Free Mind's Reminiscences About Childhood in Taiwan

That day my leg was inflamed from the insect bites, and my father took me to his workplace, with the American built hospital. Father driving the American military jeep on the vast airport hill A small jeep can power up the steep hill That is a secondhand one, handed down from the Americans His hometown is by the edge of horizon Guess he can't make it back Father pulled into the hospital front square. We went inside. It is very clean, very modern looking, built with American assistance. There! At the end, there is a fountain faucet. Father helped me with the novelty of a sprouting spring water, my first time. The doctor was very kind. He cleaned the wound on my leg. The powerful medicine was in the white color wrap and the pink paper wrap. He also gave me yeast candy, they were all white color, no coloring. We came out and dad put on his sunglasses just like general MacArthur's, his hero with a reflecting surface. After my leg wound healed, I was able to help him water the front yard grass again, and the Shi Liu pomegranate flower, and grape tree. That was the only grass lawn in the entire village. It is called the Korean grass. It is very green and sharp when you first sit on it. The General's Zi Teng wisteria at the back row is like a piled up flower ocean on top the front gate. So my dad designed a winding vine climbing up the lattice. He is very talented in gardening, a Soong Dynasty tradition. The Colonel next door has a retired soldier carpenter in and my dad asked him to make a desk for me. I heard his radio playing many songs. 小時候 提起了小時候﹐樣樣到心間 就在這桃花樹下﹐就在這小河邊 你爬山我划船 你踢毽來我打球 茅草兒當金簪戴 樹枝當馬鞭抽 爬到那草地上 唱那汾河灣 你扮那薛平貴 我學做王寶釧 Innocent Young Time Think of the childhood, everything comes to the heart It is right under the peach tree, and by the little river You were climbing and I row the boat You hit the shuttlecock and I play the ball Use cogon grass as the gold hairpin The tree branch is my horse whip I crawl to the grass I sing the Fen River You play the General Xue Ping Gui Then I'm the prime minister's daughter Wang Bao Chuan Today, we are less than the fortune of Tang dynasty people The general Xue Ping Gui could return alive His wife Xue Bao Chuan after 18 years of waiting in the cold Yellow soil cave dwelling But his wife can't be expected to ever see him again My father is thinking of all these thoughts. The Colonel’s second wife is a very good cook with Zhejiang style of food. Her roasted pork is making fragrance and the carpenter came inside to eat a very good lunch. American MacArthur is his hero, a resolute combative man. He won't make concessions toward the advancement of the communists. Eisenhower's order is for us to not ever return back to China. The barracks song of "Return back to China" is repeated. I took a basket to the river to wash. On the mound, and walking down the trail, the bamboo grove is swaying with clear soothing wind. The rice field is filled with water and the young shoots are soaking with content. I had a feeling that in my orange chrysanthemum village robe girl costume, I was in China a village girl like this 5 thousand years ago. I like and feel quite a good Chinese girl in this gift given to me by Professor Chen's daughter. The clothing fit me with such a happy fit. The venture I had was amazing. I went down to the river. The twin girls next door told me to pick up fragrant pure white flowers above the creek. You can't find them too easily. As I was leaving, I looked into a hole, quite amazing. A frog is in the mouth of a snake. They are stuck there. I left and didn't want to return for quite a while.