Pursuits : Elizabeth Thomsen

Cardcow.com

Happy Fourth of July to all!

Hard to know what to say, what to remember, what’s better forgotten. But I do like this performance of the song “Ben” from the Sonny and Cher show. Here Jackson has outgrown the his role as the talented little kid with the Jackson 5, and not yet become the King of Pop…and all that came later.

The news from North Korea continues to be disturbing, and I can’t get it out of my mind. North Korea is pretty close to Dalian, the Chinese city where I taught English for three summers. One hot weekend in 2004, I took a took a trip from Dalian to Dandong, a Chinese city on the Yalu River, directly across from North Korea.

Dandong has a beautiful park along the river, and like all the parks I saw in China, it was filled with people sitting and chatting, playing cards, roller skating, flying kites, and listening to a band playing traditional music.

It’s something of a tourist town for the Chinese. One of the main attractions is the Museum Commemorating the War to Resist American Aggression and Aid Korea, which is what the Chinese call the Korean War. I visited the Museum, which was quite interesting. I liked the big blow-ups of newspaper photographs and the old-fashioned full-size diorama displays. I didn’t like listening to the tour narration, which was all in Chinese. I don’t understand much Chinese, but I know the words for American, Korean and Chinese, and I know tone of voice, so I felt like I got the gist. Especially when everyone turned to look at me every time the word meiguoren, American, was mentioned. It was a little awkward, but I kept my China face on, the one that says “respectful observer” and it was OK.

There are two bridges in Dandong. The China-Korea Friendship Bridge carries pedestrian, road and railroad traffic between Dandong and the city of Siniju, North Korea. Nearby, the “Broken Bridge” extends only halfway across the river. It was damaged by bombs during the Korean War, and is now open as a memorial. You can walk out to the end, which has been secured by railings but still shows twisted pieces of metal. They sell refreshments and there are telescopes for viewing the North Korean coast.

But the most popular tourist activity in Dandong is taking a boat ride along the Yalu River to get a glimpse of life on the other side of the river. We took a ride on a boat that was much smaller and faster and went much closer to the coast than I expected. We saw a few fishermen, and a lot of old, broken-down looking wooden boats. But what we mostly saw were dozens of young kids, nearly all boys, running around, swimming and playing in the water. They sounded like kids at play anywhere in the world, and they clearly accustomed to having boatloads of gawking tourists observing them. Some ignored us and some waved to us. Here and there we saw thin young soldiers standing guard with rifles, looking only a couple of years older than the kids in the water.

That was five years ago. All those boys I watched playing in the river on that hot summer day — what are they doing now? Are they fishermen, or soldiers? Is one of them on board the Kang Nam right now, the North Korean cargo ship that may or may not be carrying weapons? Impossible to know, and maybe not useful to think about. But every time I read about North Korea or hear it mentioned on the news, I am trying to follow the story but it’s those kids in the water that I’m picturing.

Just remembering my mother with this movie clip of Judy Garland singing “You Made Me Love You” to a photograph of Clark Gable. My mother loved this song and sang it often, and described this scene to me many times. She was around 13 when she saw this, and thought it was wonderfully romantic. I never saw the movie, Broadway Melody of 1938, so I was happy to find this clip on YouTube.

I was saddened to hear the news of the accidental death of former baseball player Mark “The Bird” Fidrych yesterday. In 1976, Fidrych joined the Detroit Tigers. He was named the American League Rookie of the Year and was selected as the American League’s starting pitcher for the All Star game. For a short time, he was a celebrity. A 1977 New York Times article referred to him as “the legendary ‘Bird’ of the Detroit Tigers pitching staff and the biggest box-office draw in baseball in years.”

But then he lost it all. His baseball career was cut short due to an injuries. He struggled to recover his pitching ability, and spent served some time in the minor leagues attempting a comeback. He ended his baseball career in 1983 at the age of 29.

He went back to his hometown of Northborough, Massachusetts, where he married Ann Pantazis, whose parents owned Chet’s Diner. On weekends, he helped out at the diner, serving breakfast, washing dishes, doing whatever needed to be done.

His mother-in-law, Nancy Pantazis, is quoted in the Boston Globe : “He loved it. Every Saturday he was there…He was a wonderful guy. I couldn’t ask for a better son-in-law, and he’ll be missed.”

I never met him, but by all accounts he had a good life in Northborough, and didn’t allow his life to be ruined by regret over the way his baseball career had been cut short.

In a 1999 interview, he told the Boston Globe : “I got a great life now…I got a family, I got a house, I got a dog. I would like my career to have been longer, but you can’t look back. You have to look to the future.”

I’m sure he’ll be missed.

Mark ‘The Bird’ Fidrych, 54; Pitcher Enthralled Fans — By Bryan Marquard, Boston Globe, April 14, 2009

I’m posting this in memory of my mother, in honor of her birthday. She loved this song, and I often hear it in my head as I sort through all these old photographs, seeing her (and too many other loved ones now gone) in all the old familiar places…Pheasant Hill Street, Westchester Circle, Columbus Street, Swift’s Beach, Crystal Park and more.