Recollections

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Dad’s Recollection:

In September 1957 I flew from Taipei City to Oakland, California, waited for a few days to be on a Santa Fe cargo train to North Hewton, Kansas to spend a year and a summer to receive a B.A. from Bethel College. Then worked in a silk-screen printing factory for a few months before admission to McCormic Theological Seminary of Chicago in February 1959, after 2 years and a quarter graduated with a B.D. (equivalent to M. Div.) in May 1961.

After that, instead of Harvard, I chose to go to Union Theological Seminary in New York City with a Fellowship for doctorate study, but after a year because of the dirty city air I had to have a sinus operation and quit Union to recoup at Princeton Seminary for a year as a special graduate student in Pastoral Theology. In late 1962 my Thesis was accepted and received a S.T.M. Master of Sacred Theology from Union. During that time I also attained a Licentiate of the United Presbyterian Church, USA, and in 1963 called by the Brighton Presbyterian Church in Rochester, NY as a Minister of Education. The next year Mom came to the US and our wedding took place on December 30th, 1964. After 4 years in September 1967 we moved to Princeton NJ and you were born that year, and your sister followed two years later.

In the fall of 1974 I completed my Doctoral Thesis in History of Religion and was awarded Ph.D. in May 1975. During this time, I also served as minister of education and pastor at Medford lakes, NJ and Perrineville, NJ. In August 1976 we left NJ via Japan to Taiwan.

Sri’s Raw Recollections

My first memories are of living in Perrineville, when Dad was the minister of the Presbyterian Church of Monmouth County. It was an all-white congregation, and I remember that we were the only Asian family in the immediate area. The church was very old and had a graveyard with tombstones dating back to the Civil War. This was a very rural part of New Jersey in the early 1970s. I remember that we had a post office building that was a converted mobile home next to the local store or something like that, but I don’t think we often went there. There was a kid named Tracey that lived across Mr.Vigh’s field right next to the church manse where we stayed. When I was a little older (maybe 6 or 7) we could walk to each other’s house. I forgot what we did, though.

The manse was built on about an acre of land, a single-floor house with a basement and a garage. In the backyard Mom had a small garden, where I once went and picked all the vegetables not realizing I had to wait. There was one spot of the yard where moss grew, and every spring a few asparagus would grow there. I thought that something must have happened to that spot, and it was a minor mystery. We could see jackrabbits from the picture window in the dining room, and I would occasionally go try to catch them. I wanted to build one of those Roadrunner traps from the cartoon, with a box held up by a stick with a string attached to it. I never did find a big enough box, a suitable stick, or enough string to try it.

We had a black cat with white spots on his chest named Blacky, a tomcat that roamed around outside because Mom didn’t like cats as they were “sneaky”. The cat would sometimes walk outside along the ledge of the picture window, which would generate excited exclamations of “Cat show! Cat show!” from my sister and I. To this day I am still excited beyond any reasonable measure by the appearance of cat.

I remember being a pretty shy kid, not wanting to participate in Sunday School. Mom was the organist. I don’t even think I was very aware of what was going on around me, more content to explore the enormous pile of old bundles of newspaper that were collected every year for recycling by the congregation. Either Mom or Dad explained that these would be sold to the paper company for money to help run the church. The pile was taller than I was so it was fun to scramble over it.

The county courthouse and firetruck was right next to the house. I believe Dad, as minister, played a part in local civics because he occasionally had to go to meetings. There was a very loud siren on top of the courthouse, which was a low building. I remember once that a car pulled up to the house and there was a man bleeding badly, and I think Dad had to set a bone and use a tourniquet. I was kind of fascinated by the sight, which didn’t seem real. There were no suitable materials and Dad asked me if I had something, and I said the toy car set had a plastic tube. I brought it and I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to play with the toy set. Dad promised me he would get a new tube, brusquely as he was in a hurry that I didn’t quite understand…I might have been 5 or 6? I remember never getting a new tube, but maybe I didn’t ask.