The trip to Japan

ChicagoLady commented on my riding on the high speed Bullet Train in Japan, and asked I tell more about that trip. My memory of parts of the trip are still quite vivid, even if it was a while ago now.

My grandparents and I flew from Philadelphia to Los Angeles and visited my grandmother's younger sister, my great-aunt Eleanor, for a day or two in Chula Vista. We boarded a Pan Am 707 and flew into Honolulu, Hawaii. The only part of Hawaii I've ever been to, and twice at that, is the airport! Once re-fueled, we took off again, with the plane taking a "detour" over Pearl Harbor. We were still climbing, so I only got a glimpse of the place. We landed in Tokyo and tired and jet-lagged as we were, we took what seemed to be a many hour tour of the city, including the Emperors Palace. Mostly I remember the mental haze that jet lag brings me.

Sometime later, we went to Hiroshima, the site of the first atomic bomb exploded in anger. I recall two things - the city had been rebuilt and was sparkly new - there were no "old buildings" to be seen. I also recall a native Japanese gentlemen that came up to me and said, "It sound strange, but we are in odd way thankful, for all old buildings to be gone. Let us build new, modern buildings, good for business, modern machines." I can recall my grandmother gasping when she heard this.

I recall seeing Mount Fuji - from the Bullet Train. It more beautiful than any photo I've ever seen of it.

We went to Taiwan and took a cruise on a lake. I don't know where the ferry was going anymore, but I remember by this time, being hungry for potato chips, and that two young school girls were munching something from a plastic bag. They must have seen me 'coveting' their snack, for they asked me, "You want some?" and when I said, "Yes! Thanks!" they gave me an unopened bag marked in bright red Chinese symbols. I opened it up and greedily ate a fistful. My face must have turned bright green or something, for the young girls started laughing at me. The bag contained some sort of fried, or dried octopus.

And I remember a short day trip we took while in Hong Kong where I "accidentally" walked into China and was escorted out of the country at machine gun point. The border crossing was an arched wooden pedestrian bridge. I walked half way over the at my grandfather's prodding, "You can say you were in another country!" when the two soldiers on the other side came to attention with ramrod backs and heels clicking. I took one more step, and they both lowered their guns at me. My grandfather was now yelling, "Come back!" So I took one more step to "cross the line" and then turned around and went back. We never told my grandmother about this episode.

Also in Hong Kong, we went to a floating restaurant, taking a Chinese junk (sailboat). While we were on our way to the restaurant, we encountered a huge ship wake, and several of the guest, all dressed in their finest, fell overboard. They were all quickly brought back aboard with little harm done beyond some wet clothes.

While in Hong Kong, we stayed in a hotel of 20-30 floors, and I wanted to go swim in the hotel pool. My grandmother said, "Okay, you put your bathing suit on and go find the pool." I wandered about the 4 or 5 star hotel for a while wearing nothing but my bathing suit carrying a towel - the signs where all in Chinese, until a bellhop said, "Use lift, push 'Ahh' button, it take you to pool." So got in the elevator and pondered the meaning of "Ahh" button. I saw one marked "P" so I thought, "Ah, the pool!" The lift swiftly went up to the "P" floor - turns out it was the Penthouse floor, the home of an enormously wealthy man that had a security-butler person stationed in the elevator foyer. This person said, when he saw me, "You not belong he." I told him I was looking for the swimming pool. He replied, "Go back in, push 'Ahh'." I looked at him questioningly, and he said, "I push foe you". So I got in and he pushed the "R" button. Turns out the pool was on the roof!

After my swim, we went to a swanky hotel restaurant, where I ordered spaghetti. Only me... in China, would order spaghetti... and the Chinese waiter, dressed in tails, with napkin over his arm, put it in front of me, and then when he saw how I started to eat it, said, "Oh dea-yah, not eat that way!" And with my permission, showed me the classic Italian manner of spoon-swirling one's spaghetti!

I remember the poverty and the open air markets of the Orient... the filthy water in the Thailand canals that people bathed in, washed their dishes, and brushed their teeth with.

The monkeys swinging in the forest outside the hotel, and seeing the bridge over the River Kwai in person and walking across it while whistling the Colonel Bogey's March...

And the long, long 40-hour flight home. The plane flew from Singapore to Hong Kong where it had to have a part replaced, which took 4 or 5 hours, then to Honolulu and Los Angeles and Philadelphia.

Attitudes

Recently, my mother found a couple rolled up pieces of paper in a box of things that my grandfather had in his attic. She gave them to me - and we discovered that they were my grandmother's high school and college diplomas. In all my years, I had never seen either. I knew my grandmother graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in the bitter year of 1930. One of her uncles paid most of her way.

So why were these diplomas never framed and displayed?

My mom told me that she never hung them up because they "bothered" my grandfather. I scratched my head and looked at my mom questioningly. Grandfather never finished high school and took great pride in his being a "self-made man." He didn't think a woman needed an education to do her duties in the proper place, that is at home. So the college diploma was an embarrassment to him and my grandmother never made an issue out of it.

How attitudes change in time always fascinates me - today, my brothers and I are proud of my grandmother's accomplishment - she not only graduated during the depression, but attended a "good school" and graduated in a time when many didn't go to college. My grandmother set out to be an English teacher - she never taught in a public school, but she did teach Sunday School for many years - and...

When I was a young boy, my grandparents took me to Japan. I remember my grandmother being mobbed on a the Bullet Train ride from Tokyo to Osaka (about a 3 and 1/2 hour ride) by 20 or more Japanese boys and girls when they learned she was an English teacher - they all wanted lessons right there and then. And so she held a class. When the train arrived at our destination, all the eager students "peeled away" from the confines of the two bench seats (they really could pack themselves in!) beaming with smiles and laughing in joy.

My grandmother had the biggest smile of them all.

From the old box in the attic

My Dad was recently rummaging through some old boxes he had in his attic and came across this old wooden case. It belonged to my great-grandfather, Harry Davis Mousley. He was born on 3 Jul 1883 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and died rather young at the age of 47 on 9 Nov 1930 in the same city. He married Emma Louise Dreby, who was born 25 Aug 1884 in Gloucester, New Jersey and who also died at the rather young age of 48 on 7 Mar 1933 in Philadelphia.

My father never knew his grandparents - he was born a few years later - and his understanding of the "family lore" was colored by his father who did not get along with his mother. "She was a good cook" is about the only thing we can recall him saying about her. Harry Davis and Emma ran a foundry on Cedar Street in Philadelphia known as the "Cedar Street Foundry". How original huh? This foundry was established when Harry Davis' father, Harry Lincoln Mousley was not included in his father's foundry business (Charles Mousley and Sons). So the family had two foundries in the city of Philadelphia around 1920 being run by cousins competing against each other.

Harry Davis and Emma owned a small summer cottage in Cape May, New Jersey, and my grandfather told tales of his summer vacations there - how they drove on sandy paths in a Model T Ford that was constantly blowing tires - and how he caught lots of fish and caddied at a golf course there. The cottage, no longer in the family, still stands - and seems to be in good condition (I've not been inside it!)

From what I understand, Harry Davis drank a little too much and got himself run over by a streetcar or wagon one day. His wife Emma suddenly inherited the family business and ran it with an "outsider," and eventually sold some (or all of it) to him just before she died - to the great dismay (and anger) of my grandfather - who would slowly buy the "outsider" out and forever hold a grudge against his parents.

Somehow this case survived the "purge" and "turmoil." I suspect my great-grandfather burned his name in the wooden case.

Inside, are several drawing tools, and unfortunately, not the complete set. The case is labeled "The Technical Supply Company of Scranton" - and a look on-line uncovers a 1900 company catalog which would have been about the right time period and in facts, shows a similar case on page 65.

I wonder what he drew with this set of fine tools. They still shine, even a 100 years later.

Barn Charm

This morning, I drove to beautiful downtown Douglasville, PA. My path took me past the Limerick Nursery where they had a sign out saying, "We are so excited about Spring, we wet our plants!" I can relate to that!

I quickly snapped this photo from my car while driving back to the office this morning. When I was a little kid, I remember seeing a ton of cows here - when the family went to Swenksville's firehouse for a smorgasbord dinner, something we often did.. I can still taste those dinners - the hushpuppies were out of this world.

My cellphone has a crummy camera, but I like what it did to this scene. It seems a little haunted to me...

I've been really busy of late - I've a bunch of things to post - but haven't the time to do so... yet. I got the following gem in an email - it simply shouts "Spring is coming!!!!"

*Giggles* The stories this photo could tell... or make me tell.... :)