Journey of William Joe Fong

William Joe Fong

Born on Sept. 13, 1925, in Duncan, Mississippi. Life took a turning point in 1929, when my parents’ grocery store was wiped out by a tornado. It took the lives of

my father, Joe Fong; my mother, Quan Shee; brothers Harvey and Henry; sister Lucy and my baby brother(??). I survived because I had a piece of candy and hid under a counter. Joe Sang, father of Charlie Sang, found me with broken arms and legs. I was still clutching the piece of candy! Unfortunately nothing of value pertaining to my family was saved. I do not have any recollection of what my family members look like.

There were many Chinese families that took care of me; these were the Joe Sangs, C.T. Lings, Jack Wongs, from Cleveland; Henry Joes (Fee Joe’s parents) from Boyle; J.N. Wuns (Jessie Wun’s parents) from Merigold; Sing Gongs from Duncan. I also stayed with others. All these families took me in through the kindness of their hearts. I will always be thankful and

grateful to all of them. They taught me to respect the elders, to be humble and to work hard, as all of them did. Being confused at that age of four or five, I became very insecure and timid, not knowing where to turn.

Since my parents bought a substantial amount of insurance, a guardian was necessary. My closest cousin didn’t speak English, so Ock Toy (bless his soul) volunteered. I was considered a millionaire according to others. No one knew that Ock Toy was an opium addict. After a brief stay with him, he sent me to Chicago Chinatown, (1933) to stay with a large Dea family for a year or a year and a half. Eventually the insurance company was questioning the large withdrawals from my account. Ock Toy was using my insurance money to fund his opium habit among other things such as faked purchases of real estate which was non-existent. Ock, not being a citizen of the U.S. was deported to China. To make matters worse, the lawyer that was involved passed away and there was no restitution. I had to go back to Mississippi with Mr. J. H. Lett and Mrs. H.Wong in order to verify my existence in order to claim what was left. Before, they can take me, the Dea family demanded money for room and board for which Ock Toy promised them.

Chicago left me with many fond memories: during hot summers we stayed at the beach until after midnight; turning on the neighborhood street fire hydrants; in the

William Joe Fong

freezing winters we had snowball fights with the Italians; free ballgames at Wrigley Field; free rides on the streetcars of choice and that is what you call find a need and fill it. In Chicago we would go to the YMCA to pick up day old bread and pastries. We would sing Chinese songs on tour buses and we would make tips from being runners in our neighborhood. My stay with the Dea family was a very moving experience; they treated me as one of their members. Tillie was the oldest daughter and Harry, the second oldest son. They treated me like a brother. I kept in touch with Tillie when I went back to Mississippi. She wrote weekly and gave me a lot of encouragement and advice.

Mississippi was a different world. It was small, confining, slow paced, and a lot of prejudice. I stayed with Henry Joe’s family. They had four boys, Fee, Edward, Walter and Peter; they gave me a sense of family because they were so nice and I felt at home. Mr. Henry Joe was a Pastor at the Baptist Church and the family attended Sunday services. I chummed around with Fee Joe because we were around the same age.

My stay with the Joe family was brief. When the Chinese School was built in Cleveland, I left the Joe Family, around the age of eight or nine, and stayed in the

dorm. J.H. Lett (bachelor) was appointed my guardian. There were approximately twenty boys and ten girls in the dorm at the school. An adult Chinese male (Rev. S.Y.Lee) and an adult Chinese woman were hired to take charge of the two groups. In due course I think they fell in love, I remember many a summer evening when they could be heard singing songs and playing the piano. The state assigned us two Caucasian teachers, Mrs. Miller and Mrs. McCain. We received very little time of active instruction since they had to teach all grades from lst to 12 th. Staying at the dorm opened a new world for me. Since I had no family, on weekends when everyone went home to their families, I would hike to the woods, taking along my b-b gun and a

tube of pellets and went hunting. When you’re young, acting like Huckleberry Finn is fun. I would shoot snakes, sparrows, and turtles and picking up bird eggs and pickle them. On weekends I would eat with the school janitor, who was colored and very friendly. He was great at Chinese cooking. He made the best salt fish dishes!

Chinese School visit afterdischarge from service

My stay at the Chinese school was short-lived, for J.H. Lett, a highly educated person, knew that the school, however well intended its goals, could not prepare me for a higher education. For whatever reasons, J. H. Lett decided that I should enroll in a military academy. He applied at one in Gulfport, MS and got a polite reply giving reasons why the school was not suitable for me. It was obvious that

the real reason was racial prejudice. I ended up going to Castle Heights Military Academy in Lebanon, Tennessee. The Academy was pretty rough because of my deficient educational background. Being in military school they stressed physical fitness and I fit in very well. I finished third, out of three hundred sixty five students, in the over-all physical fitness program. Scholastically I was average. In my junior year I decided not to be a second lieutenant in the army because I didn’t want to live in tents and eat K-rations; so I quit school and volunteered for the navy at the age of seventeen. J.H. Lett was very upset that I had wasted my money.

I went to naval training in Chicago (Sept. 7, 1944), signal school in New York, after which I was assigned to the U.S. Naval Arm Guard. I went to Treasure Island in California for active duty. It is a branch of the Navy

that places gunners and communication personnel on Liberty and Victory ships. In case of attack the merchant marines would abandon ship, while our duty was to protect it. The ships were very bulky and slow, cruising about 10 to 12 mph. We hauled ammunition, mail, tanks, food, military personnel and anything to supply the armed forces. Our ship, “SS Ball”, was all over the South Pacific. Two sorties of ammo were the most frightful. During the course of the war, we saw a ship blown up and lit up the night sky, which could be seen for miles around. It was a horrific feeling. The captain steered our ship away. At war’s end, our ship was in Nagasaki, Japan where the atomic bomb left nothing standing. We were fortunate to survive the war.

Upon being discharged from the Navy (June 21, 1946), I took advantage of the GI Bill. After passing the GED test for my high school diploma I went to the pharmacy school at Ole Miss. Luck Wing was the first Chinese male that graduated and I was the second. Rosie Gong was the first Chinese woman to graduate from Ole Miss. On weekends while in pharmacy school I would go back to Cleveland to help Jack Wong in his grocery store and have a great Chinese dinner. I graduated in 1952.

At military academy

In the ensuing years I moved around quite a bit, since I had no family ties to speak of. I was in Texas, New Orleans, and other southern localities. The Toy Family (May Linn) offered me a place to stay in New Orleans (1961). They had five children, Cheryl, Debbie, Daryl, Ricky and Joanne. It was a fun town; the Chinese community was small and very close; church was the meeting place. In order to play softball, we had to belong to the Chinese Church. Our softball team was champs for two straight years. The gang included Wally Joe, Charley Hom, Henry Tung, Harry Lee, Frank Lee, Kang Wong, Howard Woo, among others. Summer time, since it rains a lot, there are a lot of swamps. With the hot and humid weather, mosquitoes were all over. They even bite through your clothes. New Orleans is below sea level; all the cemeteries are above ground. Mardi Gras is a fairyland, good seafood, Creole and Cajun cooking. I also worked in small southern towns, where, besides being a pharmacist, I had to be a short order cook and a soda jerk. It was part of the job back in those days.

When I found out that I had an aunt in San Francisco through Joe Bing’s (of Lula) wife, I went to Las Vegas (1963) to get my pharmacy license to practice in California. Las Vegas is a fast town, never a dull moment. It was the better of two worlds if you don’t gamble. I worked full time at Thrifty Drugs and I was offered a job at a union store (Merit Drug) which I accepted after they offered to triple the pay. It was a 12 to 8 shift, which no one wanted, that I took. It was the

Graduation at Ole Miss

classiest store (12,000 square feet) in town, deli, wine cellar, expensive gifts, post office, and delivery for union members. Every Saturday night, the store was closed for parties (union members free). The union boss hired his best friend (a bartender) as manager. Showgirls with no experience were hired as clerks. The union boss would snap his finger and the manager would come running to him, whisper something in his ear, and the manager would go to a showgirl, she gets her coat and leaves with the boss. It was all in the line of business. The union boss was later found murdered gangland style. Obviously he had encroached on somebody’s turf. The killers were never apprehended. Time Magazine amply covered the episode.

When I passed the California Pharmacy State Board exam I moved to San Mateo, CA (1966), where I roomed with Conrad Woo so that I would be close to my aunt in San Francisco. In 1967, I met pretty wife, Carol, and got married in June 1968. We lived in Sunnyvale, CA. We have a son Michael (Oct 1969), who has a dental practice in Mountain View. He was married in 2000 and has a two-year-old daughter. Our other son, Kevin, (Dec 1973) is a supervisor in Quality Assurance at Classic Custom Vacation a subsidiary of Expedia.Com. I became an independent pharmacist and owned Vallco Rexall Drugs in Cupertino, CA from 1976-1989. We then bought the Pillbox Drugs in Sunnyvale, CA, two miles down the road. We managed that business until 2003, when I decided to semi-retire. I am presently working for Safeway Pharmacy. My work is close to home. I enjoy working part time just to keep busy and being in the profession. I enjoy babysitting, traveling, playing poker with the boys, tennis (weekend warrior). I have been battling my cancer for the past seven years; the doctors told me that I am a living legend because cases with colon cancer that metastasized to the liver have less than two years to live. I am very fortunate that God has given me the time to spend with my family and friends.

William Joe Fong passed away on March 21, 2007

Wedding At Pillbox Drugs

At Boy Scouts Lodge, Dermott, AK. From left:Holly Wong, Toannie Wong, Fee Joe, WilliamFong, Dancie Wong, Helen Wong, Jimmy Ling

Avid devotee of tennis Raising family in the Bay Area