 If you didn't want a particular item Tin Hong had called out, you had to act fast. |
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By JOANNE MACDONNELL
Actually, I bought "Who Moved My Cheese?" for my brother because he's very resistant to change. Unlike me, change upsets him very much. In fact, he becomes unhinged.
I worry about him a lot.
The book, subtitled "An Amazing Way to Deal With Change in Your Work and in Your Life," is a New York Times bestseller.
It's touted to help people cope with change in their lives without flipping out. In fact, its message is that you can come to view change as a blessing if you understand the nature of the "cheese" and the role it plays in your life. I fully intended to mail it to him -- he lives in Seattle -- that is, until Tin Hong disappeared.
Tin Hong was the proprietor of the Chinese restaurant we had frequented for over 25 years.
One day recently he just disappeared.
Vanished.
My daughter, who lives nearby, went there to get her usual chow mein, fried rice, won ton soup, pot stickers and egg rolls, and called hysterically to say that Tin Hong was no longer there, his restaurant was closed and there was no sign to indicate where he had gone;.
I went into mourning.
I knew I couldn't find him on the Internet. Tin Hong didn't even own a computer.
In fact, there weren't even any take-out menus at Tin Hong's. There was a big blackboard behind the glassed-in food display where Tin Hong had printed what he had to offer. It never changed.
Tin Hong's fare wasn't fancy but it was good, and, more importantly, he knew all of us by name. As soon as one of us walked in his door, he'd announce "chow mein, pork fried rice, pot sticker" -- with no question mark at the end -- smile and start dishing up his great food into take-out containers. If you didn't want a particular item Tin Hong had called out, you had to act fast. Tin Hong was speedy. You never had to wait at his place.
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Tin
Hong had tables and chairs in his establishment, but it just
wasn't the sort of place where you "went" to eat. It
was strictly take-out. In fact, during all the years of going
there, I can't remember ever seeing anyone actually eating there.
When my son married and moved to Sunnyvale, he'd still make the
20-mile trip back to San Jose to get Chinese food at Tin Hong's.
Tin
Hong occupied a small space in a large shopping center that had
seen better days. In fact, at one time it had housed a bustling
supermarket, two pizza parlors, a restaurant, a chain drug store,
a pet shop, an animal clinic, a barber shop, a photo studio,
a dance studio, a liquor store, a cocktail lounge and a number
of other businesses.
All are gone.
In fact, the whole shopping center is gone. It has recently been leveled. I can't even bear to drive past it. There's no there there anymore.
It isn't as if there are no other Chinese restaurants around. There are.
In fact, one that my daughter found has such delicacies on its six-page take-out menu as honey walnut shrimp and lobster with ginger, dishes that would never have darkened Tin Hong's blackboard.
But it's not the same.
For one thing, the new restaurant's pot stickers taste like dog food compared to Tin Hong's and they don't deliver, even though they advertise that they do. More importantly, though, they don't know anyone's name.
I e-mailed my brother and told him why he hadn't gotten "Who Moved My Cheese?" yet.
Then I told him about the disappearance of Tin Hong and how it was affecting my life.
Now he's worried about me.
"Are you becoming unhinged?" he e-mailed back.
I have been reading "Who Moved My Cheese?" a lot lately, hoping it would help.
It hasn't.
The book details the lives of two mice and two tiny people caught in a maze (life's many paths). They're searching for cheese (a metaphor for their heart's desire). The book is so good, it says here, that it is used as a training tool by some of America's top corporations.
But I guess the real reason it hasn't helped me is that I don't want to know who moved my cheese -- I just want to know where they put it.
© 2000 by Joanne MacDonnell. The cartoon images in this column are from the IMSI Master/Clips Collection, 1895 Francisco Blvd. East, San Rafael, CA 94901-5506, USA.
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