It's almost Halloween. One of my favorite holidays. Dave and I walked and talked on Park Avenue this morning while watching little kids in costumes being treated by merchants on the Avenue. One of the jewelers wore a very scary mask. Dave has lots of stories. None that I know of about Halloween but some very scary - to me!. He gave me permission to share this one. It's interesting in light of how protective we are of our kids these days.
When Dave was seven years old he was sent from Malaysia to the States on a freighter accompanied by a family he didn't know. But that's not the scary story.
This is.
When the ship reached San Diego, little seven year old Dave needed to get to Kansas where his aunt would meet him. Somehow a woman was found who was accompanying a corpse to the east coast. She agreed to also look after little Dave. So he, the woman and the corpse boarded the train to ride cross country.
When they reached Topeka, Kansas, Dave got off and was met by his Aunt Lora, whom he did not know at the time. She took him to his Uncle Rod's (whom he did not know) home to spend the night before traveling on to Independence, Kansas where he would start a new life....
...as a skinny little kid with an English accent who'd never known life outside Malaysia and India and therefore had never seen a Kansas snowstorm.
But that's another scary story for another time.
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