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memories

Anomaly of War Pt.1

A story in 4 parts about one of my experiences during the Viet Nam War

Prologue

They were called, in Vietnamese, Cat Bui – Road Dust. They were the street urchins, half Vietnamese and half something else: American, French…whatever. Their father unknown and their mother casting them out because of family disgrace. They were unacceptable to the Vietnamese, unknown or unwanted by the ones who fathered them; left to fend for themselves in the streets, sleeping – living – on the ground and roadways; outcasts from the villages, hamlets and towns where they were born.

I was in country about two months before I finally got to spend some time in the town of Bien Hoa located on the Dong Nai River. We were on the major base just outside town and shortly would be moving our contingent ( I was in the 18th Engineer Brigade) to Long Binh where the Army was constructing a new headquarters. Each day we would be bussed between the bases at Bien Hoa and Long Binh, passing the prisoner of war camp and rubber plantation along the way. Seeing the captured Viet Cong working within the confines of minefield and barbed wire, and acutely aware of the steel mesh covering the windowless openings of our bus, there was no doubt that we were potential targets of an unseen enemy in a war-torn land.

His name was Son. He was around eleven years old and his broken English was limited. He was a shoeshine boy in the town of Bien Hoa and I paid little attention to him at first since there were more bootblacks in town than there were boots and he was just another kid hustling the G.I.s for street change He was always there outside the tin-can shack they called a bar that I used to frequent.

Always out front asking: “Shoe shine, G.I.? Your shoes numba ten, I make them shine numba one, okay? Only five “P”.” I saw one soldier shove him down, and that’s when I went over to him and got my first shine. I gave him 10 piasters (the equivalent of nine cents).

Son and I became friends one day as I headed to the bar to visit my girlfriend and caught him in a verbal feud with some other shoeshine boys his age. I came over to where they were squatting and asked what was wrong. Apparently, Son owed one of the boys 100 piasters which he had borrowed some weeks before and was unable to pay back. I interceded and paid his debt. When the other boys left I invited him to come inside with me. He was afraid to do so because bar owners did not want their customers bothered by beggars while inside, but I told him not to worry since he was with me.

Inside, we sat and had a soda, and talked a little bit. The owner came over grabbing Son by the arm, gesturing for him to leave. I jumped up and angrily informed him the boy was with me and to di di mau, get away fast. The owner went back to work and we sat for a while longer until Son left to shine more shoes. I liked the kid a lot and on future trips I would let him come along with me for a while into the different hangouts and I would drink beer while he hustled shoe shines among the patrons. Of course, I always slipped the owner a little something for letting him in. At one point, I wrote home about wanting to adopt him.

It was late December (although it felt like July) when I went to town to visit my girlfriend and Son. It was almost like family, with Dad being gone for a week or two at a time. I brought Christmas gifts for them. Son got sandals, some clothes and what he wanted most of all, a parachute from a M127A1 illumination flare. He had a rubber soldier he played with and wanted the parachute to make an airborne troop since no one else in his group would have one. Needless to say, he was one happy kid that day.

Walking away, tossing the parachute with the rubber soldier attached into the air and catching it, as a passing truck surrounded Son with a swirl of dirt and sand from the road, little did I realize that would be the last time I would see my Em Trai Cat Bui…my Child of the Dust.

It has been said that as long as you remember someone, they haven’t really died; they live in the hearts of those who cannot forget. I would like to introduce you to one such person.

End Part 1

Selling Dead People’s Things

As a slight diversion from youthful experiences, I would like to share with you an interesting and unusual new book I just read written by a friend of mine and available on Amazon. Thank you.

Selling Dead People’s Things by Duane Scott Cerny

I have known Duane for ten years, although probably saw him on numerous occasions prior to my joining the BAM family of Antique and Collectible dealers in 2009. At least I thought I had known him until I read his new book: “Selling Dead People’s Things.”

Being a dealer in collectible ephemera and photography for 60 years (yes, 60), I no doubt ran into him unknowingly at flea markets, yard and estate sales, over the years, never realizing that one day I would be welcomed to the Broadway Antique Market as a dealer. But this missive is not about me, it’s about Duane’s book. I read it. I loved it. I recommend it.

Like Duane, I started out selling things my father brought home from work. As I read the chapters I saw myself, to a degree, with the early-on enthusiasm of a trade discovered but with more faith than business sense; more curiosity than knowledge, but wisdom and knowledge come later and you gotta start somewhere so why not the back yard trash pile.

Duane takes us on a journey, one that doesn’t attempt to define, price and relegate scarcity of items to the reader, no, that’s for other book writers and their guides and manuals. Duane’s purpose is to take us on a trip which defines the normal, as well as occasional para-normal, experiences one may encounter in search of the desirable, resalable items of ages past.

From basements to attics and all the floors (sometimes 12) in between, we walk with the author, careful not to trip over the boxes and trash (and poop) that block our path, to discover, hopefully, that hidden treasure. Many times we are not disappointed but regardless, we always wind up with an interesting story that goes with each quest.

Selling Dead People’s Things is unlike any other book I have read on the buying and selling of antiques and collectibles. It is a poignant, sometimes funny, sometimes a bit eerie, travelogue into someone’s past, a past that is explained in part by the objects that remain behind – pieces of a puzzle for just about all ages to complete. It is a book where the individual’s story is more important than his or her possessions. Duane delivers that intimate relationship between people and their things and, in the process, we are mesmerized by his own personal unfolding story.

It is a book you will enjoy reading whether a collector or not. Take it from a guy who has been selling dead people’s photographs (we call them “vernacular” in the trade) for 60 years. Peace.

My Dad

 

My dad was not a people person. He had few friends and kept his thoughts mostly to himself. He worked long and hard at his job, sometimes accepting long-distance moving gigs which would keep him away from home several days. There was always food on the table and clothes on our backs.

I remember the time he got fed up with the treatment he was receiving at work from his boss and secretary. He had gotten the job as a mover through his father who also worked there. But more than just a mover, I remember driving down with him during the winter months on a Saturday or Sunday, to the warehouse where he would shovel coal into the mammoth furnace. I remember his little podium desk with the sheets of paper on a clipboard of things he had to do as errand boy, janitor as well as mover. He had had enough. He wanted better, and quit. I was 12 years old.

I remember mom teaching us kids a song to sing for dad when he came home from his new job as a delivery driver for Wonder Bread. We stood there and sang it to him as he walked in the door. He continued in that job for less than a year. He could not handle dealing with people on a daily basis.

I realize now it must have been extremely difficult for him to go back to the warehouse basically begging for his old job back. He was a proud man and, with this occasion, it sealed his fate for the rest of his life. They rehired him, but not without his loss of tenure. His dedication as a father and husband outweighed his personal pride and he returned to the job that his father had before him and one that, later on, I would also work at, with him, during the summer months. I dont think he knew how much it meant to me as a teenager to be working side by side with my dad at his occupation.

Later on, when I returned from Viet Nam, he and I would head out early on a Sunday morning to the local flea market and I would help him watch the tables as he set up items acquired from years of people discarding things and giving them to him when they moved. But we rarely talked about important things. Hustle was the name of the game and time was money to him. I wished we were closer.

There are many things about my dad and his upbringing, and our family history, I do not know about. He was distant in his socialization and, basically, lived day to day doing the best he could. I think behind that gruff exterior was a sensitive and caring man, one I never got to really know. I do know he was dedicated, loyal and faithful to mom and us kids. We were, evidently, his reason for living.

Happy Father’s Day, Pop.

Skitching

Back in the late 1950s and early 60s, there were many toys available that could put a pre-teen in the hospital. I had most of them including a BBgun (rifle actually) which, when I was tired of hitting tin cans from the garbage, took aim at alley rats and squirrels, never hitting one. It was another toy that one day disappeared from my inventory. My father had a rule about toys and if they were left lying around, they were confiscated forever. The most dangerous, however, was not a toy but an automobile which was the main ingredient to a pastime we called skitching., which was a word, I believe, constructed from ski-hitching, and that is a fairly good definition of what we did.

Back then, skitching only took place in the winter after a good snow. Nowadays, it is a little different and can involve skateboards and bicycles, but in my day, it was wrapping your gloved hands around the rear bumper of a moving car and hanging on as long as you could.

Cars were built different then and the bumpers were chrome plated steel which extended out from the front and rear of the vehicle. There was room to place your gloved hand over the bumper and hang on for dear life. All went well unless you hit a drypatch and then you immediately were disengaged, usually tumbling or being dragged along the street until you let go.

Skitching was only good if the snow was packed down on the residential streets. Salt trucks hardly ever came down, spending most of the time on the busier main streets. As cars went along the snow laden streets, they would leave a rut and, after several cars, a nice snow packed rut was in place, ideal for your feet. Icy streets afforded one the option of any location along the rear bumper and could accommodate at least four kids. Most of the time, it was two, one on each side riding the ruts.

We were not informed too well of the dangers of skitching. Most of the time, since the street was icy or snow packed, drivers would be going fairly slow. Some were not aware of our clinging to the rear bumper (one objective of skitching was to accomplish your attachment to the vehicle without the driver’s knowledge), others would stop the car and yell out the window at us, while others, usually younger drivers, would sometimes swerve or speed up a little to give us a thrill (or perhaps it was a move to eject us from the bumper). No one I knew every got hurt skitching, but there were problems.

At times, your gloves would stick to the bumper and as you let go, your gloves would ride off into the sunset alone. I always wondered what the driver (or other drivers) thought when they saw the gloves dangling from the bumper! You could also lose a shoe if you hit the feared dry spot and, if you were fated to be dragged along the street, you might have to explain how you got so snow-laden and disheveled to your parents.

You could not skitch wearing rubber boots or galoshes so, at times, it was difficult to leave the house without getting stopped and be told to put on your boots. Sometimes, you would wear the galoshes and take them off once outside, and retrieve them later. It was difficult to explain how your shoes and socks got so wet under the galoshes, but we managed to elude the facts, when explaining – “I stepped into a puddle.”

I don’t think anyone of our parents found out we were skitching. I am certain if they did, the punishment would have been more painful then getting tossed into the curb or lamp post. Skitching only took place a few times during the winter and our involvement only around an hour as we look for a car to latch on to, making sure there wasn’t another one too close behind. We weren’t that stupid.

Or were we.

Back to the Table

 

Back to the Table

In an earlier post, I spoke about how we would use Freddie’s picnic table as a winter fort, covering it with discarded Christmas trees until the needles fell off. This unlocked other memories of that old wood table and how it became a staple in our back yard playing.

Many times, when we gathered after school to play, or in the summer when there was a lot more time to develop our imaginations, we used that table as the main prop in whatever genre of fantasy we were going to engage, which was usually based on some tv program or movie one of us saw recently.

If it was a western, the table became a stagecoach, or a bunkhouse for ranch hands. If we played army, then it became a bunker or a tank and maybe a B-29 bomber. It served as a spaceship, battleship, life raft (if you flipped it over), fort and pirate ship. About the only thing it was not used for was its intended purpose.

Those were the days before cell phones and text messages. If you called someone (and you needed parental permission to use the phone), you hoped they were home when the phone rang. There was no caller ID, so someone had to pick up the phone if they were home. Most of the time, however, we just ran up and down the block and hollered for our friends outside the windows. No one ever knocked on the door.

Of course, we had pre-set times to gather like after school (we put homework off until it got too dark for us to be outside), or, during the summer months, after lunch (lunch was always at noon) and after supper (promptly at six). We never ate lunch together at the outside table as each one of us were responsible for checking in at home for vittles and a trip to the bathroom before returning.

The picnic table was also used for playing board games which we did usually after some adult’s complaint about us being too loud and boisterous. Cootie was the favorite – constructing a bug based on the roll of the die. Sadly, the small pieces sometimes fell through the cracks in the table and landed in the grass underneath which prompted a search party lasting several minutes (the little black eyes were the hardest to find).

For me, nowadays, a picnic table is a picnic table and usually found out back of the local tavern in the patio area, topped with french fries or chips and beer. But there are times while sipping my brew sitting at the table with friends, that I imagine for a few minutes that I’m on a pirate ship quaffing brew with me mateys. They’ll never know.

But then, maybe they could be thinking the same thing. Arrrh.

John L

 

My dad was a warehouse-man and mover and it was one of his jobs to clean out discarded and unclaimed storage lockers. This was a cool thing because he would be bringing home, every now and then, old newspapers (which he would sell to a local comic and magazine shop, among other vintage items for the house.

When I was twelve, my father brought home a box of 28 cast metal small statues of John L. Sullivan, bare chested and in trunks, in the traditional bare fist boxing pose. Mom asked him what was he going to do with them and he shrugged his shoulders and said, “Something.” Little did I know at the time those statues would lead to my musical career in a high school band.

I was in the Boy Scouts and wanted to be a bugler but I didnt have a bugle. No one did. Then, one afternoon, my cousin and I were roaming the neighborhood and I saw a used trumpet in the window of a resale shop.

We went inside and I asked to see the instrument. I couldn’t play it yet, but the valves worked okay so I asked how much. He wanted thirty dollars for it. I had two. As I was slowly walking out the door, I remembered the statuettes, turned and asked him if he would be interested in 28 statues of John L Sullivan and two dollars.

To my surprise, he told me to bring them in so he could see them. We ran home and I asked my father (it was a Saturday and he was in the basement working on something) if I could trade the statues for a trumpet. He told me if the guy would take them it would be okay.

I cannot remember exactly what they looked like. I do remember they were hollow and the greyish casting was sprayed with a gilt paint. Perhaps they may have been made for an award or presentation but there were no bases for the little guys. My cousin and I placed the box in my wagon and off we went, excited and hoping we could make the trade.

The owner looked through the box, satisfied that they were undamaged, told me they were pretty neat and made the trade. He let me keep my two dollars.

I wonder now and then what happened to those 28 statues. I have never seen one since. As I think about it, they may be worth some money nowadays. My trumpet was in sad shape I soon discovered and, even after a cleaning, didn’t sound that good. It was, however, good enough to take on scout outings and camping trips and I got pretty good at playing it by ear, listening to bugle calls on a record I had gotten.

My father saw my interest in playing bugle and other songs so two years later, when I entered high school and began playing in the band, he bought me a new Silvertone trumpet from Sears for my birthday.

Thinking back, I not only owe my musical career but also my interest in trading and selling collectibles, which I am still doing today, to John L Sullivan. As far as trumpet playing, I gave that up some time ago.

I could never hit the high notes.

In The Pines

The holiday season holds a special nostalgia for me. The neighborhood kids would build our winter fort.

Back in those days, before aluminum trees and realistic plastic, everyone had real pine trees of various sizes and type. After Christmas, after New Years, around the end of the first week in January, the alley would be filled with discarded trees. This was the time we waited for.

Freddie, Jose, Rich and I would drag tree after tree from the alley into Freddie’s yard because he was the only one whose family had a wooden picnic table. We would then proceed to toss the trees on top of each other, around and over the seats, until the table was hidden by pine branches on the sides and top. We would then go inside through an opening at one end of the table and hold our meetings.

It was neat. The scent of the trees surrounded us in the interior and sheltered us somewhat from any wind (as long as it wasn’t too strong). What was even better, was if it snowed and covered the trees. Then it was more like an igloo and better insulated. Most trees still had some tinsel or a few overlooked ornaments on them and we would re-hang the ornaments on the inside of the fort to give it some décor.

We would play in the yard and under the table until finally, after about another week or so, the place was littered with pine needles and Freddie’s parents informed us to remove the trees. With all the needles laying around, Freddie had the only green yard on the block!

The removal and relocation of the trees took place the day before the garbage truck came. We carted the trees and placed them along back fences in the alley, not certain which tree belonged where. Apparently it didn’t matter because no one on the street ever complained about our activities.

I don’t see things like that nowadays. Sometimes a beat up aluminum tree is placed in our alley and that’s about it. My childhood memories of the Christmas holidays are no longer seen. Like certain streets where the neighbors each year had the same decorations and dad would take us kids in the car (or we would sometimes walk if the weather permitted, to see Candy Cane Lane, or Santa Claus Street or Reindeer avenue. It was a community street decoration project and, as people moved or died off, there were less and less Santas and candy canes.

But the pine tree fort will always hold a special place in my memories, especially the scent of 10 to 15 trees surrounding a weather warped old picnic table in my playmate’s yard as we sat inside pretending we were wilderness explorers.

And, of course, Freddie’s green yard.

Hilda

There were many a memorable Christmas, for good or for bad, but a few stand out as exceptional.

One year, I desperately wanted a real guitar. I wanted to learn how to play and be a rock and roll star at 12 years of age. My younger sister preferred to be more frugal in her desires and fell in love with a stuffed hippo doll named Hilda. We both looked forward to Christmas in the hopes or receiving these two sought after items.

Unbeknownst to my sister, I learned the folks managed to get her Hilda and hid it up in the top shelf of the closet. She definitely would be surprised on Christmas morn as I still hoped to be. I was a bit concerned because snooping around the house, I found no evidence of a hidden guitar.

The folks were already up as I stirred from my bed Christmas morning. “Santa’s been here!” they exclaimed. “I’ll be right there,” I said as I rolled out of bed and onto the floor to find my slippers. My folks in the other room gasped as I looked under the bed and instead of my slippers saw a large wrapped box. They were hiding it until the end of the gift unwrapping frenzy soon to take place. “That kid never looked under his bed!” my father grumbled.

There was a look of disappointment on their faces as I put on my slippers and walked into the living room adjacent to my bedroom. But within a few moments I had actually forgotten about the box under the bed as the family gathered by the tree and presents were meted out to each of us.

There were toys and clothes galore and soon the dust (or should I say Christmas wrap) had settled as we kids sat among our new additions to the toy box. My father then said, “Aren’t you gonna get your gift from under the bed?” My face lit up and I hurried to the bedroom stating, “I forgot about that!” I pulled out the box, brought it into the living room and proceeded to unwrap my very own Sears six string acoustic guitar. I was very happy.

Over in the corner sat my sister who was not happy at all. She looked forlorn and mom asked her what what wrong. “I didn’t get my Hilda!” she said woefully. I looked at my parents and they looked at each other. They had forgotten to remove Hilda from the closet!

Dad got up and went into the girls room and emerged with a brown bag. “I am sorry,” he told my sister, “we totally forgot about this present.” He handed the bag to my sister who reached in and pulled out Hilda the Hippo in her little tutu. Her sorrow turned to joy as she spent the rest of the morning talking and playing with her new found and much anticipated buddy.

I enjoyed my guitar for years. Actually took lessons for a while until I began to self teach myself the music I wanted to play. After all, most rock and roll was three, maybe four chords at the most, and I wound up playing rhythm rather than notes.

My sister kept Hilda 60 years. It had, no doubt, special meaning to her as I was surprised in a nostalgic and warm way, that Hilda was there in her house until the day my sister died.

Perhaps my little sister will be happier in Eternity with her life long companion Hilda in her arm.

Only a Poor Old Duck

scrooge1

I grew up with comic books. Today they call it the Golden Age of Comics, before Spiderman and the host of super heroes presented by Marvel Comics. Before all that, as Captain America began to fade, being outdone by Superman and Batman, I was reading comic books, and my two favorites were Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge.

Back then, comic books lined the shelves along with magazines and newspapers, in an aisle at the local Drug Store. These places not only filled prescriptions, but also filled stomachs with a snack counter, where you could buy a fountain soda and sit while reading the latest, just purchased, comic book of choice.

As kids, we read and traded comics with each other thus saving unnecessary expense. The difficulty was most of my friends preferred the super heroes and Mad comics and trading the ducks was difficult, but not as difficult as another friend who liked Archie and Classics Illustrated. Super heroes fought crime and super villains, while my comic icons went on fascinating journeys, usually financed by Uncle Scrooge, the world’s richest duck.

It didnt matter to me that Donald was beset by three nephews who were dropped off at his house and never reclaimed, or that Daisy was around at times but probably gave up on Donald after years of trying, and hooked up with Gladstone Gander, but it was Uncle Scrooge who showed up and, for thirty cents and hour, took Donald and the boys around the world visiting strange and unique places on and off the planet. And I could go with them for ten cents.

Although their hometown had its bizarre locations such as Notre Duck Cathedral, or the ancient castle of the mad Duke of Duckburg, many times I would follow them to the cave of Ali Baba, or the Klondike, a castle in Scotland, or a western ghost town, where McDuck would attempt to increase his riches while being saved by the Junior Woodchuck knowledge contained in the manual brought along by Huey, Dewey and Louie.

I could not relate to superheroes of my era, only wonder at their powers to subdue enemies, but I could relate to three young ducks who had a short tempered uncle and another who had a gazillion quatrillion dollars in a three square acre vault in the heart of Duckburg, who would take us on fantastic, and perilous at times, journeys through which I could participate vicariously.

I liked comics because not only could I read them, but the visuals were also provided so I did not have to imagine what the hidden golden moon of earth looked like, or the strange encounters with lost civilizations, thanks to Carl Barks and other illustrators at the Disney Works. It was all there for me and it only cost a dime.

When I returned from serving in Viet Nam, many years later, I found that my father, along with my baseball card collection and Mars Attacks cards, had tossed out all the old comics I had saved and reread through the years. My childhood was gone in more ways than one.

When Gladstone publishing in the mid 1980s began to reprint the classic Duck comics, I was there at the neighborhood comic book store eagerly awaiting the latest arrivals to see if there was a story I remembered or had never seen before. They were about a dollar now, more than the ten cent originals, but the originals were selling in the collectible market for much more than I was willing to pay, so thanks to Gladstone, I recaptured a happy part of my youth where I went sailing or flying or hiking once again with Donald, his nephews and, of course, Uncle Scrooge.

Not for thirty cents an hour, but the price was worth it.

Burning Leaves

leaf-burning

Autumn ain’t what it used to be. The sound of the clickity clack manual lawnmower has been replaced by a super charged gas powered grass eater. And the sound of people raking leaves has been replaced by the jet engine leaf blower that makes more noise than planes leaving O’Hare airport.

Kids in my neighborhood looked forward to Autumn for one reason, and it wasn’t returning to school. It was leaf burning. Not that we kids liked to do household chores, mind you, but there were certain rewards for leaf raking in the 1950s.

On a Saturday afternoon, the neighborhood kids (and a few adults without kids) would rake the leaves from the back of the yard to the front where you could gather them along the curb in front of your house and set them aflame.

Before we would do that, there was the ritual of jumping into the leaf pile first and tossing them up in the air, which required a subsequent re-raking into the curb. It was then that the magic began as we pulled out our book of matches, striking them and tossing them into the mound and watching as the fire slowly spread across from leaf to leaf.

The leaves burned slowly as most were not real dry and brittle (unless you put off raking for a week or so). There was an aroma which permeated the neighborhood as the burning continued. Parking your car was a problem since you didn’t want to be too close to the burning piles. All in all, it took only an hour or so to reduce the leaves into a smoldering heap which then required a good hosing down. You had to be careful with water pressure as not to hose the leaves all over and across the street onto your neighbor’s lawn.

I think the city banned leaf burning around 1960. I cant seem to find the original ordinance about it but I do remember people were told to put leaves in bags and set them in the alley. Thus ended a ritual which now made leaf raking a chore rather than a prelude to minor pyrotechnics in the front yard.

It was a right of passage where the old man (for the sake of not doing it himself) would allow us to have matches, after we raked and piled the leaves, in order to set them ablaze and pretend it was a campfire or burning fort. One time, I remember we tried to send smoke signals by using an old blanket. We were caught before any damage ensued.

Sometimes the wind got a little too strong and spun burning embers into the sky, sort of like when you toss another log on the fire. I suppose this is why somebody (whose roof probably caught fire) got wise and they banned it. Like they did fireworks.

Except folks still set off fireworks. And jump in leaf piles.