My two-week Christmas vacation began on Friday, December 20, 1968, when I went to visit my family in Southern California. We usually attended a Christmas Eve service in Glendale and then drove to Laguna the following day to celebrate with other family members and friends. I was also happy to see our cat again because Gus was living with my folks during this college semester.
Then the week after Christmas I stayed in Laguna. I always enjoyed reading and doing homework in the living room where I could look out the BIG corner picture windows. I spent lots of time there writing to Steve while viewing the Christmas lights of the city as well as the ocean. It was a beautiful setting!
During the last week of 1968, I had made plans to go to Las Vegas with friends to celebrate the New Year. There were four of us, and we had tickets to the Wayne Newton dinner show on January 1, at the Frontier Hotel on the Strip. We drove from Bakersfield on New Year’s Eve in a new blue Ford Mustang. The next day we watched the Rose Parade, as well as O.J. Simpson playing in the Rose Bowl game on TV. We all had a good time together.
The holidays were fun and exciting, but I was ready for 1969. And even though I was still alone and missing Steve, it really was one of the best Christmases ever. Now there was only one month left before he would finally return home from Vietnam. Although it had been a difficult and tumultuous year, I was beginning to see a glimmer of hope for our future together.
I am a retired restaurant manager. My wife Jenny and I have been married for 50 years, have three grown children and two teen grand kids.
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My Vietnam Experience 