Dave Kohl Faculty
Seems the dragon train has pulled onto a siding for a while. I'll add a little Thanksgiving remembrance for you all to think about, and maybe you can share your Thanksgiving experiences in Hong Kong.
Earl and Marge Westrick invited my wife Katy and I to join their family who were planning to camp at Lantau over TG in l973. We had already mnade plans, but asked to be included the next year, if they did it. So in l974 there were four families that camped at Chang Sha beach. We took turkey to be roasted over the coals in a stone fire pit Earl dug, and had all the traditional American side dishes, next day was leftover Turkey stew, and all the meals were exquisite. Plus the weather was great, warm clear and sunny as Hong Kong could be in November. We took pictures of the stars showing the rotation of the earth, hiked to the nearby village and found raw cashews which we pan-roasted over the camp fire.
In those days, we took our drinking water from a freshwater stream, but did boil it, dug a latrine far back in the bushes, made gourmet breakfdasts, sipped San Mig, and savored Portuguese port after dinner. Made a great 4-day weekend.
So we couldn't keep this much of a secret, we had such a good time, and told friends when we got back what we had done...so next year there were 25 people, and in l976, when Adam was one month old, there were over 50 people camped there for the 4-day weekend, including some family members visiting from the states.
This tradition altered slightly when they destroyed access to Chang Sha when they build the new road thtr went up to Po Lin, so Earl scouted out a new beach a few miles farther out, called Tong Fuk.
Every Thanksgiving got better than the last, and a tradition developed of having a pre-camp meeting at Westricks, with Banana Splits for everyone, I made bowls to be used by everybody for the splits, for eating at the camp, and for the Chili supper we had at Westricks a few weeks after the event, to look at everybody's SLIDES.
Only one year, I think it was 79, the weather turned uncooperative, very windy and rainy, and we bagged it after enduring sandy turkey huddled in our tents. Packed up the whole mess on Friday and returned to Repulse Bay, whence the weather cleared, so we had an impromptu camp potluck in the cafeteria that Sunday to use up all the food we had carried out to Lantau and back.
Really good memories of those Thanksgivings...innovative, creative, survivalistic, and very bonding.
Your memories of HK Thanksgivings?
PS: Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!!!
Dave MEYER Faculty
Yeh, what great Thanksgivings! I think we had one year of nearly a hundred people. That year we roasted 7 large turkeys and 3 or 4 hams, all industrial size! It's great going back to view all the slides and watch all of the faculty growing over the years.
Those holidays are some of my fondest memories--I can still see,clearly, my 6 year old son with a bucket full of hermit crabs; Earl sweating, digging the biggest fire pit known; getting nuts with the Westrick boys. The logistics! Imagine, two large buses depositing 50-100 people at the ferry, and just a few minutes to get all the equipment on board, a truck at the other end to haul it all to Long Beach.
Wish I could do it again.
A blessed Thanksgiving to all.
Barbara (STONE) Fehler '74
As one of the earliest "settlers" of HKIS, my memories of Thanksgiving were those during the Vietnam War. Every year we had guests from the US Navy join us for dinner. One year it was Army nurses .... very amazing to be celebrating a wonderful tradition so close to a war.
We created our own "extended family" gatherings by bringing in those who were also far from home on that special day. Maybe that has something to do with my need to always have non-blood relatives over on the holidays - just isn't the same without them!!
Diane ANDERSON Persons '69
The issue of non-blood relatives over for the holidays surfaced for me this Thanksgiving - deciding to be with relatives or have others over.
In the Philippines, we always have "others", no problem. Another TCK said I should be with the relatives this year since we're here in the US. So we will. Must be a TCK thing to have this need...
Thanks for sharing that, Barb.
Our Thanksgivings in HK were always with the Mission Family, a picnic with turkey, potatoes, etc., out to the New Territories. Our favourite place was the Rifle Range near Shatin, where the kids would hunt for empty shells after we ate, but some years we lost out to target practices and had to go elsewhere.
Some years we went to Clearwater Bay. And I also remember having servicemen along during that Viet Nam time, both for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Happy Thanksgiving to you all!
Lynn BARRATT Frau '73
Hi group!
Belated Thanksgiving wishes to "y'all"! Up north we've already been there and done that. I could never figure out this thing of having Thanksgiving right before Christmas. Our Canadian Thanksgiving is just ever so much more__________ (I'll let you fill in the blank - don't want to offend anyone!). It is lovely though having it in October with the fall colours, produce, harvest type stuff.
Our family spent yesterday having a sumptuous Chinese feast - hot and sour soup, singing chicken in hot pot, spicy crab, pork, beef, black bean cod with tofu, buddha feast vegetables, etc.
I don't remember any Thanksgiving recollections from HK - how weird. I don't know if that's because my family did their dinner in October when nobody else did or what. I vaguely recall having dinner at some friends of my parents but I'm not 100% sure if that was Thanksgiving or Christmas. The camping out sounded great - I would have liked to have been in on that!
The dinner in LA sounded great - I'm envious! If any HKISers come to Vancouver let me know so we can try to do a dinner here.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Ciao,
Tami WHITROCK Lamb '77
Wow- it sure is interesting to hear about everybody's live(s)!!!! I am glad that the dinner in California came off- I was afraid these past few weeks that the train had derailed.
I remember having sailors on R&R over to our house during Christmas. Gosh, when I think about how young those kids really were........they were so sweet and seemed so happy so be with us. You know its rather funny- but I can't remember a holiday in HK- Christmas or Thanksgiving- when we didn't share with another family in HK- it seemed sort of weird to move back to the states and be all by ourselves.
(who remembers going to PG Farms to buy those awful, scrawny, "live" Christmas trees?)
Mark LEONARD '74
Been a while since I've contributed to the dragon train dialogue. Have enjoyed everyone's Thanksgiving recollections.
Our family, too, invited sailors home for holiday dinners. There was often an awkward moment when everyone was introducing themselves. We usually got past that with the standard questions of
"where are you from?" and
"tell us about your family (how many brothers & sisters, etc.)".
Well, one year, this guy answers the "how many brothers & sisters" question with "seventeen"! His name was Nick Beardsley and if you've ever seen the movie "Yours, Mine, and Ours" with Henry Fonda and Lucille Ball, it was about Nick's family (Navy widower with nine kids marries widow of navy pilot with seven kids, then adds one of their own). My parents heard from Nick at Christmas for many years.
Hope everyone's had a happy Thanksgiving.
Tom BURKHARD '77
It's been great to know that it's "that time of the year" even though we're not in the US. Belated Thanksgiving greetings to all.
I may have committed an "unpardonable" sin. You see, it isn't really that hard to not celebrate holidays like Thanksgiving, if you're not surrounded by it, as is our case in Japan. It's not that I'm playing the scrooge or anything like that, but my wife has been away, in Pakistan visiting her folks and family with two of our kids for the past two weeks, and...well... I guess the big turkey day was past before I even realized it. Yes, we usually do celebrate, but somehow, when you're holding down the fort with a 5 & 6 year old, I guess things like this happen.
Trust me, we won't miss Christmas. My wife comes home tomorrow and my kid's would definitely not let us miss it even if we tried, but then, who would?