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David Mitchell
Joe,
There was a time when I would have suggested another choice for you and your friend's wardrobe needs.
A long long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, there was an R&R destination known as Hong Kong (back then, a Hong Kong that was British and free, by the way). I went there twice, and on my second visit - which I knew by then would be not long before I would go home and be out of the Army, I succomed to the temptaiton of those well-dressed "touts" that had offered me advice on the ferry boat ride from Kowloon across to Victoria. I had taken the business card from one of them, with directions to his brother's tailor shop somewhere in the bowels of an old section of Victoria. It was really a fun experience - and so fast ! ,,, maybe only two or three days.
I bought 4 suits, a blazer with slacks, and a cashmere overcoat - and good quality at that - for a grand total of about about $200 or $300 - - - total!
I loved the stuff and began wearing them as soon as I got home.
However, there was just one little problem.
Prior to that last trip to Hong Kong, I had been sick and had lost considerable weight. I was slim when I got to Vietnam. Then the combination of hot weather and humidity sapped my appettite somewhat. And the mediocre mess hall food further depleated my appetite. Then I came down with walking pneumonia, for which I was taken off of flight status for about 10 days and lost more of what little appetitie I had. And on the day I was released back onto flight status - actually as I was walking the few hundred yards back from the Medical office to my own "hooch", I was suddenly hit with a sort of vommitting siezure and tumbled down onto the ground, throwing up violently.
Someone helped me to get up and walk the rest of the way to my hooch, where I fell onto my bed and began having diarrhea. After a few hours of alternating high fever and then cold shivers, I was carried by jeep out to the airfiled and placed on a Medivac Huey and flown 20 minutes south to the big American "Binh Thuy Field EVAC" hospital at Can Tho. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I was there for three days - completely knocked out, with with a bottle and a needdle in my arm, getting over what was called Shigella Dysentery - something my dad told me later was quite serious when he was a young guy in Med School. They didn't used to be able to stop the dehydration quickly enough, and people often died.
(BTW - The "shigella" would soon go though about half of our unit, and struck so randomly, suddenly, and violently that it affected the mission we flew. Days later, our C.O. had it his him in flight during the mission and he had only a moment to say "you got it" to his co-pilot and yank his flight helmet off to get sick into.)
So here I am in Hong Kong, buying all this clothing, at a weight of about 132 pounds!
Real smart Dave!
Once I was home (just a month or two later), I got back on my mothers cooking, and put on wieght pretty fast. After two alterations (at Dale cleaners on Henderson Road) they told me there was no more material left for a third "let out". I ended up donating every last item to a charity.
After recovering - sitting on some ammo cans, out on the fligh line.
(my kids still think this is one of the funniest pictures they have ever seen)
132 pounds - can you beat that Jack ?
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Lavender.
