August 2018 – SoCal Bill McDonald

John McCain 1999

I lived in New Hampshire at the time and was at Greeley Park in Nashua, N.H., on September 27, 1999, when John McCain formally announced his candidacy for the Presidency . . . the first time. It was supposed to have happened earlier, in the spring. In March, however, the Kosovo War broke out and, while he issued a simple statement then that he was a candidate, he postponed the “roadshow.”

In one respect, at least, the schedule change worked out. His memoir, Faith of My Fathers, was published in August and it’s best-seller status gave an impetus and brought a strong message to the start of the campaign. After Sen. Warren Rudman (N.H.) read a brief passage from the book when he introduced McCain to the crowd, McCain thanked Rudman and then added, “You can still buy the book.”

Cindy McCain brushes some New Hampshire dust off the Senator as he awaits to talk.

Here is a video of the event (16:07)

I edited out many of the many applause sections. This was his crowd, so applause, approval, respect were extensive. Even had the University of New Hampshire cheerleaders on his side.

His talk summed up much of the philosophical underpinnings of his campaign. I edited out much of the specific policy commitments. It seems he was prescient, at least a little, talking about the need to change the scale of division and cynicism among Americans. At around the 12:10 mark, he says, in the context of protectionism and isolationism,, at least, “Walls are for cowards.”

He also speaks about how he intended to campaign respecting the dignity of the office he sought and of the people whom he would serve.

It is also a bit eerie, hearing it now, how often he makes reference to “when my time is over” and such as the speech concludes. And, also, that the first burst of song at the speech’s conclusion is the recitation of “Freedom, freedom, freedom” by Aretha Franklin.

Being the start of a Presidential campaign, the McCain family was there. Well, at least his wife, Cindy, and the children they had and had adopted. (He had adopted his first wife’s two children and they had a third, born in 1966.)

Children present were: Meghan, then just about to turn 15; John Sidney McCain IV, 13; Jimmy, 11; and Bridget, adopted from a Bangladesh orphanage at the age of three months, 8. Meghan’s the most well-known, of course, as a co-host of The View. John graduated from the Naval Academy and is a helicopter pilot. Jimmy joined the Marines at age 17 and deployed to both Iraq and Afghanistan. Bridget, I believe, lives at home.

You’ll also see some media types from the day, both local (John Henning and Dan Rea of Boston’s WBZ 4) and national (Jack Germond and Newsweek‘s Howard Fineman [remember Newsweek?]).

At one point, McCain says that soon every school will be connected to the Internet. Remember, it’s still the 20th Century and a lot of people are worried about Y2K.

I volunteered to assist the McCain campaign and ended up being designated chairman of the Durham McCain Committee. I also ended up the only member of the committee. I don’t mean to say there were no other McCain supporters in town. Indeed, McCain trounced Bush in Durham, 882 to 440. Those other voters were just not as public as I was, I guess. In the Democratic primary, Durham voters were more numerous, with 1,333 voting for Bill Bradley and 802 for Al Gore.

A stump speech by Senator McCain. Daughter Julia, 10, is sitting on the floor at right.

I attended strategy meetings and fundraising events, as well as several of McCain’s “town halls.” I had the pleasure of shaking hands and chatting with the Senator several times. He signed a copy of Faith of My Fathers, along with a personal message. Closer to election day, I made phone calls. On the day of the primary, I stood outside a couple of different polling places, pretty much all day, with my McCain sign. At one point, I think mid-afternoon, some GOP officials dropped by to say hello to the volunteers. A woman, whom I later learned was a member of the Republican National Committee, came up to me and said, sotto voce, “Your guy seems to be doing really well.”

He did. Totals at the end of the night were McCain 115,606 and Bush 72,330. What Senator McCain described as a “mission” in his announcement turned out not to be successful. A reprise in 2008 got him the nomination, but not the prize. I’m disappointed we didn’t get to know what John McCain would have done as President.

Seoul 1991 – the ‘sights’

When I wasn’t walking around Yongsan on duty, or sitting in my hotel room, I spent a lot of time walking around Seoul. As you’ll see in the videos, the Hilton was located in central downtown, near many tourist sites, as well as market areas.

There are three videos in this post. Part I has scenes of the hotel interior and street scenes, particularly the Dongdaemun Market area. Part II focuses on the Deoksugang Palace complex and Namsan Park. Part III contains clips from Korean television. I found the ads particularly interesting in terms of conveying Korean life. Not that it portrayed the lives of average Koreans accurately, but gave glimpses of styles, etc., I wouldn’t have seen otherwise. There will be a gallery of video captures with each video, so you can see whether the content may be of interest.

(I apologize for the graininess of the videos. I shot them, I believe, on a VHS video camera. I then digitized that video relatively recently and edited in iMovie. It’s like watching broadcasts of old football games on TV now.)

First, an anecdote about something that did not involve walking around, shooting video. As I mentioned in the earlier post, it’s about eating traditional Korean food. Actually, it’s more about just an interesting experience that involved dinner.

A fellow reservist, from San Jose, was big in the Jaycees, the Junior Chamber of Commerce, which had an international component. Through that organization, he had come to know a Korean who owned three, as I recall, Holiday Inns in Seoul. The reservist told me he had been invited to join this gentleman for dinner while we were in Seoul and he invited me and another reservist to come along. We went to one of the Holiday Inns one evening, going through a restaurant that had a humungous buffet to the owner’s private dining room.

There, a low-set table with place settings awaited, a much more traditional setup than the buffet area. I recall there was also a recessed area under the table, to accommodate Westerners less able to sit with their legs folded. Thank goodness. Also awaiting us was the owner and his wife, in their early to mid-forties, as we were. I ended up sitting next to her, which as the evening wore on, was a special treat.

I had tried to learn some elements of social exchange in Korean. At one point, the wife offered me something and I said Kamsahamnida, Korean for “thank you,” slowly stating each syllable. She giggled, and said something to her husband in Korean. Of course, someone more learned in Korean would have said it more quickly, in fewer syllables, something like Kamsamnida.

Among the food items served was bulgogi, again, the marinated grilled beef. This time, the wife showed me how to prepare it in a traditional way, using a lettuce leaf as a wrap and placing the bulgogi, rice, scallions, kimchi, sesame seeds, etc., within. There was other food and dessert, brought in by attendants, but I don’t remember much about them.

We also had the national drink of Korea. Soju is a clear liquid distilled from rice (as is sake, the Japanese drink, which is brewed and considered “rice wine”). Soju is generally about 40 proof, half of what vodka, for example, might be. It’s basically tasteless and without the alcohol “burn” one would experience with stronger stuff. We were served it in regular size water glasses, filled to the brim. I had read that Korean table manners did not permit a guest to fill his or her own glass, but called for the host to maintain guests’ glasses be always full. I also just recently read that South Koreans drink more hard liquor than residents of any other country in the world.

At one point, there was something of a kerfuffle, because our host noticed that one among us was not drinking his soju. That gentleman, a fellow reservist, pointed out that he was Mormon and did not drink alcohol. Our host seemed to consider that an affront to his hospitality. That took some multicultural discussion to iron out and I recall it ending not entirely well.

Back to the wife. As the evening progressed and more soju was imbibed, she started leaning over to tell me things I assume she did not want others to hear. Nothing lascivious, mind you. More like telling me about her most recent shopping trip to Paris. How she often went to Paris, Rome, New York, San Francisco for shopping. How she had her own business and her own money, neither of which her husband knew about. When she went shopping, of course, she whispered with a smile, she used her husband’s money, not hers. I think it may have been one of those cases when someone realizes she and her husband will never see this American again and just wants to let it rip.

On to the visuals.

Part I – The Hilton and Namdaemun Market

A gallery of images from the video (14:01) (The galleries are automatic slideshows. You can wait or click on the right-hand side of the image to move ahead.)

[Show thumbnails]

Part II – Deoksugung Palace, Dongdaemun Fabric Market, and Namsan Park

Deoksugung is a walled compound of palaces and other buildings, the earliest originating in 1398. Only a third of the structures that were there in 1910 remain, the rest having been destroyed in the Japanese occupation of Korea, 1910-45.

Here’s a gallery of images from the video (17:39)

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Part III – Korean TV

It’s mostly ads, some music, some sports. The ads feature a lot of cartoony material, lots of laughter, a lot of fast food. Also among the ads in the video are a couple for “white” lotions. Seeking lighter, whiter skin apparently has been a goal among some/many Asians for centuries. Even back in 1991, seeing these was something of a surprise. A 2012 article in Asian Scientist — “Who’s the Fairest of Them All?” — talks about it.

Also, I recorded this in a pretty crude manner. I sat in bed, in front of the television, with a video camera. You’ll sometimes see the edges of the screen and even the reflection of the bedside lamp on the screen. 🙁

Here’s a gallery of images from the video (12:46)

[Show thumbnails]

Finally, I’ll close this travelogue about Korea with something I read in material in my hotel room. It was an article in a politically oriented magazine, as I recall, about the possibilities of reunification of North and South Korea. The Korean author was enthusiastic about the prospect. The combination of South Korean know-how and the physical resources in the North would make a united Korea very strong. And, he concluded, that would mean Korea could take on Japan! There is no love lost between Korea and Japan, at least among older generations.

Seoul 1991 – the ‘work’

Last December, when Korea was “in the news,” I put up a post — “Antsy at DMZ” — talking about my brief trip to the Joint Security Area on the border of North and South Korea in August 1991. In that post, I said I would be posting something about the rest of my trip to Korea “soon.”

“Soon” has finally come.

My “trip” to Korea was actually Special Active Duty for Training for me as a Naval Reservist, in addition to the mandatory two-week Active Duty for Training I had done previously that summer. I volunteered to participate in Ulchi Focus Lens 1991, a joint exercise between the US and the Republic of Korea (ROK). Indeed UFL was the largest computer-assisted simulation exercise in the world at the time, involving more than 200,000 troops from both countries. A fellow reservist who had previously participated vouched for its worth and I thought it a great opportunity to see Korea.

I flew from Oakland to LAX, where I connected with an LA-Seoul non-stop. I remember the flight as being about 11 hours, of which I slept about eight. Landing in Seoul as a member of the Navy, on orders, I had a distinctive process, requiring no passport. I had my Navy ID, my orders, and a special location for processing. Everything went smoothly.

Until I got to the hotel. I recall it was either very early or very late, because it was dark. When I attempted to check in at the Seoul Hilton, I was told there was no reservation in my name and no available room. Hmmm. I had contact info for no one and figured everyone was asleep. I milled about smartly. Somehow, I saw someone I recognized or he saw me. Within a surprisingly short time, I had a room.

I was told standing orders were to eat only at the hotel or on base, the nearby US Army Garrison Yongsan, headquarters for the Army in Korea. There had been an outbreak of cholera in the Korean capital. My first meal was at the hotel. I had read up on Korean cuisine, but was certainly a novice. As I looked at the menu, wondering what I should try, a Korean mother and two kids sat down at the next table. Great! I will listen to what they order. Two spaghettis and meatballs, with the kids splitting one.

I ordered, I believe, bulgogi, rice, and kimchi. Bulgogi means “fire meat” in Korean and is marinated grilled strips of beef. Kimchi is a salted and fermented mix of vegetables, mostly cabbage and radish, but with added peppers, etc. Maybe because most of the hotel guests were waeguk-saram (“foreigner” in Korean), the meal was not as spicy as it could have been.

After that, though, I stuck mostly to American stuff on the base (except for one major exception, to be described in the other post).

This exercise was the only time I wore cammies when I was in the Navy. In fact, I don’t believe the Navy had cammies as a uniform option at the time. There were green utility uniforms, pilot suits, etc., but not cammies. For the purposes of this exercise, we were to wear Marine cammies. As has been the case for a long time and remains so, the Army and Navy/Marines do things differently. (I realize I’m getting down in the weeds here, but this is for the record.) Army officers wore the symbol of their rank on the front of their caps, which are rounded, not peaked like the Navy/Marines. We wore the officer’s crest on the front of the cap and the insignia for rank, in my case silver oak leaves, on the blouse collar.

I found it amusing when I walked around the base and Army enlisted men were walking toward me. Everyone in the military has to pay attention to the rank of the individual whom you are approaching, because you are required to salute someone of higher rank, unless both parties are enlisted, not officers. Enlisted have to salute all officers. I could see enlisted guys scanning me, trying to figure out what I was. The rank wasn’t on my cap. There was just this unusual “thing.” Was this guy from a foreign army? They usually figured it out by the time we got close. My uniform did have a patch saying “US NAVY.” I don’t remember if anybody failed to recognize what I was. I wouldn’t have chastised them, in any case.

My role in the exercise, considering this all being “computer-assisted,” was very low-tech. I recall it being something like “messenger.” I think I had to walk among various exercise locations bringing “classified” material. I remember most that it was a lot of walking. First time I’m wearing cammies, it was also the first time I’m wearing combat boots. As any foot soldier knows, new boots can be no fun when you have to use them a lot in a short period of time. I was in pain the first several days. I guess some might consider it payback for what was generally a pretty easy time for me in the Navy.

Two things I remember particularly from the exercise. One was that while, for me, this was something of a lark, it was nothing like that for the ROK Navy types involved. They were in the military service of a country technically still at war with the regime only 35 miles away, and the careers of ROK officers might be determined by what happened in this exercise. I saw ROK officers be very harsh with subordinates, verbally and even physically.

A more pleasant recollection involved language differences. There was discussion of North Korean “mini-subs.” Maybe because it looked as if I didn’t have a lot to do, one Korean approached me asking about the difference between “mini” and “small.” I think he was confused, because North Koreans couldn’t be using miniature submarines. I said that, in this case, the term meant small, not miniature. Noticing that he and I were about the same size, I said, “We’re small, but we’re not miniature.” He nodded, chuckling. A few minutes later, he came back to me, and said, “Remember, the smallest pepper is the hottest pepper!” 🙂

There will be another post about my walks around Seoul as a tourist, with videos.

Surfer girls

(Young women, of course. But “surfer young women” doesn’t quite carry the Beach Boys allusion.)

A competitor in the Supergirl Surf Pro event

Back in late July, the Supergirl Surf Pro surfing competition tour came to nearby Oceanside. I showed up somewhat early Sunday morning so that I could get a parking spot. I had tried the previous afternoon and could not find any parking.

The Oceanside event bills itself as “the world’s largest women’s surf event and music festival.” Hard to tell, especially on an early Sunday morning. But this is quintessential SoCal. Surfing alongside an iconic ocean pier with music, booths, an F-16 . . . wait, what? Yes, the Air Force showed up with a pretty large contingent of troops, including a lot of females, even a female brigadier general, and brought along an F-16, for visual effect. It worked.

Here’s video from the event. (9:49)

Respite on the Cape

Following a family “Thanksgiving” on Martha’s Vineyard, it was back to classmates and friends Tuesday, June 5. The Andersons brought me to West Yarmouth on Cape Cod, where Marcy Kenah had arranged for a beautiful cottage for us. Some cottage. Lots of room and beautiful setting for 10 of us – Marcy and Larry Kenah, Pat and Tom Sugrue, Shelia and Dan Downey, Debbie and Ken Hamberg, Ed Hattauer, and me.

We celebrated Ed’s birthday and we also had some visitors – Karen Sullivan and Susan and Reid Oslin, all now full-time Cape residents. Richard Sullivan splits time between Mashpee and Holliston, claiming he still needs to work, and was unable to join us.

Here’s video (6:40).

Thanksgiving in June

I missed Day 3 of our Class of 1968 reunion at BC. It was a light agenda anyway, but I chose to join the Andersons and visit the Tyras on Martha’s Vineyard. Meredith, Winter, Adeline, and Alice picked me up Sunday morning, June 3, around 9 at BC.

A little bit earlier, I had said goodbye to a classmate whom I came to know at the reunion. Steve Riordan and his wife were heading back down to their home in Maryland. Steve, a big guy, had a career as a Navy aviator and we had bonded somewhat, along with other Navy vets, at the reunion. He was using a cane to assist him in walking, so I was surprised, as I was waiting on the corner for the Andersons, to see him walking toward me from the parking lot. “What are you walking for, Steve?” I asked. He came up to me, slowly, and said, “Couldn’t leave without giving you a hug, man.” That was a very nice way to wrap up reunion.

As we all had not gathered at Thanksgiving time, which had been our practice, for several years, Gordon and Ann were very thoughtful in recreating some of that experience for us. No football, of course, but plenty of turkey and all the trimmings.

The Andersons and I did the traditional nature walk through the nearby Sheriff’s Meadow Sanctuary. Addy did the “walk” this time on her bicycle, while Winter used a skateboard. Meredith, Alice, and I ambulated. We also visited a new brewery on the island. Mad Martha’s offered some choice brew and Vineyard teeshirts. You can see all in the following video.

Golden Eagles

Sunday, June 3, was the 50th anniversary of the graduation of the Class of 1968, my class, from Boston College. I joined close and old friends, as well as some new ones, at BC’s Reunion Weekend, June 1-3.

My new friends came about because of my work, beginning about a year ago, on a blog about what life was like at BC and events in the outside world during 1964-68. You can see much more about the reunion, as well as those lives and times, at ProudRefrain.org. (BC’s fight song, For Boston, contains the line “We sing our proud refrain!”

Our first event was our “investiture” as Golden Eagles, BC’s designation for those alumni who have graduated 50 years or more ago. I became a Twitter micro-sensation when BC tweeted the message at right. BC Alumni San Diego retweeted it, expanding its reach to dozens. 🙂 It was all, of course, due to my bowtie. A somewhat retro version. Indeed, when I received my Golden Eagle pin from William Leahy, SJ, president of BC, he said, “I saw that bowtie! You’re the man!” (I still don’t think he knew who I was, though I had worked at BC 2000-11 and had been in his company several times.)

One of my most unexpected and enjoyable experiences at reunion was reconnecting two classmates who had long lost touch with each other. Overhearing that Maureen Burke lived in Northern California, I wanted to say hello to a fellow Golden Stater. She mentioned that, following BC, she had been a Navy nurse. “Norfolk, Virginia, 1969.” I said I, too, had been in Norfolk in 1969. “What ship?,” she asked. When I told her I had been on the USS Biddle, she looked startled and said, “I knew someone on the Biddle. His name was Steve.” “Curran?,” I asked. “I think so,” she said. “He’s here,” I replied.

(I had known neither Maureen nor Steve, and they had not known each other, while we were at BC. I met Steve Curran for the first time when we became shipmates on the Biddle. We’ve remained classmates, shipmates, and friends since.) I hustled to find Steve and brought him over to Maureen to say hello. They had not been in contact with each other since Norfolk. After meeting Steve at the Officers Club back then, she introduced him to a friend, a physical therapist also at Portsmouth (Va.) Naval Hospital, whom Steve dated during his time in Norfolk. Maureen and Steve each found their chance to get reacquainted, nearly 50 years later, one of the nice features of our reunion. And I thought it was fun to bring it about!

I also enjoyed chatting with current BC students. I shared information about what some of the rules and regs were at BC in our day, what restrictions women students faced, and some of the national and world events that shook our time. “You think things are tumultuous now?!” Just bringing up Martin Luther King’s murder in the spring of our senior year and the assassination of Bobby Kennedy a couple of days after we graduated usually sent jaws dropping. Then add Vietnam, the draft, campus and racial unrest, etc. I appreciated that nearly all of them expressed a high degree of interest.

There are multiple posts about the reunion weekend on ProudRefrain.org, all but one containing video. In this post, I’m including a video that focuses on my close friends and classmates.

I ended up serving on the reunion committee, something usually reserved for “upper-crust” members of the class, i.e., major donors. But, this time, they let at least one of the riff-raff in. It’s traditional that, on the evening of the class party, there is a photo taken of the reunion committee with the president of BC. My sister’s reaction to the photo below? “Gee, guess which one comes from Southern California.”

Go Golden Eagles!