In our first ever Legacy video interview, we weren’t sure what to expect. We knew Dr. Ching was a retired pediatrician so we knew he had to be smart, but we didn’t know much more than that. As we started the interview and got into his early childhood, we were fascinated to hear how he learned to read. This man who would eventually become an accomplished doctor here in Hawaiʻi learned to read by reading… comic books!
He was an only child who moved to Hawaiʻi from China at age 4. His father was a college professor and his mother was a librarian, but much to his father’s frustration, he still wasn’t able to read by the end of 1st grade. His mom came up with the idea to give him an allowance of 25 cents a week – he had to use 10 cents on a comic book and the rest he could spend on ice cream and treats.
His favorite comic was called Wings Comics, and he was drawn to it because it was about flying and airplanes. When we heard this story we were so impressed with his mom’s out-of-the-box thinking, and that he was able to teach himself how to read! We also assumed it was a comic for little kids about airplanes. Well, Jamie wanted to add a little extra love to this part of the story, so she looked for images of Wing comics to add to the video. And the shocking (and very amusing) revelation was that apparently it was not uncommon for Wings Comics to have racy (for that time) images of women on the covers ?
Jamie found a couple images of covers that just had airplanes (no scantily clad women) and used those, but we found out later that Dr. Ching’s kids also googled Wings Comics after they watched the videos and had a good laugh at what they found! So now we’re all left to wonder if these comics were appropriate for a 1st grader and also, did his mom know??? ?
It’s so much fun hearing these great stories through our interviews, and it really shows how different the times were and how unique everyone’s stories are. If you want our help capturing your loved ones’ stories (and maybe finding out what kinds of comics they were reading ?) we’re doing a holiday special of $500 off gold or platinum packages if you book by Christmas 2022. Contact us to schedule a meeting if you’d like to learn more.
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