Pappa Hardy's Musings on Life.

We had some surprises when we went to Taiwan two years ago in August. One was the fact that the original Butter Coconut Cookies which I had come to love as a student in Taiwan with Chris and Bonnie as my compatriots, still existed and tasted as great as ever. Products are one thing that seem change over time.

The wide spread existence of Jyau-dz stands was another blessing and surprise. I had grown to love Jyau-dz (Cooked dumplings) as a missionary, loved them even more as a student, and then when we returned, they had lots of restaurants that served only them. It was my dream come true.

As a missionary and as a student, buses were our primary form of transportation and they were just crowded so badly that they were a real trial. Upon our return, they were not bad at all. Of course, there were more cars and other forms of surface transportation, but it wasn’t until I rode the subway that had not been there in 1972 that I realized where all of the riders had gone. That system was so efficient and nice that it got you across the city in 15 minutes rather than an hour. No wonder no one was on the buses.

Finally, the places people lived were very nice, very first world, and I no longer felt like I was living a step below my position as an American. Yes, there were many, very wonderful surprises when I returned to Taiwan after an absence of 30 years.

We had a number of disappointments when we went to Taiwan a couple of years ago. The first was, where did those soy sauce eggs go that I had come to love as a student at National Taiwan University. In that same vain, they used to have a number of very nice traditional sit down Chinese restaurants that served the real thing. Instead, we found few of those restaurants but a ton of fast food places, particularly American places like McDonalds, Kentucky Fried Chicken, 7-Eleven, and Starbucks. Things also were very expensive, and that was a disappointment as well. It was not a very disappointing trip, but there were some things that changed for the worse.

I had a wonderful day yesterday. I didn’t do much of anything if it is measured by the number of projects that I have finished, people I have visited with, meetings attended, or just plain money earned. It didn’t amount to much if you measure it by the adoration of the world, the acknowledgment of what you accomplish by statesmen, or if you measure it by how your yard looks. It also didn’t amount to much if you measure it by how the day was recorded for posterity.

However, it was great because I was able to sit with my family, enjoy their friendship, company, and conversation, and most importantly for us old people, get to hold our grandchildren and play with them. As we get older, a lot of things tend to start working not as well as advertised. The old ticker begins to have problems, we gain weight and can’t seem to get it off, the blood pressure is out of line, and our blood sugars may not be in line with guidelines. However, one thing we get to see is life renewed, the hope of the race through those choice spirits that come to us as our grandchildren. I got to hold and feed each one of our two grandchildren, and it was a treat. I love their parents and my children, but I also deeply love those grandchildren. They are a special treat to us old people.

Seeing old friends is good. As I move on through this experience that we call life, I realize and appreciate more and more the old friends that have been part of my life. We are in Cheyenne visiting, and yesterday I had the opportunity to visit, if just for a moment, with an old friend Jeff Urry. Jeff and I worked for many years in the Cheyenne Stake (LDS Church) Young Men’s Organization of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Later on we served in the Cheyenne 3rd Ward together.

Time has not been kind to Jeff or I, if you believe that physical health is the measurement of how good life is. Jeff has MS, I have diabetes and a heart condition. Despite all of that, the friendship is still there and I love Jeff for who he is, a dear friend to whom I can confide in and to whom I enjoy his friendship. That is one of the beauties of growing older, is cherishing the friendships that have developed over the years and treasuring each and every moment that you have with them.

Some places never seem to change. Cheyenne is like that. I come here, and it is the same old, windy city that it has always been. The weather can be great, but the wind is an ever present part of the landscape.

There are new buildings, nice restaurants, things that I only dreamed of when I lived here. However, the nature of the city is the same. There is a feeling of the old cowboy town that will always surprise you with a cowboy riding around the bend, on a horse, with a bull running in front of him. Yep, Cheyenne is an old cowboy town.

One of the traditions that exists in Taiwan that has spilled over into my very American home (with the exception of our entry room, which is very Chinese) is that we all leave our shoes at the door. There is an unspoken rule in Taiwan that you leave the shoes at the door, to keep the homes clean and to show respect to your hosts.

Likewise, my very Chinese/American wife requires that we leave our shoes at the door. We do that so that we can keep the house clean. In fact, she is very strict about this practice and doesn’t allow us to bring dirty shoes in the cars even. While most people have floor mats to cover and protect the floor carpet in your car, we have towels to cover the floor mats, to cover the carpet. I have asked my wife when we will have more towels, to cover the towels, to cover the floor mats, that cover the carpet. Sometimes, I think we have adopted the Chinese traditions to the extreme.

On our way back from our recent cruise, I boarded a Southwest Airlines plane. While fares can be cheap, boarding can be madness. You are assigned a spot in line based on when you check in. However, since you don’t have a seat assignment, people start to push and cheat so that they can get the seat they want. Passengers, airline employees, and everyone start to get testy and rude. I don’t know if I will fly Southwest again.

Things got worse in Las Vegas. A plane was grounded and ours cancelled, which made tempers, mine included, rise and more of the same problems surfaced in Vegas. I am certain I won’t fly Southwest again.

On the last trip to Mexico I really would have liked to have “Swim with the Dolphins” or see a whale. I think Bonnie saw a whale, but I couldn’t talk myself into spending $300 to go swim with the Dolphins for 1/2 hour.

This trip, I have done the next best thing. While off the coast near Cabo, and then later in the middle of the Gulf of California, I saw schools of Dolphins, and what was cool was to see them jumping through the air near the ship. I think I even got a picture. That was really cool and something that I was hoping to see. I hope we don’t kill off other species on this earth.

Recently Bonnie and I were on a cruise aboard the Princess Line Golden Princess. I remember watching a show in the 1980’s called the Love Boat. I really hardly ever watched the Love Boat, but since having been on the Golden Princess I have thought about that show. First, in a show on the boat they kept playing that theme. Second, there is a decided lack of young people looking for that special someone because they all travel on Carnival now. Instead, there is a significant preponderance of silver haired, seniors, some of which are on the prowl for a possible mate in their senior years.

However, for the most part there are just a ton of seniors on these cruises. I would guess that of the 3,000 or so guests on this cruise, about 60% are senior citizens. It is a little bit depressing for me because we are moving into that crowds age range. Oh well, maybe the boat should now be called the Senior, maybe sometimes love boat.

Going on the cruise for some reason made me think back to an experience that I had in Taiwan over 30 years ago.

I was involved in Scouting, in Taiwan of all places, as the Order of the Arrow Chapter Advisor. We had scheduled an ordeal ceremony for an area near Hsin Chu Taiwan where we were assured we could have open fires. The ordeal was to be on a Chinese military base that we had been given permission to use for scouting events.

The two day event was relatively uneventful until we were right in the middle of the induction ceremony, when two Chinese army guys stepped into the middle of our ceremony circle, and I had to, in my none to good Chinese, explain why we had campfires going in the middle of their military base. They couldn’t understand why we were costumed as Indians. They finally got the message, but not because of my language.