Page 283 - Three Score Years & Ten
P. 283
“THREE SCORE YEARS AND TEN” MISSIONARY WORK IN CHINA
Amy Moore
find or make. Frankie was really funny as he took it upon himself to be Master of Ceremonies. He
greeted Santa like a long lost friend and, taking him by the hand, led him round the room, introducing
him to all the other children and ending up by pointing at the Ebeling baby saying, “And look at THAT!”
THE CHILDREN
After a bad time with tummy upsets during the heat of summer, the cold weather and plenty of good
milk to drink was making a difference to the children. We had been buying cows milk from a man on
the street, but it was getting bluer and bluer, which meant of course that it was having more and more
water added. So we were getting less and less milk and with the terrific rate of inflation, the price had
gone up to $100 for a 12 ounce pint. The Swiss goats we had brought from Xixiang had got a
disease and died soon after we arrived in Hanzhong, but when the Parsons family came to us from
Henan, they had paid their goatherd to drive their lovely big English goat across country to us, hoping
to sell it before they left China. We jumped at the opportunity and in January it gave birth to a lovely
big nanny kid. We allowed it to drink most of its mother’s milk till the end of the month and then
separated it altogether. The milk we got from the mother goat amounted to about 5 sixteen ounce
pints per day and the cream each morning was half an inch thick on top. We gave the children all they
could drink and used what we wanted ourselves and made butter of the rest. The little kid was a
nanny too and a pure breed, so we planned to keep her, hoping that the two of them would keep us
supplied all the year round in the future.
So with plenty of milk and the cold weather, I was able to write home that
“Dorothy is a round little roly poly in her winter wadding, and has such a lovely colour
to her cheeks. Both the children are looking ever so well, and it is good to see them
after the summer pulled them down. Dorothy is a real little tease, and very slow to
accept our invitations for kisses, but very generous with them when she once breaks
the ice. She is really not shy at all, but likes to pretend she is”.
In January 1945 we were suddenly electrified by the news from HQ that Alan was in India! The
Japanese had made a push from the south towards Sichuan just before Christmas. The Government
(both Chinese and Western) had decided that our school should not remain in Jiading, which is only
150 miles from Chongqing near the famous sacred mountain of Emei. India seemed the safest place
under the deteriorating conditions in China, but the only way to get there was to fly over ‘The Hump’
(part of the Himalayas) to Calcutta from Kunming in south west China in Yunnan Province. The
American Air Force were called in to help and, on Christmas Day, big American trucks drove into the
school, loaded all the luggage and school equipment on first, and then helped ten or twelve children
with two teachers to perch on top. They were driven to the nearest airfield from which an American
place would take them to Kunming on the first lap of their journey to India.
Christmas Day was spent at the airport while they
waited for the plane which was delayed over and
over again. The Americans, always so generous
and especially so when children were concerned,
brought them hot turkey dinners on trays, so that
they would not miss all the Christmas cheer. It
was already dark when the DC3 allotted to them
finally came in and they were told to get on board.
A US Airforce DC3 in 1944 Frances Williamson was the Head and she and
all the other members of staff were feeling the
283
Amy Moore
find or make. Frankie was really funny as he took it upon himself to be Master of Ceremonies. He
greeted Santa like a long lost friend and, taking him by the hand, led him round the room, introducing
him to all the other children and ending up by pointing at the Ebeling baby saying, “And look at THAT!”
THE CHILDREN
After a bad time with tummy upsets during the heat of summer, the cold weather and plenty of good
milk to drink was making a difference to the children. We had been buying cows milk from a man on
the street, but it was getting bluer and bluer, which meant of course that it was having more and more
water added. So we were getting less and less milk and with the terrific rate of inflation, the price had
gone up to $100 for a 12 ounce pint. The Swiss goats we had brought from Xixiang had got a
disease and died soon after we arrived in Hanzhong, but when the Parsons family came to us from
Henan, they had paid their goatherd to drive their lovely big English goat across country to us, hoping
to sell it before they left China. We jumped at the opportunity and in January it gave birth to a lovely
big nanny kid. We allowed it to drink most of its mother’s milk till the end of the month and then
separated it altogether. The milk we got from the mother goat amounted to about 5 sixteen ounce
pints per day and the cream each morning was half an inch thick on top. We gave the children all they
could drink and used what we wanted ourselves and made butter of the rest. The little kid was a
nanny too and a pure breed, so we planned to keep her, hoping that the two of them would keep us
supplied all the year round in the future.
So with plenty of milk and the cold weather, I was able to write home that
“Dorothy is a round little roly poly in her winter wadding, and has such a lovely colour
to her cheeks. Both the children are looking ever so well, and it is good to see them
after the summer pulled them down. Dorothy is a real little tease, and very slow to
accept our invitations for kisses, but very generous with them when she once breaks
the ice. She is really not shy at all, but likes to pretend she is”.
In January 1945 we were suddenly electrified by the news from HQ that Alan was in India! The
Japanese had made a push from the south towards Sichuan just before Christmas. The Government
(both Chinese and Western) had decided that our school should not remain in Jiading, which is only
150 miles from Chongqing near the famous sacred mountain of Emei. India seemed the safest place
under the deteriorating conditions in China, but the only way to get there was to fly over ‘The Hump’
(part of the Himalayas) to Calcutta from Kunming in south west China in Yunnan Province. The
American Air Force were called in to help and, on Christmas Day, big American trucks drove into the
school, loaded all the luggage and school equipment on first, and then helped ten or twelve children
with two teachers to perch on top. They were driven to the nearest airfield from which an American
place would take them to Kunming on the first lap of their journey to India.
Christmas Day was spent at the airport while they
waited for the plane which was delayed over and
over again. The Americans, always so generous
and especially so when children were concerned,
brought them hot turkey dinners on trays, so that
they would not miss all the Christmas cheer. It
was already dark when the DC3 allotted to them
finally came in and they were told to get on board.
A US Airforce DC3 in 1944 Frances Williamson was the Head and she and
all the other members of staff were feeling the
283
