Day Two: Chinese Food, Southeast Asia and Relevance

Well, I came home and found my wife doing laundry with the dog in her lap. Not the easiest thing to do. After examining the new house being built across the street with our next door neighbor she decided that she wanted chinese food. So I drove out into the wilderness in search of chinese food. I soon found that I had left my office keys at home so I couldn't get a check for the bank. So, I continued on to the Hunan Village where I ordered a light chinese supper without my usual spicy garlic pork (which lasts three days unless I have been without lunch). After placing my order, I walked over to the bookstore and browsed in the sale rack. They had an interesting pictorial history of the Viet Nam War, including pictures and information about the original French battle with the Vietnamese. Now, I know that the French simply wanted to protect their Michelin plants so their Renaults and Peugots could continue to drive on French-made rubber, but why we got into that war is much more convoluted. The pictures were very good and a lot of them reminded me of my childhood when the graphic depictions of warfare in Southeast Asia were plastered over the television screen, basically for the first eighteen years of my life. That and the fear of Russian Hydrogen bombs were a constant source of fear and trembling.

I do remember that I was one of the last age groups to have to register for the draft before they eliminated it for awhile. My number was 21. In a draft lottery, I would have been one of the first to go. That was a fun thought at the time. It makes me think of "Alice's Restaurant" and the "Fish Song". I know I was too young to serve and the next, worst problem I had to face was the popularity of disco music. There was no place in the world of disco for a boy who couldn't dance or who didn't care for dance music. You see, sometimes I think my life has been way too trivial.