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Ducks, and Peacock

Mae is very active lady.  She had been active since she was young girl.  In Nakhon Phanom, not only being active dressmaker she was also active in caring for all employees.  With little free time she had she always tried cooking new kinds of food, raised animals etc.

My Childhood is very colorful.

2 Peacocks, several roosters, hens, and little chicks, walked freely in the small yard in the middle of the leather drying area.  It was also the resting area in evening after work.  Sometime my father had the workers caught the roosters and inject some white pills into, not sure head or neck, to sterile them.  Sometime we just watch the peacocks open their tails beautifully.

My elder brother was a very creative boy.  He was 9 years older then me.  He was my hero.  He said go, I go.  Sometime I was not quite sure but I always trust him even it proved many times that he was treating me.

“Eat, Do you know we can ride on dogs, the same as on horses.  You go try.”

Very soon we could hear mother shouted from the kitchen, “Eat, get down from that dog.  It is dirty.”

One day while watching the peacocks eating, he told me again.

“Eat, you go ride on the peacock.  Hold tight to its neck.  That was real fun.”
I hesitated.  The head of the peacocks were about my shoulders, scary to me.
“Go on. Now”
I walked closer to them, they looked at me, did not run away.  I walked closer and closer and suddenly one of them moved their head very fast, bit my face with his sharp beaks, almost got my eyes.  I jumped away with bleeding face, did not make any sound but heard my sisters screamed.

Sure enough, my brother, Daeng was spanked again for the millionth time.

The peacocks had to move from our house right away.

One day my father came home with many lovely little ducky.  My elder sister, Nid was very pleased.  She always loves cute and pretty things.  She admired their soft yellow hair and took care of them happily.

Only a few days later, the soft yellow fur was replace by dark and dirty feathers.  She was very disappointed.  Her lovely little ducky became ugly little ducks.  She hated to shop the vegetable, mixed with brown bran that it became ugly soggy brown thing to be duck food.  What she hated the most was to walk through the wet and smelly area, full of ducks out put, to get duck eggs.  A few day of enjoyment became her [duck’s] life time depress.
 
But that was my heaven.  I like to search for duck eggs.  Sometime I got the one over head and stepped on the one below.

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Chinese Coriander

There was a shop in front of the market, right at stairs to the “furry’ to cross Mae Kong river to Lao.  This shop sold fertilizer, seeds, and other agricultural things.  I saw a package of coriander seeds.  The plant was so pretty.  I bought them home.

My father mentioned that coriander grew best in the soil that mixed with the ashes of chaff.

Hmmmm.. ashed of chaff…. Ah, there was a rice mill nearby.  I took a small tin and ran there.  I saw the new burned chaff on their yard and took home both black white part and mixed with soil in the pot.  The ashes were still warm.
Then I carefully put the coriander seed on the top and water them.  The ashes floated together with my coriander seeds, overflow the pot to the drain.

My beautiful coriander was gone without the wind.

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Record player and night dance.. ..
From school I could look over Mae Kong river and saw blue mountains in Lao.  Sometime we, children heard the fighters flew over the mountains, dropped some fishy things down, followed by a big BOOM, and the mountains smoked.

Everyday people escaped from Lao to Thailand.  Some brought their things to sell to my father so they had money to run further.  There were a lot of nice brass furniture which, if keeping until now would have been expensive antiques.

There were some cable [about RG214 size], part of broken fighters, empty bullets and cannon balls, etc.  

I enjoyed those time.  I was too young to understand that it was a cruel part of their lives.   

Many times my father had to go for a few days and back.  I was too young and too busy to pay attention to his missing, but old enough to be so happy when he came back with gifts.. hi hi

He unwrapped a square pack.  It was a funny white and blue plastic box with turntable.  He put a black round plate on the turntable and put the needle at the end of a leg on the turning turntable and there was music came out laud. 

Wow!! Amazing!!

One disc was dancing Chinese music.  The cover of this album was confusing shade of purple with the shadow of a man dancing and had large letter on it that said “DANCE”  [I wonder now, how I could read it.  I was probably 7 years old then.]

On the night that Poh was not too tired he would turn on the music in the bed room. They were so inviting that I any my young sister could not stay still.  We jumped up and dance around the room.

That was the very first technology I had come across.

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Baby dolls

Very unusual that Poh and Mae left the house together unless it was holiday.  I remember only once [because of the gifts.. ha ha].

They crossed the river to Lao, to the “dark market” as it meant in Thai.  What it was, why it was dark, why they did like to go to a dark place.. I did not understand and I always wanted to see how dark it would have been.

It was later afternoon when Poh and Mae walked into the house, smiling.  My Pee Daeng and Pee Nid were politely waiting but I and young sister Jeed were jumping impatiently.

The first from the bag was a yellow baby doll with rabbit ears.  She had sweet big black eyes and was very pretty.  She had real hand and fingers and wore small shoes.
Then Mae pulled out another doll.  She was old rose color.  She did not have hand nor feet but there was a zip opening at the back.  She has round big eyes and curled hair at the forehead, under her fixed hood.

The pretty yellow dolls belonged to Jeed and the lovely bag doll belonged to me.  She was my darling.  She was with me until I got married.  All her hair loose, and her sweet old rose pale.  I put her in a box, kept together with preciouse photographs and some other things at the old house before we moved.  My husband’s sister is living in the house.  She ran a sawing factory and the material cover all my belongings, could not take out..
 
Hope she is still there until the day I can rescue her...

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It Can Be Eaten

Pee Daeng and Pee Nid were taught to use gun.  Jeed and I were too young but we enjoy picking up the shot targets and report.  In front of our house stood a large mango tree.  In summer hundreds and hundreds of yellow mangoes would hang all over  the tree.  We pickled the green, tried to eat and give away the riped, and offer to the whole town, shared with birds and squirrels, still, lots and lots of mangoes fell on the ground and the river bank.

Poh had Pee Nid tried her gun shooting at the mango tree.  Everyone in the family and the workers were around backing her up.  She aimed and shot and one mango fell. 

Wow… Everyone made sound.  It cut right at the stem.  Pee Nid’s face was funny.  She looked at the tree again and said very softly.

“The fruit I aimed to is still on the tree”

On weekend, if Poh was not too busy, he liked to drove us all out of the town or a public natural park on his nice pale green pick-up car.  He once shot a big bird from the park.  It fell on the river bank.  Pee Nid and Pee Daeng ran to pick it up.  They ran closer and suddenly turned and ran back faster.  It was a large smelly vulture.

On one long weekend, we went to a place called Sri SongKhram together with my parents’ best friends.  One is the province’s treasurer and his wife, and one is a teacher and his wife, ah yes, also the captain uncle. 
Sri Songkhram was a small village on Sri SongKhram river.  We need to park under a large banyan tree at the river bank and cross the river by small boat.
The banyan tree was full of nice smell small red fruits and birds talking and fighting while eating the fruits.  The river was cool, clear and very green, different from milky brown Mae Kong.  At the mouth of the river, she ran clear green, parallel to milky brown Mae Kong for awhile before they mixed together.

 We went to the village leader’s house.  The adults were eating and talking and I had nothing to do so I followed the children to a temple, watched them play.  In the middle of the temple yard there was a nice large tree with lots of nice smell fruits but strange, the seeds were all outside.

The children told me that it was Cashew nut and the seed could be eaten.

“Seeds Could Be EATEN?????” It does not look as delicious as the fruit, but I must believe them any way.  I picked a nice fruit back with me and some seeds.  I wanted to try that nice smell and soft fruit but on the way to the village leader’s house I tried a bite on the seed first.  Just one bite, my mouth burned!  It was swollen and red.
 
I got on the house, took some ice from the box and kept pressing on my mouth until the Treasurer uncle noticed and asked.  I was laughed at being so greedy.  Yes, the seeds could be eaten after they were dried, took of the outer and fried, not just bite.

The Treasurer uncle was excited with its fruit.  He asked whether I could give him, sure I could.

I still want to try that fruit until now but never dare to even I had the chance.  The burning feeling is printed in my brain.

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