Maybe a hot summer evening in '67 driving my family's metallic blue '65 Chevy Impala down Ridge Road after fishing in the State Faculty Club's oval pond by myself, or packed in with fishing buddies David and Andy and Sam (Skip) and Norman and George listening to those great tunes from that year on the car radio--WKIX.  The 'Letter' by the Box Tops still resounds in me as an all-time favorite song. And during that summer we were still thinking about fishing for bream and largemouth bass.  Teenagers we were but pretty girls were only second thoughts. Vietnam was closing in and friends were starting to fall--neighbors as close as Nottingham Road.  A lot of memories, a lot of tales, and that music--as if to guide us on our way.  :-) 

An Incident in Vietnam
Posted Friday, June 7, 2024 08:42 AM

The huge explosion in Vung Tau that night-- shredding a South Vietnamese Army's barracks-- was beside other rows of military barracks, shaking them violently, too-- those of the U.S. Army where a Captain from Raleigh (my big brother Tom) survived that blast, the bomb being planted and set off by the same Viet Cong boys and girls with whom he and his friends unwarily played volleyball together that very afternoon. The beer flowed and smiles of joy seemed so pleasantly relevant that hot day on the sandy beach of Vung Tau. My brother stayed up the night with his men helping with the wounded and sorting through the pieces in the horrible aftermath of that explosion. 

Casting a glittering Mepps spinner into schools of breaking bream and bass at the State Faculty Club pond and watching those fish veer away in different directions is a much more pleasant  memory....And much more relevant to be sure.  :-)