The last week of May, 2013

We dodged tornadoes for several weeks.   Bad storms were hitting cities right after we left each area.  Instead of storm chasers, we were storm runners.   On May 28^th, we left Aunts Creek Park, West Branson, MO and drove on very winding roads to Prairie Creek in Rogers, Arkansas.  Rogers is close by Bentonville, the headquarters for Wal-Mart.   We had heavy rain while at this park one night.  Storms kept us awake but it was only heavy rain with flood warnings.   The park was well designed for run-off into the Arkansas River that was nearby so there was no flooding.  I think we got 3" of rain that night.  Ron had a few meetings, hoping to get Wal-Mart to help us with medications for the new hospital in China.   Ron is still working on that so nothing has materialized yet.

We left Prairie Creek in Rogers, AR on the 30^th and arrived at Springhill Park in Barling, AR (near Fort Smith) a couple of hours later.   We dodged bad storms again the first night we were there.   Tornado warnings and bad thunderstorms, including flood warnings were out for Rogers and Bentonville  (where we were the night before).   Checking weather conditions showed the heavy fronts both north of us and south of us.  We were blessed to be in the middle and received only light rain that night. 

We visited a small church in Van Buren on Sunday morning.  There were about 60 – 75 people in attendance.  It was a “family” church with many relatives from old to young attending there.  They were very friendly.   A sweet older lady took us to an Italian restaurant for lunch.  We had a good time with her and appreciated her treating us to lunch and giving us a check for our work in China.  That evening, Ron spoke at West Ark in Fort Smith.   They had many small groups meeting so the older people meeting in the auditorium were few that night.  We didn’t even get to see the families that support orphans. 

As we were packing up our newsletters and displays to leave, one man was still looking at the boards and picking up some of the literature.  After others left, he introduced himself and asked if he could take us somewhere for a bite to eat.  We followed him to Denney’s.   He and I ordered from the 55 + menu and Ron ordered a milkshake.  

This is so funny, I have to report it - not because I was flattered but because it's an unbelievable story.  About the time our food arrived, the cashier (maybe manager) came to us and said to me, “Mam, only those over 55 can order from the 55+ menu.”   I couldn’t help laughing.  I thought it was a big joke and I still think it might have been.  I told her she must be kidding because I had a 75^th birthday the week before.  Ron laughed too.  I thought of getting out my driver’s license but thought that was ridiculous as it was so obvious that I was over 55.  She looked at me, not smiling and said, “We’ll let it go this time.”  She walked away, never cracking a smile or apologizing or saying anything else.  It was just "hanging" in the air as if she didn't believe me.  Either this girl about 30 was a very bad judge of people’s age or she needed glasses.   When we left and waited for the man to pay the bill at the cash register, she never looked at me.   It was a nice compliment if I could possibly believe she meant it but honestly, I can never look 55 again!  

The man that took us to eat that night actually didn’t look more than 55 but when he ordered, he did ask the waitress if she wanted to see ID for his age but she said "no."  He told us that sometimes they thought he was younger.  He said he is 68.  

I hope I remember everything correctly that he told us about his family history.  His father was Chinese and his mother was American.  Both of his parents have passed away.  He said his grandfather came to the U.S. after the II World War as a “paper son.”   We didn’t know what that meant.  He said at 18 or 19, his grandfather found someone in the U.S. to file papers saying he was their son so he could immigrate to the U.S. and he paid them a large amount of money to do this.  When he arrived, he got a job at a restaurant, lived in the restaurant and ate at the restaurant until he could save enough money to pay off the fee.  Then, he went back to China and did the same thing for his wife.  When she came with him to the U.S. they both worked for the restaurant and lived there until they paid off her fee.  They lived in California.  His father was born there.  His father went to China for university.  It might have been Hong Kong, I'm not sure the location.  He had a problem because American-born Chinese were not well-accepted by the Chinese.  He was supposed to take a bus from where he lived to the university but instead, he would delay until he missed the bus and then he’s take one of the sanpan boats across a river to the school, listening to the men talk so he could learn Chinese.  He spent enough time with them that he finally learned Chinese with a proper accent. 

I asked him about his name.  It is Bill Yick.   I told him I had never seen that name used in China.  He said when his grandfather arrived, people could not understand his name and they got it mixed up because the last name (family name) is listed first in China.  At the restaurant, they began to call him Yick so he just kept that as his family name.  Bill said he could not do a genealogy search because all he would come up with would be a few cousins in California.  

Bill said he had taught school and was a piano tuner, among other things he has done.   He went to Harding University.  He mentioned that he was married in Texarkana but nothing said more about his wife.  I didn’t ask, not knowing the situation.  He was driving a neat-looking Mustang he had just purchased and he said he has recently bought a motor home of some kind.    He was such an interesting person; I wish we had more time to spend with him.

We left Fort Smith the next day and arrived in Searcy, AR on June 3^rd.