Friday, April 15, 2011

Sepia Saturday- Camels, politicians....

When my sister, Nancy, saw the Sepia Saturday photo and theme this week -Camels, politicians, etc...(President Roosevelt riding a camel) she said "you've got the perfect camel photo".
And, indeed, I have.
(Sorry, it's not sepia)

 You would assume that this photo of me might have been taken at a "photo op" in Egypt. But if you look closely you can see The Great Wall in the background. I didn't know they had camels in China. I suppose they do in the dessert but that's not where this was. This was not too far from Beijing.

So there's the photo of me riding a camel and here's one of me and a politician (two of the possible themes):
 These were taken in about 1985 (before The Tianamen Protests of 1989).

We were there on a business trip. A sort of strange business trip. Our business at the time was needlework kits and books. Making things with doilies was popular at the time. We had several kits and books on the subject. So we imported doilies through an importer in San Francisco. He was the main (and at the time, only) importer of doilies from China. He was called "The Doily King". He took us with him on one of his buying trips. It wasn't a fun trip but it sure was interesting.

There weren't many foreigners in China at the time, so we often attracted attention.


Here's Nancy and I strolling on The Great Wall. 
It was actually quite steep, at least at this point and not at all good for strolling. More like climbing, and very exhausting.


To see more Sepia Saturday click here. 

9 comments:

Postcardy said...

That certainly was an unusual business trip.

Christine H. said...

I am dying to know what the Chinese woman who's pointing at you is saying to the other women. I think she liked your jacket.

Blue Heron said...

very kool.

Alan Burnett said...

Great that you ticked off camels and politicians, but even without the theme links this would make a fascinating post and a perfect example of how images can transport memories better than almost anything.

Helen Killeen Bauch McHargue said...

You look great on that camel! And both of you dress the wall up very well. Not one bit hung over looking and I've heard that the doily business can be really hard on the liver.

North County Film Club said...

You're right, Helen (Food Smarts) about the doily business being hard on your liver- although I can't imagine who told you that. One more trip to China and we would have needed a transplant. Too many banquets with too many toasts.

Christine, Did you notice that the other ladies all wore what were called Mao jackets at the time. I like there's better than mine.

Bruno Laliberté said...

must have been great to experience all of this.
:)~
HUGZ

North County Film Club said...

I just noticed I spelled "theirs" wrong in my last comment. How embarrassing!

L. D. said...

What great memories. I liked the one with the guy on the wall over your head. What a world that they live in. I see people go arrested for trying to have an Easter service. That usually doesn't make the news. They just quickly throw them in jail.

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