Excerpts from Letters to Mom in italics.
16 July 1966
I wonder if Uncle Shun called to tell you when I'd be home. If not, it ought to be about the end of the first week of October. (If the airline strike doesn't last & delay it a couple more days.)
17 July 1966 [Continued]
I hope you don't fatten me up further when I get home. From there, I must go to the self- protection course in Calif, and I hope to be in good shape.
However, I would like to eat some chicken "bub-ri-gosh" [Phonetic for Hungarian Paprikash style served with Paprika, onions, mushrooms in a sour cream sauce.] when I'm home. I'm beginning to eye some souveniers [sic], I know I'll have to bring along. I guess I'll buy some early & ship 'em in my hold baggage and carry a few along.
19 July 1966 [Continued again]
We had a typhoon headed our way yesterday. All the single guys were restricted to base & married guys went home. The "phoon" never got here. I got a letter from Joe Bihon the other day. He loves Germany too! What is Bob Progin doing? Have you heard anything about him? Well, that's about it.
09 August 1966
It's been a while and I have a lot to write about. First, I'm not going steady any longer. We had an amicable parting for reasons I'll explain later at home, if you wish. I sure do miss her; if I weren't in this [security] job I would have married her, I think. [CiCi didn't relish the dumb idea of volunteering to fight poor Asians in Vietnam or anywhere.]
My orders will be cut Thursday (11th), so I wont know until then exactly which day I leave Taipei. I do believe it will be between one and four Oct. I'm planning on stopping by Ft. Meade for a day or so when I get home.
I have an authorization for three months advance pay, [A journey halfway around the world and back begins with three months advance pay!] however, I'm reluctant to take it even though I'll be needing a lot of money. The reason is I'll lose about $50 per month's pay to taxes that would be free in VN. I'll need money for a round trip ticket from West to East coast, travel expenses, leave money and $50 in cash for arrival in VN, according to a brochure I have. In addition I plan on having a good time here, the last month or so. I'm going to try and tighten up on the spending and avoid taking three months advance pay (a loss of about $150).
Since CiCi is living down island near her home, I've dated her best girl friend, [but not exclusively] who is in between boy friends, several times. I've known her almost as long as I have CiCi, and she is a wonderful girl too. So far, I've managed (or we've managed) to keep the relationship platonic in deference to CiCi. Carmen [Just another pseudonym; all bargirls tried to make their names more familiar to their Western clients.] in many ways is more fun than CiCi and we've toured quite a bit of the downtown area. I sure have eaten a lot of Chinese & Japanese cooking lately. I'll bet you won't believe I've eaten snake meat - tastes something like frog legs or chicken but is very bony. I've also been to some coffee houses which feature soft music and low lights; not conducive to maintaining platonic relationships. I recently saw The Sound of Music [1965 Academy Award winner] and you must see it when it is in the area. Promise me you will if you haven't seen it?
I got letters recently from Joe Bihon, Dick Coleman and Aunt Adele, which are still awaiting replies. Boy, I miss CiCi. [Late at night trying to fall asleep, Steve would hear CiCi quietly sing-songing along to Chinese opera on the radio. She knew the words to all the songs by heart. Chinese opera also flourished in street side stages, actors in costume with white painted faces. Musicians -- gongs, drums cymbals and an oboe-sounding flute -- accompanied the story line which sprinted in loud clashing crescendos to abrupt dramatic pauses. At times it sounded like an explosion at a cymbal factory. CiCi didn't have to get up early and ride a bus for 40 minutes to work. The noise irritated him trying to slip into slumber. Yet, less than a year later he would long for those reassuring, once discordant sounds, and her childlike singsong voice while he was trying to catch some needed shut-eye with 105 and 155 howitzer shells booming overhead.] I'm not "sweating" any danger or material hardships in VN, but I sure am gonna miss the women. The women here are good looking and, best of all, aren't spoiled. I guess they live in, or at least have known, extreme poverty.
P.S. Carmen says not to exaggerate the bust measurement; the dressmaker will allow for it.
Busts. Steve encountered more than one poor soul who paid twice for a form of early, Neanderthal plastic surgery. Once, willingly, when the hostess opted to make herself more beautiful in the eyes of occidental males, and later, when the silicone injections morphed into hard, hurtful clumps. Those pseudo doctors just experimented on those poor, young willing girls. Doubt if the girls were informed of the potential risks.