Home  >> Stories  >> The Tale Spinner #2016-25

---

IN THIS ISSUE

• Mike Yeager writes about a visit to Hue, in Vietnam
• Carol Shoemaker forwards the story of a wish
• Shirley Conlon shares the tale of a dog called Lucky
• Here is a quiz that tests your memory
• Tom Telfer forwards a memoir about "the last ones"
• Sites are suggested by Marilyn Magid, Shirley Conlon, and Tom Telfer

Mike Yeager writes his last blog about Vietnam:

THE HISTORIC CITY OF HUE

Our hotel in Hue was located down a small alleyway off a main street. In the hotel lobby we were greeted by three employees, all were gracious and accommodating. Our room was on the third floor. The elevator had no depth. We walked into it, turned around, and our backs were to the wall and our faces next to the door. It was a nice hotel for less than $25 a night. The room was clean, the bed was comfortable, and the staff arranged for any trips or cab rides we needed. Breakfast was included and served every morning in the lobby. I had a small freshly-baked baguette or croissant with scrambled eggs and fresh fruit and Vietnamese coffee. Yum!

The first day we went to the Citadel, located across the Perfume River from our hotel, the walled Imperial City filled with ornate temples and buildings. It was Vietnam´s capital from 1804 until 1945, and the home of Vietnamese Royalty. Instead of walking all the way down to one of the bridges to cross the river, we paid $2.00 and rode an ornately-painted "dragon boat" operated by a man and his wife.

In February 1968, Hue was attacked by ten battalions of North Vietnamese soldiers and Viet Cong. American forces, along with South Vietnamese units, battled it out in the city for 25 days. The last stronghold of the enemy was the Citadel. In order to root out the enemy, we bombed it, destroying many of the structures. I was in Vietnam at the time and one of our interpreters had taken some time off to visit his family in Hue for the New Year´s celebration. He survived the month-long fighting and returned to our unit and told us all about it.

The day was extremely hot when we wandered around the palace grounds. We carried bottled water and had rags to wipe away the sweat. There were a few signs that mentioned the war and the battle of 1968, but without the negative tone against the "American aggressors." There was still much evidence of the battle from almost 50 years before, destroyed buildings and walls, bullet holes in the bricks, and deep holes in the ground. I tried to imagine my fellow soldiers fighting the enemy in and around these historic buildings.

After an hour or so of taking in the many beautiful ornate buildings, they became rather redundant. We read about the royal family and looked at many pictures. They seemed rich, spoiled, and out of touch with the rest of the people in their country. They enjoyed gluttonous meals consisting of hard-to-get or hard-to- prepare foods, and they used eunuchs (castrated boys) as personal servants. The men in power had many wives as well as many concubines.

The next day we hired a cab driver to take us to a restored primitive village with an historic old bridge. The expansive countryside around Hue was beautiful, green and lush. The cab driver told us he was a journalist and worked for one of the local papers. As Katie and I travelled the country, we were disheartened by all the trash, plastic bags and bottles, etc., scattered along the sides of the roads and floating in the waterways. In and around the cities the trash problem was the worst, less so out in the country. We asked the journalist/cab driver about it and he admitted that it was a big problem. He told us he had written an article about it and submitted it to his paper. "My editor asked me if I was willing to go to jail over it and I told him ´No, I didn´t want to go to jail.´" So his editor told him to drop it and write about something else.

Even though under Communist rule the Vietnamese people do not yet have all the freedoms of a democracy, in general, this young population seems happy and hopeful about their future. In Hoi Ahn when the school kids rode past us on their bikes, invariably they would shout out a friendly "Hello." One evening when we were strolling along the Perfume River in Hue, we were approached by a small group of young Vietnamese women. They were students at Hue University and asked us if we would mind talking with them so that they could practice their English. We sat on the river wall and talked for over an hour. They were excited about their future and wanted to learn all about the world. They did not seem the least bit worried about their country or the government, and no topic was off limits.

On the third morning we took a cab to the Hue airport, flew to Hanoi, then back to Singapore. We had spent 15 days in Vietnam, and similar to my first time there in the sixties, I was both happy and sad to leave.

ED. NOTE: To see Mike´s many photos of Hue, click on http://tinyurl.com/hpgut59

Carol Shoemaker tells the story of

ONE WISH

A man walking along a California beach was deep in prayer. All of a sudden, he said out loud, "Lord, grant me one wish."

The sky clouded above his head and in a booming voice the Lord said, "Because you have TRIED to be faithful to me in all ways, I will grant you one wish."

The man said, "Build a bridge to Hawaii, so I can drive over anytime I want to."

The Lord said, "Your request is very materialistic. Think of the logistics of that kind of undertaking. The supports required to reach the bottom of the Pacific! The concrete and steel it would take! I can do it, but it is hard for me to justify your desire for worldly things. Take a little more time and think of another wish, a wish you think would honour and glorify me."

The man thought about it for a long time. Finally he said, "Lord, I wish that I could understand women. I want to know how they feel inside, what they are thinking when they give me the silent treatment, why they cry, what they mean when they say ´Nothing,´ and how I can make a woman truly happy."

After a few minutes God said, "You want two lanes or four on that bridge?

Shirley Conlon forwards this story of

LUCKY

Mary and her husband Jim had a dog named Lucky.

Lucky was a real character. Whenever Mary and Jim had company come for a weekend visit, they would warn their friends to not leave their luggage open, because Lucky would help himself to whatever struck his fancy. Inevitably, someone would forget and something would come up missing.

Mary or Jim would go to Lucky´s toy box in the basement, and there the treasure would be, amid all of Lucky´s other favourite toys. Lucky always stashed his finds in his toy box, and he was very particular that his toys stay in the box.

It happened that Mary found out she had breast cancer. Something told her she was going to die of this disease. In fact, she was just sure it was fatal. She scheduled the double mastectomy, fear riding her shoulders.

The night before she was to go to the hospital she cuddled with Lucky. A thought struck her ... what would happen to Lucky?

Although the three-year-old dog liked Jim, he was Mary´s dog through and through. If I die, Lucky will be abandoned, Mary thought. He won´t understand that I didn´t want to leave him! The thought made her sadder than thinking of her own death.

The double mastectomy was harder on Mary than her doctors had anticipated, and she was hospitalized for over two weeks. Jim took Lucky for his evening walk faithfully, but the little dog just drooped, whining and miserable.

Finally the day came for Mary to leave the hospital. When she arrived home, she was so exhausted she couldn´t even make it up the steps to her bedroom. Jim made his wife comfortable on the couch and left her to nap.

Lucky stood watching Mary, but he didn´t come to her when she called. It made Mary sad, but sleep soon overcame her and she dozed.

When Mary woke, for a second she couldn´t understand what was wrong. She couldn´t move her head and her body felt heavy and hot. But panic soon gave way to laughter when she realized the problem. She was covered, literally blanketed, with every treasure Lucky owned!

While she had slept, the sorrowing dog had made trip after trip to the basement, bringing his beloved mistress all his favourite things in life. He had covered her with his love.

Mary forgot about dying. Instead she and Lucky began living again, walking further and further together every day. It´s been 12 years now and Mary is still cancer-free. Lucky still steals treasures and stashes them in his toy box, but Mary remains his greatest treasure..

Here is a quiz for seniors:

A MEMORY TEST FOR YOU

1. "Kookie; Kookie. Lend me your _____."

2. The "battle cry" of the hippies in the sixties was "Turn on; tune in; ______."

3. After the Lone Ranger saved the day and rode off into the sunset, the grateful citizens would ask, "Who was that masked man?" Invariably, someone would answer, "I don´t know, but he left this behind." What did he leave behind?_____.

4. Folk songs were played side by side with rock and roll. One of the most memorable folk songs included these lyrics: "When the rooster crows at the break of dawn, look out your window and I´ll be gone. You´re the reason I´m traveling on, _______."

5. A group of protesters arrested at the Democratic convention in Chicago in 1968 achieved cult status, and were known as the ______.

6. When the Beatles first came to the U.S. in early 1964, we all watched them on the __________ show.

7. Some of those who protested the Vietnam war did so by burning their _________.

8. We all learned to read using the same books. We read about the thrilling lives and adventures of Dick and Jane. What was the name of Dick and Jane´s dog?____.

9. The cute little car with the engine in the back and the trunk (what there was of it) in the front, was called the VW. What other name(s) did it go by? _______ or ______

10. A Broadway musical and movie gave us the gang names the _____ and the ______.

11. In the seventies, we called the drop-out nonconformists "hippies." But in the early sixties, they were known as ______.

12. William Bendix played Chester A. Riley, who always seemed to get the short end of the stick in the television program, "The Life of Riley." At the end of each show, poor Chester would turn to the camera and exclaim, "What a _______."

13. "Get your kicks, ________."

14. "The story you are about to see is true. The names have been changed _________."

15. The real James Bond, Sean Connery, mixed his martinis a special way: ____________.

16. "In the jungle, the mighty jungle, _________."

17. That "adult" book by Henry Miller - the one that contained all the "dirty" dialogue - was called _________.

18. Today, the math geniuses in school might walk around with a calculator strapped to their belts. But back in the sixties, members of the math club used a _______.

19. In 1971, singer Don Maclean sang a song about "the day the music died." This was a reference and tribute to ______.

20. A well-known television commercial featured a driver who was miraculously lifted through thin air and into the front seat of a convertible. The matching slogan was "Let Hertz __________."

21. After the twist, the mashed potato, and the watusi, we "danced" under a stick that was lowered as low as we could go in a dance called the_______.

22. "N-E-S-T-L-E-S; Nestles makes the very best ___________."

23. In the late sixties, the "full figure" style of Jane Russell and Marilyn Monroe gave way to the "trim" look, as first exemplified by British model _____.

24. Satchmo was America´s "ambassador of goodwill." Our parents shared this great jazz trumpet player with us. His name was _________.

25. On Jackie Gleason´s variety show in the sixties, one of the most popular segments was "Joe, the Bartender." Joe´s regular visitor at the bar was that slightly off-center, but lovable character, ____________. (The character´s name, not the actor´s.)

26. We can remember the first satellite placed into orbit. The Russians did it; it was called ________.

27. What takes a licking and keeps on ticking? _________.

28. One of the big fads of the late fifties and sixties was a large plastic ring that we twirled around our waist; it was called the _________.

29. The "Age of Aquarius" was brought into the mainstream in the Broadway musical _______.

30. This is a two-parter: Red Skelton´s hobo character (not the hayseed, the hobo) was ________. Red ended his television show by saying, "Good night, and ___________."

THE ANSWERS

1. "Kookie; Kookie; lend me your comb."

2. The "battle cry" of the hippies in the sixties was "Turn on; tune in; drop out." Many people who proclaimed that 30 years ago today are Wall Street bond traders and corporate lawyers.

3. The Lone Ranger left behind a silver bullet. Several of you said he left behind his mask. Oh, no; even off the screen, Clayton Moore would not be seen as the Lone Ranger without his mask!

4. "When the rooster crows at the break of dawn, look out your window and I´ll be gone. You´re the reason I´m travelling on; Don´t think twice, it´s all right."

5. The group of protesters arrested at the Democratic convention in Chicago in 1968 was known as the Chicago seven.

6. When the Beatles first came to the U.S. in early 1964, we all watched them on the Ed Sullivan Show.

7. Some who protested the Vietnam war did so by burning their draft cards. If you said "bras," you´ve got the right spirit, but nobody ever burned a bra while I was watching. The "bra burning" days came as a by-product of women´s liberation movement, which had nothing directly to do with the Vietnam war

8. Dick and Jane´s dog was Spot. "See Spot run." Whatever happened to them? Rumor has it they have been replaced in some school systems by "Heather Has Two Mommies."

9. It was the VW Beetle, or more affectionately, the Bug.

10. A Broadway musical and movie gave us the gang names the Sharks and the Jets. West Side Story.

11. In the early sixties, the drop-out, non-conformists were known as beatniks. Maynard G. Krebs was the classic beatnik, except that he had no rhythm, man; a beard, but no beat.

12. At the end of "The Life of Riley," Chester would turn to the camera and exclaim, "What a revoltin´ development this is."

13. "Get your kicks on Route 66."

14. "The story you are about to see is true. The names have been changed to protect the innocent."

15. The real James Bond, Sean Connery, mixed his martinis a special way: shaken, not stirred.

16. "In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight."

17. That "adult" book by Henry Miller was called Tropic of Cancer. Today, it would get a PG-13 rating.

18. Back in the sixties, members of the math club used a slide rule.

19. "The day the music died" was a reference and tribute to Buddy Holly.

20. The matching slogan was "Let Hertz put you in the driver´s seat."

21. After the twist, the mashed potato, and the watusi, we "danced" under a stick in a dance called the limbo.

22. "N-E-S-T-L-E-S; Nestles makes the very best....chooo-c´late." In the television commercial, "chocolate" was sung by a puppet - a dog. (Remember his mouth flopping open and shut?)

23. In the late sixties, the "full figure" style gave way to the"trim" look, as first exemplified by British model Twiggy.

24. Our parents shared this great jazz trumpet player with us. His name was Louis Armstrong.

25. Joe´s regular visitor at the bar was Crazy Googenhiem.

26. The Russians put the first satellite into orbit; it was called Sputnik.

27. What takes a licking and keeps on ticking? A Timex watch.

28. The large plastic ring that we twirled around our waist was called the hula-hoop.

29. The "Age of Aquarius" was brought into the mainstream in the Broadway musical "Hair."

30. Red Skelton´s hobo character was Freddie the Freeloader. (Clem Kaddiddlehopper was the "hay seed.") Red ended his television show by saying, "Good night, and may God bless."

Tom Telfer forwards this short memoir of children of the 30s and 40s:

THE LAST ONES

Born in the 1930s and early 40s, we exist as a very special age cohort. We are the "last ones." We are the last, climbing out of the depression, who can remember the winds of war and the war itself, with fathers and uncles going off. We are the last to remember ration books for everything from sugar to shoes to stoves. We saved tin foil and poured fat into tin cans. We saw cars up on blocks because tires weren´t available.

We are the last to hear Roosevelt ´s radio assurances, and to see gold stars in the front windows of our grieving neighbours. We can also remember the parades on August 15, 1945: VJ Day.

We saw the "boys" home from the war build their Cape Cod style houses, pouring the cellar, tar papering it over, and living there until they could afford the time and money to finish it.

We are the last who spent childhood without television; instead imagining what we heard on the radio. As we all like to brag, with no TV, we spent our childhood "playing outside until the street lights came on." We did play outside and we did play on our own. There was no little league.

The lack of television in our early years meant, for most of us, that we had little real understanding of what the world was like. Our Saturday afternoons, if at the movies, gave us newsreels of the war and the holocaust, sandwiched in between westerns and cartoons. Newspapers and magazines were written for adults. We are the last who had to find out for ourselves.

As we grew up, the country was exploding with growth. The G.I. Bill gave returning veterans the means to get an education and spurred colleges to grow. VA loans fanned a housing boom. Pent-up demand, coupled with new instalment payment plans, put factories to work. New highways would bring jobs and mobility. The veterans joined civic clubs and became active in politics. In the late 40s and early 50s, the country seemed to lie in the embrace of brisk but quiet order as it gave birth to its new middle class. Our parents understandably became absorbed with their own new lives. They were free from the confines of the depression and the war. They threw themselves into exploring opportunities they had never imagined.

We weren´t neglected, but we weren´t today´s all-consuming family focus. They were glad we played by ourselves "until the street lights came on." They were busy discovering the post-war world.

Most of us had no life plan, but with the unexpected virtue of ignorance and an economic rising tide, we simply stepped into the world and went to find out. We entered a world of overflowing plenty and opportunity; a world where we were welcomed. Based on our naïve belief that there was more where this came from, we shaped life as we went.

We enjoyed a luxury - we felt secure in our future. Of course, just as today, not all Americans shared in this experience. Depression poverty was deep rooted. Polio was still a crippler. The Korean War was a dark presage in the early 50s, and by mid-decade, school children were ducking under desks. China became Red China. Eisenhower sent the first "advisors" to Vietnam. Castro set up camp in Cuba, and Khrushchev came to power.

We are the last to experience an interlude when there were no existential threats to our homeland. We came of age in the late 40s and early 50s. The war was over and the cold war, terrorism, climate change, technological upheaval, and perpetual economic insecurity had yet to haunt life with insistent unease.

Only we can remember both a time of apocalyptic war and a time when our world was secure and full of bright promise and plenty. We experienced both.

We grew up at the best possible time, a time when the world was getting better, not worse.

We are the "last ones."

- Author unknown

SUGGESTED SITES

Marilyn Magid forwards the URL for a great creative commercial:

Shirley Conlon forwards this link to an early Archie Bunker sitcom that will bring back memories to those of us who watched those shows:

Tom Telfer suggests this site for a stunning computer animation from a man in the Netherlands:

Jagger, a tail-wagging, 10-year-old Lab, has made the Canadian government about $2.4 million by using his nose. He is a canine currency detector dog that searches for cash at the Toronto airport:

You may not want to build a passive house, which can run on one-tenth the energy of an average home, but you might find some ideas that you can use to save energy in your present home:

Technology exists to suck unlimited amounts of water out of the air, even in desert climates. Where bottled water is the only option, this invention holds an exciting promise for anywhere that has a water shortage:

From the Washington State Government Dept. of Ecology comes this video on "green building," which is seen as a key player in addressing a number of priority environmental issues and creating good-paying jobs which cannot be outsourced:

Here is a great story from a Taiwanese commercial:

These are some of the most amazing trains ever built:

To check out the features of the "freedictionary," which changes daily, go to