Their schedules were different but they managed to meet up and visited some relatives together. So precious!! Our family hasn't seen so many WUs at once for so long.
Of course, they all went back to Tainan to visit grandma's house. That's the big old house that mom's family resides and has housed at least four generations of KO kids over time. Mom was one of the kids.
Mom's parents had lived and raised their children in this huge house. It was big enough to house my grandparents and their eight children (later, the addition of grandchildren at various times), employees (back in the old days, employees were live-ins) and the housekeepers.
The big house went through some built-outs as my grandparents' family grew. The place I remember is 5 stories high (the 5th level is a roof garden) with an open terrace on each level. The house also has three ground level courtyards. The grandparents used to occupy the living quarter in the very back. We had to walk through the front section of the house, the courtyard, the main living room, the second courtyard, the kitchen and dining room, another courtyard to get to their bedroom. For a kid, it's a long way to get to grandma's room.
Oh, and I remembered for a while, the last courtyard also had a chicken coop. Grandma used to tell me to go pick up fresh eggs in the mornings so she could make me a warm glass of almond-egg-milk.
The front courtyard opens all the way to the top. People can look down from above or scream up from below. When people were too lazy to walk down the stairs to get something, they would lower a basket, ask the folks below to put it in then pull it up. Yap, a rudimentary dumbwaiter for the lazies. This picture was taken by James from the 4th floor terrace. Each level comes equipped with a kitchenette and bathroom. The levels can be occupied as independent units but stairwells and hallways connect them top to bottom and front to back. We can get to the same point from different routes. A well thought out design. Most importantly, there are enough bathrooms, but one just had to get to one especially when in a hurry.
During summer and winter breaks, bunch of us kids would be sent to grandma's house - just like summer camps but more fun because we got spoiled!! The kids had the whole house to explore and so many places to play hide and seek. The house was not child proof but there was never an accident with kids running, chasing, sliding, jumping, climbing...
The back of the house was not remodeled as much as the front end when I was a kid. The kitchen that I remembered had an "old style" wood stove and a wood burning water heater for the bathroom in the back. I remembered we all had to take turn manning the water heater at bath time.
I remembered meal time was always like party time. Sleeping time was like slumber party every night. We sometime would just gather at the court yard during hot summer afternoons for snacks and for story time with grandma or with our aunts and uncles. It's always nice and breezing in the court yard. Sometime, the adults would ask the street food vendors to bring their carts in. The vendors were always happy to do so because their food cart would be cleaned out at one stop, then they could wrap up and go home for the day. Oh, the sweet memories!!
"Going to Grandma's House!" - Although I only got to do that every year for the first 9 years of my life - and only a few more times up to now - it is still a very special place and I still reminisce with my brothers. I am very happy that James and Jason got to visit, and I am so glad that Brandon, Carli and Justin got to see a part of our childhood. Jason noted that, as in tradition, Justin stuck his head between the railings just like so many of us did when we were kids.
Our grandma's house is our very own Neverland.