Chit Chat # 44
"All olds are better than golden oldies"

Bob Chen

It has been a while since I wrote last. The title is borrowed from a well-known saying " no news is good news". We, lighters, are quite a cut above good, therefore better. Three recent articles gave me the inspiration to write what follows:

After reading Peter and S.S.'s "A Dangerous Corner", I tried to find from the '59 year-book that translated play. The closest I found was " Appointment after Dark", or "Jen York Wong When How" that was performed at the Class Night. Can S.S. and Peter enlighten me more on this play? Another interesting piece of olds that is related to this is that Mr. Kwan and Mr. Ling (Hai Tou Ling), both Chinese literature teachers, were quite appreciative of Lee Suk Fun, the lady music teacher after Wong Fei Yuen. They took the trouble of going from Ho Man Tin to Cameron Road in Tien Sha Chew to window shopping at Hallmark, a men's clothing store owned by Lee Suk Fun's husband. We were living at # 58, second floor, and a direct line of sight to the shop. BTW, Lee's daughter went to Pui Ching too. She, Nancy Lo, was quite many years after us. She won the All-Hong Kong piano competition, and went on to study at Julliard in New York City. This is the first olds.

Charlie Kao and S.S.'s write-up on Carl Man/Wen, I have more to add. Carl and I got out of Illinois in June '63. Shortly before graduation, there was an article in Daily Illini, the student newspaper, saying that there was only one Man in the student-body and he was a foreign student from Hong Kong to boot. I don't know whether Desmond Wang and Joseph Lee remembered this or not? So, sometimes, the way one chooses how to spell his/her last name might not be all a waste. Carl also bought a Corvette soon after going to work for DuPont on Corfam, the fake leather for shoes. I know when we were putting the first year-book after '59. S.S. and all the people at Berkeley were trying very hard to ask Carl to write a few words. They finally left a blank page for all the missing classmates. This is the second olds.

It will be nice to hear more olds from other lighters. Who knows, with the modern PC's, web-sites, and what-not; even Carl might be enticed to try to re-join.