Dream

[Beau]

(I want to mark this in memory) Last night, Sept 08, 2003, I had a rare Vietnam related dream.

In that vaguely recalled dreamscape, I go to this area ... it is in the states, in our contemporary time, and on land but by water. I see my Army Riverboat from Vietnam and there were people .... affluent and younger people rebuilding it. They were not restoring it, but converting it by altering it's very structure and making it into some kind of jet set cruiser .... like a "Miss Lazeee Day" yaht.

I protest the restructuring and try to tell them that is my war boat ... (with intense emotion).

They do not care and they continue to do their radical construction, like removing of an exhaust stack --- and I still know those old stacks well with their three painted stripes.

Beau

[DMZ-LT]

Time marches on Beau , no matter how much we protest. New life is coming to my casa soon.

[Beau]

Ah, and may he/she settle into the choice of parents, grandparents and world he has chosen --- with confidence and strength --- and Pop Tarts and cap guns and "Crusader Rabbit" reruns.

And ya'll have grown up kids and some have grand kids ... I'm here freaking on Algebra homework and such (Soccer practice tonight for Meg) ... but it too is delicious in middle age. There is an old saying in the markers that point to the long gone Asparagus camps, historical markers that should not be altered by the way, of the Central Valley, it goes like this " ... I know you Bobby Gene, you puck aroun' puck aroun' " The historical markers woulda been different had I been a dad in my 20s.

Then may I pass on an ancient Mexican saying to the new life, on "this plane" anyway, that will soon adorn your family. It was taught to me by my mother whilst growing up in the 1950s in Livermore, California. I can hear here now, shouting in the way of the ancients: her voice so loud and commanding that it drowned out the audio of "The Crusader Rabbit" tv show. She said "mijo ... there is a legend of a great Spanish Conquistador who came into a great Mexican city, always remember it. The Spanish soldier met the most mesmarizing lady in that city in old Mexico ... her eyelids and eyebrows were painted with most seductive of violet and crimson colors. The way she moved to sit next to him, reminded him of the Gazelles of countryside surrounding Barcellona of his home land .... The lady of indigo eyes and velvet body called out to him and she seduced him into leaving the hotel room in Hong Kong, that the Spaniard had payed for in advance and they went to her nest that she shared with another, and their love making is of renown (sp) .... The Conquistador went back to Barcellona, to his familia and estate. But still his heart longs for the alabaster skin of "Rosanna" Chan: a name that roughly translates "... honeeeee, give me your money and I will hold it for you "

So .... it is early ... and I got to SSS and .... funk out at work.

Beau

[DMZ-LT]

It's a boy child and he must have a set if he picked us. He will be of mixed blood German, English and Mexican and he will be loved. My wife found a pic of Bonnie , my Bangkok woman , 10 years after we were married , in my wallet and made me throw it away. Bonnie even cried at the airport when I left. A real trooper. Yes I still have your pic of me and my lucky feet - every day I look at it and realize how lucky I am. Thanks.

[Beau]

Well, stick around a lot of years grand dad so's you can tell your grand child about lucky/magic shoes and "Bonnie:" German, English and Mexican seems pretty standard these days. They have a public school over here called "The German, English and Mexican Middle School."

Speaking of Thailand --- just finished hanging around for Meg's soccer practice and we had a Thai dinner together afterwards (we are alone together this week) --- pretty good chop but I think I prefer Indian curry meals mo bettah.

I'm sorry you do not have "Bonnie's" photo any longer --- I'd lovveeee to have "Rosanna's" photo ("you come back to visit me" ---- yah, right, whatever, duh, 24 x 7 .... etc.).

Now it's time to help the kid with the Algebra. "I'm leaving on a jet plane, don't know when I'll be back again ...."

Beau

[Tamaroa]

Beau,

I understand your dream more than you can know. I crewed on the salvage tug USCGC Tamaroa 1967-68. We rescued her from the wreckers torch and will restore her BUT the CG won't let us restore her to the modern style. So we have to restore her to her 1950's configuration with a black hull and no racing stripe.

Here she is in 1950's colors:

[Andy]

I've had a dream many times about the military. This one is always the same dream. I'm in my first day of basic training at Fort Knox. I've got a shirt on with rank and patches and keep telling everyone I've already done this but no one listens. I keep telling everyone I don't want to get down and give them 20 but no one can hear me.

Never had a dream about my APC getting remodeled for civilian use, course what the hell would you use it for? Well, you could ALWAYS find a parking space.

Stay healthy,
Andy

[Beau]

Tamaroa --- nice looking tug and there is nothing wrong in making her the way she was intended to look like. What did it salvage ?

Andy --- interesting recurring dream (the recurring ones are important). I'll go "out on a limb here" and speculate on reincarnation theme, as a Soldier. Well, I think if you mounted a .50 on the top; painted it white; installed freezers in the interior; applied ice cream cone and rainbow sherbet bars and eskimo pie decorations on the exterior; stocked the freezers with those eskimo pies and Fifty Fifty bars, etc. .... you be the only Ice Cream man a kid would buy from: kinda slow moving though I suspect.

The only "Nam" recurring dream I sometimes have is one where I am back on the boat and have to do another stint/mission --- I feel absolute despair about it (that is a packed word --- despair).

Beau

[Beau]

But still, don't alter the image --- dream people.

[Beau]

Picket Boat sliding by ....