I probably have mentioned this before, but when I was in Hong Kong in the early 1950s – a few thousand people lived on Sampans – these are small boats about 30/40ft long hundreds of them covered many acres of the water. They housed whole extended families of more than a dozen all living on these small boats. We use to call it Sampan city.
When a warship came into the harbor dozens of sampans would converge on it and the Mama-san would negotiate with the Captain to have her boat and girls service the ship.
Many of these ladies had recommendations from other ships captains going back over a hundred years given to their grandmothers. Each Mamasan had about a dozen or more girls from her family or other families working for her.
Warships were a great prize for the Mama-sans as they have huge numbers of men compared to a commercial vessel therefore huge amounts of leftovers. The ship´s Captain used to give the business to two or three Sampans.
By service the ship, I mean they would be able to visit the mess decks at meal times and collect all the garbage, in return they would do jobs around the ship like painting or cleaning. I have visited Hong Kong many times and have never ever heard of a Sampan girl being touched by any member of the crew.
These girls were young and most attractive but they had a job to do and everyone respected them for it, you treated them better than your sister. Their whole livelihood depended upon them being a pure as nuns among a 1000 sailors.
Of course, being so pretty they not only got the leftover food the sailors used to give them good stuff too. These were in the days before there were cafeterias on British naval vessels. In between meals they would be busy all over the ship and it was just unheard of for anyone to bother them.
It was a sight to behold ... I believe the Mamasan “Mary Soo” was considered one of the most powerful women in Hong Kong In the 70”s. I was on 3 Westport's on two different ships in 75,76, & 78. We were painted out each time. An LPD is a large ship and that entire exterior was painted out entirely during a 4 day liberty port visit.
The Painters painted not with brushes but with socks on their hands.
The only down side was sailors had to watch “brass” fitting like a hawk ... Brass magically disappeared other wise. That was serious ...most all firefigthing nozzles and applicators are brass.
But other wise there was never any incidents.
Good Morning everyone.
Cardy, your Castles PPP inspired me for this one.
We had a terrific Anniversary evening. The meal was a hit. We ate outside on the Lanai with music and the candles lit. Very nice!
Unfortunately, we had an email the next morning informing us that our son had to be rushed to Mass General again. He's had a bad setback which could take him to mid-December conditions. This poor guy has been through hell. The worse case scenario is that he will have to have a section of his intestine removed.
I finally got some pics from our other son that I'll post later. They aren't too big, but I was surprised that he could send over 50 at a time via Picassa from Yahoo (or is it Google?) to my email. They took seconds to come in. If any of you have it, check it out. ;)
Also to fanfan.... I have all of Cardy's PP presentations and have never gotten any kind of spy-ware or virus. Just to let you know. ;)