After 46 Years...a Trip Back in Time, Part 7

by Glenn N. Holliman

A Tour of Vietnam, an old Soldier returns....

My series on a March 2015 tour of Vietnam continues with more on the medical conference in Ha Long, Vietnam, chaired by my cousin, Dr. Jim Holliman, president of an international emergency medical association.  Thanks to an invitation from Jim and his wife, Karen, my daughter, Grace, and I took advantage of the situation and traveled with them.  For me, it was my first return to Southeast Asia since leaving South Vietnam as a young soldier in January, 1970 after a year with the 1st Infantry Division.  I continue to wrestle with memories of that anguished time in my life....

Jim, below right, speaks at the opening of the Ha Long conference and medical workshops. He is the author of numerous books on trauma and the treatment of emergency situations. He is family; I am allowed to brag about him. 

Below left, Jim and speakers fine tune their headphones for the simultaneous translation from Vietnamese to English.

 

 While Jim was working, I visited the exhibits and made friends with some 22 year old translators studying to be nurses.  They likened me to their grandfather, and enjoyed practicing their English.  In this culture, the old are venerated which felt good. 

At evening, we were bused to another hotel, and the Gala Dinner occurred – perhaps dinner for 400, mostly Vietnamese.  Sat at round table for ten, and again the Lazy Susan.  Twelve courses, delightful groans when the meal of crab, pork, rice, vegetables, noodles, fish, bread, and on and on, washed down with French wine.  A Vietnamese dance and singing groups put on a continuous show….delicate dances and native songs and costumes.  Remarkable, a demonstration of their Asian cultural arts.  Magnificent.

Another banquet and more folk music and dance.  

The instrument is made of bamboo.

During the dinner, the five translators saw me and ran up and treated me like a rock star much to Grace’s amusement.  I gave the girls my social card.  Did my ego a bit of good.

A Senior Moment

And that was good because I had a lapse in attention while checking my email back in my bedroom. Struck by irritated  skin, I fumbled for a tube and squeezed some lotion on my reddened ankle.  I noticed the cream was thicker than usual, but thought no more about it.  The next morning, no itch, great I thought, and then I noticed a tube of Colgate tooth paste on the desk, next to the computer.  Hmmm…maybe I will use more tooth paste in the future.  Fortunately I did not brush my teeth with hydrocortisone!

I am posting this latest article at Christmas time 2015.  The memory of that 1969 December in South Vietnam comes back to me.  Here is a few photo of a young G.I. in a time far away.

It is Christmas Eve day, and I am typing letters of condolences from the chaplain to the parents and loved ones of Americans who have died recently in combat with our brigade, the 3rd Brigade, 1st Infantry, Lai Khe, Vietnam, 40 miles or so north of Saigon.  

Why the helmet and flack jacket?  A note on the picture says we were having a raid at the time, rockets fired from outside the perimeter into the base.  Yes, it was a manual typewriter.  Make a typo and one was required to start over from the beginning.  I typed very, very slowly and concentrated. Even with 'incoming'.

More observations of both new and ancient Vietnam (and aging) in the next post!

************************************************************************************

THE CHRISTOPHER HOLLYMAN, SR.

 HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Executive Committee

Tina Peddie (California) Jeanette Holiman Stewart (Texas), Allen Holleman (North Carolina), Glenn N. Holliman (Pennsylvania), Lynn Holliman (Texas) Glenda Norris (Alabama), Sue Jones (Wyoming), Joseph Parker (Texas), Denise Goff (Virginia) and Sandra Torbert French (Florida)

CORDIALLY INVITE YOU

to

The Inaugural Meeting of the Society

at

SMITHFIELD

ISLE OF WIGHT COUNTY

VIRGINIA

MARCH 31- APRIL 2, 2016

FOR

A ONCE IN A LIFETIME TOUR TO THE CHRISTOPHER HOLLYMAN'S PLANTATION CA 1682

AND

OTHER HISTORIC HOLLYMAN SITES

AND

TWO DAYS OF SEMINARS

and Round Table Discussions

ON

THE HOLLYMANS of ENGLAND

AND

SUBSEQUENT MIGRATIONS

THROUGH OUT THE USA

PLUS

SESSIONS ON HOW TO TRACE YOUR HOLLYMAN DNA, THE MASSIVE FAMILY TREE (at www.Ancestry.com), HOLLYMAN WEB SITES, THE JAMESTOWN SOCIETY AND THE NEW HOLLIMAN ARCHIVES FOR HOLLYMANS (ALL SPELLINGS) AND ASSOCIATED FAMILIES!

For information and a complete schedule of the program and times, email Allen Holleman, Program Reservations, at jallen.holleman2@gmail.com or call (919-210-6862).

  

Birthday # 96!!

by Glenn N. Holliman

Homer Bishop Holliman has another birthday!

Below age 96, he takes his daily walk and enjoys a cup of cappuccino ever afternoon.
  He has lived as long as his maternal grandmother, Lula Hocutt Caine (1861-1957), a native of Fayette County, Alabama who moved to Irondale, Alabama during World War I.  Her three daughters and their families followed, finding employment in the Magic City of Birmingham, a steel and coal metropolis, which sprang out of a cotton field in the early 1870s.

Bishop, my father, was born December 17, 1919, the year of the over-reaching Versailles Treaty was signed and an angry young German veteran, Adolph Hitler, joined the Nazi Party.  At age 22, Bishop was in the U.S. Navy preparing to brave the U-Boat submarines of a revived Germany under the leadership a tyrannical dictator.  Two of his brothers, Melton and Ralph, followed him into that conflict.

The Irondale of the 1920s and 30s, a working class suburb, a long street car ride from the center of Birmingham, was Bishop's childhood.  At age 9, his mother, Pearl Caine Holliman (1888-1955) let him stay home to hear Herbert Hoover take the oath of office, broadcast through the family's brand new radio.  A brother-in-law, Robert W. Daly, Sr., eventually a prominent banker, gave Bishop's siblings and the boy rides in his open top roadster.  The roads in the late 1920s and early 30s were still red clay or sand around Irondale.  The family had a chicken house, electricity, a cow and eventually in 1936, indoor plumbing.

Below 1932 in Robert's roadster - Ralph, Virginia and Bishop

The house at 2300 3rd Avenue North looked over the switching yards of numerous rail lines.  The romance of the railroad infected Bishop, who for the rest of his life rode the train whenever possible.

After almost four years in World War II, he returned to Alabama with a bride from Philadelphia.  The couple had three children.  

The G.I. Bill allowed Bishop to finish college at Birmingham-Southern, a prelude to five years of teaching.  In 1952, he returned again to earn his living from Uncle Sam, this time an employee of the Social Security Administration, the old age retirement and disability program that his Republican father, Ulyss Holliman (1884-1965), had railed against as an infamous part of Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal. Bishop would retire as manager of the office in Cookeville, Tennessee.

Right, Bishop and Geraldine Stansbery, 1945 at Bishop's home in Irondale, Alabama.



Bishop thrived in Cookeville, becoming a prominent member of the community.  Over the years he was president of the Rotary, United Way, the library board, the Red Cross and the local railroad depot museum and always active in the local United Methodist Church.  The three children all attended Tennessee Tech, the local university and all met spouses there.  Today there are eight grandchildren and sixteen great grandchildren!

Below right, the family in 1966 in Tennessee - Becky, Glenn, Gerry, Alice and Bishop.            



Bishop has outlived his first two wives, good persons both, Geraldine Stansbery and Anne McLaughlin.  In 2000 he married Ellen Cox, a church friend from Gadsden, Alabama.  They make their home in Avilla, Indiana, a friendly community surrounded by Ellen's nieces and nephews.  Dad says it reminds him of Irondale, the home of his youth. 

 Above October 2015, the daily walk with Ellen and the ever faithful Bee Bee.

We can't pick our parents; Mother Nature does that for us.  My two sisters and I won life's lottery being the off spring of Geraldine Stansbery and Bishop Holliman.  Happy Birthday once again to one of the finest men in the world. - GNH

After 46 Years...a Trip Back in Time, Part 6

by Glenn N. Holliman

This post is a continuation of my memoir of 1969 Vietnam and my return in 2015, an old veteran observing, remembering.... 

Ha Noi to Ha Long....

We board a shuttle bus with physicians and nurses and slowly move through Hanoi, heading 80 or so miles the Red River into the country side moving east and north to the coast. One village or town after another as we head to our medical conference site. Third world roads, incredible congestion and insane drivers.  Fortunately only saw one accident.  Four hours through winter gloom, rice fields and some industrialization.  

The populous seems happy, energetic and well dressed.  A bit like Central America – warm climate so one’s shop is in the front and home in the back or above if more than one floor. 

Scenes left and right 1969, South Vietnam. 

Scenes below 2015, still paddies in Vietnam, the major export, but shops like the one above have been replaced by much improved construction.
                                                                                                          

                                   

Much was as 46 years ago, and yet change has come in a major way.  The communist victory in 1975 resulted in a decade of socialist-directed state rule, suppressing but not destroying the entrepreneur spirit of the people.  In 1986, economic policy changed and the business spirit of a people arose.  Per capita income is still low, not more than $2,500 American dollars but there is a steady increase in national income.  So much to do; is this is China in 1979?

Did stop once for rest room and tourist break.  A massive gift shop complex, very modern, selling Vietnamese ‘crafts’.  Fifty young people, embroidering, bend over their needles and fabric, souvenirs, lacquer, paintings, pearls, drinks, overwhelming stuff to buy.  But clean and interesting.  Back in the bus and through the rain to Ha Long.

Ha Long – Here we went through a toll booth to get to an island along the coast.  Fog and mist, but arrived at Saigon Hotel (photos below).  Modern, the whole area is modern and new, as this part of Vietnam has invested to attract conventions, such as ours, and well healed tourists.

Marriott style rooms – quiet nice, wi fi of course in 2015, and friendly Vietnamese and others from America and Australia.  Staff lovely, cheerful and willing to do anything to make us happy.  Happiness is a hot shower and a rest before the opening banquet.

Banquet food served on a  lazy Susan, ten courses!  Fish, squid, prawns, pork, rice, soups (two kinds), salad, wine, beer, bottled water and some dessert that tasted a bit like coffee beans.  

Below, dinner in Ha Long, left to right - Grace, my daughter and cousins Karen and Jim Holliman.

  Well, I must show bits of the feast at the banquet!

My daughter, Grace, in Ha Long, Vietnam

A Vietnamese folk band played for us, and strangely a television flat screen in the corner remained on, featuring a Milan fashion show. The conference leaders from Vietnam, a president of the Hanoi medical college, and another person, a professional lady, greeted us at the end of the banquet and then broke into song! 

It was delightfully bizarre – a 50-something college president sang three tunes, walking from table to table with a portable mike as if he was Frank Sinatra.  Then his female colleague greeted us and sang several songs celebrating International Women’s Day.  Amazing cultural trait!  I loved it.

Collapsed in bed, still suffering jet lag, but recovering…..Grace, my daughter, a good trooper.

Cousin Dr. Jim Holliman and I wear a coat and tie (me in white), and am by far the oldest person here.  The young nurses and physicians from V.N. think I am a senior doctor and treat me with deference.  I try to discourage them, well, not very much.

More observations of both new and ancient Vietnam next post!