I have it on my list of things to write about … what was going through my mind the first time I met Mimi and her two girlfriend that were with her on that day … (it’s not what you are thinking … Frank!! ha ha ha )

Bob

P.S. … To say Veny, Dini and Mimi are “Lookers” is a “GROSS UNDERSTATEMENT” !!!! All of them also have a wonderful ‘enter beauty’ that radiates to all who’s life they touch, as much, if not more than their ‘outer beauty’ …

Bob

Thank you for finding your way back to us, Mimi … those of us who knew you then and now cherish your friendship more than mere words can ever begin to express. You are a part of us, dwelling within our hearts eternally.

Bob

I was ordering a sandwich at the pool bar, at CSS… 3 guys were sipping a soda … one of them turned around and we were for a few seconds nose to nose…that’s how I met Joe. For a few weeks we only looked at each other, then finally we talked, or rather, I talked. Joe was the silent type. Handsome and silent. I don’t really remember how the rest happened but it was a sweet, cosy and warm relationship. We would see each other every day as his house was just across Lycée Marie-Curie- some evenings too, when I could escape my mother watchfull eye, and we also took long rides on his motorbike, speeding through the rubber plantations, sometimes as far as Cap St Jacques or to a little hill near Bien Hoa where monks in a pagoda would foretell our never ending love in I-King sticks.

I loved being with him, loved listening to “green fields” our favourite song, loved to see and hear him sing at the ball room of the CSS, loved his grin and shyness, loved everything about him. Then after a few months of pure bliss, Joe was abruptly sent back to the US by his parents.

We wrote each other for a few years, I remember how happy I was when I moved to Canada as it was getting me closer to Joe. By then he had enlisted in the Coast Guard. Just when I was about rich enough to afford a trip to see him, he was sent to Italy. We gradually lost interest.

Years later, I must have been near 30 by then, I began wondering what had happened of my sweet Joe. And there started a long quest of two decades through telephone operators and telephone books(everytime I went to the US I would check the phone books) but he was nowhere to be found, neither him or his parents.

Then came the Internet, and my quest for Joe took a new turn. I combed the Coast guard, Washington DC, Falls church(his home town) , phoned or wrote to a few dozen persons who had the same name, without results. One day I remembered his brother Paul had mentionned he would be a lawyer, so I started looking for Paul in lawfirms. No Paul in lawfirms, but there was one teaching in a texan University, a website, a picture. That was THE Paul.
My journalistic stubborness had paid off.

I wrote Paul and got an e-mail the next day. Joe had died of a devastating cancer at 28. Greenfields were gone. It was like a sword in my heart.

I tried to exorcise the “why” and “why him, of all people”, through long e-mails with Paul, it probably did us both some good. And it is Paul who gave me the cue on the web site Frank and Arlene had created for Saigon kids. And this is how, I got in touch with those of you I had known, Frank, Cheryl, Roy, Bob and the others.

Take care guys…and big hugs to all.

I see in the picture BOB, you know, the one you are with “My Girl” …. is Georgia Turner dancing with ?, and Steve dancing with Dini. At the 2000 Phoenix reunion, Georgia and Dini looked the same as in 1961. Yes, I swear!
In 1988, just after arriving at Fort Sill, I saw a highly decorated Colonel that looked familiar. Never talked to him. …I did not realize until after he departed for Alabama that it was Steve.

My first love and my first boyfriend was Mike Cooper – one of the Klan trio that also included Bill Wagner and Robbie Adams. Mike had beautiful blue eyes and a slightly crooked grin (every now and then) and he was pretty reserved and very intelligent – I ADORED him.

Remember the Johhny Mathis song “Chances Are”??

“Chances are ’cause I wear a silly grin the moment you come into view
Chances are you think that I’m in love with you
Just because my composure sort of slips the moment that your lips meet mine
Chances are you think my heart’s your valentine”

Well, that was me whenever I was near Mike.

Mike and I dated through much of 1963 and all through 1964. As he said in my ’63 yearbook “A complete list of all our little “adventures” would take a large book”…and he listed the Student Council, The Solid Gold Cadillac, and swimming races.

Seems my most memorable accomplishment in the eyes of the Saigon kids of 63-64 was getting Coop to dance! While Mike’s family stayed in Saigon, he returned to the States with me, my mother and my brother to attend his senior year at my high school in New Jersey (an academic decision on his parent’s part). We stayed together almost a year after our time in Saigon but then he broke up with me before the end of our senior year – I got replaced by a lovely young Junior with blond hair – I believe the ghost of my broken 17-year-old heart still haunts the streets of Saigon. Ain’t love grand!

Alice

Maybe, you should have too … cuz I got the girl, the dance and the picture …

Frank, note the turned up collar, shirt unbuttoned and sleeves rolled up in ‘true’ CLOD fashion … lol … (the pak of Lucky’s is turned up in the right sleeve) …

How sweet the memories …

Bob

PS: Frank – The song we’re dancing to is “Sweeter Than You” by Ricky Nelson ((GRIN)) …

Gosh, what a guy was willing to do for love!

Frank

[Admin Note: Frank why does the song "All For The Love Of A Girl" come to mind?! ]

A wonderful sweet story. Thank you for sharing with us. For some reason the song “I’ll Remember You” sung and composed by Kui Lee, then later made famous by Don Ho, comes to mind …

“I’ll remember you long after this endless summer is gone …. “

Bob