Cold War

Neither of my parents had much to say about the Cold War.  My mom was living in Canada at the time and my dad didn't really remember being effected all that much by it.  Although I couldn't find much oral history for this time period, my mom did have an interesting story about how my grandparents escaped from China during the rise of communism.  My grandparents were very, very lucky.  They escaped just before it was too late.  At that time the idea of communism was subtly starting to gain influence in the society.  People were really buying into the propaganda and supporting the idea.  My grandfather, however, was getting scared.  He owned a gold fountain pen tip making factory.  He also had a street named after him, and was worried that he may be one of the first targets if communism took off.  The times were getting scarier by the second.  My grandmother is Chinese, but she was friends with a Japanese family.  When they fled, they left behind a few brick of gold that they said she could have.  My grandmother could not take it though, because she realized there was Japanese print on the gold, and she could be arrested or killed if she were caught with it.  My grandparents agreed that it was time to leave.  My grandfather decided to use his gold pen tips as currency, as they escaped out of the country and then flew to Canada.  They were lucky to have made it, but a few of my grandfathers friends were not so lucky.  They tried to escape a few days later, but were stopped at the border and arrested.