My father was one of the early Chinese graduates from Georgia Tech and lived in Little Five Points in ’61. I realized later why he looked so alarmed when I told him about my renting a studio in L5P. His recollection of the neighborhood was still as a shooting gallery.  He recalled  how all the Asian students “could fit in one classroom” at Georgia Tech and how he ate chili dogs at the Varsity a lot, not because it was trendy, but because “it was all I could afford!”

My dad is very proud of the fact that he has been successfully self-employed for his entire career and as he puts it, “never received a paycheck from anyone.” Even though I received scholarships and did work-study, his talent and success as a consultant, entrepreneur and businessman helped me through school.  For this, I will be forever grateful.

When he started his first restaurant (to create jobs for my relatives who immigrated later), it was the first Chinese restaurant in a mall and the first one at the time,  to use the now ubiquitous  steam tables for Chinese food! Also breaking from the tradition of using “Buddha,” “Oriental” or “Panda” in the name, our restaurant was called, “Eggrolls By Keng.” At the time, I thought it was a weird name, but now I fully appreciate the creativeness!  My dad explained that making homemade eggrolls was a novel concept. They were all frozen, mass-produced and shipped in from New York or L.A. He also decided to create his own brew of sweet tea. I remember him stirring and tasting it until it was just the right blend of lemon and sweetness. And folks hoofed across the mall from JC Penny’s to the Sears side, just to buy  dad’s sweet tea!

Now he is creating another chapter as a retired engineer and businessman. He likes to trade on E-bay, recently organized his music collection into a digital library, saw Avatar before I did, and plays in multiple tennis leagues.  Not bad for a 72 year-old!