The Bamboo Bridge Chapter Five: Eighth Avenue

We got a chance to go into Brooklyn and believe it or not, we even caught some lion dance there. It wasn't their main parade day and we new that this was the same day as Super Saturday in Manhattan's Chinatown. We saw some people just finishing up on poles and we saw what appeared to be younger members of well established teams. If I were to guess what was going on, I would imagine that the Manhattan teams trained their JV team by sending them to parade in Brooklyn first. Then if they could handle that, then they would be good to go in Manhattan next year. In fact, I talked to some of the older women who gave me a soccer mom vibe and indeed these teams parading in Brooklyn were based out of Manhattan. They had a lot of people... but so didnt Plum Village Chinese School. And with a whole group of drummers that I was training for double ten next year with Kai and Mo Yung....I would have enough people to do Brooklyn. The sidewalks were wider.... it appeared that you didnt really need to send in an application the way you had to in Manhattan. Don't get me wrong I had done Manhattan as a teenager with one of the family associations and was itching to do it again.... but maybe Brooklyn was a good start. We would be able to raise the people...if only we would be able to get some sort of connection with this community.

The next week we did finally the way back up to Boston to participate in our old team's parading.... even if we only got to stay for a couple of if hours before heading home. There is a difference between watching and actually participating. And there is a difference between participating with a rag tag team and a real team that was your family growing up.

And then the season was over. February became March.  We watched a St. Patrick's day parade... spring became summer...and we started training the drumming group at our house. Before long it grew into a pretty large group. I realized that although you could only teach so many people Kung Fu in a small space...and that people would say they didnt have space to do kicks or forms in their living room....drumming took up virtually no space at all. Kai and Mo Yung tried to get everyone to purchase expensive drum pads but I nipped that in the bud. 

"Let's save our money for the equipment" I said. I had created a whole system. Instead of belts the way the Japanese systems had, the ranking system would be by the type of drums sticks you had. Starting out you had your own rolled up newspapers. Then you had cheaper wooden sticks..then more expensive wooden sticks...and then the butcher knives often used in a Cantonese Restaurant. The highest level would be the Wu deep do..  butterfly knives....but I had to buy those online and I saw that they were actually quite expensive.

You see. The way of the drum would be a martial art after all. But for now... it was just drumming.

Slowly a restaurant themed  team began to form in my head. We e went to Brooklyn almost every weekend in the summer and began to reconnect with our culture a bit.

"You know," said Joyce" we can't bring those ratty heads to Brooklyn. "And that drum just doesn't sound right. We need to get our own stuff. And we need to start our own team."

"We have our own team in the basement."

"If you think those parents are gonna let their kids to lion dance in Brooklyn you are in for a surprise. That group is just for double ten and then you'll see, even though you gave them all your time they want follow you anywhere. They'll make excuse after excuse. I bet you they won't even buy any equipment for you like they said they would."

I asked Kai about purchasing heads in Taiwan but noticed he was often silent when I asked for something, and was absent for all the rehearsals at my house. But I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt and see if he would out uo the equipment. He had collected the money already for the year.

Eventually I half gave up on that little basket with eggs and began to look for a new one.

"Okay so where do we buy a head?" I asked Joyce.

" We go to Brooklyn every week, doesn't anyone their sell heads?"