7. YUEN CHONG & "SAAM LI" LAUNDRY

After a notable absence from the records, Sam Lee Laundry surfaces again in 1931. This time, it is located at 694 Ontario Ave. A newspaper article reported the laundry was broken into and robbed of $40 on the night of August 28th, 1931. The occupants did not hear the intruder.

Sam Lee Laundry was robbed again in 1934. This time "with violence."

Around this time, the presence of Sam Lee is in question.

The 1939 city directory lists YUEN CHONG as manager of Sam Lee Laundry. 694 Ontario is also given as his residence.

However, the Niagara Falls Gazette reported Sam Lee, a laundry owner, was assaulted by Edward Howell in 1941. A case of inaccurate recording is suspected.

Loy Chong, whom I became more acquainted with after Ching Ming, relates that there was no Sam Lee at this Sam Lee Laundry. Instead, "Sam Lee" is a homophone for the Chinese saam li, meaning "three people make profit."

The three people were his father, Yuen Chong, and two cousins - SIU CHONG and LIN CHONG. 

Up until 1946, directories continued to show 694 Ontario Ave. as the address for Sam Lee Laundry and likely remained so until 1949 when it moved to 251 Queen Street. YUEN CHONG was the proprietor. Loy Chong believes that the saam li partnership had dissolved by then.

(By 1951, 694 Ontario Ave. had become Hunt Motors.)

YUEN CHONG (b.1905), pictured above, came to Niagara Falls in 1923. He was sponsored by his grandfather who had worked on the construction of the CPR and later settled in St. Catharines.

Yuen Chong returned to China, got married and fathered Loy's sister before coming back to Canada in 1929. After working and saving for several years, Yuen Chong returned to China and fathered Loy before leaving for Canada again in 1935. Yuen Chong's wife, GIM LEUNG (b.1907) immigrated in 1957.

Sam Lee Laundry was located at 251 Queen Street until Rosbergs Department Store needed the property to expand. The laundry re-located to 611 Ontario Avenue (near Park Street) in 1953 and remained in business at that site until its closing in 1970.

LOY CHONG, married and with two sons of his own, immigrated from Hong Kong in May 1964 which is when he met his father for the first time. Their time together was brief. Yuen Chong passed away in March 1965.

Loy's mother died in 2000.

Of course, I only have memories of the laundry on Ontario Avenue. The Queen Street one was gone before I was born. At that, I do not recall Yuen Chong much. Loy tells me that may have been because his father was often ill and hospitalized. His mother ran the laundry on her own. I do remember Yuen Sim, Loy's mother. I see a photo and recognize her face as one I have known.

When my mother with me in hand called on her, it was only for a brief visit. Yuen Sim would always be in the midst of work. She'd stop and greet us kindly. Her dialect was different from the one that I knew. I would have had to strain to catch any of the conversation. Meanwhile, the heat and humidity of the laundry encouraged my attention to wander.

The workings of a laundry captivated me. Mountains of unruly laundry were chipped away at until they collapsed into the neat, brown paper packages tied, labelled, shelved and awaiting pick-up. Little did I know then how skilful the Chongs were in masking their lack of English and absence of formal education.

Customers handed over ticket stubs that been coded to correspond to pieces left, costs were quickly calculated on an abacus, money and packages exchanged hands. The Chongs appeared clever and efficient. (Only now do I know that they did not know how to write.)

My eyes darting from one corner to another found oddities far more interesting than the talk of women exchanging pleasantries. Then, one of Yuen Sim's heavy irons heating on the stove would be ready and she'd begin to iron again. The slam of the iron's weight against the padded board would bring me back. Its heated path across a shirt or down a trouser pleat, broken by a squirt of water from a special spray bottle, and an ascending hiss of steam led my gaze upwards to the beads of sweat across Yuen Sim's forehead. Even as a child, I understood that the laundry business was demanding work.

Recently, I asked Loy who the customers of Sam Lee Laundry were. Cyanamid workers he told me. In those days, Cyanamid had manufactured all sorts of chemicals used in fertilizers, pesticides, animal feed, explosives, pulp and paper manufacture. Hospital employees also brought their work clothes. Laundry was not only hard work; it was probably more hazardous than anyone had imagined in those days.

2017:

Elaine Chong, born one year after Sam Lee Laundry closed, never knew laundry work but keeps the abacus as a memory of her grandmother and her hard work.