Pictures A 1,000 Words
Man in the Moon
When I was four, my Aunt Thelma came in one night
to check on me & foud me awake, staring at the moon. What are you doing? she said. I said, "I want the "man
in the moon."
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Jon Christian Merkel was my "man in the moon." In 1967, we dated three months & married on my 23rd birthday in September when he was in Texas & I was in California. Then in February we had a huge wedding with all of our friends. I wore a white crepe jumpsuit covered in lace. The surprise came when he found pants as he removed the garter.
Little Red Honda Car
Jon & I arrived in Sai-Gon Viet-Nam in August 1968. We moved into a French villa that had a front yard and a goldfish pond. We bought a little red Honda car. I loved driving the Honda 90 klicks down Cach Manh. I felt like I was a race car driver. Once when I had ladies riding with me, the car caught on fire. I pulled over on Cong Ly & some kind Vietnamese man stopped, opened the hood, and pulled out a wire, & the fire went out. We thanked him & drove on to the Cercle Sportif for a swim.
Classical Thai Dancing ~ Bangkok
Merk & I took STO, scheduled time off, frequently to Bangkok. I had lived there three months when we first came to Southeast Asia while Merk went on to Sai-Gon to work & evaluate living conditions. I loved Bangkok. The Buddhist temples were a fairie land with gold leaf temples reflecting in the Asian sun. One holiday we saw Thai classical dancing. It was the best of times and the worse of time — the war ever present in our minds.