By Henry Liem
Nothing is more enjoyable for me than sitting at a sidewalk cafe in Saigon watching the heavy rain pours down from the dark sky occasioning with loud and terrifying lightning thunder. The whole thing always reminds me of the fighting in my province more than 35 years ago – when I used to climb up the branches of a jackfruit tree to watch the B-52 bomb runs about 10 miles to the north at the DMZ area.
Lightning thunder and B-52 bombs sounded strangely the same to me. They made me feel alive with fear and a weird sense of entertaining explosive power. Yes, as a boy, I did enjoy watching B-52 bombing.
This time I plan to go back to the very location where the B-52 bombs dropped, including my childhood home – which is now a big depression in the middle of a sweet potato garden. One cannot live pass the sound of his childhood – I say. And the sound of B-52 bombs has always been with me. One thing is for sure: War was not boring!
Until next time.
