Home  >> Stories  >> The Tale Spinner #2016-46

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IN THIS ISSUE

• Maurice Auden writes about life in China after the war
• Burke Dykes points out the difference between teachers and educators
• This Heroic Story is about road warriors
• Shirley Conlon forwards an essay about friends
• Many odd festivals are celebrated each year around the world
• Doris Dignard sends some truths known to adults
• Sites are suggested by Barbara Wear, Shirley Conlon, Shirley Coutts, and Tom Telfer

Maurice Audet describes

LIFE IN CHINA AFTER THE WAR

The war years provided me with a first-hand experience with old Chinese philosophy. Chinese have put up with a lot of hard times over the centuries. They have an uncanny capacity for adjustment and patient flexibility. "Some day things will change; they always do. Then we shall take advantage of the situation." Their stoic attitude enables them to suffer deprivation, mistreatment, oppression, and even extreme violence.

The Tienanmen massacre would not have happened if the young rebels-with-a-cause had understood and practiced the philosophy of their elders. Their youthful impatience prompted them to attempt the impossible, at the wrong time. They would have been successful if they had stood behind the tanks, instead of in front of them. Some generals seemed to be sympathetic to their cause, but they were not yet ready for a coup.

At the beginning of August, 1945, something like spring fever spread through the camp. The secret newscasts were very promising. The Japanese armies had been defeated; the air force was being depleted; the navy had finally come out of hiding to a suicidal finale. On the 9th, at 7 o´clock in the evening, a phone call summoned the guards to report to headquarters. The next day, the emperor ordered the cessation of hostilities. The atomic bomb had dealt the last blow to resistance.

The Russians poised along the Manchu border poured in without sacrificing one man. Three columns advanced towards Dairen and Port Arthur, leaving command posts in each occupied city. Three days later, they paid us a visit. By then, a number of us had taken advantage of an offer to return home; American paratroopers had liberated the top brass, held prisoners in a camp seventeen miles from ours. They had landed nearby.

On their way through Manchuria the Reds took care of many White Russians. Some of them had already fled and boarded ships for South America, especially Brazil. Just before the arrival of the Russians, the Chinese went on a spree of mad killings. Known collaborators were hunted mercilessly by uncontrollable crowds. One day I heard yells of "Sha!" (kill). Peeping from the gate I saw a crowd chasing a Korean. I dashed out by the small door towards him. He fell under a rain of projectiles, and I was unable to drag him inside. The crowd smashed him to pulp. Another morning, I heard a shot. Another Korean had just been killed outside our walls. When the Russians took over they put an end to that insanity.

But the situation was still volatile. Thousands of Siberian criminals, chosen to break the Japanese fortified lines, were loose. The Russian strategists had expected that most of them would have died in the process. Now, after years of detention, they were hungry for loot, including women. Small Russian tanks patrolled the dirt lanes, hoping to catch the looters red-handed. If successful, the patrols shot them and took their semi-automatics away. Trucks picked up the dead bodies.

A month after the end of the war, I decided that it was safe enough to return to Kirin. I had been given a bottle of cognac by French missionaries. Together with cigarettes left over from the Red Cross packages, I headed for the railroad station. All trains had been commandeered by the Reds. I asked a guard to show me the officers´ car. At the entrance, I introduced myself as "Amerikanski." After all, we are North Americans. An officer took me to his seat. After several cigarettes and an empty cognac bottle, we were on good terms. At night, the lights were not working. I curled up in a section of the luggage racks. Down below, males were fighting over females. Those who felt deprived compensated by dragging in Chinese girls at train stops. I spent seventy-two hours on that train, which moved slowly and erratically.

The Russians stayed in Manchuria for nearly a year. The only tracks, leading to Vladisvostock, Russia, lay within a hundred meters of my billeting. The occupation forces stripped the country of its entire industrial power, along with 2,000,000 Japanese engineers, technicians, doctors, nurses, etc. They left behind empty factories. The Chinese dismantled them, each taking what he could of parts and materials. The great open coal mines of Fushun were flooded.

Within a year, the Manchu population increased tremendously. But the innocent babies were not allowed to survive. The Russians were nicknamed "Red Beards," meaning bandits. Red-bearded foreigners travelling in China should shave. During the occupation, the Chinese were powerless against armed looters. However, they displayed their inborn ingenuity. They built scaffolds, on which they placed pagoda bells. If the Russians jumped their walls, everyone yelled and banged pots and pans. Their neighbours followed suit. Within a minute, a whole ward turned into bedlam. The patrol tanks rumbled in, leaving little time for enjoyable and profitable raids.

Once, two Russians jumped over my wall. I went out to meet them. They handed me a piece of paper with "three thousand yen" written on it. I surprised them by saying in Russian, "I´ll finish my lunch and go directly to the commandant to give the money. Sergeant! soldat!" I ended in a military fashion, made an about turn, and walked briskly away. After a brief consultation, they returned the way they had come.

Another day, I parked my bicycle in front of a shop. A burly soldier was about to grab it. I dashed out, snatched his identification card from his left breast pocket, examined it and said "O.K., five minutes." For fear I would report him to headquarters, he returned my bike promptly. Long before J. F. Kennedy, I had learned that bluffing was the best way to deal with the Russians.

The departure of the Russians was soon followed by the arrival of the Chinese Reds. They were later dislodged by the Nationalists. The army crossed the Sungari and blew up the bridges. One Nationalist general followed, supposedly to chase the 4th army. Nobody ever came back. The whole outfit had been sold to the Reds. Then, the Marshall Plan sent fifty-two teams of Americans to reconcile both sides. It was another complete fiasco. Even Air Force pilots were landing on the Red side for money and other favours.

I was offered a position as interpreter. I refused to be part of it. But I took advantage of an acquaintance with them, flying a Japanese girl teacher south where she could return to Japan. All Japanese women left behind after the exodus to Japan were raped by the Chinese and the Russians. I saved that teacher by having her dressed as a Chinese nun, accompanied by a real Chinese nun, who wanted to go south to see her dying father. I took both of them to the American base. When the American officer could not distinguish them, he agreed to let them fly. The flight was free, provided I signed a sheet exonerating the Americans of liabilities.

On the way to Mukden, we encountered a heavy storm. The pilot was watching the instrument which told him that his wings were horizontal. He could not see anything ahead. Finally, when the view cleared, he found himself heading straight at a mountain. He made a sharp angle move and just cleared the top. The plane landed and stalled on the runway. The pilot must have wondered if we had not brought upon him that double trouble. At least, he had escaped both safely.

Months later, the Reds came back and surrounded Kirin. It was winter; food became scarce. I got hold of a bitch followed by a pack of male dogs. I tied her to a tree and left the gate open. That night, I turned butcher and had a provision of meat for a while. In China, dogs are not pets; they don´t wear tags. They are loose.

The Nationalists were doomed. I made friends with the colonel in charge of the air strip, sold all my belongings, and bought gold rings. With a bundle of clothes, I spent three days with the colonel, waiting for a signal announcing an imminent landing. When the signal came, I hopped into his jeep and boarded the plane heading back to Mukden.

The plane came in with crates, which were supposed to hold money from the central bank. Instead, they were full of cigarettes. Once before, I had seen the crates, in the bank. The manager was a friend of mine. He controlled the racket, while his henchmen made what they could out of the black market. Whatever the disasters, there will be vultures to cash in on them.

Being larger, Mukden was in a greater state of frenzy than Kirin. People were spending a lot of money for a ticket to safety, on Chenault planes. Chenault was in charge of flyers in Shanghai. After the war, he stayed there with his Chinese girl, bought planes from the air force, and offered lucrative jobs to flyers who would stay behind. On top of high salaries and adventure, the fliers could make a fortune in gold and opium trafficking. I went straight to the tarmac and spoke to a Chenault flier. He immediately told me to hop in and find a bucket seat. I was soon in Beijing.

To be concluded

Burke Dykes explains the difference between

TEACHERS AND EDUCATORS

According to a news report, a certain private school in Washington recently faced a unique problem. A number of 12-year-old girls were beginning to use lipstick, and put it on in the washroom.

That was fine, but after they put on their lipstick, they would press their lips to the mirror, leaving dozens of little lip prints. Every night, the maintenance man would remove them, and the next day, the girls would put them back.

Finally, the principal decided to do something. She called all the girls to the washroom and met them there with the maintenance man.

She explained that all these lip prints were causing a major problem for the custodian, who had to clean the mirrors every night.

To demonstrate how difficult it had been to clean the mirrors, she asked the maintenance man to show the girls how much effort was required.

He took out a long-handled mop, dipped it in the toilet, and cleaned the mirror with it.

Since then, there have been no lip prints on the mirror.

Sometimes there are teachers. And then sometimes there are educators.

In a recent issue of Heroic Stories, Carrie Bryant of Brownstown Township, Michigan, describes this memorable incident involving

ROAD WARRIORS

In the summer of 1990, my kid brother moved to California. Mom and Dad had to get his car out to him, so they decided that Mom would drive it to California two weeks before Christmas, then Dad and I would fly out there and spend Christmas together with both my brothers. The day before my mother left, she fell and broke her left wrist and had to have a cast up to her elbow.

Dad plotted her route by way of Indianapolis. By the fourth or fifth day of her trip, while I was at my parents´ house helping Dad, Mom called. She was in Texas, not far from some friends of theirs, but she found herself so tired she pulled off the road for a 20-minute nap. She woke up and drove to a restaurant, where she called their friends. They asked her to come and stay for the rest of the day and night to visit, so she got directions to their place and left the restaurant.

As mom stepped outside, a man came up to her and asked if she was driving a Ford EXP with out-of-state plates, and had she pulled off the road somewhere a little while back to take a nap or something. Mom was wary about all the questions, but the man assured her that he meant no harm. Once she said yes, she was that woman, he asked her to please wait where she was while he made a call, and he would come back to explain. He went to his truck, grabbed his radio microphone, and made a call.

When he returned, he told her that truck drivers had been following her since Indianapolis. It seems that a driver had noticed this little white-haired lady with a cast on her left arm driving a stick-shift across the country. Since she didn´t have a CB radio, and probably didn´t have a cell phone, they took it upon themselves to watch over her.

They knew what hotel she stopped at for the night. Each morning another driver would pick her up and continue the trip. Any time the driver following her had to go in another direction, he radioed another trucker driver, who picked my mother up and continued following her.

Mom never knew she was being followed day and night by these truck drivers. The driver at the restaurant, telling my mother this story, said that when she had pulled off the road for those 20-30 minutes, the drivers had lost sight of her and panicked. They were looking for her when he spotted her car at the restaurant and stopped to make sure she was all right. Once he confirmed she was the right lady, he had to call the other drivers to let them know he had found her safe and sound, as they were getting ready to call the state police to look for her.

I can´t thank those highway angels enough for the care, worry, and protection they gave my mom during this trip.

ED. NOTE: To comment on this story, or to get your free subscription, click on

http://www.HeroicStories.org

Shirley Conlon forwards this article about

FRIENDS

Why do I have a variety of friends who are all so different in character?

How is it possible that I can get along with them all? I think that each one helps to bring out a "different" part of me. With one of them I am polite. With another I joke. I can sit down and talk about serious matters with one. With another I laugh a lot. I listen to one friend´s problems. Then I listen to another one´s advice for me.

My friends are like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. When completed, they form a treasure box. A treasure of friends!

They are my friends who understand me better than I understand myself. They´re friends who support me through good days and bad.

Real Age doctors tell us that friends are good for our health. Dr. Oz calls them Vitamin F (for friends) and counts the benefits of friends as essential to our well being. Research shows that people in strong social circles have less risk of depression and terminal strokes. If you enjoy Vitamin F constantly, you can be up to 30 years younger than your real age.

The warmth of friendship stops stress, and even in your most intense moments, it decreases the chance of a cardiac arrest or stroke by 50%.

I´m so happy that I have a stock of Vitamin F!

In summary, we should value our friends and keep in touch with them. We should try to see the funny side of things, and laugh together and pray for each other in the tough moments.

Some of my friends are friends on line. I know I am part of theirs because their names appear on my computer screen every day, and I feel blessed that they care as much for me as I care for them.

Humans have long celebrated odd events, with these some of the most bizarre:

ODD FESTIVALS

While the customs and holidays of other peoples of the world may seem odd to us, ours probably seems just as odd to them. But what follows would probably even seem odd to the revelers involved if they could just stand back and look at them neutrally. Of course, some of them are just good fun.

CHEESE-ROLLING (U.K., May) Cheese-rolling has taken place on the one in two slopes of Cooper´s Hill, near Birdlip in Gloucestershire, since the 15th century. At 6:00 p.m. on the Spring Bank Holiday Monday, local youths lined up at the top of the hill alongside a 7-pound circular Double Gloucester cheese. When the cheese was released, the competitors hurtled down the hill in an attempt to catch it before it reached the bottom. Eight people were injured during the 1992 event, and further accidents caused the 1998 event to be cancelled amidst much controversy.

DAY OF THE DEAD (Mexico, November 2) According to Indian folklore, this is the day when the deceased return to life. Families conduct macabre graveside picnics, offering food to the dead, and then dig into a feast of their own, eating chocolate coffins, sugar wreaths, and fancy breads adorned with skulls and crossbones.

DOO DAH PARADE (U.S., Thanksgiving) A spoof version of the glittering Rose Parade held each year in Pasadena, California, the Doo Dah Parade has deliberately become a byword in tackiness with badly- decorated floats, inept drill teams, and a routine where businessmen in suits perform with their briefcases.

GOTMAAR FESTIVAL (India, September) On the day following the September full moon, the 45,000 inhabitants of Pandhura divide themselves into two groups and start hurling rocks at each other until sunset when the fighting ends. The festivities can get out of hand - in 1989 there were 616 causalities, including four deaths.

GRANDMOTHERS´ FESTIVAL (Norway, July) First held at Bodo in 1992, the festival sees grannies riding motorcycles, racehorses, skydiving, and scuba diving. The star of the inaugural event was 79-year-old Elida Anderson, who became the world´s oldest bungee jumper.

KING OF THE MOUNTAIN FESTIVAL (Australia, October) With a summit just 140 ft. above the surrounding plains, Mount Wycheproof in Victoria is registered as the lowest mountain in the world. This fact is celebrated annually with a foot-race up the mountain with each contestant carrying a sack of wheat weighing 140 pounds.

LA TOMATINA (Spain) This festival dates back to 1944 when the fair at BuF1ol was ruined by hooligans hurling tomatoes at the procession. Now each year the town stages a 90-minute mass fight with 190,000 pounds of ripe tomatoes, an event which has relegated the annual fair to the status of a mere sideshow.

MOOSE-DROPPING FESTIVAL (Alaska, July) The town of Talkeetna plays host to an annual celebration of moose-droppings. Stalls sell jewelry and assorted knick-knacks made from moose-droppings, but pride of place goes to the moose-dropping throwing competition where competitors toss gold-plated moose-droppings into a target area, the winner being the one who lands his dropping closest to the centre target.

RUNNING OF THE SHEEP (U.S., September) Reedpoint, Montana, stages a gentle event similar to Spain´s famous Running of the Bulls. Each September, hundreds of sheep charge down Main Street for six blocks. Contests are held for the ugliest sheep and prettiest ewe, while shepherds assemble to recite poetry.

SWINGING THE FIREBALLS (Scotland, New year´s Eve) Residents of Stonehaven march through the town swinging great balls of fire made from wire netting and filled with driftwood, pine cones, twigs, and oil-soaked rags. The balls are then thrown into the harbor to herald the New year. The ceremony is thought to date back to the Middle Ages when the townsfolk tried to charm the sun from the heavens during the long, cold winter months.

Doris Dignard shares these

GREAT TRUTHS THAT ADULTS HAVE LEARNED

1) Raising teenagers is like nailing jelly to a tree.

2) Wrinkles don´t hurt.

3) Families are like fudge - mostly sweet, with a few nuts.

4) Today´s mighty oak is just yesterday´s nut that held its ground.

5) Laughing is good exercise - It´s like jogging on the inside.

6) Middle age is when you choose your cereal for the fibre, not the toy.

SUGGESTED WEBSITES

Barbara Wear sends this link to a video of a dance from the Cirque de Demain to the tune of Singing in the Rain:

Barbara also sends this URL for an interesting look at a duck farm in South Africa, where duck farmer Denzel Metthys manages over 1,000 Indian Runner ducks that are used as a natural form of pest control on the Vergenoegd Winery. Each day the "Quack Squad" parades in front of the farm house on their way to the fields, where they eat their fill of snails, helping to keep the vineyard healthy:

Shirley Conlon sends this URL for a site which calculates your life expectancy based on the answers to only 13 questions. It predicted I would live until I am 107!

Shirley Coutts forwards this link to colourful exotic dances along the Silk Road:

Tom Telfer forwards the URL for 100 years of fashion and dance in 100 seconds:

Tom also suggests this site for a video of David Copperfield magically flying among the clouds and stars in one of the greatest illusions of all time:

Check out this bar´s simple but clever way of combatting sexual assault:

When a woman couldn´t decide which dogs to rescue from a rundown shelter, she bought the whole place - and intends to save all 250 of them. Danielle Eden and her husband regularly visit animal shelters, choosing dogs that are living in the worst conditions to bring home to their 50-acre Dog Tales sanctuary in King City, Ontario. There, they get long walks, training, and medical care before being placed in new homes:

This "bad dog" destined to spend his life in shelter catches 150 poachers in two years:

In this long but illuminating video, Dr. Joseph Romm says that everything you thought your knew about climate change is obsolete:

To check out the features of the "freedictionary," which changes daily, go to