Talk #318

Prelude

In the summer of 1960, Bobby and I were wandering about in Southern California, wondering where we could find a summer job to feed ourselves for the next few months. One day we read an ad in a Chinese newspaper looking for workers to pick pears in an orchard located in Courtland, CA....

...That was all the entertainment in camp, until one evening a truck driven by a Mexican pulled up. Out came a team of three female "entertainers".......

Sai Luzon ( per Bobby's recollection) led the entertainers into the dinner Hall, which was just a few round tables, several Chinese wood benches, a small BW TV and a clock. The entertainers were westerners, they did not seem too run-down in appearance. One with dark hair and the other two blonde. As they entered, we were munching water melons.

In the dinner room there were:
(1) Alexis --- a small framed guy from a "foreign book" school in HK. He turned out to be from a rather well-to-do family, somehow came to work in a labor camp for the summer. I met his older brother at Berkeley later on. Alexis liked to sing " Put your head on my shoulders" a lot. He was famous for not being able to "go" in the toilet for 40 days due to the minerals in the drinking water. I did not know to this day how he "flushed" himself eventually.

(2) Duke --- a Jokesing, he kept to himself most of the time. Duke wore a Japanese army cap with a white handkerchief covering the back of his neck during working hours. He did not seem to know how to speak Cantonese, but appeared to understand some.

(3) Liu ---that was his last name . He was also small but appeared stronger than Alexis, a nice guy.

(4) Baby face --- he spoke Taisanese, and a rather "active" kid. He was messing around and got caught by the owner ( Chinn, per Bobby's recollection) hidden behind the trees one day. From then on, he would climb up the ladder for an look-out before messing around. Whenever he saw Chinn's car, he would yell out " Tong Yen Mean---Chinese mean guy" to alert everyone.

(5) Quiet kid --- he was from Wah-Yen college in Kowloon, easy to get along, but seemed to be thinking about his girl friend(s) all the time.

(6) "Nash" --- he was the grad student from Taiwan that Bobby told us about. " Nash" was very proud to be the owner of an old Nash, a car that was no longer manufactured. "Nash" was the guy who shook the pear trees near the end of our "encampment". We taught him how to speak Cantonese and some Cantonese expletives. It was really funny when he uttered some of the newly learned expletives every now and then.

(7) Joe the foreman ( per Bobby's recollection of his name)

(8) a few " senior " pickers.

(9,10 ) Bobby and me

(11) some others that I do not remember.

The team walked in, Joe looked up and started to grin. The "senior" pickers also started to grin. We did not have a clue what was going on. We were curious and were looking at the visitors intently. It was the first time any female showed up in camp for, perhaps, 20 days. Joe waved them to sit and sliced water melon for them. Joe talked to Sai Luzon in English,for the first time we knew he knew how to speak English. They carried on a conversation for a while, well, sort of. The " senior " pickers looked at us and grinned sheepishly. It began to dawn on us that the team was here to provide "entertainment ". This was quite different from what we heard back in HK where solicitation was conducted in a more private manner. Sai Luzon and his team were making " house calls ". That was rather "good service", shall we say.

After a while, Joe stood up and signaled the dark haired "entertainer". "Dark Hair" stood up quickly, put down the water melon and went with Joe to his private quarters.

We fell silent. Sai Luzon looked at the senior pickers, raised his eye browse. The senior pickers shook their heads slightly, muttering something like no such urge at their age in Taisanese. Sai Luzon looked at the kids, raised his eye browse. Well, we need not turn the " dangerous corner " here. So let us not touch that "cigarette box" and let the " sleeping dog" lie. Needless to say we were curious, excited, but embarrassed.

Joe and "Dark Hair" came back after sometime. Joe appeared relaxed. "Dark Hair" looked around as if expecting more "activity". Sat down, picked up the water melon she left off and started munching again, as if nothing had ever happened.

Sai Luzon looked around one more time, realizing that "entertainment" was over for the night, and the team drove off into the night.

We were excited and kept on talking about it far beyond our usual bed time.

...to be continued.