Thanks to Sue Atkins for this story on Young Mar and Mar's Garden and his life in Kansas and Wichita.
Link: https://blog.resy.com/2020/08/one-familys-story-from-toisan-to-wichita/
I remember the names of Young Mar and Wah Mar, but not much else about them. Mars Garden, I'm sure, is where the Wichita Chinese met for many banquets and wedding dinners. The food was so good I asked Mom why we didn't have that kind of Chinese food at home. Multi-course banquets including lobster, roast duck, even chicken feet (which I never understood why it was served at banquets), many vegetable dishes, and dim sum favorites like the glutenous tortilla-like rollups (don't know the name, but I enjoy them at Chinatown dim sum places). Well, special food for special occasions. For Mom at home she preferred the salted, oily dried fish with rice. And rice with every meal except breakfast. we got the Norman Rockwell table at Thanksgiving - the turkey, pumpkin pies, cranberry sauce, etc., and rice.
One photo from Deanna Ting's story:
The boy in the middle is Lin Mar who I knew and interacted occasionally. In high school he went to South while I was at West. He was at the University of Kansas at least for one year when I was there. His Dad Sing Mar, on the left, was the owner of the Fairland Cafe. Our families visited each other often. To my brother Ken and me, Lin was "Fui Leen" - Fat Lin, similar to the same non offensive name like Bill Cosby's Fat Albert.
Deanna Ting's description of the Young Mar family is very close to ours, the Mar Wees. It's nice to learn how another Chinese in Wichita thrived on their hard work and drive to be successful and nurture the next generations of their family.
