Back in the early 2000s, when I worked for my (sadly now-defunct) local newspaper, one of the random assignments I picked up was to go and talk to the new proprietors of the Chinese restaurant attached to one of the motels in town. They turned out to be a young couple from mainland China by way of New York City. Like a lot of Chinese immigrants to the US, they go by Western names when dealing with the locals, so I've always known them as Ed and Amy.

Ed and Amy came to the US as part of an immigration scheme that finds people work in such restaurants, similar to the widespread phenomenon of pizza places run by Greek immigrants in the Northeast. They had a young son, and they told me they jumped at the chance to come to Maine because they thought it would be a better place for him to grow up than NYC.

Since I stopped by before the restaurant opened on their first day in town, and they insisted on making me some fried rice, I believe I was technically their first customer.

A couple years later, they rotated out of that restaurant to make way for the next newcomers, and they liked it here enough that rather than move on to another assignment elsewhere, they opened their own little place elsewhere in town. I have fond memories of eating there while their son watched SpongeBob on the TV set by the bar.

A while after that, apparently wanting to decrease their overhead, Ed and Amy sold the restaurant and bought a camper trailer that was converted into a food truck, then set it up semi-permanently in an empty lot in the next town over. It may give you an impression of how hardy these folks are when I tell you that they ran the food trailer, dubbed Ed's Kitchen, year-round, apart from a couple of weeks off in the winter to go back to China for the lunar new year.

Years went by, their son grew up and moved away to school, many chicken fingers and beef teriyaki were consumed. I won't claim I got to know them well, but I'd see them in the supermarket now and then. If my mother or I turned up at their store alone, Amy would always ask after the one who wasn't there, and Ed usually leaned out of the kitchen to give us a wave.

Early last month, I stopped off on my way home from a shop day to pick up some chicken fingers, and there on the front of the storefront was a sign.

As it happened, September 25 was also a shop day, and I stopped on my way home. They were just shutting off their OPEN sign when I got out of the car, but Amy recognized me and let me in anyway. They were out of everything except beef teriyaki and chicken fried rice, so that's what I got.

I'm pretty sure I was their first customer, and I was definitely their last--they turned away someone who showed up after me, and were packing up to leave as I left.

So that was kind of strange, and oddly poignant. Amy told me they're staying in the area, so I'll probably keep running into them at the supermarket occasionally. I'm not sure what's going on with Ed's health, and didn't feel like I could really ask, but I hope whatever it is resolves positively.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.