On Borrowed Time, Part Six; Chinese Food

Have you ever been hungry?

Have you ever wanted something, you just didn’t know what it was?

Have you ever felt abandoned, lost beyond hope, or like you can never get back home?

I felt this way in England twice now.

The first time was in 1969. I woke on my first day in London on the day they had first landed on the moon. I missed the bus to wherever we were supposed to go that day. I had flown into Heathrow early that morning so I was up all the night before. I knew I had missed something besides the bus. The events that were occurring on the moon were what I had dreamed of all my life. I used to get up early each launch day and watch Walter Cronkite as the likes of Sam Shepard and John Glenn were thrust into space for our bid to reach the moon. Whatever, I am drifting, I felt like shit.

The second time was in 1973. I woke up the morning after we took our little jaunt across the English Channel that included our midnight search for the elusive Lakenheath Air Base. It turned out to be near the town of Brandon, Suffolk, England. I thought it would be by the city of Lakenheath, no? That may be why that first guy sent us in the wrong direction last night.

Anybody who knew me when I was a kid knows that there were certain foods that I just would not eat. Salad, hamburgers, ice cream, cheese, the list goes on. It is not true today. I love all those foods now. The one thing I really didn’t like, as far as a particular genre goes, is Chinese food. We would go to Chinatown each year to see the parade in San Francisco as guests of Tom, the owner of the little store on California and 2nd Avenue. The food they made was really Chinese, and I had a certain distaste for almost anything from there. Except won ton soup, I love war won ton soup.

Well I didn’t feel well to start with, I felt like a stranger in a strange land, and then they all wanted to go for Chinese food. I’m pouring it all out here folks. It was like the last straw that broke the Camel’s back. But, I sucked it all in and went with the flow. I ended up having a great time with all my newfound pals from Lakenheath. It didn’t matter that I was from a different place anymore I now had friends. And I was eating Chinese food.

We all went to see a local motorcycle fiend, just a local bloke who had quite a collection of antique motorcycles. I really got a taste of the dry English humor that day. I actually got to put my hand on the tank of an antique mono-cylinder bike that was actually idling. It was awesome because it idles at 450 RPM, wow.

My best suggestion to anybody who finds themselves somewhere that he or she just doesn’t want to be is to just suck it up. I met some of the most interesting people I have ever encountered just after I changed my attitude about being somewhere I really didn’t want to be.