“Go Outside for Everything“ It was the line which Bob Hope amused the audience at the 25th Oscar Academy Awards. The event was in 1953, the very first time the awards was televised. Bob went on and on entertaining and revealed that ‘Television is wonderful. Today you can sit at home see Broadway shows, go to church in your living room. You don’t have to go outside anymore. I was born in a farm, I had to go outside for everything. The audience knew exactly what he meant and that brought a burst of applause. For me, Bob just cracked open

School or Rice Paddies ‘Can I work in the paddies, growing rice, taking care of the buffaloes instead of going to school?’          Even if it was sixty some years ago, I still remember what I asked my parent. Those days there was no day care or nursery schools in our neighborhood. Most of the kids started their schools at first grade, and I was one of them. I guess I was overindulgently spoiled at home for 5-6 years and I refused to go out of the nest. Unlike my three sisters who excelled in their classes, they

A Family of Ten Sometimes we had less than a Dollar left in our household. No one had any plan for the next meal, rather just the tasks which were lined in front them; taking merchandise to sell on the street, putting some in the trays and carrying to the morning market competing with others for a free hot spot. After school, the kids had to come straight home regardless and helped out; selling corn, snacks, dessert by going after, knocking doors and being a local bus ticket collector, occasionally. Yet, there were still not enough food on the table. Taking

A Convenient Store in Korat ‘May I buy a box of matches?’ The voice echoed along the banging at the front door. And the boy who was just grown up enough to wear his own shoes, was stretching his arm through the slot of the rusted metal doors to take the matches and said to JJ that he didn’t have money and asked JJ to put it in the book. The boy then ran off. It was well after the store hours; 6 am to 9 pm daily. The people in the neighborhood took liberty in coming and knocking on the

He ain’t Heavy He’s My Brother “The road is long with a many winding turns. His welfare is of my concern. No burden is he to bear. He would not encumber me. He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother.” The captions of the lyrics which Bob Russell and Bob Scott wrote the song in 1969 were just about what happened in my family. With the reversal of my father’s business, my oldest sister, JJ, was abruptly pulled out in the middle of her sixth grade. She was perhaps too young to argue or just simply took it as a good daughter who

The Three Musketeers Ho Chi Minh City, previously known as Saigon, had lots of arts and paintings to offer. The Vietnamese artists were good painters and their arts were very reasonably priced. I bought about 30 different paintings but there was only one I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it. It was the painting of a red tricycle. There was sort of crummy townhouses at the background but the red color of the tricycle and the vigorous man who rode it, brought the cheerful mood to the painting. And it humbly brought me back to my childhood. The

Happy Hours ‘My happy hours start kind of early!’ It was part of the conversation during a meeting with our licensee, Sullivans. They asked whether we could continue our discussion until the afternoon. They knew that I was kidding when I said as above and were laughing when I added ‘as early as noon’. This practice became my habit when visiting Boo, my first granddaughter. We both, a 9 months old baby and a grandpa, kept our seats warm the longest. One ate and plays with food, the other ate and pleasured Sauvignon Blanc. Laughing, toasting, cheering was what we cheerfully

College Fund ‘Borrowed 500 Baht each month for four years and paid back 600 Baht monthly for four years after college, was it fair?’ An American friend once asked me about the loan that I had for my college expenses. He didn’t think it was anything special in comparing with what he had borrowed from the U.S. Government. But it was indeed a big deal for me at that time and still feel grateful up till nowadays. 1969 was the year that my friends and I took the national exams for further studying in colleges. I got accepted by Kasetsart University

Doesn’t Seem You are Poor ‘Doesn’t seem you are poor!’ I was prejudged by an academic officer who worked in the scholarship department. He wanted to make sure the students who qualified for the grants were from low-income families. He didn’t believe what I told him so he put me on probation; receiving free meals in exchange for doing physical jobs. They were odd jobs which I didn’t mind and they could be done on the weekends, such as picking up seeds from trees for the department’s nursery, lawn mowing in between buildings, painting the fences, digging mud in the polluted