Mom and Dad had the back flat on the floor above the kitchen of Grandma Gee’s Emma Domb Chinese sewing shop. I remember crying in my crib looking out at the back rooftops of the sheds behind the building. All was gray. I became distracted by the rainbow of prisms in the sky and in my tears being like raindrops. It’s as if something bigger than everything was crying with me in the huge sky. I was awestruck that there was something so huge outside that was crying with me.
I was just a baby of a working mom. Mom was working, and I didn’t have a clue. I just knew that I was all alone. I decided to bond with the big force in the sky that cried with me, and brought rainbow prisms to my tears.
I was not always alone. I shared a crib with Richard. We are 18 months apart. Richard was my hero. He got me out of the crib, and once got me out of the huge cardboard refrigerator box, that I fell into, trying to get out of the crib.
The Mickey Mouse Show
I remember watching the Mickey Mouse Show with Annette Funicello. Sometimes our cousins Alvin and Peggy who lived in the flat across from us, would come over and watch with us.
We also watched the Jack Lalanne Show. Jack Lalanne did exercises, and we would exercise with him.
When we got older, Richard and I shared the Murphy bed that came out of the closet each night. There were french double doors with crystal doorknobs dividing our room with Mom and Dad’s room.
Our flat had one bathroom with honeycomb tiles and a window. Mom washed me in the sink, because I was so little.
Sometimes the four of us would play on the stairs. Stairs can be very entertaining for little kids. We would sit on the stairs and bump, bump, bump down the stairs one at a time.
Uncle Herbert lived in the flat at the top of the stairs. He would come out sometimes, and warn us to hide because Auntie Holly was coming. Auntie Holly was Caucasian. She didn’t like kids.
The last flat is where Grandma and Grandpa Gee lived. Somehow, Grandma Gee and Auntie Amy deemed me as under-nourished. Grandma Gee made me concentrated venison broth with goji berries. I had to drink it frequently, because I was the scrawniest of the grand children. It was disgusting.
As I got older, Auntie Amy would take me to the Chinese Herbalist in Chinatown. He would package a special formula of herbs, roots, dates and berries for me, and give me a package of white raisins to eat with the concoction, which I also didn’t like. We were born in poverty in Chinatown. I have no idea why I was such a runt. I must have been born that way.
Chinese Sewing Ladies
I remember when we were older, Alvin, Richard, Peggy and I would go downstairs to Grandma’s Chinese sewing shop. Auntie Lucy, Alvin and Peggy’s mother, worked in a room between the kitchen and the main room where all the sewing machines were.
Auntie Lucy opened large bundles of pre-cut fabric, with dot paper on them. The pre-cut fabric in each big bundle, were all the same cut, but of different fabric colors. She would count the pieces, and sort them into smaller bundles, each representing the pieces needed to sew each dress.
For Peggy and I, our job was to pick up pins off the floor. We got to play with the dot paper when she was done with them. We four kids would play dot-to-dot, drawing lines with colored pencils. Since most of the dresses were bride and bride’s maid dresses, the four of us would play getting married in the lobby of the apartment house.
The Chinese sewing ladies all spoke Cantonese. Cantonese immersion, I understood Cantonese, but could not speak it. Dad spoke Cantonese, and Mom’s family spoke Toisan, so they spoke English to each other.
Grandma Gee ordered lunch daily for the Chinese sewing ladies, either from Rose’s or U-Lee diagonally across the street from Roses, on the corner of Hyde and Jackson. Everyone would gather in the kitchen to eat lunch. The kitchen was to far back room of the place, which had a door to the outside passageway that went to the backyard or to the lobby of the apartment house.
A typical lunch included large rectangle catering trays of Chow Mien, and Chinese Crispy Fried Chicken, Wonton Soup, and the famously huge U-Lee Pot Stickers. The Chow Mien had lots of vegetables, thin strips of Cha Siew, Chicken and cilantro. The cilantro made me gag, which is why it is so memorable. The Chinese Crispy Fried Chicken was very greasy, yet somehow the outer fried layer was lacy and crunchy, keeping the chicken moist. I liked the wings, because they were little like us. The Wor Wonton was my favorite. Even when Gigi and I were in our twenties, we would go to U-Lee and have Wor Wonton, Chow Mein or Pot Stickers.
There was another room off the kitchen, which was Grandpa Gee’s room. He would sit in this room looking stately in a 3 piece navy blue pin striped suit smoking cigars. Richard and I got to keep the empty Cuban cigar boxes. They were beautiful.
When we got older, we got adjustable roller skates. We would skate on McCormick Street, which was really an alley that opened onto Pacific Street.
Helen Wills was the closest playground to us. Mom would take us there to play on the swings and slide sometimes. I didn’t like the carousel. It made me dizzy.
Cameron House
As with many Chinese women at the time, who were in transition, I think Grandma Jung and Mom stayed at Cameron House when they first arrived in San Francisco to start a new life.
Mom and Dad took us to Cameron House, which is part of the Chinese Presbyterian Church in Chinatown. Sunny was a woman that they often visited and talked with. Upstairs were rooms that women lived in who were in transition. Downstairs the rooms were used for Sunday School for us children. Richard and I went to Sunday School for many years until we moved to East Palo Alto.
I have fond memories of these Sundays. Mom and Dad would drop us off at Cameron House. When they picked us up, they had bought Bao, Dong, Dried Shrimp Noodle rice rolls, and Uncle Mary’s famous Orange pie.
Richard and I learned the Chinese Presbyterian view of the bible. Jesus’s mother was Mary, just like our mom. Jesus was re-incarnated, as is the Chinese belief. There were no ghosts. We skipped over the bad parts of the old testament. The focus was on being benevolent.
U-LEE RESTAURANT – CLOSED – 150 Photos & 438 Reviews – 1468 Hyde St, San Francisco
Nob Hill’s U-Lee to Close After 28 Years – Eater SF
U-Lee, San Francisco – Kellan’s Kitchen – Personal Chefs (kellanskitchen.com)
Parks and Facilities • Helen Wills Playground (sfrecpark.org)
Donaldina Cameron House – Wikipedia
Six Dishes That Tell The Story of San Francisco’s Chinatown — Resy | Right This Way
Mandarin Orange Pie | Cutefetti (similar, but Uncle Marys Orange Pie had a flaky crust like Dan Tats, and was translucent orange, not too sweet. Definitely made with gelatin.