NBC Seafood Restaurant

by Timothy Gallaher

All three of the new citizen's had come from Taiwan, Republic of China five years before. They all had green cards because their mother (my mother-in-law) had come here about 13 or 14 years ago, before any of the kids, and became a US citizen. After five years they qualified and went through the rigamarole to do it. For a week or two I'd been asking my wife and brother-in-law (who's staying with us) all the questions: "Who was the first president of the United States? What are the three branches of government? Who was president during the Civil war? Who was Martin Luther King? What is the constitution".

The answers are of course, George Washington, Executive, Legislative and Judiciary, Abraham Lincoln, a civil rights leader and the supreme law of the land. There's a joke my friend from the Philipines told me about how after they pass the test their eyes turn blue and hair turns blond.

They were all fairly nonchalant about the whole deal, having lived here for five years. I was more excited than them, because now I can get them to register to vote. My brother in law goes back and forth between here and Taiwan a lot for business. He was there just a day or two before the presidential election there (you may have heard about it--it's the one that made the communist government of China so mad they started shooting missiles at each end of Taiwan to scare the Taiwanese people into something). I couldn't believe he'd leave a day or two before the election and not stay and vote, but he did and he didn't. I doubt he'll vote here either.

So we went to NBC, a great dim sum place in the morning. We were there at night this time. The first time I'd been to NBC was a year or so ago. When my friends from work said we were going to eat at NBC I thought they met the NBC commissary--you know in Burbank where the TV network is. No, NBC in Monterey Park. That's where the Hong Kong movie stars eat, I was told. At least that was the rumor and most likely a true one. I kept saying--oh look there's a movie star.

This night though was the whole family, mother-in-law and her husband; my wife, me our daughter, bro and sis in law. Their dad died when they were young, maybe precipitating their mother's move to the US. My mother in law was born in Taiwan. Their father had come over from the mainland to stay away from the communists. They probably would have killed him. I don't know too much about their real father. I wish he was alive so I could meet him and talk with him.

As we were going to park at NBC, an always crowded parking lot, I thought back to the last time we'd all gone there a couple of months before for mothers day. The lot was full of course. This time, though, we were in luck. My wife was driving and I wasn't paying much attention. The first spot in a row was open. We were going toward the row, perpendicular to it. We'd just have to turn left into the row and park at the first spot. Coming head on toward us was another car. We had a new Honda, the first new car I've ever bought--with great trepidation. Never have I had monthly car payments before. Buy an old clunker outright and run it til it dies was my modus operandi, but I do feel my wife and 2 year old daughter deserved something a little more reliable.

This car coming the other way was an older American car, cherried out and painted a nice rich metallic blue. It was definitely kept in nice shape. My wife and the driver of the other car both stopped. My wife gestured to him that she was pulling left to park in the open space. He waved her ahead. She zipped into the place.

So what happens when we get out of the car? The blue cherried out GTO is sitting behind us and the guy has got out of the car. I left our car and opened the back door to get my daughter, unhooked the car seat belt and helped her down out of the car. The guy starts yelling. "Hey that's my spot. I was going to park there." He seemed quite angry.

He was a Hispanic guy, probably in his forties, maybe even fifty, with a thick mustache. "You waved us ahead", I told him, "my wife signaled to you that she wanted to park there and you waved OK." This is what it seemed to me, although I wasn't paying all that much attention.

"Bullbleep," he bellowed (he didn't actually say bleep). "Bullbleep!"

My wife started saying something also. "Stupid!" is what she said, "stupid!" Her mother says that a lot too. Her mom doesn't speak English all that well but she sure knows stupid when she doesn't like something or someone. My wife probably learned this very early on during her American sojourn.

"No, he's not stupid", I said quietly.

"What do you mean?" she asked and then repeated, "stupid!". I was trying to diffuse the situation. I didn't think it was a good idea to begin to antagonize him.

"Look, sorry, we thought you waved us in," I told him.

"That's bullbleep," he was still shouting, "don't give me that bleep." This was bellowing is ever there was bellowing.

"Sorry, look, there's another spot right there that's open, you can park there." He just glared at me. He continued his mantra.

"Bullbleep."

There was an empty spot, just four or five spots down. This was a rather amazing event for such a crowded parking lot. "Look, hurry, there's an empty spot right there. Hurry or someone else is going to park there." He didn't budge, simply glared and once again told us his opinion in no uncertain terms.

"Bullbleep. This ain't China," he yelled, "I'm an American."

"I'm American too," I answered back, automatically as a response to his strange and completely beside the point statement about his citizenry, "but look, hurry there's a spot". There was an open spot. I was under the mistaken impression that he wanted a place to park. "Hurry, someone else is going to get it."

"This ain't China," he yelled again, "I'm an American." I thought this was a strange thing to say, beside the point and now he had said it twice.

"Look, someone's going to get the spot, it's open right now," but he wasn't budging, not getting back in his car but standing behind it and its' shiny paint job with the door open and engine revving, staring at me through his tinted glasses. My wife and daughter had gone ahead to the restaurant.

Someone pulled into the empty spot. "Look, they got the parking space, you could have parked there," I told him. He just glared, "you're all the same, you always do this," he yelled.

"What are you talking about...?" I was starting to get mad and was about to go head to head with him, letting my baser instincts take over, but stopped short.

"Bullbleep!" he shouted.

"Hey, OK, you can have this spot," I told him. This was true, I decided I'd pull out and move, park somewhere else and let him have the spot. I hit the alarm button on the key chain and the beep-beep sounded. I open the door to get in.

"Hey," he yelled, "hey, BLEEP You. This ain't China...you...you...Chinese lover," he got into his car. He drove off, out of the parking lot and up the street.

Oh man, I was shaking a bit. My adrenaline was sure going. I beeped the car locked again and walked over to the restaurant. Inside my wife told me she'd told the security guards to watch out for this guy. They told her they knew that guy from other incidents.

Maybe that explained his cryptic comment "you always do this." You know, the city we were in got a lot of press in the past for being the first "Asian majority" city in the USA. Some scholar even wrote a book about it, a very dry and scholarly book that I read and that's why I know how dry it was. Most of the stores in the city have signs in Chinese. The restaurant we were going to has its menus all in Chinese. The waiters and patrons all speak Chinese. Chinese is the lingua franca there. I know also that parking in the shopping centers around is difficult because of all the traffic and paucity of spots. One of the tactics that my wife and everyone else use it seems is to watch for shoppers who are heading toward their car and wait there for their car. The people waiting to park then put on their blinkers and wait. It's like staking a claim rather than driving around and around until an empty space is found. It's standard operating procedure and no one seems to object. I never liked doing that myself.

So here we were again back at the Dim Sum restaurant, this time celebrating the passing of the citizenship tests and my thoughts returned the that incident. He was so proud, or something, of being an American as he shouted it out to me. My wife's mother was American too. Now my wife, brother- and sister-in-law were American, not just permanent residents. What did this have to do with his comments other than xenophobia and resentment over immigrants. I found it so ironic that he would be motivated by this sentiment when he was Mexican and there had been so much controversy about Mexican immigrants. People feel out of town in their own town I guess. But the town is anyone's and all who live there. We are all Americans.

Some people think there are too many foreign language signs or foreign languages. There are a lot of them. I guess some people might feel left out if they can't read or understand all the signs.

But that's the way it goes. I was happy sitting with my , and my next to me. I looked at the the menu, some of the characters I knew. and were sitting happily next to each other. Later sat picking his teeth after a nice , , and . and were all smiles due to the food and the citizenship, as were I and my . then , forgetting about some hot head with a hot car.

Too many signs one can't understand. I guess one can see why another one might be feeling strange.