Rob's Obs 1

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I'm gonna take you, on a slow boat to China
All by myself alone.
Emile Ford & The Checkmates 1960


As we wander around this great country, I tend to notice things which interest me for one reason or another.
Sometimes it's sparked by what someone says. Sometimes by something I see or on other occasions it's when I spot a difference in our cultures, wide or subtle.

I'm gonna call these 'Rob's Obs' as they are about my observations.

San Francisco has a very famous area called Chinatown that we visited last year.
There is also a Chinatown area in L.A. Not as well known or as big as Frisco's but equally as oriental in both look, smell & feel. (I have to make a supposition here as we haven't been there yet.)

On Wednesday, Val & I went off to visit the Masters of Harmony at their rehearsal.
To get there we took a route that led through Monterey Park along South Garfield Avenue. This is a typically LA suburban area with wide streets and modern buildings.
As we reached the crossing with East Garvey we realised that it was far from typical and that everyone in sight, whether on foot, in car or on a bus was oriental. Even the truck drivers. Everyone!
Although the area looked just the same as anywhere else, it had obviously been adopted as home by the Chinese. Probably due to either lack of room in Chinatown or the younger generation moving away.
All the shop signs were in Chinese except for one which read ‘The Hong Kong Ping Pong, Sing Song and Mah Jong Social Club’! (Actually I just made that bit up but I thought you might like it)
There are many other areas in LA that are dominated by one race, Mexican, Armenian, Korean or any one of a dozen more. We'd just never seen it emphasised so absolutely before.
This mixture of races makes LA a really cosmopolitan city and the availability of food from other cultures seems endless.

End of Ob 1.