A Cherry Blossom Weekend in D.C. 

Peter Tong

 
The calendar showed Sunday, April 9, in the year 2000. Spring was already one week old. What than was the white stuff on my balcony? Winter had been a warmer than usual -- warm enough for the cherry blossoms to be in their prime two weeks ahead of the annual Cherry Blossom Festival.  Saturday (4/8) was the famous Cherry Blossom Festival in D.C. A crowd pleasing day of  activities and parades -- minus the cherry blossom! Luckily the crab apples, dogwoods, and Kwansan cherries were in their full glories. I noticed that the azaleas in our backyard were ready to burst forth in blooms. What than was the white stuff on my balcony?

Back in February, Shirley suggested that we organize a mini reunion here at D.C. in time to see the cherry blossoms. Predicting  that the blossoms would come early this year due to the warm winter I suggested that we meet the weekend of April 1st. Unfortunately, that was not a good weekend for some of our Lighter friends. We postponed the reunion to April 8th, which was the actual weekend designated for the cherry blossom celebrations. I suspected that our friends might miss the cherry blossoms, but little did I expect that we would have SNOW. 

The Lighters were supposed to arrive sometime in the afternoon of  Thursday, April 6. A dinner was arranged at a restaurant about one mile form the hotel. By eight, we had all seated at the restaurant ready to indulge ourselves, waiting for our Toronto friends. At six that evening, I received a call from T. C. Lo saying that they were close to D.C. and would  be looking forward to meeting us soon. I sat next to Shui-Jan and her husband Yiu-Sing. I met Shui-Jan the first time in Vancouver in 1994, and had not realize until then that for the past ten to fifteen years she had been living in Pittsburg. It happened that Shui-Jan knew Verona, Joshua’s wife, although it was a surprise to Shui-Jan that Verona  is married to a Lighter. It was a good thing that we had much to talk about because it was eight-forty before the Canadian Lighters finally showed up. They had gotten lost from the hotel to the restaurant following the instructions Steve had obtained from Yahoo. Instead of consulting the map that I had painstakingly drawn up for them, he chose to take the advice from what I considered to be the most unreliable WEB site. Ah Steve, ye of little faith, you trusted Yahoo to instead of me! As everyone knows, there is plenty of free information on the WEB, but it is hard to separate the shaft from the husk. 

Our agenda for Friday was to drive five cars to the Tidal Basin after the morning rush hour. We were to park near the Jefferson Memorial and take a leisurely walk towards the Lincoln and Vietnam Memorials. We would lunch on hotdogs and walk back to the car along the Potomac River. We would then meet at the Kennedy Center of Performing Arts around 4 o’clock, take a free guided  tour of the theaters, and stay for a free concert. (Yes, there is a free concert at 6 o’clock every evening in the Grand Foyer). After that we would go across the Potomac River to China Garden in Rosslyn for dinner. As things went, the day turned out to be almost perfect. The weather was warm with just a slight breeze to make it comfortable. The traffic was surprisingly light and the crowd was thin. Much to our surprise and delight we even found a few blooming cherry trees along the River, where the cooler temperature of the river had kept the trees from flowering early. 

Connie and I have been to the Kennedy Center on numerous occasions but I had never taken a guided tour. The tour turned out to be quite interesting. Shui-Jan had just came back from a trip to Australia. She kept telling us that this free Kennedy tour was better than the tour of the Sidney Opera House, which costed about $10 if I remember correctly. We were able to enter the concert halls and sit in the best seats. Although there was no performance on stage, we could visualize the splendor had there been one. There were six theaters at the Center. The Grand Foyer was be large enough to house the Washington Monument lying on its side. The performers for the free concert that night were f high school musicians from  the Dobson High School in Arizona. They had a symphony orchestra, a symphonic band and a choral group. They were outstanding.  It made me think of the band and the choir at Pui Ching. 

For this mini reunion, we had fifteen visiting Lighters, SS and Shirley from California, May from St. Louis, Muk-Tao from Philadelphia, Wai-Hon from N.Y., KY from Aberdeen, Desmond for Poughkeepsie and  Shui-Jan from Pittsburg. Lighters from Toronto included Gina and Steve, Lo Ting-Chin, Alec and Ann, Ann’s sister  Ellen, Alec Chan and his wife Vicki, Chan Pui-Kin and his wife Ivy, and Ophilia Chow and her husband. Locally, we had Leepo , Juliana, C.C. Joshua and I, plus all our spouses. The small group gave us a better chance to get to know each other.  

Saturday was the day to get culture and  to visit the White House. Unfortunately, all other tourists had the same idea . The estimated waiting time to get into the White House was 2 ½ hours. Well, next time Bill!! We broke up into small groups and did different things. Many of the Lighters went to see the Natural History Museum, one of my favorite places. I hope everyone was impressed with the dinosaurs and the gems. Those that returned to my house early got together for some tennis. Ten minutes into the game and the rain started, and  the temperature dropped. We gave up the game and went home to get ready for the banquet  that night. 

Juliana arranged a Shanghainese banquet for us at China Delight. We were all eager to give the Shanghainese food a try. Juliana had personally arranged the dinner with the chef. All the dishes were different and tasted great. Eva Wong and her husband dropped in to join us for dinner. They were visiting their daughter in D.C. According to the Shanghainese Lighters, the meals was a modified version of Shanghainese food.  Celery in Wasabi sauce was unusual, the rice wine steamed chicken and sea-cucumber were different and tasty.  

It was Leepo and my intention that we will pay for the banquet as a treat to all our friends. However, when I went to pay the bill, the guests were a step ahead and the bill was already paid. I was chagrined that I had not taken care of things earlier. Thank you Lighters, that was certainly a very kind gesture. 

It was pouring down rain when we left the restaurant, and the temperature was down by 25 degrees. We headed to my house to do some socializing. Shirley had bought some pictures from our high school days. Steve and KY bought their movies from the trip to Greece after the Toronto reunion. The scenery was beautiful, but Alex’s dance scene was not to be surpassed. Raymond Cheung had put together a photo CD from the Toronto reunion and also some old class pictures. The CD arrived Friday evening, and I installed the photo-CD on my computer in a slide format. The quality of the photo-CD was very good. Everyone marveled at the clearness of the pictures as well as the slick presentation.  

I had noticed during the last few reunions that most of us seemed to enjoy the popular music of the late fifties and early sixties. In anticipation of this reunion and with internet shopping at my fingertips, I was able to assemble a collection of music of that period from artists such as Patti Page, the Platters, Johnny Mathis, Elvis and Pat Boone. Remember “The Tennessee Waltz” and “Love Letters in the Sand”?  Connie and I had lived in our house for twenty years. We had never had a dance party. With the familiar music and dimmed light, we moved the table aside and danced the evening away.

As we parted at mid-night , rain had turned to snow. What a strange thing for this time of the year. Connie and I had a great time, and hope others did too. Thank-you notes flooded my e-mail box the following week. In truth, the pleasure was ours -- without their presence we would not have such a gathering. In 1982, two years before our Silver Anniversary, a number of Lighters got together at our house, and that was 18 years ago. Let us not wait so long for our next get together. Shirley, thank you for suggesting this one. Also, my profound thanks to the local Lighters for providing transportation, arranging meals and serving as guides.  

When we were in high school, I remember our teachers saying that in our later life, we would find our best friends among our classmates. How right they were. I do not remember speaking to Shirley, Muk-Tao, Gina or KY when I was at Pui Ching. Unbelievable!  Luckily it is never too late to make up for lost time. 

Long live the Red-and-Blue Spirit.