Salt Lake City

Our next stop was Salt Lake City. We went to a few famous touristy places there. It was quite an impressive place. From Temple Square to the Jesus Christ Statue, and the Pioneer Statues, we walked everywhere we could. Salt Lake City is surrounded by beautiful mountains. It made a great impression on us which I will always remember. Over the years, we stopped many times in this City, visiting many other places there and in the nearby mountains!

California here We come!

When we came back from Taiwan, we visited with Margaret’s godparents who lived in Monterey, CA. We had stored our car with them during our trip to Taiwan. Monterey is a beautiful place! We stayed at their home for a few days, went to the water front and played at the beach one day, and had a lot of fun with Bill and Ginger and their son Jeff. Our kids not only went in the water but played with animals on the shore there. It was certainly a wonderful welcome back to the USA – a very enjoyable visit.  

It’s very hard to say “Good Bye”

When we traveled to see my parents in Taiwan every three years, my mom always counted down the days left before we arrived, starting two weeks before the big day! While we were there, she often wanted to take more pictures with us, whenever there was an opportunity to dress up or time to spare. We took group pictures again and again, in different places and at different times. We took pictures at home, in the yard, and of course, on campus! Our kids were well adjusted to this routine picture-taking and they would get ready without any hesitation! When I think back about our visit to Taiwan, 1978 was the most “fruitful” trip, as my parents were very relaxed and they still had plenty of energy to play with our kids and enjoy life with their grandchildren!

Another Beach Week-end!

This time in Northern Taiwan, we stayed in a beach home near one of the beaches in the Tamsui area. It was owned by my father’s friend, who insisted that we stay there for a couple of nights. We were then getting ready for our trip back to the USA and we were pretty busy saying good-bye to many people. The owner had to drive us there. We took a picture with him but I do not remember his name any more. He went back to Taipei with my parents and we stayed there and had a good time with the kids. I did get a chance to take some pictures of the area! Janice always remembers this place because I went down to the water without shoes or sandals and could no return to the place we were staying because the sand was too hot! She had to go back and get my sandals for me as she predicted!

Traditional Farming Customs

In 1978, another very important development in Taiwan was the introduction of the use of mechanical farming techniques. The whole society was changing in an effort to westernize everything. We could feel the changing momentum. While the old traditions still dominated what we saw, the new things were starting up everywhere. Later they called this period of three years the “launching of financial flying”. Taiwan was to become a very prosperous place. But this summer, we still saw the old methods of harvesting rice. No mechanical automation was used. The farmers still dried the rice straw on the side of the road for future uses. And at the end of the harvest, they still celebrated with a free public local show, which everyone was invited to enjoy. Included was a big celebration meal near the full moon time of the year! The entire traditional celebrative event was called “BaiBai” (拜拜）.

Mr. and Mrs. Li Yu-fong (李毓芳）

Mr. and Mrs. Li were my parents’ neighbors for many, many years, from the time they were all in Chungking and all during the Sino-Japanese war time. Mr. Li was working with my father in those early years, and Mrs. Li played mahjong with my mother for decades. In Taiwan, they lived quite close to our home on Wenzhou Street. Every time we visited our parents home there, they would come and bring some dishes or fruit to our house to show their friendship. My parents took the Li’s kind gestures for granted, as they considered them part of our extended family. In China, this kind of friendship was quite common. However, it is something I have never been able to achieve, because our circumstances in the U.S. are not conducive to that kind of friendship. We live much more independently, which is not always a blessing.

Kevin Wang’s Family

In 1978, after we came back from Hualian , we met Kevin Wang and his family for the first time. Kevin’s father had been my father's student at the Training School in Banqiao, a place for the political prisoners of the time. Kevin later came to ETSU and studied Computer Science. His parents certainly did not have an easy life there in Taiwan. I took a picture of my parents together with  him and his parents in front of house door. Clearly my parents took them into our family life, without any hesitation!