Visiting a friend in New York City 2019/Carlos Pueblo

Visiting a friend in New York City 2019/Carlos Pueblo

Before the cruise, I made an appointment for a lunch with a friend of my elder brother, Patrick Chen at Flushing. After the disembark, I carried the luggage on 49th Street from the 12th Avenue of the pier crossing the 11th, 10th, 9th, to reach the 8th Avenue subway station, then took #7 to the final station. Pat came in to a gas station across a mall to pick me up. He lives out side of Flushing without subway facility. In late 1975 or early 1976, I was traveling across the U.S. and came to NYC to meet my brother Yancy. He was on his way to Houston for a new job. He took me to join a protest against the Nationalist Chinese rule in Taiwan specifically for a man called Ya Tsan Pai. He was sentenced to life in prison due to a simple question to then a vice premier, Chin Kuo Chiang, how much he paid for estate tax when his father Chiang Kai-sek died in 1975? Patrick was in that car to the front of White House with me. Later, Yancy told me many stories of their singles club at that time in New York.

There was this story which Yancy had mentioned throughout the years about a gift which Pat asked him to carry to a pretty girl in Taipei. The girl was a banker and was from a graduate of a prestige university in Taiwan. Yancy thought that was a match maker between the two, Yancy and the girl. It didn't turn out well at the end. Yet Pat and Yancy are still remember the last name of the pretty girl and still discuss about her. Pat was an excellent student when he was at the junior high school and passed both entrance examinations to the #1 senor high school in Taipei and also a famous 5 years technical school. He selected the later for a quick engineer career at that time. After the graduation, he came to Stony Brook, the State University of New York for the graduate study with a scholarship. He told me that on the first year his professor already introduced him to work at an engineering firm in NYC. After a brief employment with a large firm, he joined a partner to make computer board business. Gradually, he made another change to be a business venture broker. He is a real story of a successful immigrant.

Several years ago, I visited him with Yong's family from Staten Island. He treated us at a very nice Taiwanese restaurant some where at Flushing. I like to pay him back of his kindness and talk to this enjoyable company. He rejects the idea of me to buy him a lunch instead postpone my treat till his visit to Houston. He took me to a nice Korean restaurant with excellent Kim-chee side dishes. Even the waitress speaks Mandarin Chinese.