Nana Stories

In support of the blogging that is happening, I wanted to jump in with a post. The other evening, Shaoshu cooked a traditional Szechuan dinner for us and Nana, as an excuse to hang out with Nana. Shaoshu and his girl friend Mylinh (Vietnamese American) were impressed by Nana's willingness to try the new and different food, and her competence with chopsticks. We all have met people our own age who don't know how to use chopsticks, and refuse to try. Props to Nana. 

We got to talking about Nana's days living in a houseboat on Lake Union. She described on mirage they had in a fairly secluded area at the base of a hill. It was secluded enough that Nana would slip out in the morning wearing only a slip and a bra ("because we didn't wear pants in those days") to put a few laundry items on the line to dry. One morning, Papa's friend Dick's father was in town, and he dropped in on them at just that very moment- undressed, outside the boat. "I grabbed a dish towel and held it up in front of me life I was about to hang it, and gestured with the whole thing 'you just go right on in, right over there.' Then I ran to my neighbors house, undressed, and begged to borrow a dress. The only thing she had was a plaid thing with giant bubble sleeves. I put in on and went back to the boat and tried to act like nothing happened. He never raised an eyebrow and I never said a thing!"