Fifty Years Ago Revisited, Part 2

by Glenn N. Holliman

The Arrival

So two generations have come and gone since my plane went wheels up at Long Binh, Vietnam on January 31, 1970.  Wheels down in August 2019 on this trip was a landing in Minneapolis where my daughter Grace was there from Virginia to meet me.  We caught a Twins baseball game and the next morning drove our rental car south.  Minnesota has lakes, 10,000 according to their license plates.  We passed a lot of them and plus huge fields of corn and soy beans.

Daughter Grace Holliman, born four years after I returned from Vietnam war. One of our favorite pass times - watching professional baseball.

We noticed Minnesota’s largest candy store (probably the world's hugest!).  The parking lot, several football field sizes, overflowed with cars.  Later an ethanol plant and a kitchen counter factory slipped by.  And more corn fields and lots of silos.  Obviously, we had arrived in a major food belt of America.

We motored our last few miles to see Leo Wiley and his long time friend, Tom.  Their town is tiny, largely devoid of people under the age of 50.  Grace lowered the mean age but I immediately sent the statistic soaring in the opposite direction.  It had been 50 years or say 600 months since my time in the Army.

Leo and Tom’s beautiful 'Arts and Craft' style home (pictured above)  sits literally at the end of town. Their lawn, immaculate and dazzling with flowers in well designed beds, borders (I am not exaggerating) miles and miles or rather thousands of acres of corn and soy beans.  The next morning I stood in the middle of the street and spied on the horizon a dozen or so farm silos. If green is your favorite color, Iowa in August is for you!

Oh yes, one could also stand in the middle of the street for almost as long as one would desire to do so.  A car might come by every hour or it might not.  

The sheriff did mosey by once AND waved.  That would not happen back east!  It was a nice feeling.

Although later it did dawn on me that someone might have reported another senior citizen in town with out-of-state license plates that probably needed checking out.  But I really don’t think so. 

As we drove up Leo and Tom's house, both came out and greeted us.  Leo and I hugged and  shed a tear or two.  I think I said something silly like we should get together every fifty years, and he quickly agreed.

Below in August 2019, a half century since Viet Nam service.  

He is still thin, tall, and like me a little stooped but he essentially looks the same. However, I have changed considerably, mostly around the middle.   I would have recognized Leo anywhere.

Grace and Tom took pictures.    It was great to see Leo Wiley and meet Tom (in the orange shirt), both retired school teachers.  We went inside and started talking and talking and listening and listening.

Next blog the Visit!