My grandfather Chun Chu 趙瑞春 (“Yeh-Yeh”) came to America in the 1920s from Fow Shek Heung 浮石鄉 in ToiShan County 台山, Guangzhou Province, China. Under the Chinese Exclusion Act, he was permitted to emigrate to America as a merchant - a partner in a Chinatown, NY store at 77 Mott St. In the 1930s, he returned to China for a visit and brought his eldest of 3 sons, Norton 趙鈺延, back to NYC with him. After graduating from Stuyvesant High School, Norton joined the U.S. Army in a segregated Chinese company, was assigned to the post-WWII occupation forces in Shanghai, and rose to the rank of Master Sergeant. After his tour of duty, he returned to NYC and was followed by a women he met in Shanghai, Frances Liang 梁 淑 儀. They married, and had a son, Roderick 趙光華.
Pop attended Hunter College and received his B.S. Degree in Chemistry. He worked for Ledoux & Company as a plutonium chemist. Daughter Laura 趙慧娟 came next. Our family lived in a garden apartment in Astoria, Queens, and visited Central Park often, enjoying photos by the big cement eagles there. Pop owned a 1952 Chevrolet. Mom always dressed beautifully, and Pop was quite dapper.
Among our neighbors was Henry Calvin, who performed on Broadway in Kismet and substituted for Buffalo Bob on TV’s Howdy Doody Show. He got Laura & me into the show’s Peanut Gallery 4 times. We celebrated birthdays with Adelina Lee, Ann Damren, & others and vacationed many times at the Framingham, Mass. home of Pop’s old Army buddy “Uncle Cowboy,” and in Lake Winnipesaukee, NH.
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