Little bars of soap and heart-shaped beds, Part 2

In 1968 I was on a vacation with my grandparents that took us from Illinois to South Carolina including a visit to Fort Jackson in Columbia, South Carolina where my grandfather had been stationed during World War II.
 
Twenty-five years later, maybe some of those soldiers who trained at Fort Jackson were on R&R in Bangkok [...]

Read Full Post »

Little bars of soap and heart-shaped beds, Part 1

Late last year, while looking for a halfway decent hotel for my fiancée and I to stay in Vientiane, Laos I pass on one of the cheaper guesthouses that are quite popular in the city and go with more upscale accommodations by choosing the Inter City Hotel.
 
I didn’t have much to go on—other than what [...]

Read Full Post »

Man tries to eat landlady’s pet dog

Of all the years I have lived and worked in Korea I’ve come across some pretty weird and absurd news articles in the papers here, but this one—reported by the Korea Times a few weeks ago—is one of the most bizarre bar none.
“A 52-year-old man was caught for attempting to eat his landlady’s pet dog.The [...]

Read Full Post »

Knee-high by the 4th of July

It was back in the summer of 1981, right around this time in late June and I was riding in a van with Dick Verucchi and Alan Thacker on our way to Dixon, Illinois for a gig at a youth center. The owner of the youth center knew Dick and Alan from their Buckacre days [...]

Read Full Post »

Remaining Vigilant at Freedom’s Frontier

The first time I went to Panmunjom, or the Joint Security Area was on Dec. 31, 1996. It was a cold, gray, dreary day, which almost seemed fitting for the world’s most dangerous and scariest place with all its Cold War underpinnings.
Over the next couple of years I would return to Panmunjom quite regularly for [...]

Read Full Post »

Knee-high by the 4th of July

It was back in the summer of 1981, right around this time in late June and I was riding in a van with Dick Verucchi and Alan Thacker on our way to Dixon, Illinois for a gig at a youth center. The owner of the youth center knew Dick and Alan from their Buckacre [...]

Read Full Post »

War & Remembrance: A 3-Year Journey into the Past

This was written in the summer of 2003 right before the big commemoration event in Panmunjom. Reading this essay again, I am reminded how important and special it was for me writing for one of the English-language newspapers in Korea and experiencing a bit of history in the process. I pray that such an opportunity [...]

Read Full Post »

War & Remembrance: A 3-Year Journey into the Past

This was written in the summer of 2003 right before the big commemoration event in Panmunjom. Reading this essay again, I am reminded how important and special it was for me writing for one of the English-language newspapers in Korea and experiencing a bit of history in the process. I pray that such an opportunity [...]

Read Full Post »

Goodbye My Friend — Bill Waite Jr, 1958-2008

I can’t recall the last time I saw you.
Maybe it was those first couple of years after I moved away from Cherry and came back during the summers to stay with my grandparents across the street from your house when we saw each other.
Maybe we bumped into each other at your Dad’s Gulf station when [...]

Read Full Post »

Courage Under Fire

This article originally appeared in the Korea Times on May 9, 2001 as a two-part story on American Korean War Veterans who fought at the Battle of Chipyong-ni in February 1951. Today, I would like to share it here on the 58th anniversary of the start of the Korean War.
 CHIPYONG-NI, South Korea – Last week, [...]

Read Full Post »