POE-POE

So like most asian kids I played the piano as a kid.  I actually did enjoy it at one point but, between the lame song choices that my piano teacher made and getting hit on the knuckles (really hard mind you!) for playing the wrong note, I quickly lost interest.  As a piano teacher the songs you choose for your students play a huge role in whether or not you will capture your students interest in the long run.  I remember when I got to play fun songs, that I actually recognized, I enjoyed playing and didn't mind practicing.  But those choices were few and far between.

The lady that taught me piano was some sort of family friend or relative or something so she was really doing my mom and grandma a favor by giving me lessons.  I'm not sure how much we paid her but it couldn't have been much as we didn't have much to give.  In fact it was my grandma who encouraged the lady to rap my knuckles whenever I hit a sour note, "the harder the better" she encouraged!!

So needless to say I had no say in the subject matters we studied for piano; I studied theory but didn't have formal testing, we had recitals but they were informal and held in peoples homes.  Although, that didn't make it any less terrifying in my little 5 year old mind.  They were JUST as terrifying as a formal affair possibly worse as the entire gathering was very catty and cliquish.  A bunch of middle aged wealthy women parading their daughters in a stupid home grown recital.  I hated recitals!

But my mom and Grandma wanted the best for me and wanted to give me the best opportunities available by any mean necessary.  For this reason they also, through my piano teacher's little sister, enrolled me into chinese school.  Apparently they just knew that China would be a huge economic force to be reckoned with in the future and knowing to read and write chinese on top of being able to converse in chinese would be a huge asset to have and so my brother and i were both enrolled in my piano teacher's kids sister's chinese school. 

Fun times.  My brother and I being the dumb kids that we were didn't utilize our time there at all!  I'm a born follower... so I naturally went where I was led.  My brother didn't apply himself neither would I. My brother didn't pay attention neither would I.  My brother didn't listen to the teacher neither would I.  So we weren't very good students, the teachers only put up with us since we knew the principal and she was an old family friend. I guess the shoe feel when we met this kid name d Poe poe...or was it Po po? Who knows? But with a name like that he was just asking to be picked on...and pick on him we did!  I think we even made him cry or something. I'm a little fuzzy on the details. Too young.  Needless to day we were not welcomed back to that school after that incident.  Go figure. So yeah apparently I've been kicked out of Chinese school.

Sad a delinquent before I even had memories.  It's funny what the mind remembers. Perhaps my brother can fill in the gaps where I can't recall.

Naturally mom was pissed, grandma was pissed and both were far from happy and declared that we would rue the day we didn't properly learn chinese.

Fast forward 20+years and I kinda do wish I paid a bit more attention and took a little more care to learn the language. It sure would help me in my latest obsession...CHINESE DRAMAS!!!

More Shenanigans - Blow Torch

I guess one of the symptoms of growing old is the tendency to reminisce, especially about ones own childhood.  Perhaps, its because we secretly wish we can turn back the hands of time.  Not necessarily because of any age old regrets of paths not taken, road not trodden upon but because life was just simpler in our salad days.  It's a shame that we never treasured those moments while we were living in those moments - we were in too much of a hurry to grow up!

It's funny how little kids tend to think they're so smart and yet grownup always seem to know what we were doing.  Apparently, at one point in our house there actually was a "no tv in the afternoons during the school year" rule.  I'm a little fuzzy on the actual rule and it's enforcement.  I do recall however, one instance where that rule was actually enforced. 

My brother and I were left home alone while my mom and grandma most likely went grocery shopping.  I can't be sure as my memories are a little patchy, I just know they weren't home.  So my brother and I took the opportunity to watch tv to our hearts content.  I can't even remember what was so good that we just had to watch.  Probably cartoons or some such non-sense of my brother's choice.  Back then we didn't have chinese supermarkets on every street corner so grocery shopping most likely entailed a trip to MPK or China Town.  We rarely shopped at the local Vons because those places were too expensive.  So shopping trips took upwards to a few hours.  

Being the nervous kid that I was around mid afternoon I would already be on the lookout for my mom's red car to pull around the corner of our little cul-de-sac always thinking that I heard a rumble.  Naturally, I would be the first to spot my mom and I'd let my brother know that "they're home!"  He'd snap off the TV and we'd run to our respective rooms and pull out our books as if we'd been studying/reading all afternoon.  Of course when they all got home we'd rush over to the garage and welcome them home as if nothing out of the ordinary happend.  Once the groceries were brought in and everything put away my grandmother would always just know that we'd been watching TV!  It wasn't until I grew up did I realize TVs got hot when on so all grandma did was feel the back of the TV to know whether or not it had been in use. Apparently my brother and I weren't as resourceful and bright as my mom an her siblings.  They used to cool the TV off with a fan before their parents got home - much smarter!  But somehow my grandma still knew what they were up to - creepy!

Eventually, we gave up watching TV and came up with more creative means to occupy our time.  One such afternoon my brother had a brilliant idea that we should make our own homemade blow torch!  My mom, a poor unfortunate victim of 80s fashion,  had tons of hair holding products one of which being the cheap Aquanet hairspray that came in aerosol canisters.  Back then every household with a women must have owned at least one can of that stuff.  This was a time before aerosol was deemed "bad" for the environment.

Anyhow, one can of Aquanet, one book of matches, and a bucket of water for safety later a blow torch was born.  It seems ridiculous now that we even thought of getting a bucket of water handy to be safe - but we did and of course we responsibly dropped all the used lit matches into the bucket of water so that there was no way the match would spontaneously re-ignite itself.  Because of course that was the most dangerous part of our little activity!  We even kept all the windows and doors tightly shut so that our neighbors would not smell what we were up to because of course if they neighbors found out they would tell our mom because that was the only way she would find out about our little scheme.  Needless to say when my mom and grandma got home they were furious.  I suppose in retrospect it's really amazing we managed NOT to burn the house down around us.  Good thing the insurance company never found out huh?

Honestly between the two of us - it was a pretty cool sight!