Babbie May 2004

May 2004

This was a pretty busy month, starting with the wrap-up of the semester. In addition to exams, papers, grading, and the gnashing of teeth, there were special events as well. One unusual experience was this guest talk by Nguyen Cao Ky, Prime Minister of South Vietnam during the Vietnam War. It was interesting to hear his viewpoint on the war. For example, he felt he was held back by the US: Dean Rusk wouldn't let him go on the offensive against North Vietnam for fear of bringing China into the war, as happened in Korea.

Ky has visited Vietnam since the end of the war and has opposed local efforts to block Vietnamese offficials from visiting Orange County. In the class presentation, he recalled a reporter who had interviewed both him and Ho Chi Minn during the war, and she remarked on how similar they seemed to be in their visions for Vietnam. Ky said he confirmed her conclusion, saying that the fight between North and South Vietnam was really a proxy war between East and West. He reminded us that it was not the Vietnamese who divided the country, and he felt a key feature of the war was that the North was able to cast themselves as the Vietnamese nationalists while painting the South as the lackeys of the US.

With the semester ended, however we moved to family activities. Driving north the day after commencement, we stopped first in Chico to visit Sheila's aunt, Kay Collier, now 94 years old. With the century mark approaching, Kay still goes dancing and was up for our traditional dinner at Happy Garden.

The new house

Our ultimate goal was Portland, OR, and Aaron, Ara, Evie, Henry, and the move into a new house. After over a year of searching for a larger house (ideally in the same neighborhood), alternating that failed search with frustrating attempts to remodel the house they were in. . .they looked across the street one day to see a For Sale By Owner sign. After some quick negotiations, the deal was forged, word spread through the neighborhood, producing another neighbor in the kids' driveway with a check for their house! While the sales were hardly slam dunks, the whole thing was pretty remarkable.

The move was a neighborhood project, with six strapping young men, a harried young wife, and an old guy carrying stuff across the street.

Emptying the old house

Here is a collection of miscellaneous
shots from the week in Portland.
If they seem a tad chaotic, well. . .

It all went by pretty quickly, and we were soon back on the road, ranging from
the sublime
shasta

to the ridiculous
grapevine

Next stop, Copenhagen.
Film at eleven.