I Drank the Ocean

Danny D. Yeung (D32)

As I started thinking about writing a piece about the 2004 Bay to Breakers (BTB) Lighters Rendezvous, I was overwhelmed.

How can I recount each sunray that painted my body bronze? Some are from the white morning sun that peeped over the hills to watch us playing tennis in Memorial Park; the others are from the late morning sun that kissed the grape vines passionately in Napa Valley and the afternoon sun that turned the trees and the fairway of the Del Monte Golf Course golden. The gentle waves of Monterey Bay came out to play alongside us at Pacific Grove. They hit the rocks like a thousand golfers teeing off at the same time. They sent the water-drop golf balls bouncing around with joy and glistening in the sun.
How can I put the many fine wines that we had tasted and their aroma back into their bottles? How can I record all the laughter and singing? How can I sublime the friendship, caring, sincerity and loyalty from mere social transactions?

How can I retrace the 7.5-mile walk of roughly half-million steps from the San Francisco Bay to the edge of the Pacific Ocean (Breakers)? How can I capture the free spirit of the 75,000 people that took part, the Mardi Gras like festive atmosphere, and the blood boiling excitement that rivals the Spanish bull-run?

I felt like I had drunk the ocean and tried to spit it all out.

The BTB Walk/Race was the highlight of our mini-reunion. At the starting area, tortillas were flying in the air (Tortillas tossing is a BTB tradition). The fallen tortillas covered the street like a beige carpet. After one hour, my family along with most Lighters, wearing our I-Walk-Lighters T-shirt, finally made it to the starting line close to the end of the pack. Before I took my first step, I looked at Arthur on my right. His gray hair turned black momentarily as the images of Arthur and I aboard the Flying-Tiger airplane flashed back in my mind. 45 years ago, we also stood next to each other at the starting line of our journey to the US. After a while, we, the Lighters, disappeared in the sea of BTB walkers similar to what happened to us shortly after we had graduated from Pui Ching_ we were lost in the vastness of our adopted countries. After walking a couple of miles, we finally reached the most challenging part of the route, the Hayes Street Hill. I lifted my feet slowly to drag my body uphill. Each step somehow reminded me of the dish I had washed or the table I had waited. Forty some years ago, we too had struggled to climb the self-reliance hill of our lives’ journey. At the 7-mile mark, we ran into each other again. We could smell the ocean and feel the ocean breezes. We knew the end is near and we will soon be in a beautiful resting place.

I had succeeded in extending my life by packing one month’s fun into a week and keeping myself young by letting the child in me to come out to play.

I drank the ocean!