Before leaving for my trip, I visited my aging grandma in her nursing home. Despite her location and the company of the screaming elderly, she seems quite at ease and prone to random outbursts of song, although I’m never sure whether that’s a sign of well-being or just a general unawareness of her surroundings.
While visiting, I was approached by a man I’ve seen before, who, with his colourful hair, looks out of place amongst all the older gentlemen. However, he’s bound to a wheelchair because of a terrible accident in which his head was split open. I know as much because he pretty much told me.
He’s actually quite a clever man despite his injury, and often poses riddles to me, but I’ve never really had a conversation with him. I don’t know why today was different, but we started making casual chitchat, and before long, I was drawn into his stories of being in the Vietnam War, on the side of the communists.
I won’t relate our conversation here, but in general, it was interesting to see the view the ‘other side’ had of the American army at the time. In short, his opinion was that Vietnam is being repeated in the current Iraqi conflict, and that ‘the winner writes the history books.’ I suppose that’s a fair view coming from someone who fought against the U.S. more than two decades ago.
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