The first Koreans arriving in the Hawaiian Islands and mainland U.S.A. passed up Fourth of July and didn’t mention it was Independence Day to their youngsters. Why didn’t they? They were toiling on the plantations and in orchards and fields. Whatever they had in mind, they did not say to them "go celebrate"; that one day Korea would have an independence day too. The boys, if they were like my brothers and their friends, were happy not to be reminded. The Fourth was in the summer vacation, a date in the history books, and history books meant studying, and studying was from September to June. So Korean kids in early Riverside days did not celebrate the Fourth of July.

It was not until I was in the County Children’s Home that I heard the first firecracker explode. The bigger boys spent Saturday morning picking strawberries and were paid the huge sum of 25 cents each, and told they could spend the money as they wished. They bought Fourth of July fireworks and sneaked them into the yard. The head matron and her staff were in Riverside shopping and only Mrs. Snyder, the girls’ matron, was left to supervise. After lunch she went to her room to rest and the girls were finishing up in the kitchen. The boys came in and said to come and watch and bring some matches, and held up a bag. The show started with the first bang, a firecracker going off. Followed sparklers that sputtered but were dimmed by the bright sunshine. Then a small torpedo-shape object was readied for smashing against the cement walk where it would explode and deafen, the boys warned, and covered their ears. For a few seconds it hissed and died out. The fellows glossed over the failure, saying Roman candles were the best, shooting off into space like flashing comets and always worked but cost money. Which I awaited several years before one crossed the horizon. The celebration was over and it was a Fourth I would not forget. Today I read the Declaration of Independence of July 4, 1776, and took heart. Its word spoke: "Hang in there!" for Korean reunification. The country will unite. "Where there is a will, there is a way." (This last is an adage the girls matron repeated often at the Children’s Home, to discouraged hearts.) So read these few sentences from the Declaration of Independence which I have just done:

"When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the bands which have connected them E", going on to the second paragraph that declares: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its power in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness."

The signers from the 13 colonies witnessed the document and lived to see the establishment of the United States of America. Their belief in the God-given unalienable rights brought forth a new nation! And...Koreans another century away may not have encouraged their youngsters about the Fourth of July in the early days of Riverside but they were surely supporting independence for Korea, the country they immigrated from. That, the importance of their struggle was their mainstay and was served with every meal, at every meeting including church services, by prayer and money. It was unbelievable, their devotion. Korea came before their children! Or so it seemed to our selfish little hearts. Then I was whisked into the Children’s Home, the upkeep paid by County taxpayers. I entered another country. Everyone was Paekin - the matrons, the other children too. And it was the girls matron who was Paekin that made me welcome, made me feel I was one of them: American.

It was a summer’s evening when it was too warm to go to bed with temperatures in the 80s, she told us a story about herself. We sat on the doorstoop where we had a wonderful view of the night sky, and every so often a comet flew across. The outdoors was the right place to hear an adventure story. The storytelling went on for the rest of the week. When she finished, she did not talk about her life again. But that first summer after I came was like a prologue to an opening act. (At the time I never knew about plays or storytelling or the reason she was telling her story. Only it was good not to go to bed in the hot dormitory!)

She told her parents were from Alsace-Lorraine. The country was taken by the Germans in the Franco-Prussian War, 1870-1871, and were detested by Alsatians. Her parents immigrated to the United States and settled in Indiana, a border state during the war with the Confederate States. They sympathized with the Southern people and Mrs. Snyder grew up feeling like her parents. Her parents’ name was Boyer and when she was born she was named Jessie May Boyer. She became Mrs. Snyder when she married and she said, "It is spelled Snyder, not Schneider which is German." (We were alike, I decided, we disdained the enemy!) Mrs. Snyder also disliked President Lincoln, he was not her favorite President. Our first grade teacher was from Arkansas, a border state, who voted Democratic and didn’t believe in the Confederate cause, slavery. They were both my mentors and I liked them equally.

There were four children born of the immigrants. Three girls and a boy whose name was Charles. Charles left to seek his fortune in the Alaskan gold rush. When he reached San Francisco he wrote them he was safe and ready to embark to Alaska, where he would write again. They received another letter and there were no more. Mrs. Snyder said they assumed he died that first terrible winter on their way to the Klondike gold fields. News reports told of the hardships the men underwent, without proper equipment, food, or shelter. This story was history and Mrs. Snyder’s brother had a share in it.

The states she spoke about in their migration westward after Indiana were Illinois, Missouri, Kansas. Along the way she saw Indians, sometimes close-up, sometimes as bands of tribes moving on. They did not menace the settlers. In one state the Boyers lived in a sod hut, housing that was dug in the ground like a cellar and roofed over with plank and more sod. She said it kept them warm in winter and cool in summer, and also kept their homestead from sighting by the Indians who were vandalizing the settlers. In Kansas she recalled they lived in a wooden structure, with a storm shelter in the basement which was for use in tornado weather. Also, it was in Kansas when they were homesteading with wheat, a horde of grasshoppers flew in and within a few hours chewed their way through the fields, flying off when the last blade was chewed. The sky turned dark as night and when the insects were gone, it was a bright sunny sky overhead.

She and her sisters attended school irregularly during that trek westward, but Mrs. Snyder managed to finish the eighth grade, which was an achievement. Reading was her first love, she never stopped reading; and she would get books from the public library, read them, and often retell a short version. When they were in school, it meant she and her sisters were living in a town or village. Here they heard the news around the region. Some were violent. There were raids from brigands or bands of outlaws. She said these events did not happen where they were living. Then when they were still in Kansas, the government opened up Indian land to American homesteaders in Oklahoma. The land was obtained legally with Indian agreement. She lived close to the border and watched the army of farmers in overloaded wagons, on horseback, and their families waiting for the signal to enter Oklahoma Territory. The crowd was great and there was no holding them back, and before the gunfire went off, these land-hungry seekers started pell-mell across the line, pushing aside soldiers and government officials. Rushing to their chosen site. History called them "the Sooners". Today Oklahomans are proud of these eager and overzealous pioneers. Lo the poor Indians! They had yet to learn about the Declaration of Independence of July 4, 1776.

She did not dwell upon her marriage. She had a son and daughter, Lowell and Cecil. What reference she made about her marriage hinted that Mr. Snyder was a railroad man. When he died, she and the children took the train to California, which was advertising for newcomers. She came to Riverside and had to make a living. She had taken care of people from childhood on, beginning with the Boyer family members. Taking care of others was the one practical skill she claimed. With this for reference she became a "practical nurse". California may have had a license for untrained nurses, much like LVN (licensed vocational nurses) today. She was at the Children’s Home and she wore the nurse’s white starched cap and nurse’s uniform. One day I practiced my own skill (ironing) on her cap, which was with clothes to be ironed. I scorched the inside of the cap, and it did not show through. But when she inspected my art, she saw the scorch and with set teeth remarked, "Oh, ye little divil!" and that stopped my ironing career.

She also told a story about her daughter. (The daughter had come to see her mother when the story was related, and was married with two children.) As a nurse Mrs. Snyder often remained with her patients in their homes. Then Cecil, of high school age, was responsible for herself and the house. They lived in a tiny house, the type called "salt box" and found throughout the Arlington-Riverside area, the rent being very nominal. One time Cecil came to her mother at the patient’s home and said dejectedly, "The house burned down this morning. I saved the toilet paper," handing over the object of her dejection. Mrs. Snyder had a sense of humor. She said, "I am so happy you saved yourself! What would I do with only the toilet paper!"

These are a few anecdotes I recall of the woman who was prejudiced about many things, like the Southerners and slavery, President Lincoln, and those she called "white trash". Yet in the kindness of her heart, when five Korean children came to an all-white refuge, she took them into her "bosom" and most certainly "mothered" me. I felt she instantly recognized Koreans had a like experience, with enemy the invading conquerors - Germans and Japanese. While California long derided Oriental people - and I am sure Mrs. Snyder had her earful about "them" - when a few showed up on the Home doorstep she was able to see the little children and "suffer the little children to come unto me" verse Jesus spoke long years ago.

Five years later...when I left the shelter of the Children’s Home, I could see she saw me as a tough little American who would do OK out in the white world. I left and did not see her again for about four years and that was in Los Angeles. We were both strangers then. God bless Mrs. Snyder, she was the ace slipped in my sleeve and somehow I got through the game sometimes called life.