King and Chin and others - in their younger days

Thanks to Arthur Mah, I recently got two photos from his father's (Mah Q Gar) photo albums.  Arthur grew up in Wichita like me, a year behind graduating from Wichita West 1967.  This blog was started as a tribute to my grandfather King Mar, who I adored very much growing up.  The blog got going when I started to reprint a batch of his letters from around 1936 when he made a return visit to his home village in China.  Most of the correspondences were from his friends, coworkers and business associates as the owner of the Pan American Cafe.  Over time and from the letters, I've touched on a lot of Wichita history and my family's history and a discovery of the I had more connections with people who are more related than I ever knew. It's nice to make contact with other Wichita ABCs (American born Chinese) as we begin to connect and share our family and clan histories.

The first photo Arthur and think came from the 1930s.  Chinese men of Wichita.  The two I recognize right away are the middle two in the back row: Junior Mar and King Mar.  On the far left is Q Gar Mah (also known as Karl Mah), not sure who this is, Junior Mar, King Mar, unknown, and Wah Fong Mah (Arthur's uncle).  Seated: unknown but a wild guess could be Sam Mar.  I've never seen photos of these guys so young (except grandpa King).

Three of these guys are in uniform.  Arthur's Dad, Q Gar, is in the middle, the one with the sergeant's stripes.

They are at the Lorelei/Heinrich Heine fountain in the Bronx, NY.  Thanks to my nephew Thomas for identifying the location.  That's my Dad, Chin Wee, with the big smile.  These guys all look pretty dapper.  I don't know the guy in the far left.  Next to Q Gar is Robert Mar and on the right is Ning Mar.  Ning I knew as the manager of the night shift at the Pan American Cafe.

Dad enlisted and was inducted to the US Army at Ft. Leavenworth Feb 9, 1942 (just a few weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor Dec 7) and was discharged Jan 20, 1944.  Since he's not in uniform this photo may have been taken after Jan 1944.  Or did he opt to be in civilian clothes that day?  So, at least four of these men were in the military service for the U.S.  Still trying to find if Ning served.

I identified Robert from his wedding pictures I've posted before.

That was quite the wedding feast in 1940. To the left of Robert Mar (the groom) is Sam Mar.  In the lower left of the photo I recognize Junior Mar and Keung Lem.

Wichita's Chisholm Trail Jubilee celebrated 75 years ago

75 years ago the Pan American Cafe got involved with the Chisholm Trail Jubilee.  From these photos and others I've posted, the Pan Am was a happy place to work.  Many of the waitresses stayed for many years. Being a downtown luncheon cafe, it was always busy and you had a steady flow of customers.  

Sixteen women dressed as "cowgirls" in celebration of the Chisholm Trail Jubilee, September, 1947 on Wichita, KS. The week-long festival included rodeos, street dances, historical re-enactments, parades, and prominent dignitaries.

Birdseye view of parade float sponsored by the Pan American Café.  Both photos above from the Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum archives.

Granddad King Mar got into the swing of the Jubilee doing is best imitation of Burl Ives.

'36 July - Paul Dunn - farm report, Wah Mar & Shanghai Restaurant, concern of war

When friends typed their letters to King, the letters were longer and they touched on a few more topics. Paul F. Dunn touches on the drought conditions, fair wheat crop, grasshopper troubles; mentions Wah Mar will open the Shanghai Restaurant, and the war conditions in East Asia.  His letter is photocopied.

Who was Paul Dunn?  An engraver?  Into local politics?  And a friend of King.

June '36 - Hot, poor wheat, wish King be back soon (Hills)

 

GEO. A. HILL & CO.
Real Estate
Insurance – City Loans
501 Fourth National Bank Bldg.
Wichita, Kansas

 

 

                                                                                                June 19, 1936

Dear King:

We sure were glad to hear from you, and to know you are keeping well.  We have had a week of very warm weather – Tempt. Over 100 each day & still pretty warm of nights.  Wheat is not so very good, but there will be some in most places.  We are needing rain again.  So glad your mother keeps well also glad she liked her little gift we sent.  I know she enjoys having you with her.  We see Henry every once in a while, he seems to get along pretty good.  We are glad you are talking about coming back in October, for we miss seeing you a lot.  The girls & Bob are all well, and we all speak of you often.  Mrs. Hill & I keep busy at the office.  Write us again if you have the time.

With kindest regards from all of us.

                                                                                                Your friend Mr. & Mrs. Hill

Egg Cake…More Than Just A Recipe…

Arthur Mah discovered the blog post on "Early Morning Gatherings of Mom's Friends" (Feb 17, 2021).  He grew up in Wichita about a year younger than me (graduated from Wichita West in 1967).  We didn't cross paths much back then except for the gathering of the Wichita Chinese and Mar Clan for socials and special occasions. 

Arthur has written a nice memory of egg cakes made by the Chinese women in Wichita.  It's nice to have another voice and contribution to the King and Me Blog. 

(photos of Arthur - right - from 1966 West High yearbook, and
below from 2021)

------------------------

This is an egg cake memory and a glimpse of some of the Chinese women in Wichita who may have made egg cakes.

Mom’s egg cake is one of many fond, food memories.  Especially, in the late spring or early summer when strawberries were in season, egg cake with fresh strawberries was a favorite.  Dad made whipped cream for a topping.  For me, egg cake could be as simple as a slice of fresh cake or dressed up with fresh strawberries and whipped cream.  Occasionally, mom would use whipped cream as frosting and top the cake with strawberry halves for a more elegant presentation.  However, there were always bowls of strawberries and whipped cream for those who wanted more.

I think the egg cake was also the ‘go-to’ cake for birthdays.  The birthday cake was probably just the cake with candles.  The cake may be too delicate to handle cake icing like a buttercream frosting.

Mom’s egg cake recipe is in Attachment 1.

My friend commented that all the Mah’s (Ma and Mar) made the same egg cake.  She received a sponge cake recipe from her mother-in-law and it is attached (Attachment 1).  The two recipes are very similar.  My friend’s comment would have been in the context of the Chinese community in Wichita and relating to those with the family name of 馬 (Mah, Ma, or Mar plus others with non-Mah last names but were actually Mah…think ‘paper son’).  My friend’s recipe identifies one of the ingredients as Swan’s Down cake flour which was a common pantry item in our house in Wichita.

I often wonder who was the first Chinese man from our village to come to Wichita.  In this case, who was the Chinese lady who may have been the originator of the egg cake recipe used by Chinese ladies in Wichita.

So, imagine my mom arriving in the US as a young immigrant…does not know anyone…cannot speak the language.  Imagine similar young Chinese ladies settling into a new land…probably a frightening and, hopefully, an exciting experience at the same time.  See Attachment 2.

In the days when I was a kid, the Wichita Chinese community was very tight and all or most came from the same village or neighboring villages.  The young ladies formed strong bonds as they were challenged to live in a ‘new world’ and learned from those ladies who came before them.  Did these young ladies make the same egg cake?  Did these young ladies learn baking skills from a single “old Chinese lady” in the Wichita Chinese community?  We’ll never know; but a number of my childhood friends have special memories of homemade egg cake while growing up.

Egg cake brings back many memories.  I want to bow to my mom, her friends, and all the Chinese women who came before us who bravely created warm homes and loving families for all of us. 

One final note, Attachment 3, is Benjamin’s second attempt at egg cake.  On his first attempt when he turned the cake upside down to cool as I watched my mom do many times, his cake slid out of the pan and collapsed into itself.  Key note:  Don’t oil the inside of the cake pan.  Another tip:  Use a cake pan with supports or tabs on the rim (See Attachment 3).  When you turn the cake upside down to cool, these tabs on the rim become “feet” to support the cake pan and keep the top of the cake off the counter.

Attachments 1:

Mom's Egg Cake Recipe

Sponge Cake Recipe from my friend’s mother-in-law who lived in Wichita

Attachments 2:

These two photos were taken November 22, 1948 probably in the same studio.  The babies in the second photo were born in 1948 while I was born in 1949.

(l – r) Lai Gar Mah (Arthur’s mom); Fooey Hing Chuey (Jimmy’s mom); Mon Jee Mah (Marlene’s mom)

(l – r) Mrs. Chin Wee (Yim) with Gene; Mrs. Wayne Wong (Kim) with Linda; Mrs. Ning Mar (Ping) with Susan; and Mrs. Chuck Mar (Fong) with Yvonne

Don would be 65 today; You'll Never Walk Alone

 Yesterday, December 15 was Don's birthday.  He would have been 65.  Here's a photo of Don performing as Merlin  in a Stanford production of Camelot.

 

My brothers and I liked musicals with Ken, Sam, Don and me singing in our church choirs and school choruses.

Bob Dole just passed away last week and his comfort song was "You'll Never Walk Alone" from Carousel.  The Rodgers and Hammerstein play was a favorite of Sam's and mine.  While I liked many of the R & H plays, Carousel sticks out because West High School put in on the year before I started school there as a sophomore.  The lead (Billy Bigelow) was a sophomore from my junior high (Allison) and Bill Moss, also from Allison, I think played Jigger Craigin. I was impressed by the play, the music and the extensive work put in by high school students.

Teahouse of the August Moon ~1957

Teahouse of the August Moon About 1957, my brother Ken and I were asked to be in the Wichita University production of the Teahouse of the August Moon. That was my first time as an actor. I was asked to learn one line in Japanese but couldn't do it, so my role was to bring the live goat on stage by the jeep.  The women were Japanese or Japanese-Americans and they may have had lines in Japanese.  The older guy was Chinese and was asked to harangue the driver in Chinese.  No concern that the audience would have cared.

Ken and I worked several performances, maybe a week's worth of shows.  There was a woman who was our chaperone and we were well taken care of except we stayed extremely late one night; never knew the reason.

Early Morning Gatherings of Mom's Friends - or the Mar Clan

A childhood memory was waking up in the morning to see the door from the living room to the kitchen closed and finding a bunch of women who had been cooking  in the pre-dawn.  Usually it was Mom with Mumu (Oi Lick "Judy" Mar - Junior Mar's wife), Thliam Hu (Great Aunt Wong Shee Mar - Junior Mar's mother), and one or two others.  After Grandma Suzon, arrived in 57, she was part of the party.

They made a variety of dumplings - tee, bao, chueng fun (crepes), sesame balls, bamboo sticky rice and other things.  My favorite was the glutinous rolled up pancakes - white with specks of green onions and other ingredients.  

I didn't figure it out back then (in the 1950s), those were gatherings of my relatives.  There was no Chinatown experience for Midwestern Chinese living separately in houses across town.  Gatherings were at the city parks, each other's homes, or in one of the numerous Chinese restaurants.

Here's a photo I'll call the Mar Clan of Wichita in 1957, probably taken at the restaurant on east Central (I can't remember the name now).

For the record, here's who I can identify (family relations names are from my point of view):

1st row: Kenneth (brother #2), Grandma Suzon Mar holding Sam (brother #3), Great-grand mother Cheung Tsui Tai, 3rd Great Aunt (Thliam Hoo), Vincent Lem, Grandpa King Mar, Alice Lem, me (brother #1)

2nd row: Han S. Mar, Oi Lick "Judy" Mar (Mumu to me, or Ngee Mu), 4th Great Aunt (Thlee Hoo), Mom Yim Ngo Wee holding Don (brother #4), Maureen Lem (Thliam Seem - I think, wife of Keng), Keng Lem (was he Thliam Sok?  I can't remember how I addressed him or Maureen).

3rd row: don't know this guy, Junior Mar (Bakbak, or Ngee Bak, Mumu's husband), I think this guy was Cheung Gong (or Sok? can't remember the age distinction; he was married to a Japanese woman, the only one without family circle), Robert Mar (I think sone of Junior and Judy Mar), don't know this guy's name but he's many of the Junior Mar Family photos.

Ken, Vincent, Alice and Kim - can any one of you help? 

Make the connection: Great grandma Cheung Tsai Tai in 1957 above with the young
Great Grandpa Dune Toi Mar in the 1920s at the Pan American Cafe.

Extreme weather in 2021 - similar to 1936: F.L. Brown

Kim and Eva had to spend the night at a friend's house after power outage in Garland (TX).  Dee and I were more fortunate to be without power for only two and a half hours.  Hoping Texas problems improve soon, especially around Houston.  Well, in 1936 Wichita had extremely cold, then the dust storms.

Sam's Birthday; Wichita Olympic Track Club

Sam would have been 67 this Saturday.  I still remember the birthdays of all my brothers though occasionally I have to look up the dates.  My personal mnemonics to remember Sam's Jan 30th date is he was born the day after Kansas Day, Jan 29th.  For Kim, April Fools is April 1st; but Kim's not a May Fool, so he was born the day before - Apr 30.  Funky, but it was my way of remembering their dates.  My other two brothers?  Kenneth's Jan. 5th I had in my brain the longest since he's the oldest of the four and  Don's Dec. 15th I just had to learn and often looked up.

The last time I visited Sam, he reminded me I created the Wichita Olympic Track Club, our family and neighborhood track program for my brothers and John Foster, a neighborhood friend.   I coaxed Ken and Sam to run and jump the various track and field events we could do in the abandoned junior high school field just a block away from our house.  At the time Don was the youngest and I got him  recorded for a few runs.  Yes, I kept a record book of each brother's performances in the 50 yd, 100 yd dash, the 600 yd run, broad jump (it wasn't called the long jump back then) and high jump.

The 50 yard dash was in the one playground area behind the former Central Junior High.  The 600 yd run was once around the school block.  It was amazing no one got hit my a car as they ran along 2nd Street which cut across the alley between two tall buildings.  3rd Street was safe as you had a clear view of the alley and the street.

Sam doing the 50 yard dash

Sam on the takeoff on the broad jump

This may be Ken running the 50 yard dash; if not then it's me.

Later, in my woodworking shop class I made some pole vault stands.  And with money from my newspaper route, I bought a real steel pole for vaulting.  Before, we were using a bamboo pole which we eventually bent in two.  John Foster bought an 8 lb shot and a high school weight discus.  John and I spent a lot of evenings pole vaulting, high jumping, and throwing the shot and discus.  

John and I weren't built for weight events.  Photographs of our release on the shot put showed our head was looking down as the shot was just leaving the chin level, clearly the shot release wasn't keeping up with the rest of the body motion.  I'll have to look up that photo, but here's a photo of John working on a science project in 1965.

These aren't track & field photos of Don and Sam, but do show their jumping ability.  I was copying the style of Life Magazine photographer Philippe Halsman who made portraits of famous people jumping in the air.

My favorite shot of Sam is the one of him studying at his desk.  I used one of King Mar's floodlights from the side for the lighting.  This was from January 1966.

This fun photo was from January 1965 with Kim as the quarterback, Don and Sam the linemen.  This was in out backyard at 350 N. Topeka.

June 17, 1936 - George A Earl; Shanghai Cafe

George A. Earl wrote to King in June 1936 about how things were going at the Pan American Cafe and mentioned many of the waitresses and Henry Mar, who was filling in at the cash registers taking care of what King normally did.  There's the announcement of the opening of  the Shanghai Cafe, increasing the number of Chinese restaurants in Wichita.  The Shanghai Cafe no longer existed when I was a child in Wichita.

Interesting note about bonuses for soldiers - if King was supposed to get a bonus, did he serve in the U.S. Army.  I have no record of him in the military.

 

                                   Wichita, Kansas, June 17, 1936

Mr. Mar King,
c/o Mo Do Drug Store,
Baksha, Toysum,
Canton, China,

Dear King:--

           I was glad to get a letter from my good friend King, dated April 30th, 1936, thought that you had about forgotten me. And have often thought of you and whether you received my former letter written to you in answer to your letter quite sometime ago. So was very much pleased when the postman brought me your letter a few days ago.

           It is hot here again and the air conditioner has to be run at the Pan American every day now. Yes I go to the Pan and get coffee but donot drink so much as I did got too much and did not feel so good.  They have good business everyday – today when I was in to lunch I see Ima working you remember her she went over to Muellers and worked. Bernice, Gladys, Sammy, Peggy, Jean, Thelma and 2 other girls I don’t know and I forgot Dolly is still working there. Henry is well and seems to be working all the time. I see Murry on the street sometimes in the afternoon.

           Everything seems to be going good at the Pan and guess they are making some money – hope so.

           I am sending to you a clipping from this morning Eagle about Wah Mar, going to open the old Lincoln Cafe as the Shanghai Cafe you read the piece and you will know all about it. It is news and will interest you I am sure.

           Yes I suppose that it took you sometime to get used to the living there after being here so long and I am glad that you are feeling fine and are looking forward to your return to Wichita, And I will say that all of your friends will be glad to see you back again. Monday the 15^th. Of this month the soldiers bonus was paid and suppose that you have a bonus coming to you.  The man that delivers bread to you at the Pan told me that one of your friends at the Holly got his check for several hundred dollars Monday.

           Well my good friend I have told you all the news that I know and hope that you are enjoying fine health and having a good time and that your Mama and family are well and happy.

           Myself and all of my family send your our best wishes for your good health and happy return after your visit, Iam your Friend,

                                   George A. Earl

518 Butts Building
Wichita, Kansas,

 

The Newmans and The Lassen Hotel - March 1936

This is another letter from the Newmans.  The daughter Elva sent King a letter on Feb 16, 1936.   Here her mother Jessie mentions she played a piano recital and asks King for postage stamps and a nice silk shawl.  The Lassen Hotel renovation was mentioned and a newspaper clipping included.  The Lassen was right across from the Pan American Cafe.

The letter was copied as a jpeg file since it was so nicely typed which would make it harder to look up later in a word search. 

 

 

Elva Newman, 1936

36 June 22, Pryor's Baby Boy and Grasshoppers

I'm getting down to a the remaining few letters from the "1936" folder of King Mar's letters. The weather extremes were something and the threat of grasshoppers!   Peggy is Peggy Canaday, a Pan American waitress.  The 138 N. Market address means Lloyd Pryor's business was just down the block from the Pan American.

 

                                                                                                        Wichita Kansas
                                                                                                        June 22, 1936

 

Dear Friend King –

            Will undertake to ans your kind & welcome letter.  We rec’d some time ago as you know.  Lloyd is a very busy man & has kept putting off answering and I’m not much of a writer either but he has ask me to do this.  Guess this news will surprise you.  We have a baby boy Jr two wk’s old this P.M. & he is a very good baby so far at nights.  His daddy thinks he’s some boy.  We have had a rather severe winter while it lasted, but when it turned it changed so sudden we can hardly adjust ourselves to the extreme change.  It was only 105 yesterday “Sun” no relief in sight.  Paper says the grasshoppers are taking several counties are even coming close here. They are a terrible menace.  How is fishing over there?  A friend of ours gave us a 3 ½ pound catfish he caught. I’m quite a fisherman. Soon as I get able we’ll have more fish “maybe”.  I hear Peggy at the café is in Denver.  Lloyd’s business is holding up very well.   The boys gave him quite a rush fir treats so he will have to sell a few kegs of beer to catch up.  Well King, I’m not so much at news relating so maybe Lloyd can finish with something interesting.  Well, this husband of mind is such a busy man that I’m going to have to send this on.  You should see our son his quite a man.  I hear Art Heath the plumber is coming to see you.  Hope you are doing a better job of keeping cool than we are.  It has been 105 several days. 

I must close.

                                                                                                        Sincerely your friends
                                                                                                        Mr. & Mrs. Lloyd Pryor
                                                                                                        138 N. Market
                                                                                                        Wichita
                                                                                                                Kansas

 

Dayton, OH article on the grasshoppers, combating with cow tails.

THE GRASSHOPPER YEAR - taken from the Rossville Reporter July 2, 1936