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Yep, our common ground is our hometown, that maligned
city in the sunny shadow of San Francisco--Oakland, California. And
besides being two of maybe five people on earth who know "Oakland,"
by a jug band called the Goodtime Washboard Three, we soon find out
we are both sons of restaurant dads--men who cooked and ran kitchens
for a living. And finally, I learn that Hanks's stepmother is Chinese;
I'm Chinese.
We are instant bosom buddies. And as much as Hanks would like to project
an image as a serious actor...sometimes - like right now, when he's
talking about his stepmother--he can't help but go a little crazy.
Tom was ten when Frances Wong and her own large family invaded
the Hanks household of Dad and three kids. As he recalls a typical
family gathering, he suddenly stands and throws himself against
a wall of his trailer, to illustrate how his house turned into a
crowded Chinese restaurant.
"It was like, wow, this steady parade of people
milling around making these huge dinners, 22 people sitting around
the big plywood table my dad made. I'd just kinda sit there and
be polite. 'What're we having for dinner? Oh, squid. That's
delicious.'
But it wasn't unpleasant at all. It was really kind of fun,
but it was pretty bizarro."
Well, those are a couple of nice bits for a magazine story.
But on a personal level, I was pleased to have gotten across the
fact that I was Chinese, and to have put out a cheer for Oakland
into a national publication. For a city so often savaged and stereotyped,
every little bit helps. At least I hope it does.
* On another day, I'm on the pitcher's mound at the Oakland
Alameda County Coliseum, home of the A's. One of the benefits...some
would say burdens...of having a relatively high profile is getting
tapped for any number of community events: for fundraisers, for
schools, for seminars. Depending on the occasion, you're a speaker,
a moderator, a panelist, an auctioneer, an on-stage interviewer,
an awards presenter, an award recipient...
But a baseball pitcher? Only in my dreams. Now, I'd been
called by the Cerebral Palsy Association to help out, pitching to
donors who were realizing their own baseball fantasies. One of my
first tosses came back off a bat and almost beaned ME...But for
a guy who grew up to the sounds of the Oakland Oaks of the Pacific
Coast League, to be on the mound where Catfish Hunter and Vida Blue
and Dennis Eckersley had thrown...sweet dreams are made of this.
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