(Yawn!!) I got bored using paper/plastic shopping bags to carry my lunch day in and day out. Yes, a great way to recycle shopping bags but they are either too big or too small. Moreover, I feel like a walking advertisement for these brands.
You don't like that? Buy your own lunch bags.
Many years ago, I had one of the earlier insulated lunch bags when they first came on the market. It was by Eddie Bauer. It was pretty cool back then but ubiquitous now. The bag was only big enough for a sandwich; bulky, and bulkier with a ice pack. I used it couple of times and lost interest. For one, I needed a shopping bag for this bag (with chilled sandwich inside), other snacks and beverage. It defeated the purpose of having a lunch bag, no? OK, a BIGGER insulated bag will work, but meh...
So I started a quest.
I know I want a nostalgic tin lunchbox, just like the ones I had when I was little. Back then, almost every kid had one in their hands as we waited for the school bus. We couldn't wait to open it and to check out what others had in their lunchbox. In those days, lunchbox food was pretty boring. Most of the time it was a sandwich, a banana or an apple. Some had beverage in a matching cheap tumbler, but the drink would be lukewarm by lunchtime. No pasta or other fancy food because we did not have insulated double-wall containers to keep food hot or cold. And, no colorful compartmentalized food containers too.
I searched and looked and, lo and behold, I found what I was looking for.
Ta-Da! Isn't it cute?? It is the perfect size too. I can fit my bento box, coffee tumbler and a small fruit. OK. It doesn't keep my food warm but that is what microwave oven is for.
I have been bringing my lunchbox to work almost everyday. I feel like a kid as I walk to and from work swinging my lunchbox. I was self-conscious at first, but, very quickly, I decided that what the heck, this is me. This is the inner me. I'm a kid at heart and I don't care!
A Simple Pleasure.
Few folks on the street have complimented my Joe Cool lunchbox. One guy said that I may be setting a trend and that he would not be surprised to see more folks carrying one in a year time.
Can you imagine bunch of us grownups dashing through the streets, running to catch a bus, waving lunchbox screaming, "wait for me!!!" HAHA!! I would love that very much.
The action of putting the lunchbox down on the table, flipping up the latch and lifting the top to reveal what was inside was every kid's delight of the day. I am sure today's kids feel the same as they peer into their state-of-the-art lunch bags.
Past and present; young and old; I think all of us will always be excited about our lunchboxes.
Somethings never change...
Last month (February 2015), both my brothers had a chance to go back to Taiwan to visit the family. Jason took Jennifer, Brandon, Carli and Justin for the very first time. James and Karen went back for the first time as a married couple.
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.
July 21, 1973. That was the date that my brothers and I stepped on the American soil for the very first time.
We were little kids then – younger than Brandon and Carli today. We arrived to a foreign land to start a new life. Looking back, we certainly didn’t know what life would bring us. Just like now, we don’t know where future will take us.
From a kid's perspective, we observed and had to adjust quickly as soon as we stepped out the airport. There were a lot to take in:
Woo! Look at Dad’s big Chevrolet Nova sedan! We were used to seeing smaller cars back in Taiwan. It was so cool that we could all squeeze in the back seat with room to spare. And look at all those yellow taxis!! How come they were not red like in Taiwan??
Wow! Look at that big stretch of highway. Is it called “high-way” because it’s high above the ground? In Taiwan, cars traveled on narrow surface streets because there was no highway/freeway back then. It was amazing to feel Dad’s car traveled fast on big empty roads.
Wow! Look at that, hills in the city!! We thought it was strange that the streets of San Francisco went up and down. And look at our apartment! It was right on a slanted street!
“We’re home!” said Mom. Our first apartment was on Balboa St. and 16th Ave. It was a fourplex and we had one of the top units. The kids found the house odd. It was all wood! Narrow wood stairs with carpet. Wood floors, wood panels, wood everything... In Taiwan, our house was concrete. Hmmm… there was no ceiling light. Instead, there were floor lamps emitting a warm yellow color light. In Taiwan, we were used to bright white fluorescent ceiling light. We didn’t have floor or table lamps. I remembered that we had fun pulling the light switch repeatedly. Somehow that little dangling metal pull was fascinating.
We also thought the windows in our unit were funny. How come they stuck out and not straight? Now we know that it’s called a “Bay Window”. My brothers and I decided that we each could hog a panel and call it our own “window”.
I recalled that we were able to look out to the ocean from some of the bay windows. That was exciting too. In Taiwan, we had to drive outside the city to see the ocean because Taipei sat in a valley. We were poor city kids trapped by buildings and only got to see the ocean when our parents took us on field trips. It was refreshing even for little kids like us to see the sky meeting a flat sea at the end right from our home!! Wow!!
The shower was a new experience for us too. In Taiwan, people took bath not shower. Bathtubs were made of concrete and usually built along with the house. You would fill the tub with water, soap and rinse outside the tub then jump in for a soak. We did not use showers. We used a bucket to splash ourselves with. For our first bath in the US, mom had to teach us to turn on the shower and stand in the tub. DON’T GET THE FLOOR WET!! I have to tell you, it was very hard for little kids to do. Taking a shower was equivalent to playing in the rain.
The biggest thing for the kids to get used to was “no running in the house”. We had to be light with our footsteps because we did not want to disturb the downstairs neighbors. We were used to live in a one-story house with concrete floors and where everything was solid and sturdy. The American house seemed so fragile!
First night in the U.S. Our first home in the US was a one-bed room apartment. So Mom and Dad converted the formal dining room to our bedroom. They got us three single beds. Wow! Our own beds!! In Taiwan, we three kids had shared one huge custom-built bed that took half of the bedroom. Yes, we were able to roll, jump and play on that bed, but we did not have our own space. This was such a treat. Our own beds!! Since I was the oldest, I got the bed next to the bay window. And following the pecking order, Jason, the youngest one, got the bed next to the kitchen door.
First morning in the U.S. I remembered I woke up and I made my bed. First time ever in my life too! No one taught me how. I just did it and I told myself, this is my new life.
Few folks on the street have complimented my Joe Cool lunchbox. One guy said that I may be setting a trend and that he would not be surprised to see more folks carrying one in a year time.
