The joys of living in Kent

I love Kent. I guess I love Kent, because of my nose.

I have been privileged to visit people living in their home countries all over the world for a lifetime of years. While enjoying the countries and the people, somehow I knew that it would all come to an end, although I sure didn’t want it ever to be over. But back then I didn’t know about today’s Kent and I had no idea about my nose.

I used to find a place to sit in the middle of a food store, with people rushing all around me. I would listen to them talk to each other as I closed my eyes and concentrated on saving that feeling and enjoyment for long into the future when I couldn’t be in Tokyo or Yokosuka. When in Chin Hae, Korea, I walked through town trying to get people to smile. They were not predisposed to wearing a smile in that part of the world. It took two weeks of strong smiling everyday before friends were made.

In Catania, Sicily everyone smiled right away and I sat in Egypt and France and Greece and Thailand, closing my eyes in the shopping centers and among the street venders, just enjoying.

Never in my wildest dreams did I ever conceive that I would see my dreams fulfilled in my town, Kent. The first indication was when I stepped up to the teller at my bank and she greeted me with a familiar accent from the past. In my excitement I said, “You are from the Ukraine!” Soon after the bank, I drove into an apartment complex on the East Hill to find older folks sitting on kitchen chairs all along the sidewalks enjoying the sun and each other, just like in the “Old Country.”

Sometimes, I will go to the Great Wall Mall and sit in the food store and close my eyes and listen and enjoy. I was in a store in another part of Kent and saw someone who looked familiar. When I approached him and asked if we were friends in the past he answered with a very strong, “I am Russian!” It is so wonderful to have my nose.

I can travel throughout Kent and enjoy everyone for who they are, and totally enjoy Kent for who we are.

When talking to my neighbor, we decided that maybe we had met when he was a little baby in Saigon. Henry said, “Now we all fight together as Americans.” Cameron, one of my very favorite people in the world, from Cambodia, must continue to endure my telling him that if his coming to America was the only reason for me going over there, it was worth it.

A number of years ago I was photographing a team of Scottish bagpipers from Nova Scotia. The leader spoke up and said, “You look like you have your roots in good ol’ Scotland.” I answered that it so happens that I did by a few generations. I ask how he guessed so well. He said, “Not hard lad, with a nose like yours.”

Kent has become so diverse. And we can so enjoy each other for whom and what we are, people together, looking different, acting differently and being one Kent, together.

If you have a nose, you can really love Kent, too. “Sawasdee Cop!” (You may translate in one of our Thai restaurants.)

What a wonderful town!