ue Ling Gin was born September 23, 1941, the same year her father opened Paradise Inn, the town's only Chinese restaurant.
"The Paradise was a very popular restaurant in Aurora at one time," Richard recalls.
"Everybody went there." The restaurant
is still there, but doesn't enjoy the same level of popularity. Back
when it belonged to the Gins, the Paradise Inn served American food
as well as the usual Cantonese fare. In fact, 60% of its revenues came
from the meat and potatoes side of the menu. Inside it looked more like
a 50s diner than a Chinese restaurant. The most memorable element of
the Paradise, however, was its short, stocky, very gregarious proprietor.
"My dad knew everybody," recalls
Richard. "It was not uncommon to see the chief of police in there, the
mayor, state senator. You name 'em, we had 'em. I got to know a lot
of these people because they were friends of my dad. He didn't spend
his time in the kitchen. He was good in the kitchen, but he was always
in the dining room mingling. He was quite a PR person."
Sue Ling didn't pick up much of her style from their father, Richard argues, because she was simply
not around the restaurant much while he was alive.
"Sue Ling was awful young in those days," he says. "She was only nine when he died. I was around there because I was working there." At the age of 12 Richard started as a busboy, then moved up to waiter, then cashier, and finally a cook's helper.
The Paradise Inn's favor with prominent locals and all the hard work the Gin family poured into it,
didn't translate into affluence for the owners. The family lived in
a rented bungalow in a barely middle-class neighborhood. In the garage
was parked one car, first a 1938 Chevy, then a 1948 Chevy.
"I don't think my dad made fantastic
money," Richard says. "I remember a guy came in from the Illinois Restaurant
Association when I was running it. He says, 'The food's good, the service
was wonderful, but there's one complaint. You guys give too big a portions.'
"My dad was too generous," Richard
continues, perhaps a shade of regret edging into his words. "He was
a good-hearted person. He bought gifts for people. He had only a sixth-grade
education, so he didn't have sophistications about the food business.
For what he did, he should have done better. We never had that much.
I hated living in a rented house. I never got along with the landlord
because I was taking things apart, building stuff, he would be complaining
all the time."
[CONTINUED BELOW]
As a teen Richard spent hours looking yearnfully at
ads for "a place in the country with acreage I could call my own." He
would ultimately realize that dream for his own family in 1965. He would
even become a landlord, but neither he nor Sue Ling ever enjoyed that
kind of security while growing up in their parents' home.
"Sue Ling favors my Dad somewhat," Richard reckons, in trying to assign credit for her physical appearance.
"She also looks a lot like my mother. They say I look like my dad a
little bit. I'm much taller than my dad, Iım the tallest in the family."
Aurora's only Asian family didn't
have to contend with the window-smashing, cross-burning variety of racism--Aurora
simply isn't that kind of community--but it did leave an indelible impression
on Richard.
"It's pretty subtle. As far as most activities, no problem. When you get into social activities and
dating and that area, you come up against a brick wall."
He recalls an incident involving a girl he was dating. She was the local judge's daughter. He asked if
he could come over and pick her up. She approached her father about
PAGE 4
Sue Gin's East Aurora High senior year yearbook portrait
"We never had that much. I hated living in a rented house. I never got along with the landlord because
I was taking things apart, building stuff, he would be complaining all the time."
ue Ling Gin was born September 23, 1941, the same year her father opened Paradise Inn, the town's only Chinese restaurant.
