Spring in Springfield, Massachusetts, seems to be long overdue. It is quiet and cool at the turn of March and April. On both sides of the highway, there are wild and dense natural forests. Compared with the tall and tall street trees that we are used to planting artificially, it is a little messy, but messiness is also good, with a natural beauty. If you look down from the air, you will find villas, baseball fields and lakes of various sizes scattered in the jungle. The villas where residents live in this area have one, two, and three floors, and the exterior walls of the houses are mostly white or light colors such as pea green. Because there are no tall buildings, the sky is extraordinarily vast. No matter the blue sky and white clouds or the rolling clouds, for those who come out of the buildings in the metropolis, the open visual experience cannot but be said to be a kind of enjoyment, which revives our love for Long-lost memories of the open world.
Imagine the autumn here again: under the far-reaching and vast sky, among the colorful trees, the wooden house with a fairy tale feeling… Local friends say that the autumn here is really beautiful. When we were near the town, houses hurriedly passed by in front of us, children and dogs, male owners and trucks, and slides in the yard, passed by in front of us. With good impressions of towns in the eastern United States, we were invited to dinner at Yerk’s house on this day.
As soon as I entered Yeke’s house, the momentary feeling can be called “shock”. It’s not how luxurious his home is, but the open and bold layout is novel and pleasant. The living room, dining room, and open kitchen are integrated into one, and there is no wall division. The kitchen turns out to be the main body of this large space, completely breaking the stereotype that the living room is the center of the family. The sunken living room makes the kitchen on the stage more like a stage, and the hostess Mei Li, who prepares dinner in the L-shaped console, is a well-deserved protagonist.
The Yerk family has lived here for decades. Over the decades, this one-story villa with a basement and a large yard has been expanded in area and improved in structure. The current layout makes people look chic and considerate, very comfortable. There is a skylight on the roof of the living room, lying on the sofa, basking in the sun during the day and watching the stars at night, it is a pleasure; there is a workbench and a ping-pong table in the basement, all kinds of items are sorted and neatly organized, the space is large enough to make people feel extravagant . There are two places that impressed me: one is a wall with all kinds of tools hanging. I took one off at random, and the hand-drawn outline of the tool was exposed on the wall. It turned out to be to avoid misplacement when putting it back. There is also a corner full of participation cards, which is the first time I have seen such an alternative collection. The membership card can be said to be the testimony of Jake’s career. These two places may seem unrelated, but there may be an inevitable connection: the tool wall represents the owner’s life attitude, orderly and meticulous; the certificate wall represents the owner’s career trajectory. The attitude of being a person and doing things often determines the height of a career. Who can say that Yerk’s career achievements have nothing to do with his meticulous attention?
Mely’s dinner was ready, and the host and guests sat around the round dining table. Perhaps because this area is on the east coast, the red lobster is the theme of the dinner. The host is very generous and hospitable, one lobster per person. Usually in China, we would share the food with several people, but now we have a large one, which gives Ye Gong a good “lobster” feeling. Yeke ate and chatted without hesitation, and the delicious lobster in everyone’s hands also unknowingly swallowed.
The Yerks are Chinese immigrants from the Philippines who immigrated to the United States. From the generation of Yerk’s parents to the United States, the family has now had a fourth generation. The Yerks are considered middle-class in America. Jake’s three sons and daughters are all excellent. Our youngest daughter, Ciri, graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Before, she kindly showed us around the campus and invited us to taste delicious oysters at the bar next to Boston University, and feel the American cultural atmosphere brought by this famous bar. She is chatty, lively and cheerful, but she also seems to be able to sense a hint of oriental restraint in her openness. A stronger feeling is that the Yerks did not fully integrate into American culture until Ciri’s generation.
The daughter accepts the task assigned to her by her father and receives friends from China. There are cultural differences and age differences between the two sides. She has done a lot with patience and enthusiasm, just like treating her own friends. This is no doubt a testament to the rapport and successful education of the Yerk family. This can only be done with a full heart of love for your parents. It can be put into perspective, just imagine whether our children can also willingly undertake such a reception and complete the task satisfactorily?
Jake tells a family anecdote. The children booked their parents a cruise to Alaska for their wedding anniversary. The boat is off, and Jake and Mellie hear a knock on the door in the room. Yeke, who “colluded” with the children, pretended not to know and asked Meili to open the door. Meili was pleasantly surprised to find that the children were standing outside the door! The family went to Alaska and started a happy voyage. Such a beautiful story, it turns out that it is not only in the movie, it happened in the Yerk family, a Chinese family who immigrated to the United States.
In the Yeke family, I saw a “wall calendar”, which printed the names and dates of birth of the Yeke family generations and other detailed information. It was similar to a genealogy. In the United States, in Springfield, in an ordinary-looking villa on the outskirts of Springfield, it strongly radiated and deeply moved the people present.
