Y is for Yangmingshan...

Yangmingshan (pronounced like "yang-ming-san") National Park is located in the north of Beitou. Yangmingshan was called Caoshan (Grass Mountain) during Japanese occupation of Taiwan, because it was covered with grass and seldom visited. 


After World War II, the KMT government renamed the mountain Yangmingshan and built a park here. Yangmingshan National Park is the only park in Taiwan that has volcanic geography and hot springs.  


The magnificent mountainous scenery and comfortable weather have made Yangmingshan National Park a perfect summer resort. 

(Photo found on Bing.com)

This photo was taken in 1971...over the years the floral clock has had various designs...but this one in 1971 is what I remember that the design looked like when we were in Taiwan (1974-1976).

The park is characterized by a large clock made of flowers with a diameter of 22 feet. Water runs around the flower clock and music is played every hour. The clock is the characteristic of Yangmingshan Park. (Info from Tourism Bureau Ministry of Transportation and Communications, Republic of China (Taiwan).

When my hubby and I were at my dad's visiting, I was able to take photos of quite a lot of old photos.  But I didn't get to the photos of the years we lived in Taiwan. There is a photo of my mom pregnant with my brother and sitting in front of this floral clock.

Here is a past photo of me back in 6th grade. Recently, this year book page was posted by a classmate on Facebook! I lost my yearbook, so it was fun to see these.

(I am the 4th one in the front row, 

with the two braids and glasses.)

I went to school in Taipei, Taiwan, while our house was actually on "Grass Mountain" aka Yangmingshan...

Here are a few of my memories on Yangmingshan...

My dad was in the Air Force stationed in Shu Lin Kou. I was 10 yrs old when we moved to Taiwan and 12 when we moved to Clark AFB, Philippines.  We lived on Yangmingshan in an area of housing set aside for the U.S. Air Force families. It wasn't on the base, but the neighborhood was set in the midst of Taiwanese neighborhoods.

In the mornings, we would walk to the main road to catch our school bus. I went to Dominican School (now called Dominican International School)...

Dominican International School is a Catholic, private school under the supervision of the Dominican Sisters. It was formerly a contract school for the United States Forces in Taipei. 
oops...I got off on another tangent!...(More about Dominican...on a future post...)

Back to...a few more memories of living on Yangmingshan...

The bus stop was right in front of an itty bitty "mom-n-pop" run candy shop. 


**I remember the stone step down into the narrow, low doorway...and the small, tight space with the counter that practically met you at the door....we all would go in to buy some little Chinese candies, toys or I loved to buy these:

"The plastic bubble balloon is magic toy for above 4-year-old kids, it blows by plastic straw, it is very light like water bubble, and could touch and play for 7-15minutes..." quote from Shin Dorn Co page.

(Photo found through Bing.com)

Don't know who this is...Isn't she so cute?  

and this is like the bubble balloons that we would buy.)

 & ...there was this little posterboard, that had numbers on it...you would pick and pay for a number...the number went to a piece of candy or a little toy surprise...like little tiny toy figures or like what I  used to find in a Cracker Jacks box. 


(Does anyone remember Cracker Jacks? Now, I think the prizes in Cracker Jacks are mostly stickers, but I can remember little plastic toys that used to be in them when I was little.  ...Oh! off on another rabbit trail...let me see...

Oh! ...yeah, along the roads were "Benjos"...these were large open sewage ditches...I remember that kids would say they saw the huge sewer rats that were as large as cats.  


I think I said that too...but after all these years...I can't really remember if I actually saw any...wish I had a picture...well...maybe not, except to prove to myself that it wasn't just  "a child's active imagination"!

I remember...riding my bike a couple of miles "up" the road to play.

...riding the tightly packed Chinese city bus from Yangmingshan down to downtown Taipei with my girlfriend! 


We had to stand up the whole way & I'll just say...I remember that we were not taking in deep breaths in that crowded, hot bus at "armpit level".  My dad remembers the drive from our house to Taipei to be about 20 minutes by car...the city bus took way longer, with the stops for dropping off and picking up. 


(We were only 11 or 12yrs old, going to get supplies for our science project..we had been at my friend's house working on our project...I don't think my parents would have let us take that bus trip alone...I can't imagine kids that age doing that now without an adult around in a busy city like Taipei.)

Bits and pieces of other memories filter through my mind...but one more memory of living on YangMingShan...fun times with a "Long ago prayers and Birthday wishes" answer -come true.

Joining in with:

Jenny's

 Alphabe-Thursday,

&
the ABC Wednesday Team's 

ABC Wednesday Rounds,
Please let me know from where you are hopping over from :o)

Alicia's 

Friday Photo Flashback,

&
Jenilee's
Wednesday's Walk 
Down Memory Lane,
& 
CFoxes'
Friday-Follow Me.

**********

Here is a slideshow of some music-inspired drawing orders. 

The first few drawings shown are ones that I've shared in past posts.


The song is another of our son's original pieces.  After he played the twelve string guitar, the  accordion, sang the main part and harmonized, he put it all together in a recording. The guitar and the accordion, he inherited from his great uncle. (Thank you for listening to the ones on last week's post...and if you haven't yet, please feel free to go back one post that is about his music...)
Our son posted this  and another of his songs at this site, that can be downloaded for free.
(I'd love to know if you get a chance to go there :o) ... I'm excited that I can download his original music even when he is away at college, and we are a 12 hour drive -here in Georgia!

Blessings & Aloha!


(Thank you for coming by and for commenting...
...I will be sure to visit you back.


And please do check back for my 100th post giveaways. I realized after my last post that I actually did not have as many posts as I thought! Blogger dashboard shows ALL the posts, actual and drafts and will show how many total of those.  I actually am only on my 90th.

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