Mobil Oil and Cigarettes

(Note and cigarette lighter I received today from ex-wife, Leslie Daniel.)

 Thanks so much for the Mobil lighter and your note.  I take it that you have stopped smoking (just kidding).

Several memories:

• Two of my first real jobs: working in a Mobil gas station, and working in a Mobil refinery, both of which my dad arranged for me.
• Photos of my dad, many with a lighted Chesterfield in hand.
• I remember that you and I quit smoking at one point; I am guessing mid-70’s.  Then we took a trip back East, and the stewardess came down the aisle handing out small 4-packs of cigarettes (Marlboros?).  And we started smoking again!!
• Memories of the few AA meetings I attended with you; lots of coffee and cigarettes.
• Fortunately, I was never a heavy smoker, and was not apparently addicted.  When Nadine and I decided to quit around 1982, we were able to do so without much effort.  Thank God for that.
• When my mother died, the bulk of her assets were Mobil stock, which had done very well in the approximately 30 years from when he died to when she died.

Thanks again.

Glad to hear you are doing well.  Growing old is not for sissies.

Coleman

"She Looks Just Like You"

Tina worked at Rocketdyne as a programmer in IT.  I was working in IT budgeting and cost controls.  We met in the coffee area, where we ran into each other several times.

What first gave us a subject of common interests was Chinese movies.  "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" had just come out (2000), with the gorgeous Michelle Yeoh as the heroine.  Tina discussed several concepts from Chinese culture, which explained some subtleties of the movie that had been lost on me.

Tina was ethnic Chinese.  Her family was living in Saigon during the Vietnam War.  Her father was a gem dealer.  They left Saigon on a boat, with a load of diamonds in their clothes, and eventually made their way to America.  With no English training, Tina entered a public high school as a teenager, and made her way.  She married a Caucasian American, and they had one son, who was about 12 and in a public middle school.  Tina sent her son to a Chinese language and culture program every Saturday.

A couple of  times, Tina talked about how her son was having learning issues in public school.  In fact, his English teacher had reprimanded Tina, telling her that his Saturday Chinese program was confusing his English learning.  So much for cultural sensitivity.

Months passed.  I had not run into Tina for some time.  I was walking down the hallway, when I saw Tina and another co-worker, Stacy, talking up ahead. Tina motioned for me to join them.  As I got nearer, Tina said: "Coleman, come and see my daughter".  Immediately, I felt a pang of confusion; after all the times that Tina had talked to me about her son, I could not remember any discussion about a daughter!

As I got near, Tina held out a photo and said: "This is my daughter".  It was a picture of a cute Asian girl, approximately 6-years-old.  Confused but determined, I said: "Oh, Tina, see is so cute, and she looks just like you." Off to the side, I heard Stacy's muffled laugh, and knew something was wrong.

Then it all came out.  Tina said: "My husband and I are going back to China in two weeks to get her and bring her to America.  She is an orphan who we are adopting."

Tina and her husband did adopt the young girl, and she entered into public school first-grade with no English background.  Rather like her mother's experience, but much younger.

Then, again, I did not see Tina for about six months. Finally we did run into each other, and I asked her how the daughter was doing, especially trying to learn a new language.  Apparently, quite well. Tina said: "She is now the ring-leader in her first-grade class, and sasses me just like any other Valley girl."