423 Kirkham Street

The next stop is 423 Kirkham Street where Gway and Show Har Chin raised their family. Without daycare, Show Har would often bring Arnold to work with her and tie him to the sewing machine. One time she left him home alone and he was playing with matches and throwing the matches out the window - accidentally lighting the curtains on fire. Luckily, his mom came home in time, pulled down the curtains and doused the fire. The house on Kirkham street was the house full of many fun family memories including February and November birthday dinners and countless Sunday dinners where Show Har would toil over some of her Chinese home cooking that consisted of “Hom don gin gee yook”, steamed fish with ginger and chives, clay pots with braised tofu and mushrooms and winter melon soup. Clearly this is where Arnold first tested his hand in Chinese cooking, learning from his mother and father. After one of these dinners Gway would demonstrate his knife skills adeptly peeling an entire in one continuous peel and then proudly handing it to his grandkids to wander over. On other nights he’d magically sculpt roses out of carrots or demonstrate his tai chi in the family living room. Arnold’s love and appreciation for family was instilled by his parents in this home and after his parents passed, the family would continue family dinners there, stuffing 15 - 20 people into the crowded living room to console each other and laugh at Gway’s depression era tactics of piling toilet paper to the ceiling, fearful that there would one day again be a shortage. This house also happened to be the site of dozens of garage sales, where Arnold taught Ryan and Lisa the art of negotiation and entrepreneurship. One time, Arnold decided to pick Ryan up from school on his brother Raymond’s motorcycle and would accidentally throttle the bike, with father and son on board, right through the home’s garage door.