October 7, 1970

Dear Penpal

Today mother was in a very good mood. She said every body in China town was talking about Canada and China being friends again even tho the United States and every body is against China and maybe some day she could bring her mother to live with us. She gave me 2 pork buns for a early dinner then we went to go to Kensington market to do laundry. She calls it the jewish people market but I do not see any body who looks jewish but if I did I would not know any way. They should call it the chicken and egg market because there are alive chickens plus pijins pijons pegins pigeons and rabbits in cages plus fish and big trays of eggs for sale and lots of vegetables and fruits in big piles. In Kensington every body speaks bad english and is new to Canada accept me because I am born here so that makes me some thing else. My favourite part here is to watch mother argue with the people before she pays. One time mother was going to make me her special fish jook and wanted a big bag of fish heads then she blamed the man for putting his finger on the scale. They got into a fight and the man squinted his eyes up and pretended to talk chinese then mother said some thing about his mother coming from a goat and a monkey but I am not sure because her english is so bad I can not get it. Then she threw the fish heads back at the man and they exploded all over him. The man started to swear in another language and waved his fist at mother who did the same back to him. Even though there was no kicking it was a great fight.

Then we went in to Sasmart. Mother made me try some Dash running shoes then let me go explore the store. There are many plates hanging on the walls with pictures of jesus with lots of people eating on a long table and many snow globes of jesus being born and cookoo cukoo clocks of the 3 wise men and lots of clothes and shoes. I tried on some cowboy boots and walked around. Mother saw me and laughed. She looked around and saw that the store owner and other customers were busy watching tv about the kidnapping in Kebec and that the police think it is the FLQ. Because no one was looking when mother tried on some cowboy boots too and added different kinds of hats. She pretended to shoot me and I pretended to die but knocked over a row of jesus on a cross. A woman came by and gave us a mean look. We said sorry and took our boots off and put the hats back. We left the store laughing and holding each other. Sometimes just because mother made father go away I forget that she is not mean all the time.

Your friend,

Johnny Wong