Excerpts from Letters to Mom in italics.
The AG knew his way back the alley and could inquire of business ladies in Chinese if they were busy or not. One of the memorable, or perhaps forgettable, events was the evening Steve and a drunken buddy decided to hold a pedicab race back the alley. It took a lot of haranguing for the two fearful pedicab drivers to climb in the seats and allow the two drunks to race their livelihoods. Those damn pedicabs are hard to pedal!
Fehr avoided the bar take-out charges and the inevitable inflation caused by the increasing "R&R" flights from Saigon to Taipei. Wait till the bars close, then stroll over to dine on the sidewalk at the late night noodle stand. HoJo's was located along the curb just a few feet south of the Chungshan and Min Chuan Roads intersection. The bargirls congregated there at the curbside "Howard Johnson's" after work for either noodles, or fried or boiled pierogi-like snacks. The girls were also happy to depart with an enlisted man for deportment unbecoming an officer in order to pick up a little extra on the side. That was unreported income that need not be shared with the despised bar proprietor.
Steve once had the pleasure of running into the legendary "Major Betty" and spending the night. He found her to be a caring, accommodating individual, notwithstanding the reputation as a "nympho" who could suck a golf ball through a garden hose. The AG wasn't 100 percent sure it was actually the Major until she put on her Chinese Army uniform in the morning.
About this time Steve used up his quota of good luck for the next year - he hit the jackpot on the quarter machine at the 63 Club; must have been worth at least $50! Abandoned by CiCi, he had been hitting the beers pretty good when good fortune smiled. It had been raining hard and word came down that a landslide, or more accurately, a mudslide, had closed the winding, steeply sloped road up the hill. Fehr had to find a place to stay. It might take several days for coolie gangs to chip away with picks and shovels to clear a path through the mudslide. No problem, now. His taxi pulled up to a gate back the alley. Steve inquired, "Ni mang, bumang?" No, not busy, was the response, so he hired both girls for the whole night. No hotel middleman. No gratification delayed tonight. Just ecstasy (the natural high).
16 August 1966
Recognize the paper? You sent me one blank page. I found out I'll be leaving Taipei on 26 September. I don't know the time or flight, but it will be the northern route - Tachikawa, Japan, and to McChord A.F.B., Washington. I'm gonna try & catch a hop on a military flight from McChord AFB to McGuire AFB in New Jersey. I expect to be home about the 29th or possibly the 30th.
Sometimes your letters are not the brightest and cheeriest. I don't mind hearing about who's sick, dying, dead etc, but I do not like to hear about you feeling so low. I know your life is one hell of a lot of drudgery, but you shouldn't do anything like that unless you're incurably ill & in pain. [News of her son's upcoming tour of duty may have been enough put her over the edge and launch a fit of depression.] Promise me you'll call Grandpa [a church elder] & talk to him if you ever get so depressed again. In addition to the welfare of the kids, aren't you curious enough to stick around and see what becomes of me when I return to the land of big PX's and round doorknobs?
When you feel low, shove off and see a movie, get a beer to wash down a pizza etc! The kids don't need a sitter all the time, or they shouldn't. To hell with 'em now and then. I've seen kids younger than Bobby working at man sized jobs twelve hours a day & no telling whether it was seven days a week. Gee, I wish I could cheer you up by a glimpse, just one day, of Taipei or most anywhere in the Far East. These people struggle for a bare existence in a cess pool! Our worst problems are peanut sized in comparison [on the comparative misery scale; wrong approach to combat depression].
Aunt Adele told me to get a degree or I'd turn into a disappointed & bitter man (or something like that). Well, I'm going to try to do that. [Get a degree.] But if, for instance, I would have married CiCi or someone else and could not make it through college, I couldn't become bitter because I only had one old car, an old house, and could only afford a weekend's vacation at the beach. There is too much "big league" poverty in the world to grieve so at little problems. [Or, as the GI's say, "Don't sweat the small stuff."] I hope I'm not making you highly indignant (pissed off)!
13 September 1966
I have to be at the airport by 0500L on 26 Sept. I'm going down to buy round trip tickets fm west to east coast. I was going to buy a special bus ticket to go home and fly back to the west coast but I decided against it.
By the way, I got Betsy's dress (and matching purse) but I won't bring anything with me for Bob. What I want to get for him I don't think you'll appreciate. Anyway, it's too big for me to lug with me & I'll put it with my hold baggage that I'm shipping next week. So, it'll be home closer to Xmas time.
I've been running thru money faster than I want to admit… CiCi has been up to see me twice and is coming up the 22nd to stay with and send me off the 26th. Boy, one thing I've learned to appreciate on Taiwan is the food and women. Well, I'll be seeing u soon, and this may be my last letter from APO 96360.