins and distant cousins in our village Gui Fong Lei (Gui Fang Li), where all of us are related by blood, excepting those ladies who married into our huge extended family of course. Our village was founded by our common ancestor Mr. Ng Ngog Ying (Wu Yue Ying) from whom I am his number sixth generation descendant. Besides making toys as amusement and the means of filling the void of missing my dad, I also discovered some other activities as fun to occupy

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myself. As there were a pond and rivers around our village teeming with fish, l started to learn the art of catching fish. In the back of our village there was a small river, from which we got our water for drinking and cooking, and where we also could swim when the tide is high. There was another small river, then a larger one, which was the waterway connected to places like Saam Feo (San Bu) Chong Sha (Cang Cheng), Chek Hem (Chi Kan) etc. Whenever the tide ebbs, it was the signal for me to catch fish. Come to think of it, it was rather fun.

SCHOOL

After having completed the classes in Guk Heung Ga Suk (Ju Xiang Jia Shu) I went to Ngnog Ying (Yue Ying) senior public school. The distance from our village to that school was a 30 minutes by walking. During our junior and senior school days, of which were a total of six long years. My sister and I would walk that road to school in the morning and then would walk back home for breakfast, after which we would return to school again. That means our journey to and from school was four times daily For all that trouble, all I learned was only the simple addition, multiplication, subtraction and division. In other words, it was only simple arithmetic. But I learned how to draw, making of ceran1ics and playing of table tennis all by myself.

SENIOR DAYS AT NGOG YING

There was an incident happened on the very first day when I started my school year at the Ngog Ying Senior School. It was my class teacher, he ordered me to move from my seat to elsewhere, to which I found it was not fair or necessary, for I was of an average height, hence I was not blocking anyone's view, I simply did not see the reason for that order. As a strong-willed and rather stubborn boy, 1 refused. I must confess that I was quite a spoilt child, for I used to do what I want at home or at my first school, Guk Heung Ga Suk. A the end I won that contest of the wills, but my conscience was bothering me. I realized that the teacher neither likes or hates me. I regretted what I did. That teacher's name was Mr. Leung Bo Yee (Liang Bao Yi) who in later years went to teach at a senior high school affiliated with the National University of Guangdong. During. the Japanese invasion of China, that university had moved form Guangzhou to Boh Loh (Bo Luo) a district in Hoi Ping, a distance of 40 minutes in walking from our place Lou Gong. I repeat, what I did was very wrong, and now would like to advise the younger generations not to follow that bad example which I exhibited in those long gone days, for my conscience still would not let me forget that incident. Here I would like to quote a famous Chinese saying: "To step back

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one pace, one would have as much room as a whole ocean, plus the sky and the whole world."
I can not recall what I learned during those three years at that senior public school. All my close cousins did much better than I did. I even got defeated at a table tennis tournament. In retrospect, I realized what caused my failure; it was my lack of attention and being rebellious. In fact I did not have much interest in any academic works at all, I hated literature, and for example, Ngog Ying public school had a big and famous library in Hoi Ping, which had thousands of books, but during my three year as a student there, I may be there to browse around only 3 or 4 times, that is to show what kind of interest ! showed towards literature and learning in general, which l am not particularly proud of. However, there is one thing that I was pretty good at, which as I mentioned before, it is the art of drawing and making ceramics. There was a huge room at our school for displaying the best of the students' art works; mine always took the place of honor. Here I would like to stress on that when one loves to do something, especially something that would be useful in later life, I would advise it is to go for it, and to practise as regularly as possible to make it to perfection or at least near to it. In other words, practise makes perfection.

JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL

The junior high school which 1 had attended was the one that was affiliated with the National University of Guangdong, which moved to near our place during the war, which in turn reminded me of the song I learned at my first school, it was the "Marching Song of the Volunteers " which now has became the present national anthem of The People's Republic of China.

JULY 7TH, 1937

No Chinese should ever forget that fateful date of July the 7th which we popularly called "The Seven, Seven, Lou Kau Kiu Incident ". Lou Kau Kiu is called Marco Polo Bridge in English. It was there the Japanese used a false accusation as an excuse to start the invasion of China, which lasted for 8 whole long years. Eventually the Japanese surrendered in 1945. As the war broke out, the places first occupied by the invaders were our 3 Northeastern provinces, and then the enemies gradually advanced towards the Western and Southern provinces where we used to live. I remember during that time, highways and bridges were destroyed by our own people in order to slow the enemies advance. To flee from the advancing enemies, at that time; my grandma 's intention was to take our family members together with my cousins to Hong Kong where was still safe from the war, during the trip when we reached a place named Cheung Sa (Chang Sha) and boarded a

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steam boat for the journey, the Japanese war planes came and started to bomb the little city. We were so frightened that we jumped back out of the boat. Grandma changed her plans and took us back home and then to another little town called Chek Sui (Chi Shui). The distance from home to that place was approximately 50 miles, but the transportation was so poor. To go by boat; the river bed was so shallow, and the boat was only powered by man-power, to go by land; the road was so rugged. The whole journey took us 2 days to reach our destination. The reason of that trip was solely for the sake of safety, because the enemies were really thousands of miles away. My grandma's idea was to stay at Chek Sui for about three months,and if nothing worse happens we would return home. While we were in Chek Sui I would go to watch the butcher slaughter the brown-skin cattle just to pass the time, and as there was nothing else to do I also would climb the nearby hillock just for fun.

MEMORIES OF JUNIOR HIGH

There were a few incidents that happened at junior high school that is still
etched into my memories. Here just to mention a few as follows:
1) A bad decision I made of giving up English study in favor of Political
Science.
2) The humiliation of an unjust punishment meted out by 3 unfair teachers. The incident happened when the art teacher Mr. Lei Kei Fung (Li Qi Feng) who unjustly accused me of some unproven mischief, of which I had already proven my innocence to his satisfaction, but not knowing after 2 months, that same teacher together with 2 other teachers, named Mr. Chan Baak Hon (Chen Bai Han) and Mr. Lau Sek Tong. (Liu Xi Tang) That gang of 3 hauled me once more to the principal's office. I was given a punishment that I can not forget or forgive. Teachers like those 3 should not be teaching anyone. In fact they are nothing but peasants! Teachers like them had dragged down the good reputation of the National University of Guangdong into a second class institute. That incident also taught me the wisdom of another famous Chinese teaching, namely the golden sayings of "Gwa Tin, Lei Ha ", What that really means is that when someone passes over a melon field and happens to have the need to fix his shoe lace; if he stoops down to do so, and people seeing that would suspect him of his intention to steal melons even though he was not. Likewise if a person passes under a plum tree and that he needs to straighten his hat, but by the time he raises his hand up to do so, people would think he wants to steal a plum. That was exactly what happened in my case. 1 was at the wrong place and at the wrong time,

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thus I got suspected. There was only God and I know that I was innocent.
3) This one is a happy event to remember, I won a 200-meter track and field competition, and the trophy for that accomplishment was a triangular pennant.
4) This one was a humorous and embarrassing one, for in the wee hours of one Autumn morning, at around 3 AM, the morning sky was so bright that about 10 of us students were fooled by the brightness, that we thought it was already morning, so we all went to school, and only then we realized it was not yet day break. The problem with us during the war days was that none of us in the village had a timepiece that tells the correct time. For that matter, there were not many people who owned a time piece in the village at that time.

EARLY MARRIAGE

While I was in public school, my older brother got married at the age of 17. I think the reason for that early marriage was due to my mom's ill health, I believe she wished to see grandchildren before she goes to meet her Maker. It is really amazing that sickly as she was, she lived to the ripe age of 95!
My two cousins, Chiu Seng (Chao Chang) and his sister Guei Sau (Quei Xiu), Guei Sau was married to a Cheung; they both got married early. All those marriages happened during that time frame. Shortly, my dear grandma passed away. And at that time the Japanese invaders had occupied San Wui (Xin Hui) and Gong Mun (Jiang Men); those two places were pretty near to our Saam Feo market place. All the above happened during my junior high school days. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was the year I graduated from junior high.

SUFFERING DUE TO WAR

By now the WWW II had spread to all over the Eastern Pacific Rim, in fact it almost covered the whole Asia. Due to the war, my dad could not send any money home, of which our whole family was depending on. And at that time of uncertainty and anxiety, the schools in the south of our province were gradually moving north. It was under those circumstances that my elder siblings and I did our final graduating examination. After that, the three of us quit school. Our quitting school was due to two reasons; first, we did not want to go far away from home in order to follow the school wherever it is moving to. Secondly, our family no longer can afford the tuition fees for us.
That event took place during the summer of 1944.

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We were fortunate that our forebears had the foresight in purchasing those farm lands in their days, otherwise we might be like many others, who had no land and can not received oversea funds, suffered or even starved to death. To farm the lands, we hired people in addition with our servant girl to do the laborious work, with our mom and sister-in-law doing the supervising. We normally had nine persons to feed daily, which average consumed about 600 lbs. of rice in one month. We ate twice daily in those days. As We had a good deal of farm lands, we harvested more than we could consume, so Mom would sell the surplus to buy the other necessities for the house.
It was about the later part of 1944 or might be early 1945 that my older sister married to one Lee Kit Chiu. She was eighteen at that time.
After dropping out of school, I had nothing to do, all i did for 2 years was roamed about the place, some time done some fish-catching, and in between I grew vegetable, mind domestic animals and raised chickens and ducks.
Since most of our province was under Japanese occupation, our fellow villagers were forced to return home from the other parts of the country. When there was nothing for them to do, they turned to gambling among themselves. As the old saying goes: When you are rubbing with the red color, you will get red color rubbed on you, in same manner when you rubbed with black, you would get to be black in color. Well, how true it is! It sure rubbed off on me their bad habits of gambling and smoking too.
I love reading, but not those about literature or book of science etc. The books I read were only novels, for I solely read for pleasure and not for knowledge.
The Japanese soldiers eventually came as near to us as to our next village Siu Ting Lie, which was separated from our village by a small river. Due to lack of money, most of us in the village did not flee. In order to watch the Japanese soldiers' movements, we appointed a watchman to keep an eye on them. The place to observe them was at the top of our Tower of Optimism. I remember at one time the Japanese did come, at that time every one in the village rushed into our tower and locked the iron doors. As the enemies could not get entry, they started to use some wooden material from my uncle's house to burn in order to smoke us out, which lasted from morning to suppertime; eventually they left without success. When they have gone, we rushed out and ran towards the nearby village, while fleeing, the Japanese started to fire machine guns at us. I remember I was hiding behind an embankment for cover, at that time I could see when the bullets hit the rice field, the impact sent water and mud flying up into the air. Just the thought
of it now still sends shivers up my spine. Just for the records, my uncle, from

page 17

whose house the Japanese took the wood to smoke us out; his name was Ng Sheung Ji (Wu Shang Zhi) who was the governor of the Hoi Ping district during the period of 1945 to 1946.
Things were so bad in those days during the war, especially for those people who solely depended on overseas funds to live on. Some of those people had to sell everything they possessed, including the bricks in their houses, some even sold their children to other people as servants, and some young women went to get married to some affluent men as concubines. Some of the once upon a time rich people became beggars. Some simply starved to death.

EPIDEMIC

I understand there were widespread of epidemic diseases all over China during the war, but so far so good, we were lucky that we had none in our district, that is until an old man from a village called Kam Jew. He contracted the dreaded cholera disease and died. As his daughter-in-law and his other relatives lived in our village, they brought his body there for the funeral rite, and that caused the terrible epidemic to spread to our village. It is sad to recall of the three lives lost due to that stupid move. The dead ones were my 3rd great aunt, Chee Shui, and another aunt, Kai Shui and the daughter-in-law of Mr. Ng Chee Shui.
The superstitious elders of the village got so scared that they decided to bring the idol called "King of the North " to our village as the protector. Well, may be that worked, or just so it happened that after that; the three previously mentioned were the only ones that were affected. That outbreak of cholera epidemic was so terrible and scary that when to think of that now, it still gives me nightmares. I remember at that time I climbed up to our Tower of Optimism to have a look, all I could see was a gloomy scenery without any movements anywhere, not unlike a battlefield after a battle. One would not even hear a cock crow or a dog bark. Afterwards, I heard a rumor that it was the Japanese who released the cholera germs to infect the Chinese people. Those Japanese war crimes, I would never forget them.

HAPPY "V J" DAY

It was during one August night in 1945, when we were still under the Japanese occupation, we saw many groups of Japanese soldiers passed the district of Lau Gong, We saw search-lights flashing across the dark sky. At that time we were all very fearful, for we thought the enemies were planning a surprise attack like the one they staged on Pearl Harbor. But the next day, surprise of all surprises: the great news of the Japanese unconditional surrender spread all over China. When we first heard that we just could not

page 18

believe our ears. There was only one radio in our district, when that great news was announced, a huge amount of people crowded into the place to hear the long awaited good tidings. Only then we got to understand that it was due to the dropping of two atomic bombs by the Americans that forced the Japanese to surrender. The Japanese cities that were hit by the bombs were Nagasaki and Hiroshima.
After the great news was confirmed, the people around our district just went wild with celebration; some people even spend their last money to buy food and drinks. I presumed the people of the whole China must have been doing likewise. We the Hans (Hans) being the majority ethnic group of China, yet have been under the yokes of a minority group called the Mons (Mans), the rulers of the Ching (Qing) Dynasty ruled China from 1644 to 1911 with ruthlessness. Although Dr. Sun Yat Sen had overthrown that corrupt dynasty, but then came the chaotic times of the War Lords, and then the Japanese invasion. We were all hoping from that date of the Japanese surrender, we would have peace and prosperity from then on, but never expected on the heel of that happy day came the civil war.

RESUMED EDUCATION

As the Second World War ended, Dad started to send money back home to support the family again. And at that same time frame, those schools, which had moved away from their original sites to avoid the war, started to return. My older brother and I were discussing whether we should go back to school. Our problems are that we had left school so long; we were really out of touch with school works. Big brother decided he has had enough, and decided to follow the footsteps of Grandpa and Dad; to make his living overseas. About my younger brother and sister, it was no problem for them, because although when the war was going on, they never dropped out of school. While I was undecided, my Mom told me that although I had been doing lots of works such as selling used clothing and as a rice vendor in the market, thus by those experiences I should have the sense to, know that to make a living is not an easy thing. She strongly believed that in order to have a decent future, l should have a good education to meet the challenges of the modern world. Besides, she said that I would be 19 soon; by that I knew exactly what she meant. In our family tradition, no matter whether it is a boy or a girl, it is a custom for them to get married before the age of20. What Mom indicated was that I would soon have family responsibilities of my own, so that I should act responsibly. Up to that moment of my life, marriage had never occurred to my mind, but to think about what Mom said, she had a point. But she didn't have the slightest idea of my emotional conflicts. I was at a crossroad; I did not know which road to take. I studied

page 19

the occupations of all the folks in our village, which I can narrow down to 4 categories:
1) Farming.
2) Do some small business in our Lau Gong Market, but most of them also
selling opium on the sideline, or opening a gambling house.
3) Work in the civil service.
4) Go overseas.
I thought carefully the advantage and the disadvantage of each and every one of the above 4 categories of future that I should embark on. I had decided that #1, farming is dirty and hard work, besides, and one can only get poorer instead of richer as one's family increases as time goes by.
#2, to do business that requires capital, besides, with a country so poor like China, the people do not have much money to spend. Regarding the business of selling opium or opening a gambling place it is out of the question, for my conscience would not allow me to do that.
#3, to work as a civil servant seems to be the better choice so far, but yet there is doubt, for in those days, one needs connections to land such a job, of which I did not have. I also questioned myself about my own ability to handle such a responsibility; I had doubts. Thus I had decided that in order to qualify for such an undertaking, it requires education. To get that, I must go back to school.
As for #4, to go over seas, I gave it as the last choice, for that would take me away from the farnily and the home that I love deeply. Finally, the choice was made; it is back to school for me.
My brother-in-law, Mr. Lee Kit Chiu has graduated from a senior high school, and he has decided to enroll into a preparatory school in Canton (Guangzhou); during the summer in order to prepare himself for the entrance examination for a university. His move also inspired me to do the same for my high school entrance examination. With that in mind I asked him for permission to tag along when he goes to Canton, to which he readily agreed. I told Mom what I have decided, she was overjoyed. In fact, she immediately started to pack my bag for that journey.
When we the 2 brothers-in-law arrived at Canton, we roomed at one of my brother-in-law's friends' place temporarily. As a country boy growing up in the village, I had never ventured far from home, and knew nothing about any life style besides that of our farming village. Being in a big city for the first time, I was at a complete lost. It was the first time in my life that I saw so many people, and every one was in a hurry, and so many automobiles, bicycles and rickshaw cabs. The noises were really deafening. The dialect they spoke was so strange to me that I did not quite understand what they

page 20

said. That newlife for me in Canton was so exciting and at the same time so confusing.
Mr. Cheng Jit Gsun was the husband of my Mom 's eldest sister; thus that makes him my uncle-in-law. He had 2 daughters going to The First Junior High School of Canton, which also had the senior program. That uncle-in-law highly recommended that school to me. He also knew the principal Mr. Yee Gung Chung personally. I took his advice. Together with my brother-in-law we went to enroll in that school program as summer students. I moved into the school as a room and board student..
As I mentioned earlier that I was raised in a farming village, I lived all my life there with people who I know and to whom I could trust. The life in Canton was entirely different, for example, I had to buy a new fountain pen almost every day, and had to get my shoes shined at every street corner. The reason .of that was that there were so many pickpockets around, they stole my pens regularly? Why I had to shine my shoes so regularly? It was because there were so many shoeshine boys around, they were persistent, and they would follow me until I give them the job. ! knew they were poor. Being kind hearted, I just could not refuse, so I had to give every shoe shine boy a job at each street corner; I did not like that kind of life there, so I returned home while I still have enough money for my transportation back home .
I returned home from Canton before the summer School started. Mom was surprised to see me back, and I believed she was sort of disappointed too. Later on when I was a little settled down and relaxed, I explained to her that as I returned home does not mean I had given up on pursuing an education, I told her of the situation in Canton, and that I wish to attend a school nearer to home: I also told her that I would try to apply for a prestigious senior high school near our district first, should I fail, and then I would return to Canton. Mom accepted my explanation and was quite understanding and supportive.

HOI PING YET CHUNG

I applied to the most renowned school in our. province, the name was Hoi Ping Yet Chung, or Hoi Yet Chung or Hoi Chung for short. That school has both Junior and senior programs. Its name literally means it is the number one middle school. in our province of Hoi Ping. To go there from our village takes about 2 hours by walking..
Actually. Hoi Chung was the only school ] applied to at that time. As to what subjects we were tested in the entrance examination; I now can not recall, but I do remember that examination took two days, each day with two hours in the morning and two hours in the afternoon. When that important day arrived for the exam, I got up very early with butterflies in my stomach, . .

page 21

as nervous as can be I walked to that school which was located at the out skirt of Chek Ham Market place. I still remember that day I sat next to one Mr. Yee Wing Chuck in the examination room. Mr. Yee was to become my classmate and a bosom friend in later years. He also got in touch with me when we were both overseas during either 1970s or the 80s of which I can not plainly recall now. However, I understand he was in the grocery business like his dad and uncle somewhere in Alberta. I understand he is presently living in Edmonton at the time of this writing.
When I received the letter of acceptance from Hoi Chung l was rather surprised, for I did not expect to pass the examination. At home Mom and sister-in-law were overjoyed. They were the ones who helped me pack my bags for my boarding in the school. May be as I got more mature at that time that I was beginning to realize the difficulties lay ahead of me, because I knew to myself how much I lacked behind in all subjects, thus I promised myself that regardless of whatever lays ahead I would do my best to conquer it. I wrote a letter to Dad to report to him the good news and at the mean time asked him for extra money for my education purposes.
It was a pay first system with the school in China in those days. For one has to pay up the tuition fees before the school recognizes one as a student and only then would assign one a seat in a class. If my memory does not fail me, I think the tuition fee was in the form of rice. It was about 300 lbs. of high grade ready to cook rice. A school term was for a period of four months and a half . One might wonder why the school fee was in term of rice, the reason was that during those days; the Chinese currency was not stable at all. Inflation was so rampant that what the same money could buy in the morning, it can not buy in the evening. It devalues so rapidly, but rice is our staple food in China, and one must eat, hence they made rice the substitute of cash.
While I was shopping at the Chek Ham Market place for the required rice as the tuition fee, I met Yee Wing Chuck who was my seatmate at the examination room. He told me of the good news that Hoi Chung also accepted him as a new student. I told him of the reason why I was there, so he helped me to bargain for the price of the rice and have it delivered to the school. He seemed to know the district very well. I later found out that he was living not too far from that market place, besides; he had relatives who were doing businesses there. I also understood that he was not entirely new to Hoi Chung either, for he was attending the school 's summer preparatory classes before the examination. I registered as a room and board student at
the school. There were so many new students. The reason for that huge

page 22

influx was due to peace had returned after the war, so the parents overseas could send money home again to maintain and educate their children.
Our senior class was divided into A and B, with class A located in a room at the main entrance of the school. Class B was located near the exit of the girls' dormitory. The first year junior new students were so many; there were no rooms in the school building to accommodate them, so the school had to build extra class rooms. They did it in the most economical way. It was in the forms of huge sheds with the roofs. composed of palm leaves, the frames were made out of bamboo poles, with the sides made out of bamboo mats. Even the desks were made out of bamboo. .
At that time I met lots of class mates, and acquainted with many teachers as well, but I was skeptical of my ability to catch up with the school work; as I was so much behind, so I had decided to do my best, hoping I would be able to match steps with my fellow students. Then gradually I got to know the back grounds of many of my school-mates; I found out that most of my class mates were graduates of Hoi Chung 's own junior program, but some were from the other junior high school like my self. Some were the so-called class-jumpers, because they did not graduate from any junior high. And quite a few of them wel"e like me dropped out of school for 2 or 3 years, so I came to the conclusion that they were not necessarily any better than me in the field of literature. Some of them were about my age or even older. What I discovered sort of gave me courage and confidence. ·
As a room and board student I had to stay at school most of the time; unlike the students who were not. A ll day long I only saw faces of fellow students, teachers and faced the textbooks.· Hence whether I like it or not I had to study, thus I did not have the free time as I used to. My subjects of study in those days were 2 hours of History in a week, same amount of hours for Geography. Algebra and Geometry were 2 hour each, a total of 4 hours · per week. Both our Chinese Literature and the foreign language which was English were 4 hours a week. Both Physics and Chemistry were 2 hours each a week. As I write to here I remember that the subject of Chemistry. started in grade 2 and not in grade 1 during senior high. We also had Military Training and Physical Education; both were for 4 hours each per week. Besides the above-mentioned subjects there were a few others for 1 hour each. A total of about 44 hours of study a week, that is besides the compulsory nightly studies for the room and board students like myself. ·
Our dormitory was in the building that was donated by the Guan clansmen in honor of their ancestor Mr. Guan Gong Yi. That building has two floors. The arrangement of both floors were the same, there were two large spaces on both sides, with each side containing about 36 beds. I remember about 10

page 23

students occupying in 3 or 4 rows of beds at the northeastern corner of our
room. Their names are as follows: Ng Sick Ban, Woo Yet Low, Woo Siu Hgan, Yee Wing Chuck, Chew Sheg Jum, Tang Yee Guan, Chong It De, plus a couple more, of whom I can not recall now, and that is besides myself.
The routines for us at the dormitmy were to get up at 7 AM, then head towards the river at the front of our school gate to wash our faces and brush our teeth. At 8 AM sharp, all the students must gather on the athletic field to do the morning physical exercises, and to listen to the principal's announcement of anything that is important, Classes began at 9 AM. Lunch hour was from noon to 1:30 PM, and that is our first meal of the day. Supper was at 5:30 PM for us the boarding students, we had to do night studies in our class rooms; the time was from 8 PM to 9 PM. At 10 PM was light out time in the dormitory.
In class, my worst subject was English, which always gave me problems. Math was hard too, but I could manage with some hard work. Sometimes the studies had gotten so frustrated that 1 would have nightmares before each examination time. That nearly made me give up my studies.
Our school term would come to an end on each December. Then it would resume after the New Year and spring holidays. School reopens in late January.
Now to take stock of the past term of studies at Hoi Chung as a senior student: I made some friends, have gotten less shy, and aware that I wasn't the most backward person or the oldest in the class. That was a sort of consolation to me.
People in the West do not have the slightest idea of how backward our school was at that time. Our mess hall was nothing but a huge shed with bamboo frame covered by palm leaves. Our outhouse was made of the same material, excepting it was made in the fashion to suit that purpose. We had no running water in those days, even to wash our rice bowl after eating; we had to go to the river to do that.
Some of the events that took place during that period of time were my school friend Yee Wing Chuck. He was getting married, and I was invited. My friend lived not too far from our school. It was at the south of Chek Ham, a place called Baak Yim (Bai Yuan). I stayed at his village for one night after the wedding before returning to school. There was another classmate; his name was Seta Ddo, who also got married. He married the daughter of Mr. Woo the dentist in the Lau Gong market place. About 30 years ago I heard that the couple was in San Francisco, but loss touch of them since.
The married men in our class in those days were: Lam Die Am, Chan Boo In and Dant Li Gon. Those were the number of guys known to me, but it

page 24

might be many more. As for the ladies, I knew nothing about them, for with the old Chinese customs; boys and girls do not converse with each other.
My Alma Mater, Hoi Ping Yet Chung, literally means it is the number one or the first middle school of the district of Hoi Ping. It is the highest educational institution there to even up to today. For short we normally refer to it affectionately as Hoi Chung. Hoi Chung occupies about 150 acres of land, has two big buildings, with the bigger one, which was donated by the Seta clan, in which the administration office was, the remaining rooms were used as classrooms etc. The next and smaller building which was donated bythe Guan clan, serves as the male dormitory. The building that the Seta clan donated was named Seta Gau Lun Memorial Building. The one that was donated by the Guan clan was named Guan Gong Yi Memorial building. Each of those two buildings was donqted to the memories of their clans' two ancestors respectively.
The main entrance, or the gate to the whole compound of the school, was at the south, near the river called Tam Gong (Tan Jiang). The entrance was in the form of two rooms on either side with an iron gate connected them at the centre. The 2 rooms were used as classrooms. After one enters the gate, there was a path of a few hundred feet before one reaches the Seta Gau Lun Memorial building. That walk path is about 20 feet in width, on both sides were fields for athletic activities such as football field, basketball court, track and field etc. The Seta Gau Lun Memorial is the main school building that is a three and a half story structure. Its size is roughly 50 feet deep and 400 feet in width. In the center ground floor of that buillding, which is what we called the basement in the West; that was the female dormitory. On the top floor was the school library. The administrative office and the Principal's office were on the center of the second floor. The rest of the rooms may be about 20 were classrooms.
The second and smaller building, the Guan Gong Yi memorial building was about a hundred feet behind the main building. 1t was a two-storey brick and concrete structure. Its size was somewhat smaller than the main building. It was being used as the dormitory for the male teachers and the students. Aside from these 2 buildings, there were about 10 huts made of bamboo frames and covered with paim leaves. Those huts had been erected in the directions of the northeastern side of the main building, and also in front of the southeastern side the Guans' memorial building. Those huts were maJnly used for the purpose as classrooms for the new students of the
junior program. The teachers' lavatory was a small hut not too far on the western side of the male students' dormitory. Next to it were two larger huts,

page 25

one was used as the male students' and the other as the female students' lavatories.
Those toilet facilities were all located in the northwest of the school compound. On the west of the main building there was a huge hut serving as the mess hall. To the south of that hut, there were two smaller huts. One was the kitchen and the other was the cooperative store. Lush bamboo plants, creating a very beautiful environment encircled our whole school compound. I estimated the amount of students were about one thousand. This is the best I could describe my Alma Mater. Later in this memoir I might draw a map and diagram to show the details, as the proverb says, "A
picture is worth a thousand words ".
Our second term of the academic year starts after the New Year holidays. Our school accepts new students for the junior program, but not for the seniors. During my first term in Hoi Chung, our grade one senior class was divided into two classrooms, but on the second term it was merged into one, and our classroom had been moved up to the west end on the third floor. That room was a bit bigger than the former. Things were more or less the same as the first term, such as subjects and activities.
I was slack in my studies during the first term, thus I didn't make much progress, but I did feel much more confident of myself, for I knew that most of my fellow students were just like me, not paying much attentipn to their books. However, there were exceptions; there was Seta Wong who was excelled in Algebra, and Deng Yee Guan in English. In retrospect, I now regret that I did not follow their examples.
During the war, the highways in China were dug up in order to impede the enemies' advance, and then most of them had been repaired after the war. Buses started to run again after peace has returned, but to save money I rather walk to school when the weather permits.
There was a rumor that our classmate Woo Cheong Lip was to get married during the coming Spring Holidays, to a girl named Fang Ming Oi, who also goes to our school. Boys will be boys, we boys used to tease him mercilessly. The happy couple now lives at the out skirt area of Toronto, a place called Richmond Hill. As classmates, we still exchange greeting cards during the Holiday Seasons. They are also retired people like me now.
Again, boys will be boys. We were no different to any other boys our age. As we were bunched up in a group daily and nightly, it is natural we gossiped about things that were not relating to our studies. We used to pass judgement about which boy was handsome and which girl was the beautiful one etc. We all agreed that there were no pretty girls in the senior class,

page 26

because those pretty ones all had been married off before they had the chance to reach senior.
We often saw those Chinese American Gls, who were discharged from their services after the WW2, came back to China to look for a wife. They usually lurk around the school gate, in order to catch a glimpse of the pretty faces. It was usually those girls who had their hair permed up who got the better chance of catching a husband. And soon she would be leaving school on her way to the land of Uncle Sam, or the Gold Mountain as they used to call that country.
Our senior grade one class room was on the same floor as the senior grade 2 and 3 during the spring term. Thus I got to be acquainted with most of the students of the other 2 classes, such as the two cousins; Tse Hung Lee and Tse Siu Dent. Their respective fathers were in the US. They had been flaunting their wealth with expensive and attractive clothes, fancy pens, expensive watches and large gold rings on their fingers. That was the style of the day in those days of the rich students.
I still remember some of my classmates in our senior grade 1 class such as Chong Daig Him, Hoo Pa Shion, Chu Thil Toung 's sister Chu Li Quin and her fiance Guan Li Oi. I also remember this guy by the name of Ng Ghip Hing in senior grade 3, who was my classmate at the public and junior high schools. His father was an officer in the tax department in the Hoi Ping district, but later took a job as a teacher at some high school. The senior grade 3 had very few students, may be about a dozen, and only young men.
The following is a love story between two of my schoolmates. As the customs of our rural district, boys and girls do not normally speak to each other though they see one another daily. There was this schoolmate whose name was Tse Siu Den, who fell for the beauty of a girl named Chong Tel Yeut. They both lived in the district of Tung Shan. It was Tse Siu Den's cousin Tse Hung Lee who helped make their romance a reality, because it was Tse Hung Lee who acted as the legendary Hung Neng as the one who delivers the love letters between the lovers. That romance has grown into love and eventually led to the altar after a year of corresponding. That couple used to live in Hong Kong when the Communists took over the mainland of China. I understand through the information provided by Chong Tel Yeut's cousin,Tse Chun Moi that the couple has both passed away in Hong Kong some years ago. That above mentioned romance was told to me by my wife, for Chong Tel Yeut was her best friend, hence she knew about it.
When that romantic story broke out, the whole school was aware of it. At that time I did know who Chong Tel Yeut was but I didn't know who Tse Siu Den was, for that matter she didn't know me either. At that time I noticed my

page 27

schoolmates Woo Yet Low and Ng Shic Ban, they communicated with each other in a strange way. They used the musical notes of "Doe. La. Sew" to indicate something which mystified me. When under my persistent asking, they eventually told me that the sounds of those notes rhymed with the name of the pretty girl they intend to write to, and asked me for assistance for help to draft out love letters for them, which I did so that they can use during the summer holidays. Those lovesick schoolmates of mine also asked me if I noticed the pretty new girl in our class, her name was Tse Chun Moi, she was Tse Siu Den's cousin. Actually I knew the girl as I always traveled on the same bus with her, but I was not sure she knows me.

AN UNFORGETTABLE INCIDENT

On one very humid summer night while I was boarding at Hoi Chung, I could not sleep due to the heat. I got up early in the wee hours of the morning, went out to the Tom Gong riverbank where the Yu Geo Miu temple was. The water looked so cool and tempting. I couldn't resist the temptation but jumped into the cool deep water. The water was so refreshing that I swam and swam until when I did realize, I was very far from shore, I became panic stricken and felt as though all my strength had ebbed away from me. It was a far way from shore, at that time I thought that was the end of my life, and then I had the sanity to reason out that I should remain calm. I used the floating method by turning myself facing skywards, and using my limbs to propel myself gradually and with the help of the current towards shore. That worked but it took me more than an hour to reach safety. When I reached the shore I was so exhausted that I had to lie on the sand for more than 2 hours to recover.That particular reckless adventure nearly drowned me, a lesson I would never forget. There is an old Chinese saying: " You may defy the mountain but not the water ". In my case that sayings has been proven to be true.
The second half of my second year at Hoi Chung began, we the four buddies from the same class went back to live at the same house, as we did the previous term. The landlady was very good to us. She did all the shopping and cooking for all of us. It was a very difficult job, for every one of us eats at a different time, so she had to cook separately for each and every one of us. I understand her husband was in Canada at that time, but I couldn't remember his name or his whereabouts, otherwise I would look him up in the later years when I migrated to Canada.
To me there have been no changes regarding the school administration or the teaching program, with the exception that there was only one new class for both the senior and the junior programs respectfully. The next difference to the previous term was that some new activities have been permitted of

page 28

which were prohibited before: One of the activities was a proposal by our classmate, Liang Fuk Tun, to organize a student committee by free election, and that student committee would oversee all the student activities in the whole school. I believe the reason the school authorities gave in to the suggestion was because at that time of the civil war, plus the unstable situation ofthe entire country. That instability was actually caused by the then Nationalist Party, whose army was fighting a losing" battle in the Northwestern provinces of China. The under-ground agents of the Communists took advantage of the then situation, and started their propaganda towards all directions, especially towards the students.
There were 5 candidates from our class vying for the leadership; one of them was Liang, who eventually won the seat. Liang was a great speaker. We got to know in later days that Liang was actually a communist infiltrator. When the communists took over the country, he was very active in the district government of Hoi ping. His own cousin murdered him in 1951. The reason for the murder was that he bore the blame for the overthrow of the last governor, Liang Hon Faun, who was also from Hoi Ping; during the Nationalist days. He was Liang Fuk Tun's cousin.
After boarding in Hoi Chung for one and a half year, the 3 other classmates and I decided to board outside of school, where we would have more freedom, thus we got to know the school as well as the surroundings of Chek Hem Market better. We went about as a group, usually to see a stage play or a movie. By the way, that sort of activity did not cost us any money at all, because our classmate Woo Yet Low's dad was one of the bosses who own the theatre. However, when the seats have all been taken by the paying patrons, then we had to stand on the sideline as nonpaying customers.
As we now living outside of the school dormitory, we had no more curfew hours to abide, so sometime we spent the night at the store of our schoolmate Woo Git Ghow's dad's. Wo Git Ghow was my first term classmate, his father owned a building supply business in the Chek Hem Market, located at the middle of upper and lower Chek Hem, somewhere near the dock. At weekends, when we were not going back home, we would stay overnight at Fat Man Yee Kan's shoe store, or at the Woo Brothers' barber shop, or at Woo Git Ghow's place. I must cpnfess that since I had the new found freedom, I have entirely forgotten the reason I was there, which was for an education. Regarding the new activities and that new found freedom surely made a bad situation worse for me. I should know better.
I guess boys will always be boys, two of my regular school friends, Ng Sec
Ban and Woo Yet Low, plus. a new member to the gang, always talked about
the girls in the school, comparing who is the fairest of all etc. They even

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wrote anonymous letters as secret admirers to those pretty ones. When one set graduated and left school, then they would find another set to write to. Personally, I think they were wasting their good time. I believe if they really like the girl, they should make it known to the girl herself.
One shocking event happened during that term was the drowning of one of the junior students. The tragedy that took place was not too far from the front gate of the school, in the Tam Gong River. What a pity! His name was Chow, a young kid. Should that happens here in Canada; the parents of the kid would surely sue the schoofor its negligence.
The remainder of that school term was uneventful. I passed my exams and promoted to grade 3. School closed for the summer and the summer vacation to follow.
During the year 1947, China had its first ever-free democratic election. The result was Chiang Kai-shek won the presidency, and Li Zong Ren as the vice president, but those two never saw things eye to eye.
The time was between August and September, summer gave way to autumn, and school will be reopened soon, and then I would be in senior grade 3. And then the next academic step for me was towards university. I was feeling on top of the world. We the few close friends rented the same house as the last term.

DISCUSSION OF MATRIMONY

As I was getting to the age of 22, my mother started to pester me with the subject of marriage. She would relate about the virtues of different families and their daughters. She said if I do not do the choosing now, then at a later date I might have to be the one to be chosen instead. All her good reasons fell on my deaf ears.
My life in school went on as usual; the only change was the change of principal. The new principal's name was Hui Gam Seung. I understand he was the adviser to the guerrilla leader Chow Horn Ling, during the Japanese occupation of our area in the 2nd World War. I remember one of his speeches to us the students, he said; "You students should study hard, and do not disappoint your fathers and the other elders who support you financially. You must realize that your elders are not exactly filthy rich, or even hold white-collar jobs. They are only workers in a restaurant or a laundry. They actually sacrificed and saved for your education. Their main aim is for you to have a better future than they have. They rather to work hard just to realize that dream and wish. Now, so do not fail to shoulder your responsibilities, and make sure to live up to their expectation, besides, you all receive your education from Hoi Chung, which carries a distinguished name, hence, should you failed to live up to that good name,

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you would give this institute a bad reputation, for you are MADE IN HOI CHUNG. He said that in English with emphasis. It seemed that I actually knew a little English by then, for I understood the English words he used.
In the middle of autumn of the lunar calendar of that fall, I went home to join the rest of my family to celebrate the Mid-Autumn festival. My aunt, dad's oldest sister also came to join us for the occasion. During our conversation she asked me why I have no interest in the girls whom the matchmakers recommenced, she wanted to know if there was a girl that I am in love with. I told her there was none, then she said there is one girl she has in mind and that she does not think I would object, because it is a matter of renewing an old friendship. She got me curious about the renewal of an old friendship talk, so I asked her to explain. She reminded me of many years before, at her father-in-law's 60th birthday, there was a little girl with a red dress, with whom I was quite friendly. Together with her son, we played and admired the talking bird that we called liege in China. That little girl was her sister-in-law's great niece. That event my aunt spoke about took place at her house long ago." You mean that little skinny girl in a red dress? " I inquired. " Yes," she replied. "You two seemed so friendly and happy playing with each other, like a match made in Heaven. " "But that was so long ago, I am sure she doesn't even remember me." I argued.
She said that she got the information from the girl's great aunt, that the girl she mentioned had grown up, and became a very pretty young lady, and at the moment she is attending a school at Canton. I told my aunt that the city educated girls would snub us the country educated ones. I told her that I would not stand a chance even if I try. My aunt explained that as the civil war was getting nearer and nearer to our place, the people with marriageable-age children, would like to finish their duty as parents, to get their kids married, so that their kids can face their own future together as a couple. She said that was the real reason she talked to me about the renewal of an old friendship. I still believed that city girls would not like country boys, but my aunt said that both her own aunt and great aunt told her that this girl was not entirely a city girl, for she also went to Hoi Chung at Chek Hem, and that she had just graduated from junior high a little more than a year ago, then I asked for her name. My aunt scolded me for being such a scattered brain person. "How can you forget your playmate's name? " She chided me good-naturedly. Then she continued: "Her name is Shiu King, her family name is Cheung."
For a while my aunt did not hear anything from me while I sat silently in front of her, and then she asked why I was so silent. Little she knew I was in shock when I heard that name. In my mind I thought ---oh my God! She was

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the DOE LA SEW that my classmates, Woo Yet Low and Ng Seck Ban had been admiring secretly, and using the above musical notes to rhyme with her name.
My aunt continued to say that the Cheungs and our family have intermarriage relationships for at least 2 generations, hence both sides knew each other's back ground pretty well. What she was trying to say was that I might have a chance if I change my stubborn attitude.
There is a distant relationship between Miss Cheung's family and ours. Her great aunt, nee Cheung, married into a Chow family in Poo Loo, one of the districts in Hoi Ping. My aunt married to her husband's brother; thus they became sisters-in-law, so there is a relation, but sort of distant.
After the Mid-Autumn festival I went back to school, and had almost forgotten that conversation I had with my aunt. Then one Saturday I went home and my mom gave me a letter from Dad. A lengthy one, in which he mentioned that the steps of getting my older and younger brothers to join him in Canada have progressed favorably, and that if every thing goes as planned, they would be there in the Spring of 1949. In the following part of that letter, he said that should I decide to remain in China, is fine with him, for there is already two generations in our family, without an adult male member home. However though, to make a living in our motherland is not easy, hence one needs a solid education to face the challenges. Then he drifted to the subject of the Civil war that was taking place at the time. He lectured me of the importance of a good education, because whoever wins the war, there is need for highly educated people to run the country, so If I do my best, then I might fit in. His topics drifted again to another. He mentioned about Mom's ill health, and then he continued about my future again. He wrote that within a year or so it would be time for me to go to university, and that it is about time I should think about getting a life-long companion. The advice he gave about that subject is to choose carefully, for it is for a lifetime. As though it was an after thought, he said that there are quite a lot of relatives through intermarriage, and why not start from there? He asked. At that point it dawned on me that it must have something to do with the chat my aunt had with me. He further wrote that he has an acquaintance who wanted to send his son from Canada back to China to seek a wife, however, he would like his daughter, who is older than the son, to get married first, because that is the Chinese traditional way. It comes in the descending order, first comes first and then 2nd to follow the 1st etc. At last he came to the point, he wrote the friend he mentioned about is one Mr. Cheung, and that he is somewhat related to my aunt. " Why not try your luck there? " he wrote and asked. He thought I might stand a good chance. By

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then I was positive that part of the letter has to do with my aunt and her recommendation. It was no coincidence. He was just beating around the
bushes then came to the point indirectly.
School under Mr. Hui, the new principal, was not much different to the previous administration. All the teachers discussed about were the civil war that they seemed not much concerned about the textbooks any more. The situation was getting so scary. The Nationalist officers, who staunchly support their party, were murdered in broad · day light. It was really frightening.

RENEWAL OF A FRIENDSHIP

The long lost friendship during our childhood days was somehow renewed. We started to correspond as pen pals. Anyone wants to know who broke the ice first? Sorry, no tell---that is our secret. Imagine! I used to help my friends write love letters, but when it comes to my letters to a girl as a pen pal, sometimes I had difficulty in finding what to write about which would be of mutual interest.
When that long distance romance was just in the budding stage, there was an unexpected turn of events. Some one stole the letters mailed to me in the school mailbox. The peculiar acts and funny speeches of my classmates aroused my suspicion. To unravel the mystery, I questioned Woo Yet Low and Ng Seck Ban relentlessly, until they finally gave in. They told me how they got to know about the exchange of letters etc. It was due to Miss Cheung's great uncle, for he was asking one of the students from Hoi Chung about rny character. He was indiscreetly checking on me. That student to whom he asked for information, his name was Cheung Tit De, my classmate from the Sai Kong district. That blabbermouth let the cat out of the bag and spread the news around. Well, the important thing is that Ifound out the source of it, and then I outsmarted those busybodies by changing my name in our school address. And by using a pseudonym, and only then I got some peace from them.
As the news of our corresponding with each other been known, that had some unwanted side effects, for suitors began to compete with me. I thought to myself: It was just a simple renewal of a childhood friendship and that should not present any problem to me. However, if at the end that friendship leads to nowhere, and then I might be the laughing stock among my friends. When I thought about that it caused my heart to be heavy, and I regretted that this renewal ever happened at all.

AT LAST MET AGAIN

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About 3 or 4 months after our corresponding, Spring Holiday has arrived, and that was the time for the New Year Holiday as well. Miss Cheung came back from school atCanton to join her family in the village. She and 1 planned to take that opportunity to meet each other. We were friends in childhood days, but so many years had passed, we would be actual strangers once more. Although we exchanged photographs during the course of our correspondence, but we still were not sure if we would recognize each other should we meet face to face. It was lucky for us that we had a mutual friend who also related to us, to do the introduction. His name is one Mr. Cheung Yee Chong; he was my brother-in-law Lee Git Chiu's brother-in-law. Mr. Cheung Yee Chong was attending university in Canton at that time. He was also my brother's classmate in senior high days. Sometime after Miss Cheung returned froom Canton, we arranged a day for the meeting in a restaurant in a place called Cheng Sa. Miss Cheung, her sister and mother were there. Mr. Cheung Yee Chong introduced us. I was by nature a shy person, especially as I grew up in the country, sort of having an inferiority complex, so for that meeting I had to muster all my courage. Afterwards, according to Mr. Cheung's judgment that the event turned out to be not too bad at all. When the meeting was over; Miss Cheung and her mother both invited me to call on them in their village while she stayed there for the vacation. Well, that was a sign of approval and also a welcome news to me. I was very happy to know that the friendship has elevated to a new level.

COMPETITION

As our correspondence has been known among my friends, in this case if one can consider them friends, in fact, they became my competitors. May be it is only naturaland a human nature that beauty attracts. Now Miss Cheung has become an open prey for those so-called friends of mine. Here I would say !f one considered them friends then I do not need enemies. They were secretly seeking Miss Cheung's hands.

A ROMANTIC POEM OF LOVE by Chow Nam

Here on the first page of the book of Odes, is this poem. It goes as follows:
" Guan guan seu geo, joi hoh ji jau, tiu yiu sug neu, guen ji hou keo ". In translation, it means: The giu gou bird is sing upon the tree branches, in the island in the river. The male bird's singing attracts the female ones. In the human nature, a beautiful girl likewise attracts the admiration of the young men. Hence it was natural for those guys to compete with me. It is still baffling to me up to today, as why I was the chosen one, considering that I was not really that special compared with the others. May be there is a truth

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to that as what is to be is to be, and such saying as marriage is made in
Heaven. The following is my version of the poem in English:
Over the river and the delta,
Sings the little seu geo dove.
Songs of tender pretty maidens,
And of young men in love.

ENGAGEMENT

After the restaurant reunion I had visited the Cheung family on a regular basis. Once I even took my mom to get acquainted with them. I believe as our mothers noticed that we had gotten more and more friendly with each other, they put in the suggestion that we should be engaged. Neither Miss Cheung nor I objected, and then an auspicious date was chosen. On that happy day, my mother and I went to the Cheung family home for the occasion, which was arranged to be at near the end of the year 1948.

SCHOOLMATE----FRIEND OR FOE?

The new school term began after the New Year. All the students would return to their respective schools. I went to pay a visit to my fiancee before she returns to Canton to continue her studies. On that trip when I got off the bus, I realized some one was following me, to my surprise it was my schoolmate Cheung Dick Him, he was in the one class ahead of me in Hoi Chung. Both of us went to the same Cheung village. I went to my fiancee's house: he went to the shrine in that village. However, I later found out the real reason he went, it was not any shrine he visited at all. He went as a representative for his classmate Hoo Bug Shon, to persuade my fiancee to reconsider her engagement to me. That Hoo Bug Shon was from a rich and influential family in the district of Lon Hong, a place close to Sai Kong.
I understand Cheung Dick Him had been trying to do the talking for his classmate, as far back as the time when Miss Cheung has graduated from Hoi Chung but without success. Well, he tried for the final time; the result was as before, that is without success.

CIVIL WAR & A SHORT HISTORY OF THE NGS

Our school reopened in the spring of 1949. It has been a few years since I have been studying at Hoi Chung, and this would be my last term, so if I pass my exams, I will be heading to university in the fall of that same year.
The civil war of China was at the time raging on, and was getting closer and closer to where we live in the South. Chiang Kai Shek ceded the presidency to his vice president Mr. Li Zong Ren. The Red Army was about to cross the Zangtz River. Mr. Li sent a group of high-ranking officers to

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negotiate a cease-fire with communists. The result was all the representatives have been defected to the communists instead.
As a custom of warfare in the Chinese history, the winning side would only accept surrender, but not a cease-fire, because a cease-fire would give the enemy a breathing space to reorganize to fight again another day. That principle worked well with all the dynasties with the exception of the stupid emperor of the country of Ng, of which we the descendants took the name of that country as our surname. That foolish Emperor of Ng was called Fu Cha, he deviated from that practice and had to pay the price with his life besides the lost of the country and caused his descendant to scatter all over Asia. Some people claimed that we the villagers of Low Gong, are the descendants of a branch of the refugees from those days. It is rumored that that Emperor of Japan is an Ng too. We know for sure the murdered past president of Vietnam, Ng Bing Sum was an Ng, so is the present (2003) president of Singapore. The country of Ng was in the area of present day
Gong So (Jiang Su) and Jid Gong (Chekiang) provinces.

THE GRADUATION & THE WEDDING EVENTS

The cloud of war was hanging all over the horizon. I doubted the minds of both teachers and students alike were about teaching or learning at that time. Within the classroom there were more talks of the fighting than of the textbooks. My fiancee told me in her letter that there were explosions in theatres and department stores in Canton, even in any place where people gathered, on a daily basis. It occurred to me that for the first time in my life that I worry about someone outside of our home. That was the general chaotic and tense situation in those days. There was one event happened in our school, it was the disappearance my schoolmate Woo Yet Low. Some one said as he failed in his exam, he chose to switch to a grade 3 in another high school, the name of that school was Yuet Wa Senior High, located in Gong Yik, a district in Toysan, near Hoi Ping's Siu How.
Though the situation was tense, it was classes as usual. Mr. Hui, the principal barking his orders as usual, urging the students to study hard, do not disappoint their elders, and most of all, not to shame the school with their laziness. I personally regard Mr. Hui as a good principal, it was unfortunate that he accepted the post during such a time. I saw his photo taken during the 80th anniversary of the founding of Hoi Chung, in l999; he looked rather feeble then but was still among the living. He must be about 90 at the time.
It was around March in 1949 that both of my older and younger brothers got accepted as immigrants to Canada. They arrived safely by plane from

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Hong Kong. Every one home was so happy and thankful to God for His
blessings.

THE GRADUATION

Time was approaching fast for our graduation exams in school. As it is tradition that teachers normally give us hints about what subjects would be important and which not necessary so, but we would not take any chances, so we crammed day and night. However, when the day finally came for the big exam, one third of the candidates were missing. The reason was that they had left to join the communist guerillas to fight in the hills. The situation was chaotic in school, but who remained managed to finish the big exam. I think all those who sat passed. Traditionally the graduates would hold a celebration dinner for the occasion, but due to the special circumstances, no one had the mood for that.

THE WEDDING

I bid goodbye to my Alma Mater Hoi Chung which is also known as Hoi Ping Dai Yat Jung Hok, literally meaning it is the number one secondary school of Hoi Ping. My fiance's school was also closed for the summer holidays. She returned to the village too. Due to the unpredictable and unstable situations of the time, our parents have decided our future for us. They advised us to get married so that we as a couple, to face our destiny together. An auspicious date was set for the occasion; it was June the 10th of the lunar calendar in the year of 1949. The wedding party was not as big as that compared to my older brother 's when he got married, as it was due to different circumstances. I understood the situation and held no hard feelings. We only used the spaces of the houses within the Garden of Optimism. Everyone in the village was invited. Some of my schoolmates sent presents. Schoolmate Pang Tin Yem came personally to congratulate us. His cousin was also my wife's classmate. After the wedding, Mr. Pang stayed for a few days before he left.
After the wedding, we went to Canton for our honeymoon, and I planned to sit a university entrance exam in that city. To make the journey from our village to Canton, people usually board a large wooden junk at Saam Feo. That large junk does not have any engine and is too large for rowing, so it was to be pulled by a tug boat. The schedule for the trip was to board at Saam Feo at 5 PM to arrive at destination at around 6 A M the next morning. I understand that at the present, in year of 2003 that is, a highway is linking Canton and our place. A trip to and from the two places would only take about 2 hours. I must say that is a great improvement.
Besides the inconvenience of slow trips, in the olden days there were pirates attacking the junk too, whenever that takes place, the passengers would go

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down to the lowest level ofthe boat in order to escape the flying bullets fired by both the pirates and the guards of the boat. In later days after the so-called liberation of China, people recognized some of the liberators were actually the former pirates.
Up to this point of my story it was about my life in China. Now I couldn't help but reflect and wonder that should I get a proper guidance as a young kid regarding the importance of education, how much better off I would be in this world today? Secondly, I wonder if I should remain in the first middle school in Canton and continue my education there, and how it would alter the story of my life.

697 ST. CLAIR AVE. W.

As I have recorded earlier that my father-in-law met me at Toronto airport and took me to his place the Sam Chong Laundry at 697 St. Clair W Ave. That was the beginning of my life here in Toronto. Sam Chong Laundry was established circa 1920 by my father-in-law in partnership with his own father and an uncle named Sam. They bought a brand new building with the price tag of $5,000. They paid a down-payment of $500 and mortgaged the rest at 5% interest per annum. But, after about 30 years of paying the interest, they hardly touched the principal, so I guess in those days the mortgage system was different to nowadays that one can just pay the interest and leave the capital alone. The people I knew around us used to say my father-in-law was a very astute business man, but I didn't understand why he would not pay off the entire mortgage since he has the money to do so. He later explained the reason, saying that since the Canadian government would no longer allow Chinese immigrants in, so one day when he gets too old to work here and have to leave; he would get problem in selling the property, whereas when the property belongs to some one else, he can always leave it and go. That was his theory for just paying the interest only. Then one might ask why they bought the building in the first place? The answer is that it was the only way to get that location, for no landlord would rent his brand new place to be opened as a laundry. As a laundry place is always damp with water which would destroy the structure of the building. Some years after the partners worked the laundry together; my father-in-law's dad and uncle both went back to China to retire, hence the laundry was lack of manpower, so my father-in-law invited his distant uncle, one Mr. Chong Bing Hong and a friend of his, one Mr. Chow Oal Hung as partners. When I arrived at 697 St. Clair West the whole working force was as follows: My father-in-law, the general manager; Mr. Chong Bing Hong the driver, who did the pick up and delivery of laundries; Mr. Billy Chong, the son of Mr. Sam Chong; he came in 1949 to take his dad's place. The others

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of the work forces there was one Mr. Chow Dao Hung who was very unfortunate to have a nervous break down and ended up in the mental hospital at 999 Queen St. W. Toronto. The hired hands were: Mr. Chong Thil Poi, who operated the washing machines. And then there was Mr. Chong Ping Gar, we considered him to be the most skilled worker. He helped in all the departments of the laundry. We also had an old man, one Mr. Chong Mong Ngei, he was a humorous guy, and he worked as paid-by-the-piece worker for ironing shirts. Finally there was my father-in-law's close nephew. His name was Chong Wai Dom, who was a new immigrant to Canada. He was a hard worker and he sure knows the value of money.
As I related earlier that Sam Chong Laundry was opened at 697 in a brand new building. That name Sam Chong was actually the name of the pioneer, of my father-in-law's family. It was he who went back to China and brought my father-in-law to Canada, and in turn my father-in-law brought his own father over. Father-in-law's dad was working in South East Asia as a carpenter before, but life there was not too ideal, so he was happy to come over to Canada instead. When the laundry was under the management of the 3 partners, business was quite successful.
When I first arrived in Canada, Sam Chong Laundry was my home. After school, I would do my best to help in anyway I could around the place, as I want to make myself useful and also to learn the trade. The laundry work was really a hard work with very long hours, it was about 16 hours a day, so after I help out in the laundry it would leave me very little time to do my studies in the night, so I always felt tired and sleepy. The old timers told me it was even worse in their days.
Back in China people called the Americas Gam Shan, which literally means Gold Mountain. People would dream of coming here thinking they could just stoop down to pick up gold. What misled them is the fact that a few successful ones went back and showed off their wealth, but not knowing that most people can't even go back due to failure. With the hardship that I was facing, I just could imagine the kind of hardship of the older generations of overseas Chinese before me. Since I came here with my own free will, I have no one to blame, besides, with the communists in power in China, there is no way I could go back either.
Although Sam Chong Laundry was started in a new building, but for more 20 years of abuse; it has never been properly up kept. They never did any repairs to it, not even a new coat of paint. I remember there was a coal burning hot water furnace in the basement which was falling apart due to the lack of maintenance. However, the hot water tank though it was very old but was still in a working condition In the far end of the basement there

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were some abandoned belongings used to belong to some of the Chong families. The basement was so dirty and dismal that I only went down there a total of 5 times, and it was for changing fuse only.
Here is a description of the main floor; the store front is facing the North with 2 show windows separated by a door in the middle. The windows were narrow; about 6 feet in depth. After one enters the door there was a 5-foot long counter for business transactions, at the end of that was a partition with a door leading to the inner part which was the working areas, and that part of the interior was subdivided into 3 parts. From the door next to the counter was the finishing and pressing and ironing section. Next to that was the pressing area which was also serving as a dining room. And then there was the 3-piece wash room. After that was the drying room also being used as the kitchen, that room had 4 coal-burning heaters to dry the clothes during rainy, cold and Spring time days, but when the during the hot Summer days, they would hang the wash out to dry by the sun.
On the second floor of the building there was a huge room, I think it was meant for a living room. But we used it as a dormitory, there we had 6 beds. I slept on the one facing a large window that was nearest the street. Next to the huge room was a smaller room which was Mr. Chong Bing Hong's bedroom, and next to that room was my father-in-law's room. Then there was the 3-piece washroom. Although it has the 3 facilities but no one uses neither the bathtub nor the face basin. All they ever used was the toilet. I guess the reason for not using those facilities was because they were out of order. After the washroom was Mr. Chong Ung Toi 's room, which had a door leading to the outside.
One can imagine the condition of the building which never had any maintenance for 30 long years. The condition was not good at all! But to everyone's surprise that the roof held out, for it never leaked, I guess the workmanship and material were much better than that of nowadays. Although the place was nothing to boast about; but I was grateful to have a roof over my head and warmth in the wintry days to keep from freezing.
While I was staying in the laundry I tried to learn the trade. It took me sometime to manage. I used to make about $12 to $15 a week as a piece-worker which was barely enough to cover my personal expenses. Then gradually as l gained experience I made about $20 per week. Then one day my father-in-law advised me to go to a restaurant at Bloor and Landsdowne streets, to learn the restaurant trade. I took his advice, I started there as a waiter. My schedule was from Friday after school, worked through Sunday night until the next morning at 2AM, weekly. Sometimes I missed the last bus to go back to the laundry, I would have to walk the distance, and that would

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take me a few hours, so when I reached the laundry it would be day break. The weather in those days was much colder than nowadays. I remember when school starts on the 3rd of September the cold weather starts with cold wind sometimes freezing rain as well. The sun sets at about 5PM in those days. By October it would snow heavily, sometimes it would pile up on either side of the street as high as 7 to 8 feet. In some ofthe side streets it was inaccessible.
As I have related earlier that my bed was by the large window; and due to the rundown condition of the window, cold breeze would come through. Though I was dog-tired I could not sleep under that cold condition unless 1 cloak up with thick clothing. Oh! Is this the Gold mountain our countrymen pining for?
It was about that time frame that I changed school to attend the Central Technical school, and about that same time the communists back in China started the infamous Land Reform. I guess all my compatriots overseas remembered the incident. Their hard earned money with which they bought properties home had been robbed. That was sad and shocking news to us all. They called a meeting to discuss the matter in one Casino Theater at Queen Street. But there was little they can do about it.
As I had mentioned earlier in this story that it was very lucky for my mother to get out of China to Hong Kong. The excuse that my dad used to give the Communists was that Mom would get better medical treatments for her sickness, of course we all knew that was not the real reason. The truth was that when my mom gets out and somehow she could get my older sister 's husband to Hong Kong as well. The most important thing is for my mom to get out so that she would not have to suffer the humiliations and tortures that some of the people had. Besides, if otherwise, the communists might hold her for ransom. My mom got to Canada to join the family in 1951 that is one year after my arrival. My parents bought a house at 247 Dundas St. E. Toronto, a few months after Mom arrived.
Shortly after I came to Toronto, I enrolled in the Central Technical school, located somewhere at Harbord and Bathurst Streets. I was in the radio technician Course. I quit the restaurant learningjob. What made me quit was because that restaurant work was a job without any payment. Besides, I couldn't do too many things at the same time. I worked in that restaurant for 6 months; the boss had only given me $5 once, which was hardly enough to pay for my transportation fares to and from work. Besides, I was doing the paid-by-the-piece work of ironing shirts at 8 cents per piece, so 1 didn't see any sense of keeping that unpaid restaurant job.

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Suddenly, the communists in China stopped the free movements of the people, and that was the infamous Land Reform movement. The authorities in China encouraged the people to denounce each other even the children against their own parents. They also promoted the illiterates and people of the last rung of the social ladder to manage the rural affairs. I believe their scheme was to create more chaos to divert the attention of their failure.
My wife and our little daughter Rose somehow sneaked out from the village to Canton; to hide out there as non-residents. Being a none-resident, which means they would be without any ID of which was required to purchase things and to cash money orders from overseas. In other words a non-resident was considered as though the person does not exist in that place. Luckily my wife had a close uncle named Chong Cho Toi who was a resident there, to whom she was depending on for assistance.
It was a sad state of affairs for us, because I was in Canada as a student without a permanent job, which means I could hardly provide for my young family. Well, whatever little money I had I would mail it to them, but their main support was still from my father-in-law. Besides my father-in-law 's assistance, 1 wrote my Number 6 uncle in Hong Kong to ask him kindly to help out my family in Canton with whatsoever money they should need and I promised to repay him with interest.
The old timers used to say that they came here without a cent, of which I can really testify to it as a fact, especially about those immigrants who came here during that period of 1949 to 1970. As for my self, I borrowed $100 US from Mr. Chan Gung Del before I boarded the steam boat to the West. The second day after I arrived in Toronto, I gave what remained from the original $100 which was a little more $90 to my dad. He took it and gave me $10 for my personal use. That was all the money he ever gave me here in Toronto. My mom survived my dad by 8 years, when she passed away; after all the funeral expenses the remaining estate was amounted to about $30,000. Before mom died she told us to use what is left after the necessary expenses, such as for the maintenance of their tomb and whatever expenses related to it in the future. My older sister insisted for her share of the estate, so I did as she demanded, her share was $5, 000. Later on I formed a nonprofit organization called Hup Hing Hong Clans, and put the remaining $25,000 into that organization, but the interest there was so low that we hardly gained any interest from that investment.
l never believed in the art of fortune-telling, but my wife asked a dear friend and her relatives to ask one Mr. Chan, a fortune-teller to use the so-called 8-character method to tell about me. His prediction was that I would not get help from any one excepting may be from my parents, and that I

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could not hold or enjoy the inheritance even there was any, for some crooked person would cheat it out of me. That was the prediction made so many years ago, and now I realize it is quite accurate.
During the Land Reform in China, my relatives there were in trouble. They were scattered all about from home, I wanted to help them but was powerless to do so, for at that time all I had was the $10 my dad had given me. I was also sick, so Dad helped me with the medical expense of visiting a physician, and also bought me a heavy winter coat for the winter. In addition of the $1O from my dad, my father-in-law gave me $40. I got a red package of lucky money of $5 from a close relative, that person was my great uncle Chie Sum. That was all the money which I could call my own in those days, and that was the grand total ocapital of finance to start my life's journey in Canada.
Before I left China for Canada, I planned to come here to learn some scientific knowledge, a trade or some skill then return to China and my hometown in 3 or 4 years time, and then continue my studies. The importance to me is the togetherness with my family, but the Chinese Communists dashed my dreams forever. Although I went to school and worked daily as usual, but my mind was not in my studies or in my work. I was like a walking dead for 2 years and due io that state of mind I couldn't learn what 1 was supposed to learn, which was the English language.
When the Land Reform program in China cooled down a bit; my mother-in-law sneaked out to Canton to join my wife, she cared for little Rose while my wife went to study accountancy in a school. Her main reason for enrolling in the school was to get a student ID which would entitle her to stay in the city. But going to school before my mother-in-law joined her; she had to hire a care-taker to take care of Rose. Then came the good news of that both my wife and her sister got permission to go to Hong Kong but has to have return-tickets. They got 2 Cantonese residents as guarantors, but the authorities would not let Rose join them. I think they were using Rose as a hostage to make sure my wife would return. The 2 sisters arrived in Hong Kong safely, that was good news for the whole family. Later on I understand that though King (my wife's name) did not return as promised; the authorities did not punish the guarantors, and that was also good news too.
When the 2 sisters got out of China; my father and father-in-law started to get busy to find a way to bring those 2 sisters to Canada. My father-in-law was a real astute business man, for he was starting to look for a suitable place in order to open a laundry so that when King comes over, she and I would have a business of our own. My father-in-law the thinker and planner, I do admire and respect him for his intelligence.

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I have stated that he was looking to open a laundry for us, one might wonder why a laundry and not some other business? The fact is that my father-in-law only knows the laundry business, besides, laundry was one of the few traditional businesses the Chinese immigrants know about, the other popular ones were such as restaurant and grocery businesses.
Although it does not require much money to rent a place to open a laundry in those days, but it still needs some capital, I with empty pockets in those days, was hopeless. But despite of that hopelessness situation; I started to walk the streets to locate the location for my dream business place. I even took the street car and went to all the four directions of Toronto scouting. At that time Danforth, the eastern section of Bloor Street, was not yet fully developed. The fully developed area was a bit beyond Coxwell Street. To the West, it was developed only up to Jane Street. Yonge Street is a North South street. In the south it was fully developed starting from Lake Shore, but towards the North it was only up to Eglinton Ave. which was semi-developed. At that time the TTC tickets were 8 for 25 cents. That time the economy was very stable with no inflation at all. I love that period of time.
My wife and our little daughter Rose were in Canton with my mother-in-law taking care of her, but soon she would have to start kindergarten, and at that time I was over here in Toronto going to the Technical school. My mind was occupied with the thought of providing for them when they come over to join me. Under that mental stress I could not go any further in my studies. Although I was trying my best to get a little place, but was hardly in any position to raise the kind omoney to procure a place which we can call our own.
After a few months, I finally finished grade 12 in that technical school. I think they let me pass the grade was not really due to my merit; I think it was because they think I was too old to remain in grade 12 any longer. I spent 3 years in that school. Well, no more school for me. But I was doing the same work of ironing shirts as before. Whatever little time I could spare I took driving lessons. The lessons cost me $3 an hour. After 15 hours of lessons, the instructor helped me to apply for the driving test by filling the application form for me. The driving test was much simpler in those days, but it was still lucky for me to pass at the first try.
At about that time my father-in-law was preparing to bring his new daughter-in-law to come over to Toronto to join her husband, that is his son. He bought a store somewhere at Rogers Road and Chamber Street in the York Township and opened a laundry. He named it T K. Cheung Laundry. When I first landed in Toronto I went to Sam Chong Laundry at 697 St. Clair W. a place belonged to some partners, but my brother-in-law Lloyd

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was so fortunate that when his wife landed he took her to his own business place, for his dad had opened the business a few months before his wife came.
At the time I was in Canada for 3 years, during that time a lot of events took place, such as my father-in-law went back to China shortly after my arrival. He went to bring his concubine over to join him here, and it was just in time too, for that was a little before the so-called Bamboo Curtain the Chinese Communists used to block the communications between the West and China. At the same time Lloyd my brother-in-law couldn't manage the new laundry, so he had to let his cousin, one Mr. Chow Won Hong to carry on until his dad comes back, when my father-in-law came back he took back the place from his son, then hired his nephew and hired an extra hand to help him to operate the business. All these happened during 1951. My wife came to Canada in the fall of 1953.
About that time the medical doctor found out that my father-in-law had problems vvith his heart. It was very bad news for his families both here in Toronto and in China.
My job here in Toronto was not a regular one at that time. On Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday mornings, my job was to pick up and deliver the laundries. The vehicle I drove was a little English truck. The rest of the time I helped out around the place such as cooking and washing dishes etc.
My father-in-law saw an old farm house at Eglinton W near Keele Street, which was pretty near T K Chong Laundry. He thought it was a good location for opening a laundry for me, so he went to see the real estate agent in the district to find out if it was for sale. I offered my opinion to him, saying that it is a good location as it situates at the junction of Eglinton Ave. and Keele Street, those two are forming a main intersection, but it is a pity the area is not yet fully developed, besides, it is too close to T K Laundry, so I asked him if it was not as though we are competing with each
other in business? To which he told me that if we do not open a laundry there then some one would. He was right! In less than a year, 2 laundry businesses and a dry cleaning establishment opened there, and I opened after them.
Sorry I skipped some details about while I was working at Sam Chong and when I stopped going to school; as I had more time to iron shirts thus I made more money, I made about $35 to $40 per week then. Since I began to make more money I took 2 shares of the "Benefit-to-Three-Party" credit union in Lung Kong Gung Sao, so that should I need money I may bid for it. The bidding is for the members to make an offer; the highest offer of interest

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would get the money that all the members pooled together in that particular week. After the member who bids the highest bid gets the money he would have pay back with interest every week afterwards. This way it is better than to borrow from the bank. I did what I have done for 2 reasons. Number one, as my wife was in Hong Kong and little Rose was in Canton, so I planned that in case they both need money urgently so that I may raise the cash that way. The second reason was my way of planning to save money for the future.
Three months after my wife reached Hong Kong; my mother-in-law managed to get 2 guarantors to guaranty her and Rose to go to Hong Kong on a return trip too. Every body in our extended family was so happy to know that all the members of the family were out of China and in freedom. About that time my father-in-law and my father were busy fixing papers to bring my wife over to Canada posing as the daughter of one Mr. Cheung Shell Poy. That scheme worked, for she was successfully immigrated by the end of 1953. Rose stayed behind in Hong Kong with her grandmother and her aunt at that time.
When my wife came over to Toronto she first stayed at T K Chong Laundry for a while, shortly afterwards I took her to Ryerson school for the Newcomers course in English, the same course I took 3 years earlier. That day the weather was so bitterly cold; and she did not know how to prepare herself that her feet nearly got frostbitten. It was quite a long distance to walk from T K Chong laundry to the school. It takes about an hour to go there, and as it was situated in a different part of the city, normally in that situation; the student has to pay for tuition, due to above reason my wife later moved to live with my parents at 247 Dundas Street E. That place was nearer to school, it only takes 15 minutes by walking, besides which it was also within the district to qualify for free admittance.
Six months after my wife arrived here in Toronto; we bought the farmhouse at 2562 Eglinton Ave. Later the government has changed that number and address to 2616 Eglinton W. The price for that property was $12,500. I paid down $1,500 and mortgaged the rest. The interest rate was 6% per annum. Due to the rundown state of the farmhouse I had to do some renovation, besides which I had to convert it into a store too, so I contacted a building contractor for the work. It was arranged for the price of $1,500 for labor and material.
The expenses of the lawyer fee plus for the fee for the drafting of the agreement with the contractor; was paid by my father. Thanks to him.
One might wonder how all of a sudden I got hold of so much money for that property. What I did was to bid and got 2 shares of the Benefit-to-

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Three-Party credit union shares, and then borrowed 2 shares from Mr. Chong Lei Poi. The total I got was $2,800 plus I had a savings of about $500. The remainder of the money I borrowed it from relatives and friends.
About the equipment for the laundry, I have to thank my father-in-law; he scanned the news-papers daily and inquired with his friends to see if there was any used machinery for that purpose. Indeed there was a laundry which closed down at Dovercourt Street, somewhere near Dundas Street. I bought from them 2 irons for ironing shirts, one wooden washing machine, materials for making the ironing table, a gas-heating flat ironer, a coal heating heater and finally a water tank. All the above-mentioned second hand stuff cost me $100. Besides the above I also bought from another place a stainless steel extractor, a washing machine, a gas-heating clothes dryer, for $150. I hired one Mr. Anderson, a laundry machine mechanic, to move and install those used equipments at my newly acquired place.
Regarding the contractor who was building the store front and creating a back door from the basement into the back yard for me, that guy was a Jew. He worked until he was about to put the roof on then stopped work for 3 weeks in order to demand for more pay. My lawyer threatened him with legal actions, but he just ignored him. In China the people used to think the most untrustworthy tradesmen are contractors, well, those here are of no difference. That labor dispute had delayed the completion of my place for 4 months. Eventually, I had to promise him an additional 2 to 3 hundred dollars more to have the job finished. While the contractor was working, I hired a mechanic to check over and install the other equipments, and to make sure they are in working order. Then I hired a plumber concerning all the plumbing works. For the electrical part, I did the connecting. Regarding the heating system and for the hot water we depended on two coal-burners, for cooking we used gas. We had no refrigerator but an ice-box then; we had to buy ice once a while. Our gas stove, table, chairs and things for the kitchen use were used stuff from my parents. We had a radio which I made from my school days but we had no television yet.

NEW ADDITION TO FAMILY

In October 1953 while ! was busy with the conversion of the farmhouse into a store; our first son Horne was born in Grace Hospital, which was located on Church Street near Bloor Street. We were all thankful and happy that both mother and child were in good health. The happiest one was my dad; to know that the family has its first male baby in the new generation, for it has been 18 years since the last baby boy was born into the family. My parents planned to mark the happy occasion with a big celebration for the traditional One-month Old custom.

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At that time there weren't any big restaurants in the Toronto Chinatown. The only Chinatown was located at Queen and Elizabeth Streets, south of Albert Street, which was demolished later to make room for the New City Hall. Dundas Street was considered the far north of the then Chinatown in those days.
For that happy occasion, my parents invited more than 300 guests. We had to use 2 restaurants. As my entire savings had been invested into the new laundry, thus my parents footed the bills and ran the whole show. The cost of the food for one table was equivalent to one week's pay for a restaurant or laundry worker. However, the event was a huge success, and every body was happy.

JIM'S LAUNDRY & CLEANER

The conversion of the old farmhouse into a store has been finalized. All the equipments in place, electricity hooked up, water pipes connected and machineries in operating condition. I also bought supplies for the opening, such as posters to put in the show window for advertising, brown wrapping papers, soap, bleach, ammonia, coals etc. For the interior of the store I made shelves for parcels, racks for hanging pants, jackets, suits and coats. I did those works after I finished my work of ironing in Sam Chong.
In the spring of 1954, my wife and baby moved into our own establishment, and about two weeks later we opened Jim's Laundry and Cleaner for business. There was no big fanfare for the occasion; no other advertising beside the window poster, nor any traditional dance of the lion for the opening, we just opened.
I bought a used Chevrolet sedan for the purpose of pick up and delivery shortly after we were in business, but the business was not too good. At the beginning, what we made was not enough to cover expenses much less to pay the installment of what I borrowed. So, to bring in additional income I had to do work for the other laundry at a cut rate fee, which is what we called Wholesale Work in laundry language. It took me 3 months by doing so to balance the books. Things had starting to improve gradually, with a little more cash to play around; I bought a small refrigerator to keep the baby's milk fresh.
Although we had to work hard and had some minor problems, but our main concern was about our little Rose, who was still in Hong Kong. So my father bought some papers from one Mr. Chong Bing Hong, who was a distant uncle of my father-in-law; and one of his partners in Sam Chong Laundry. The papers were to show that Rose was one of his twin daughters born in China, and that he wanted her return to Canada for family reunion. But the scheme fell through, because the immigration authorities in Hong Kong didn't believe such a claim. The reason was that

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the supposed mother of the twin was 49 years old when the alleged twins were born. So my father had to buy another paper from one Mr. Ng, and this time it was a success. Rose came to Canada about a little more than a year later. The above dealings had strained the friendship of all those who were involved for sometime.
We worked hard at Jim's Laundry for about a year and a half; and paid off the debt at the Benefit-for-3-Party Credit Union and also the other debts we borrowed from friends. Then we put in a new gas burner for heating the house; plus a new hot water tank so that we do not have to rely on coal again. By using gas we saved lots of time and work too. With the time saved from the new gadgets we had more spare time. So I fixed up the back yard for little Horne to play, but in one incident he fell down and hit a sharp stone which cut his little head. We were so alarmed that we had to call for Dr. Tse Yet Tung who patched him up neatly. But a little scar would remain to show for the incident.
My mother-in-law came over to Canada in 1954. Rose was then in the care of her aunt Shiu Ying, and when Shiu Ying got married and gone to live in Venezuela; Rose was turned over to the care of my sister-in-law, the wife of my older brother. When my brother and his family got permission to come to Canada, it was so lucky for Rose that she too got permission to come. So they all came here together. I think that lucky year was 1955. That was the year all our family members were reunited in Toronto.
Rose was 5 going to 6. She spoke perfect Cantonese, because so far she spent the bigger part of her childhood days. in either Canton or Hong Kong where the language was spoken, but nowadays I noticed she does not remember the language any more. After Rose settled down in Toronto, she started to go to school accompanied by her cousins, my brother's daughters. She stayed with my parents at 247 Dundas Street E, but would come back home on weekends. When Pearl was born in 1955, there would be more work for my wife and me, so to ease the workload we hired a helper, a new immigrant from China. He was recommended to us by Mr. Chan Yee. The young man's name was Chan Sim. He worked for us as a room and board worker. We let him have one of the rooms on the 2nd floor. About a year later, our third daughter May was born in 1956. As the we only had 2 rooms and a sort of a half room on the second floor; with · that amount of people living in the laundry, it sure was crowded. To ease up the problem, my mom offered to take care of Pearl for us at her place. At that time we bought our first black and white TV in a store at Dundas St. near Dufferin St., for $100. The TV was for the kids' entertainment. My entertainment was my story books and magazines.

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ADDITION OF PROPERTIES

Between 1958 and 1959, we bought the properties at 28 and 30 Cecil Street. The reason for investing on the 2 houses was because my wife was expecting another baby, our youngest son Gordon at that time, and due to that we figured that it would be really too much work for my wife to see after the kids and to help in the laundry as well. So we bought the houses as an investment. To help pay for the mortgage we rented them out. Those 2 houses had a total of 7 apartments; 4 large and 3 small ones. Our plan was to occupy one apartment and rent out the rest.
There were lots of events that took place during the 5 years from 1954 to 1959. Here I would just mention a few; during those years my father-in-law's circumstances had changed a lot, such as he sold his T K chong Laundry to Mr. Chan, and then he himself became the partner with his uncle's son Billy Chong, and then opened a dry cleaning place at Bloor St near Christie St which they named Midtown Cleaners. He was beginning to realize that his health was going down hill. And though his only partner was a very intelligent and ambitious and a hard working man, but he still needed more help, so he asked me and my good friend Chong Yee Foun to become the outside partners, the reason of his doing so was to give him some help in case needed. Later on we the outside partners sold our partnership to Lee, my brother-in-law's brother, and one Mr. Chong, my father-in-law 's close nephew. All the above was requested by my father-in-law, because he needed more help in the business. He and his concubine worked in the cleaner while his wife, my mother-in-law, took care of our small kids at home at 22 Cecil St. The reason we bought the properties at the same street was for family togetherness and convenience.
Horne started kindergarten in 1959. Rose came back to live with us in order to accompany him to school. That school was Charles Webster Public School at Keele St., about 3 blocks from our laundry. At the beginning Horne did not understand English at all, so Rose or his mom had to stay with him in the classroom. At that time Pearl was staying at 24 Dundas St E. with her paternal grand parents, she only comes home on week ends,
Gordon was born in 1959, my wife insisted that she could move back to the business place and look after the children there; and hire one of the tenants as the superintendent to take care of the apartments and to collect our rent. In 1960 my parents went to live in the U.S. for quite a few years; as the weather was better for their health there. My younger sister and sister-in-law were the care-takers of their house at 247 Dundas St during that period, and at that time, Pearl came back to live with us.

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After operating Jim 's laundry for 8 years; we bought another cleaning business together with the premises at 1087 St. Clair W., for the price of $38,000. It was only a pick-up store which had no machinery, so I installed a used 25-pound Hoffman dry cleaning machine and all the other necessary equipments, plus a large new steam boiler. I named that store the NorWest Cleaners. Thus we had 2 laundry businesses at different locations then. With the combined businesses then we no longer have to depend on wholesale business again. That new business venture cost me a little over $10,000.
After a year or so later as the business improved at my new laundry, the volume of business; our old Hoffman dry cleaning machine can longer cope with the demand, so we installed a brand new 50-pound Spencer dry cleaning machine and a used one of the same brand. To accommodate those machineries, we had to extend the building 20' in depth, the cost to do that was another $2,500, of which was quite a tidy sum in those days. I would say it was about the price of 2 houses at the Dundas or Huron St area at that time.
1087 St Clair Ave. W was the address of NorWest One-hour Dry Cleaner and that was our business and property. It was a 3-storey solid building. We used the ground floor for business. There were 5 rooms in each of the 2nd and 3rd floors; they were pretty large with high ceilings. There was a metal garage at the back of the building. We had a contractor renovated the 2nd floor; to make it into a large living room, one big kitchen and dining room in one, one play room for the kids, and a den plus a 4-piece washroom.
We converted the 3rdf loor into 5 bedrooms with a 4-piece washroom. When the conversions completed, we moved into that premises. We bought new furniture, refrigerators, color TVs etc. By doing so, we spent quite a bit of money. Our plan was to have May and Pearl to share one of the rooms, the other kids to have one room each, and one for my wife and me. There was lot of space then, much more than at our Jim 's Laundry and Cleaners. After 8 years of hard work; at last we had a place big enough to have our family comfortably under one roof. However, Gordon our youngest was still being taken care of by his maternal grandma at 22 Cecil Street; he was not living with us at that time. We only see him on Sundays.
By the time we moved into the new address at St Clair W., Rose was in senior high at Oakwood High school, Horne was in grade 4 at Regal Road public school, and Pearl was in the same school attending grade 2. May just started kindergarten in that school. The above account is sort of hazy now, it might not be 100% accurate, for almost all things were handled by me single-handedly, and thus, my wife took over to see about the kids'

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education. I regretted very much that I couldn't spare the time to look for the best school, to help them with their homework, to check who their friends were, or to keep an eye on them in a general sense. As the sayings goes: history cannot be undone, and no one can turn back the clock. However, as my father who was retired, he managed to get time to advise and encourage them.
As we moved from Jim's Laundry and Cleaners to the new address, that means we either have to get some one to look after the old business or to sell it. So we arranged with Mr. Chan Sim for him to run the business. The arrangement was for him to run the business as his own but pay us a monthly rent of $200. Everybody thought that was an excellent opportunity for him, but he only ran it successfully for a little while, and then got into the bad habit of gambling. He simply disappeared from the scene.
In 1963 that was the year the U.S. president J. F. Kennedy was assassinated; my father-in-law also passed away that same year. The hardest part was that he left a 17-year old daughter and 4 small kids for his concubine to take care of. They used to live in one of my father-in-law 's houses at 87 Baldwin Steet. My father-in-law's sudden death and left his children so young was such a tragedy that left an indelible scar in my memory forever.
Since Chan Sim disappeared from Jim's Laundry, we took back the business, and then hired a woman who was one of our tenants at 28 Cecil St. to act as our caretaker to oversee the place. All the works were transferred to Northwest Cleaners. After 2 years qf operating the Northwest Cleaners; the business had been expanded to include wholesale. We hired 3 drivers with 3 trucks on the road to pick up and deliver. We had been very busy, with me supervising the wholesale and looking after the drivers, and I also work in the cleaning room. My wife 's job was the office work and to see after the counter plus looking after the kids. Our work was 7 days a week. We paid one driver, his name was Leslie, to take Horne, Pearl and May to Beverly Street to the Chinese school in the United Church; after their regular school in the afternoons. Horne did pretty well, but the Chinese pronunciation still proved to be sort of difficult for all of them.
Sometimes later we opened another pick-up store on Dundas Street W. somewhere near Dovercourt Street which we named May Flower Cleaners. We hired the wife of our French driver to look after that store. The venture was a failure, as a result, we gave the May Flower Cleaner to the French guy, which he later closed. We rented out Jim's Laundry to a guy named Chan who has no relation to the Chan Sim who ran away. The rent was $250 for a month. At the beginning this Mr. Chan did pretty well, he even put in more equipment, but after about a year in operation he gave it up.

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After that, I left that store vacant and then in 1964 I sold the place for
$25,000.
Rose graduated from high school in 1967, and then enrolled in the University of Toronto. That same year Horne and Pearl were in Oakwood High school. May was in Winona Senior Public School, and Gordon in Regal Road Public School. It was during that summer we were looking to buy a farm or a cottage outside of the city, so we traveled all about to look for a suitable property. Finally we found a cottage at the north shore of Lake Simcoe, it had an area of slightly over half an acre, it had 4 bedrooms, 2 washrooms, a large living room, a kitchen, and was fully equipped with electricity, it also had a heating system. The pipe-borne water was from the lake. That cottage had a 200-foot private lake shore frontage with a removable dock plus a small motor boat. The owner wanted $25,000 for the whole package, but we only offered him $18,000, to which he refused. That same winter the real estate agent came back to us saying if we were still interested the owner would accept our offer, so we bought that property.
The following summer we started to enjoy the cottage by going there every Saturday afternoon, and then would come back on the following Monday morning in time to open the store. That arrangement was very stressful for my wife and me, but for the sake of family togetherness I think it was worth it. The kids sure enjoy the cottage, but for me, besides putting up the dock and I had to cut half an acre of grass every time we visit; took too much out of me. I figured that though it was fun for the kids and for family togetherness, but it was a bad financial venture, for it cost us $80 a
month for the maintenance, and the enjoyment was so short due to our short summer here. Besides, I was forever tired because after 5 days of hard work it left me little energy to enjoy the activities. I am a person who never cares about spending money; that is until I do run out of it. Luckily that didn't happen too often. So far in my life that only happened during the time when I first opened Jim's Laundry; and also the time when my wife and daughter were stranded as refugees during the time of the Communists take-over of China.
Since my father-in-law passed away, my youngest son, Gordon was still under the care of my mother-in-law, sort of as a companion to her. To alleviate my mother-in-law's loneliness we tried to send for her younger daughter Sui Ying, who was living in Venezuela with her husband at that time. We have been successful in that attempt in the year 1965. When the couple arrived in Toronto they started to work at the Northwest Cleaners. In later years they got work in the post office where they worked until they retired. Seeing her sister became the companion to her mom, my wife

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decided that it was time to bring back Gordon home to start school. We enrolled him at the Regal Road School that same year. But I think that decision has backfired on us, for Gordon missed his buddies he made over the years when he was living at his grandma's. To make Gordon feel more at home, I spent lots of time with him, which was more than I spent with any of our other children. Gordon and I had lots of activities together such as minding fishes in the aquarium, play games etc.
Regarding our business the NorWest Cleaner, we had operated it for a period of a little over 12 years, but it ended up just like our first business, Jim's Laundry. The main problem was the lack of manpower.
We kept the cottage for only 5 years; that was due to the kids' eventual lack of interest in going there any more. It was in 1974 that we have done away with it. While we had the cottage we made it a rule to take two weeks vacation from work to enjoy the cottage life and family togetherness.
After 20 long years of working hard in Canada; my wife and I really enjoy that period of time, and during that time frame, Rose graduated from the University of Toronto, and Horne was still in U of T; Pearl and May were attending senior high school, Gordon was in junior high. In the year 1973 I was 45 year of age and my wife 43.
One day after visiting my father-in-Jaw 's grave at Mount Pleasant; I felt
uncomfortable in my stomach, at the time I thought I had eaten something that was not agree with me like greasy food etc. So I went to see Dr. Yi Sai Hung at St. Clair Ave. near Avenue Road. After a series of tests and an X-ray, he determined that I had gall stone. He said to cure the problem I have to have it removed by operation. My mom had gall stone problem before, and went through an operation.

TURNING POINT IN MY LIFE

The discovery of my health problem was the turning point in life. As my health was already deteriorating; now plus the gallstone, I was afraid that soon I might be unable to work any more. With this in my mind I consulted with my wife, and we had decided to begin to reduce our workload. First we gave up the wholesale business; as a result we lay off all the drivers and to hire fewer workers as well. By doing that we also reduced our income.
I went to see a herbal medicine practitioner; his name was Dr. Mar Duck Ming who had an office in the same building with the Chinese Community Center at Harggarment St.which no longer exists. That street was at the rear of the New City Hall.
Dr. Mar prescribed Chicken-bone grass and Gold-coin grass etc. for me to boil and to drink the tea, of which I had drank quite a lot but without result. One day my wife heard from someone that betel-nuts are good for dissolving

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gallstones, so I bought 25 cents worth of the dried nuts and had the seller sliced them up, then went home and boiled the sliced nuts in water for about an hour then drank the water. That day was our cottage day; I drank the concoction before we left for the cottage. Everything was well until after supper, and then something went wrong with my stomach, for I had to run to the washroom every 5 minutes, that had me so weak the next morning. I nearly couldn't drive back home.
On one of my trips to see Dr. Mar in the evening I saw a man who was teaching Tai Chi Chuan, commonly known as Tai Chi, his name was Mr. Moi Ling Shin. Concerned about my health, my wife encouraged me to join that gentle martial art and exercise, and that was in the year l974.
I had a habit of reading before sleep, for I didn't care to watch TV. I usually read novels in both Chinese and English, and due to that I had accumulated quite a lot of those books in my laundries business places. During the time when I was working at NorWest Cleaners; I usually invite about 6 friends to dinner, and then we played Mah Jong until dawn. That sort of activities went on until we had the Hun Pha Cheun Restaurant.
Because I was suffering from the gallstone problem, 1 could hardly do any more strenuous work, seeing that, my friend Mr. Lam Ging introduced me to join a real estate company called the United Trust Real Estate Company. I joined it as a salesman, but after a few. months I realized that work was not cut out for me, and so I quit.
Around that time; the Benefit-to-Three Party Credit Union of Jie Dak Tong went broke, and as a result I lost nearly $6,000, and due to that incident I got to know one Mr. Wong who was the owner of a grocery store at Dundas St. W. and I also got to know a cook named Leung Fait, who was the Chinese cook for Dr. Glin. The 3 of us became partners and opened a restaurant in Chinatown. We named it the Red Diamond Restaurant.
My partner Mr. Wong used to play the stock market, so as the saying goes; monkey sees monkey do. I went along w ith Mr. Wong and played the stock market too, but as I had no experience I lost money in that venture. I believe that is one of my faults; trusting people too much, even after 1 retired I was still that naive.
Since 1960 I was a member of the Lau Gong Brotherhood of Ontario. The chairman then was Mr. Ng Shie Shung. The address was inside the Chinese Community Center. Although I wasn 't an active member of that organization, for I only showed up every 2 years on election time, but I got to know quite a iot of people there.
I joined the Tai Chi classes; the teacher was Mr. Moi who complained to me about that he was treated without respect. He said he was treated more

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like a hired hand, so I got in touch with Mr. Hui the chairman and the deputy chairman Mr. Wong. After we discussed the matter we went to see Dr. Mar and put the matters before him. The result was that Dr. Mar eventually agreed to be the honorary chairman of the organization, and let Mr. Moi run the show. I helped Mr. Moi with the teaching for 2 years until we opened our Hun Pha Cheun Restaurant at 442-444 Spadina Avenue.

MY OPERATION

After being treated by the Chinese herbal doctor for sometimes and got no result; I eventually made up my mind to have the operation done in order to have my gallstone removed. It was in the early summer of 1973 thai I went into St. Michael's Hospital for the operation. After which, it took me several months to recuperate. During that period my wife had to do all the works which I used to do plus seeing after the properties and looking after the kids. All of which proved to be very strenuous on her.
We sold the cottage in 1974 after the family members lost interest in going there. We also sold the houses at Harbord St. near U. of T. and the house at Seaton Street. As the government Housing Department ordered us to upgrade the Cecil St. houses; we figured that it would cost too much money to do so, so we sold them as well. The properties we kept were the stores at St. Clair Ave. W ; the house at 405 Spadina Ave. and those at 556, 558 and 560 at Dundas St. West. During that period of my life I was semi-retired. I enjoyed the tranquility, and every one in the family was in good health. I thank God for that.
When had completely recovered from my operation; I had some spare times on my hands; thanks to those equipment we installed in our cleaners, for it could do the work within an hour compared to many hours of manual labor. As I had more leisure times on my hands, I went to Chinatown more regular to join our Chinese societies. It was also my obsession to own a book store in Chinatown. Although I offered the full asking prices for 2 separate stores on separate occasions; the deals did not come to any agreement. However, my mind was set to own a business there, which I called a place to hang my coat, but that obsession proved to be a big mistake in the later days for me.
In the spring of 1974 we bought the property with a western style restaurant at 442-444 Spadina Ave., for the price of $285,000. First, it was my mistake to hire a Chinese lawyer who was fresh out of university without any experience. By following his advice as a result it cost me $5, 000 extra to have the liquor license transferred from the previous owner to me. My plan for the place was to rent it out in order to pay the mortgage as I did with the previous other properties, but this time I couldn't get any one to rent it for

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about 3 months, and then about that time, an acquaintance told me that he knows everything about the restaurant business and that he was willing to help me out in that venture. That so-called friend of mine misled me badly; he said it would cost me less than $20,000 to convert the place that I bought, into a Chinese restaurant. His estimate was about $9,OOO for a contractor to do the alteration, and $10,000 to purchase the equipments. But it turned out to be nearly $50, 000, and that is besides the cost of the transfer of the liquor license handled by the green-horn lawyer. I concluded that this whole venture was a big miscalculation. My so-called friend hired 11 workers in all for the restaurant; 5 to manage the kitchen and 6 to serve in the dining room. We had one volunteer, and that was my close cousin Ken, he managed the bar. Ken was the greatest guy I have ever known, but the other 11 hired hands, they collected 2 weeks pay without doing any work at all; and my so-called friend the manager said it is a tradition of the restaurant trade.

PROBLEM IN HUN PHA CHEUN

Hun Pha Cheun Restaurant and Tavern was opened for business in August 1974. At first the business was not too bad though we couldn't cover the overhead expenses. But the problem was the workers; the 6 in the kitchen were forever bickering, for they didn't care if the dining room was full of patrons who are waiting to be served, those workers were busy fighting with each other in the kitchen. The workers who served in the dining room were not any better either, for they smiled, laughed etc. with each other alright, but to the customers that is a different story. It appeared to me that none of those people really care about the business from which they depended on for their livelihood. Seeing what was happening; I approached my so-called friend, the guy to whom I put all my trust in opening the restaurant business, I said to him that we should rectify those problems. To my amazement, he said that is the way the restaurant workers normally behave. So it shocked me into reality to know that he must believe I am a compound fool. It also began to dawn on me that I made a huge mistake by believing in a scamp like him. With that realization I decided to take things into my hands to right the wrong. I decided to spend more time in the restaurant to supervise and also to learn the work. The workers didn't like that, but I was the real boss, the bonafide owner, the one who has the power to hire and fire, so the only thing they can do is to quit as a protest, but I had prepared for that.
The restaurant was losing money, and it got worse by the day; to compound our problems, there was more and more restaurants opening in the new Chinatown at Dundas St. and Spadina Ave. area.
With competition so keen, plus with that rotten team of workers like ours it is really hopeless. So I decided to reduce the overhead expenses by laying

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off some of the workers. With that in mind I consulted my manager and the head cook; but the boih of them said the place is too big to have a skeleton staff. Another problem is that though we had less business yet we purchased the same amount of raw material such as meat, chicken, vegetable, seafood et cetera. Later on we lay off most of the workers and only retained just a couple of them, and only then the truth came out. One of the retained employees told my wife that the rear door of the restaurant was an open-door. I think what he implied was some person or persons were pilfering our stuffs through the back entrance. The inforrner also said that he heard some one proclaimed loudly with a laugh that he did it on purpose to ruin me. That sure baffled me, for I never had any enemy in this world; I never did any wrong to any one. It is beyond me to understand why some one wishes to do me bad.
For the first six months, the gross receipts of the restaurant couldn't even cover the payment of the raw materials, much less the other expenses such as wages etc. Things were not looking rosy at all. I estimated our losses were approximately $1,500 to $2,000 a week.
Shortly after we opened the restaurant business; I have decided that we could not concentrate on two businesses at the same, so I put up the cleaning business for sale. It was a long time before I got a buyer, he was a Korean guy. I sold the NorWest Cleaners to him very cheap. It was for only $9,000 with a nine-year lease of $500 per month rent. The new owner operated it for only nine months time without any renovation or addition of equipment; he resold it for as much as $45,000. This reminded me of the old saying that when a thing is not supposed to be yours, no matter what you try, at the end it would not be yours. May be that is what we call fate.
After our new restaurant opened for only 6 months; I lost an unaccountable amount of money. So I had a heart to heart talk with my crooked manager and the so-called head cook, I suggested to them in order to save the business we should restructure the entire arrangement such as the manager himself to help out in the kitchen instead of loafing around in the bar doing nothing, in this way we could reduce the staff and save money. But my manager was too high and mighty to help out in the kitchen although he could handle the cooking. Well, I surprised all those guys by the announcement of closing down the place on a Saturday and I did close it on the following Monday. That caused a big protest from the manager and the head cook, both wanted me to pay the whole staff a double pay for the week. So I told them if there is such a law and I'll abide with it.
What happened to my restaurant venture was my miscalculation by trusting too much in other people without really checking on their back ground.

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Originally I wasn 't going to put this ugly episode into my memoirs, but for
the benefit of the others and especially to my future generations; let this be a lesson to learn, and I hope no one would fall into a pitfall like what I did.
Now that we have wound up our restaurant business and also sold the cleaning business. The main reason we sold the cleaning business was due to the fact that we can not look after two businesses at the same time, the next reason was because my wife complained that, that business was not good for our health with all those chemicals being used. When we were young we could stand them a little, but as we were getting on in years they started to affect us. Besides, at the end we were only doing some cash and carry business which was not the full capacity for all those equipments, which were left idling most of the time.
I woke up the Monday after we closed the restaurant; it was the first day of my life since I arrived in Canada, that I had nothing to do, but alas, it was not carefree as one might think, for though the restaurant was closed but it still cost money to own the place, so I consulted the wife about opening the restaurant in the afternoon only, to that she asked me who was going to do the cooking, so I told her that I was going to do that. I told her my plan was for her to be the cashier, and then we hire one worker to look after the bar and the dining room, we would call back a former employee one Mr. Jimmy Wong as the waiter, also recall the third class cook Mr. Sim and rehire Mrs. Hui to do the dish washing and help around the kitchen.
My wife was skeptical at the beginning, but then she put her trust in me, for we had to do something with the property, eventually we agreed on that plan, and called back those workers mentioned. Thus Hun Pha Cheun reopened its door once more, but only in the afternoons. That was a great surprise to lots of people.
Believe it or not, the cooking in the restaurant was handled by me without any difficulty at all, because I had ample experience since my high school days when I had to cook for myself, and then again 1 had to cook in the three laundry businesses that I went through, plus I like to eat good tasting food. Not forgetting the six months I was watching the cooks cooking at Hun Pha Cheun. All those experiences gave me confidence. I love cooking; even my own kitchen at home was like a miniature restaurant.
That day when we reopened the restaurant in the afternoon, the business was just as before, not better or worse. We made it a point to use fresh ingredients for the cooking, plus gave away free soup with each order. Gradually customers started to come from as far away as University A venue and even farther, plus some students from U. of T. It took about six months for the business to be on even keel financially. Although we hadn't start to make

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money yet, but we proved that we could at least handle the business. We felt proud of ourselves.
We figured that in order to make money we have to do better at the supper meal. We tried and tried but without much luck, but we sold lots of beer instead. Apparently somehow we broke the law and that brought the authorities on us with a law suit, as a result we had to pay a fine.
I was racking my brain to find a way to improve our restaurant business, but somehow it never occurred to me to learn from the other restaurant businesses around our vicinity which were doing very well.
We kept the restaurant for about three years, although it got busier eventually but we did not see the returns as money wise. At the end of that period there was another kind of problem that arose. The cause of that was wholly due to that my wife and I put all our attention to the restaurant business and neglected our kids. As a result one of our children has gone astray, that problem caused me so much heartache that I rather to lose all my fortune than to suffer that kind of sorrow. I would never forgive the person or persons who led him towards the wrong way of life. I truly regret that we did not pay more attention to all our kids while they were growing up. But no matter how much remorse now, we could not change the course of history! What is done is done and can not undo.
As I had written earlier that we were on even keel regarding the income and expenditure with the restaurant within 6 months since we reopened. During that period I worked very hard. I normally got up at 7. 30 AM to go to the restaurant to prepare the food for the lunch time meals; our meufor the lunch meal was a combination of 4 different dishes, and about 10 different kinds of Chinese style rice dishes. To prepare for those meals; some items in the menu could be prepared the day before, but there are lots of which had to be done the same day, that is in the early morning, such as the daily soup, the barbecue pork, the breaded shrimp, the honey spare-ribs, the chop suey, the diced mixed-vegetable with meat, the fried rice etc. The preparation for the lunch meal for about 150 to 300 people it requires about 3 hours work. That was my routine from Monday to Friday, and I did it single-handedly, because the workers would not report for work until 11:30 AM excepting my dear wife who would come a few minutes before them. To sum it up; my working hours stretched from 7:30 AM to midnight, hence neither my wife nor I could find any time to be with our children. Each day we either send their daily meals to them at home in 1087 St. Clair Avenue or sometime they had to come down to the restaurant to eat. Although our kids were not that small at that stage, but still, due to that restaurant work it did affect our family life.

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About the same time we opened our restaurant; my distant cousin also opened one across the street from us, but he operated in a smaller scale. What he catered for is for the students from U. of T. and individual who comes in for a quick bite. He named his small restaurant Kam Gook Yuan. He did not have the equipment that we had, what he had was an appliance for barbecuing. He did not use expensive cooking ingredients either. He mostly used pork, chickens, ducks and whatever suitable for barbecuing, yet he had good business and made a fortune from that.
That distant cousin of mine was really a shrewd business man. He had the foresight to figure out that there were about 50,000 students from U ofT, and most of them eat outside the campus. Beside of not have to have a big staff; he and his wife with a couple of helpers they cut the overhead expenses to the bone. He is a smart business man who made a lot of money while I lost a lot.
The difference between our restaurant and that of my distant cousin's; is
that ours catered for group-dining such as banquets etc, while my cousins' was only catered for individual such as students. Should I have that foresight as my cousin I would have done the same thing that he did, but it was too late to cry over spilt milk. I was the blind one to the restaurant business and I was also being led by an equally blind one, although the guy professed he knows every thing about restaurant business from A to Z, actually he knows nothing. As I entered the restaurant business I lost the savings of many years of hard work, but what made it worse was that made my wife and me lost the time that we should have spent with our kids while they were growing to the rebellious age.
In 1976; our restaurant started to get out of the red; and we gained some experience too. To save time of traveling daily from and to home at 1087 St. Clair Ave., we sold that house and moved into the restaurant. The family occupied the 2nd and 3rd floors.

HEALTH PROBLEMS

We have been working very hard at the restaurant business, even harder than when we ran the laundry business. The restaurant business is very complex; it has the perishable ingredients that can not be kept too long, and then we have to deal with people all the time. That was very stressful for me since I got more advanced in age. I felt the effect so much that I had to lay down on a small bed in the bar every day after the lunch hour rush. I used to feel my heart beating like a drum. I knew that was a signal that I should not ignore, So I went to see Dr. Chow at Cecil St. The good doctor gave me some tranquilizing medicine and told me to take it easy. I took his advice and the medicine and felt much better.

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A MILESTONE & A HUGE HEARTACHE

Rose graduated in 1977 from university and got married the same year and she went on to further her education in another university. Horne graduated from medical school too. That year Pearl was still studying in Queen's University in Kingston. May was studying in a musical school affiliated with the University of Toronto. Gordon graduated from the North Toronto high school. He obtained an Ontario Scholarship honor, though he had some unpleasant happenings at Oakwood High during his grade 13 year. He was accepted at U. of T. So far everything seemed going the way as I have hoped for, but that was just the calm before a storm, for after Gordon registered in U. of T. for only 2 weeks he asked back for the tuition fee and quit the university. It was such a shock to my wife and me!
I firmly believe it is the parents' duty to support and educate their children the best way they could offer; in order to make sure they become successful in every aspect of modern ltfe, and to be useful to themselves and to society.
Regarding Gordon's entry into an evil organization; I tried everything in my power to sway him from that path without avail. I even asked the advices of intelligent friends, specialists, educators, people in different religions and even my lawyer. I also reasoned, begged and yelled and tried to bribe him with money, he just turned a deaf ear and ignored me. God knows that I tried everything. I even asked him to go for counseling with a specialist which he refused as well. I was at my wit's end. I was wondering what induced him to do what he did. Is a certain evil organization which
offered him sex, power or glamour? Did they poison his mind? Or did he simply fall into bad company? I told him that if he doesn't change his ways, I would give up on him, and that the one who is going to suffer is himself alone. I also told him that if he falls into trouble in the future he has no one to blame but himself. I said the only way that I would continue to support him is if he changes his ways and go back into the main stream of society. Those were my final words to him after all my efforts to wake him up in vain. However, that was not the end of the story, for the sake of my wife I had to buy a house in 1989 to put a roof over his head. I think my wife also
supported him financially unknown to me otherwise too.
Although I said all those threatening and harsh words to Gordon, but deep down my heart it really hurt. My heart bled for him. That hurt remained in me for so many years until I saw events unfolded in the world that I started to believe that every one has his or her destiny predetermined for him or her which is called fate. As I advanced in age, I started to have a different perspective, I began to forgive and forget. This is a sad part of my memoirs, but I think it is also an important part to be written for the sake of my

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descendants, so that they can learn from the mistake of one of the farnily
members.
In society there are lots of crooked people and lots of evil organizations which prey on the innocent folks. If one is not careful and not asking lots of questions to find out the good from the bad, one surely would fall prey to those wicked people who disguise as friends. I must admit that I had been fooled by one so-called friend who misled me into the restaurant business which made me lost a fortune, for I was too trusting. I should have asked various people for advice, of which I did not. It is even more sad to say that my youngest son, a brilliant boy who was placed first in his class in grade 12, but due to some trouble he involved in that same school he switched to another school for grade 13. Even so, he still graduated with honors, but due to his unwillingness to ask for or take advice, not even from his own parents. That was his downfall. He fell into mire that he could never rise again. It hurts me to the bottom of my heart.
With all those bad happenings in those days, some superstitious people would blame it on bad luck, but not me. However, I was very depressed for some time.

RETIREMENT

At the same time, that has wakened me up about the reality of my advancing age. I asked myself why 1 have to continue to work so hard, for the children have all grown up, and the two of us have enough to take care of our old age. 1 decided to retire. We made up our minds to sell the restaurant. We accepted half of the asking price and sold it to the Wong brothers for only $50,000 in 1979.
The Wong brothers came to Canada in similar circumstances like me; without a cent of which they can call their own, but after running the restaurant they bought from us, I could see they had a house and motor cars. With this, one can just imagine how much money they, made during that period. They also made a huge profit in 1954 by selling the same business to a Vietnamese guy by the name of Mr. Yuen. I understand the deal was to the tune of $125,000.
After we have sold the restaurant in 1979 to the present (2003), the time of this writing, it has been 24 years now, during this long period I have spent my time doing volunteer works in different societies in the Chinese community.
I would like to conclude my story for the time being; and take a rest, for I surely still have more details to add again as I recall things and events of the past, so should the AlMighty still give me health and strength, I would continue to add more to make the continuation some day.

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The year when we sold the last business which was the restaurant; I have been in Canada for 28 years and my wife 25 years. Here is a brief account of my activities during those long years: First, I was working in Sam Chong Laundry working as a paid-by-the-piece worker, at the meantime I went to school. Then my wife came over from Hong Kong to join me. Together we operated laundry and dry cleaning businesses for approximately 20 years. And then we managed the restaurant for 5 years. When we finally retired in 1979, my wife was 48 years of age and I was 51.
For the conclusion of this memoirs, should it really be printed in a book form one day, I really owe my thanks to my dear friend Patrick Tang Poy, he was the one who encouraged me to write my story. Here is a heartfelt thanks to you Brother Pat. Thank you and may the good Lord bless you and your family.

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NAMES IN THIS MEMOIR WHICH APPEARED IN ENGLISH & THEIR
ORIGINAL NAMES IN CHINESE

Page No. | English translation of names | the original Chinese names
1 _________Lau Gong (Low Kong ) ___________ 樓岡
1_________ Ng Chee Gon (my grandfather_____ 吳始觀
1 _________Seto Shee (my grandma)_________ 司徒氏
1 _________Lok Gon Yon___________________ 樂觀園
1 _________Ng Gei Wai (my dad) ____________ 吳基惠
1 _________Yee Shee (my mom) _____________余氏
3 _________Guangzhou____________________ 廣州
3 _________Guei Fung Lei __________________桂芳里
4 _________Chiu Wan _____________________ 超尹
" _________ Chao Maan ____________________超萬
" _________ Mo Han _______________________武漢
"__________San Cheung____________________新昌
"__________Wing Lok______________________ 永樂
"__________Mung Kok _____________________ 旺角
" _________ Mrs. Cheung Hong Bing___________張洪柄夫人
" _________ Yee Jim Keung _________________ 余沾強
" _________ Yee Gou ______________________ 余荀
" _________ Mr. Chan ______________________陳先生
6_________ Ng Seung Sai___________________吳尙勢
" _________ Hap Hing Lung__________________合興隆
" _________ Chan Guong Zeo _______________ 陳廣就
" _________ Gei Ban_______________________ 基斌
7 _________ Ng Ren York ___________________吳仁育
7 _________ Ng Chee Shun _________________ 吳始順
" __________Cheung Tung Heung ____________ 張同享
8__________Chan Yee _____________________ 陳宇
9 _________ Ng Ti Chang (teacher) ___________ 吳齊長
" __________Ng Ngog Ying (1st ancestr of village) 吳岳英
" __________Gug Heung Ga Suk (1st school) ___ 掬香家塾
10_________ Zhou Xu Yan (cousin) ___________ 周樹炎
12_________ Duk Sing (cousin)_______________篤成
12 _________Gai Ji Yun (drawing guide)________芥子園
13 _________Saam Feo ____________________三埠
" __________ Chong Sha ___________________長沙
" __________ Mr. Leung Bo Yee (grade school teacher) 梁寶彝
" __________ Boh Loh _____________________ 波羅
" __________ Hoi Ping _____________________ 開平
13_________ Lou Kong or Low Gong__________ 樓岡
" __________Chek Siu______________________赤水
15_________Lau Sek Tong (teacher)___________劉錫棠
16 ________ Chiu Seng (cousin_______________超常
" __________Guei Sau______________________閨秀
" __________San Wu_______________________新會
" __________Gong Mun_____________________江門
17 _________Ng Sheung Ji__________________吳尙志
19 _________Hons________________________ 漢
"___________Mons________________________滿
" __________ Ching Dynasty________________ 清朝
21_________ Hoi Yet Chung (my senior middle school)開一中
" __________ Chek Ham Market______________赤坎圩
23 _________Guan Gong Yi_________________ 關光裕
24_________ Baak Yim_____________________白炎
25 _________Seto Gan Lun Memorial Building___司徒教倫紀念堂
" __________ Tam Gong (River)______________ 潭江
" __________ Hung Neng (legendary match maker)_紅娘
30 ________ Chiang Kai Sek (Nationalist leader)_ 蔣介石
"__________ Li Zong Ren___________________ 李宗仁
" __________Hui Gam Seung (principal)________ 許錦裳
31_________ Lie Ge (bird)___________________了哥
31_________ Chong Shui King (my wife)________張瑞瓊
35_________ Zangtz River___________________楊子江
36_________ Fu Cha_______________________夫差
" __________JiangSu_______________________江蘇
" __________Chekiang______________________浙江
"__________ Gong Yik______________________公益
" __________Siu How______________________ 水口
43_________Lung Kong Gung Sao____________龍岡公所
55 ________ Tai Chi Chuan__________________太極拳
" __________Hun Pha Chuan________________ 杏花村
64 ________ Kam Gook Yuan________________ 金爵園



END