How One Thing Led to Another
My Toastmaster experience has been a remarkable experience of friendships.
Recently, my desire to demonstrate a point in a speech I was giving about technological advances, I had to dig out an old art portfolio from a very inaccessible part of my garage.
Once I found the old portfolio and the pictures I needed for my speech, I decided to peruse the rest of the art work I had created in 1983.
Soon I found myself reflecting nostalgically and fondly on the teacher of the art class I had enjoyed so many years ago.
My teacher had a Japanese first name and Anglo Saxon last name.
I figured it would be pretty easy to trace down Yoshiko Baker on the internet.
I only found her name once in conjunction with a man whose last name was “Baker.”
I was not thinking of my quest for my former teacher when I elected to attend what promised to be a very special event at the Spreckles Organ Pavilion in Balboa Park.
“San Diego Sings,” an event taking place Saturday, March 21, from 11:00 am to 5:00pm was to be a gathering of an amazing number of choral groups.
In my life, there have been some experiences which exceeded my expectations while others have fallen short.
A number of factors made my attendance at “San Diego Sings” far less enjoyable than I had hoped.
The weather was too warm, the seats were uncomfortable, and many people had large umbrellas providing them shade but blocking my view of choral groups on stage no matter where I sat.
The worst thing, in my opinion, was the audience was excessively rude.
Apparently, each group felt entitled to talk loudly and interact with each other when they were not performing on stage.
There was even a boy bouncing a basketball with the apparent approval of his parents.
I was irritated and disappointed.
I was so uncomfortable sitting in the sun that I elected to move to a bench in the shade where a woman was sitting.
Eventually, I found myself talking with this woman.
She was urging me to visit an art exhibit taking place in another part of the park.
I really was not interested.
I had been hiking with a UCLA alumni group since 8:00am that morning and I was tired.
Since I was not enjoying myself, I decided to return to my car and head home.
The woman, with whom I shared the bench, got up and I decided to walk with her since she was heading in the same direction where my car was parked.
As we walked and talked, I decided to, at least, stop in at the free art exhibit she had spoken about so highly.
I wandered among the tables admiring the students’ art pieces.
Soon a few people were going to put on some form of entertainment up on a small stage.
I sat at a table in the back of the room and noticed three picture albums.
I paged through the albums and saw pictures of art projects, classes, teachers and students.
I realized that the gentleman who taught the class had been teaching it for years.
The dates on some of the pictures were more than 15 years ago.
It appeared the teacher had even led trips to Japan.
Much to my surprise and delight, I saw a picture from ten years ago that had two Toastmaster friends of mine from “Matchless Speakers,” a club now disbanded but one in which I was active during 1970s and 1980s.
What delighted me was one of the friends, Judy, who is now blind, paralyzed and a double amputee was smiling in the art class ten years ago.
I pointed this out to Bernice, the woman who had encouraged me to come in to see the art display.
She was most excited to get an update on Judy and I was able to give her Judy’s phone number.
Bernice introduced me to the teacher who was presiding over the event and I took the opportunity to ask if, by any chance, he happened to know my former art teacher.
What great news!
The gentleman informed me that Yoshiko Baker is living in Japan and will soon have her own art exhibit in Tokyo.
It did not occur to me to expand my Google search to Japan!
I was delighted to know my former teacher was thriving.
Bernice was happy to learn about Judy.
Because of that chance meeting in the park, I drove Bernice out to Santee to visit Judy.
We had a great visit.
“San Diego Sings” was not the greatest experience but what it lead to certainly was!