For more details, visit my Chinese restaurant history blog.
Joan Champ, a Canadian museum historian who helped me track down my relatives that ran a small Chinese cafe in Saskatchewan that I had never met before, shared with me her research on rural hotels in that province. Some were owned by Chinese immigrants who also had cafes in these hotels.
For more details, visit my Chinese restaurant history blog.
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I had given up hope that I'd find these relatives from Norquay. The trail had gone cold after a promising start. Fortunately, Joan, the historian contact in Saskatoon had taken an interest in the search. She found the tel number of someone in Regina, whose first initial and surname, Quong, fit the oldest son. So, another what the heck, I decided to make another attempt. The woman who answered my call was very guarded, and unwilling to say much. Only with some coaxing, and additional explanation that I was trying to locate a relative that I had never met, did we make a little progress. It turned out that the male I was trying to locate was not at this number, but lived in Calgary. However, the woman I was speaking to was his sister. In short, she was from the Norquay Quong family that I was seeking. I explained that her mother and my mother, even though they had never met in person in North America were either sisters (wrong) or niece and Aunt (correct). They did exchange greetings with periodic xmas cards, and I had one form 1982 that my mother had saved, complete with a letter written in Chinese mentioning that the Quongs had 7 children since coming over about 25 years ago to Canada. Here is the card, and the back side of a photograph with identification of three children, who I assume would be my cousins, or cousins once removed. I asked my 'cousin' for the contact information for her brother, but she was reticent, which did not bother me as I know one can't be too careful dealing with 'strangers' so I volunteered my tel. number and e-mail, asking her to send it to her brother(s) so they could contact me. Several days have passed, and no one has tried to contact me, so I am disappointed slightly. I don;t think we would likely meet in person, but I thought it would be nice for family members to at least have a chance to be introduced to one another. I also felt I owed my mother an attempt to get in touch with her nieces and nephews in Canada.
I also wanted to ask them for more information about running a Chinese cafe in rural SK, especially since my book would benefit from more insider views of this business. My best source of information came from their 85 year old neighbor, Bob, a farmer in Norquay who frequented their cafe. He described the owners, Wayne and Helen, as very friendly and chatty folks; Wayne worked the counter and dining area, along with help of older children after school, while Helen did the cooking duties. Hours were long, as farmers like to start early, and gather at the cafe for long coffee hours. For a town of pop. 500 or so, the cafe served as a social center for area residents. It's a quiet, but friendly place, I gather, as Bob told me if I ever come up to Norquay, he'd be happy to drive me around, but I should do it soon, being as he's now 85! And, we aren't even distantly related to each other! |
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