Editor’s note: This story will have a continuation featured in next week’s Star and Times.
Long-time former resident Suejee Quon made a trek back to Swan River, where her childhood in Canada began. Many will remember her father, Chuck Quon, who took over the C.V. Café from his father and later on, owned the Sporting Goods Store.
“My father had returned for an arranged marriage with my mother in 1947,” said Suejee Quon. “In those years, Mao Zedong’s Communist Party was taking over the country and the family perceived this as an imminent threat to his returning to Canada, so he returned before I was born in 1949. I never met him till we landed in Winnipeg in 1955.
“My grandfather and his two brothers stayed together during their time with the railway. They chose to stop when the line stopped in Swan River. They worked at Minitonas Cafe first. Then my grandfather built the C.V. Cafe. He had several other Chinese men who worked there. Among them was Lyn Tip’s father, Wing Tip, who was the cook. Dick from Dick’s Cafe started at the C.V. as well.
“We drove up directly to Swan River, where Chuck, my dad, was to work at the C.V. Café,” said Quon. “My mother was a young 25-year-old with a 5-year-old in tow. My grandfather King Quong was one of three brothers who built the cafe, but he passed away in 1953 before we could meet.
“We lived in a two-story white house with a large, enclosed yard surrounded by trees and a short wire fence. This house was on the corner of what is today the parking lot of the Coop. The roads were all gravel and rough. I remember being colder than I have ever been. The kitchen had a water pump and every day it was our chore to pump up the daily water. The outhouse was down a lane, far from the house.
“In those days, the Chinese were not welcomed or understood,” said Quon. “It was a Canadian national effort to prevent Chinese immigration. I have memories of kids chasing me, throwing rocks and calling me names. In the same breath, Mary Snelgrove, who was the grade two teacher then, recounted how she watched out the window of Taylor School and saw how children fussed over this small Chinese girl.
“After 1955, when we arrived in Swan River, mom had a couple of difficult pregnancies, but after that, they had more children, with Sue Ying, who was born in 1958. Then Don Chan was born in 1959, Sue Len was born in 1960, Sue Shirley was born in 1961, Kerry was born in 1962 and the baby of the family, Sue Fawn, was born in 1965. All of them were born in Swan River.”
Growing up in Canada was different for Suejee, as she was tasked with keeping her Chinese traditions alive, but learning to live life as a Canadian. The C.V. Café played a huge part in her growing up and was the centre hub for the family.
“My mother was very strict, and she was always concerned with teaching us to be Chinese and to not lose our culture,” said Quon. “When we were not at school, we were kept busy in the restaurant. All of us worked. My younger sisters waited on tables.
“My task was to do laundry every Saturday. Downstairs was an old ringer washer. Every week, there were always loads and loads. Never an idle moment, as I waited for the cycle to complete, I also cut potatoes in the chip slicer for the French fries. We all had different tasks. Since we did not participate in sports or after-school activities, working was all we knew.
“The restaurant business was everything, and it was the priority in our lives, so we were there all the time,” said Quon. “In the very early days before the C.V. was rebuilt, we would hold a big banquet every year. I think it was for the New Year’s Eve celebration. It was all the Chinese food you could eat. Everyone came, the mayor, the police chief, the store owners and all their wives. There was a lot of laughter.
“Then there were some favourite customers that I remember. Mr. Gold came in every day for his lunch. His first name was Stewart, but we called him Mr. Gold because he worked at the jewelry store. He was a quiet, gentle man and always had a smile. Whenever he came in, we made sure he had something special added to his order.
“It may sound like hard times, but we never complained or thought of not complying,” said Quon. “Today, I am grateful for those days. I believe my work ethic evolved from these family commitments. I have lots of good memories.
“I made very good friends with Linda Cox and Ruth Card. Although we were the wallflowers of our high school group, the three of us had a fabulous childhood. We drove Mr. Card’s old Dodge down country roads. A bit of freedom, random activities unsupervised, was a great feeling.
“My parents and Bill and May from Dick’s Cafe would play Mahjong at the Sporting Goods Store,” said Quon. “They would play day and into the night.”
Suejee remembers her time in school and cherishes those innocent childhood memories of growing up.
“My memories of Duncan School consisted of an old building with kids running up and down the stairs,” said Quon. “I remembered that we learned to print and write cursive with the MacLean method of cursive writing. The best memories are sliding down the hill behind the cottages every winter. Recess was never long enough. We slid on everything, and cardboard was the best and easiest to glide down. The trick was to get as many runs as possible before the bell rang. We never knew the cold; the adrenaline kept us warm.
“Attending high school was another change. It’s hard to believe that I walked to school every day, even in the blinding snow of winter. I was lost in the larger population, but thankfully, we had home rooms, so being part of a group before dispersing to different classes seemed less strange.”
Suejee left the Swan Valley area to pursue her post-secondary studies in Winnipeg.