while waiting to get clipped by
the super-barber, i had an interesting conversation with the guy in the chair. he was a vietnam era refugee from laos. between my addled hearing, the hair clippers and his thick accent i missed much of the conversation. here are a few of the snippets i recall:
you could hear the explosions on the mountains at night when you slept.
i knew there was trouble when the bodies started floating down the river.
my family hid in the forest for many months.
when i was caught they just kept pointing the gun at my head shouting "tell me why i shouldn't kill you right now. tell me why i shouldn't shoot you in the head. tell me why i should let you live."
there were hundreds of us in the prison and they didn't give us food or water. people were dying.
my father owned the sawmill and they didn't have anyone who could use the equipment so i got out of the prison to help them.
my family snuck into thailand.
i had to say that all of my relatives were dead so i would have a chance to come to the united states.
i said the only place i wanted to go was the united states and i didn't care where they sent us within the united states.
i was in san francisco for 10 days and then i came here (saint louis).
to feed my family i sold buckets of water for ten cents each.
we couldn't afford the meat so we just got the chicken bones and made soup from them.
i had to feed my family.
if this doesn't fix over half of your perceived issues, you may be beyond salvation.
