Da Nang, Vietnam – I have spent the past few days in the on/off pouring rain visiting the gravesites of relatives as far north as Quang Tri and as far south as Quang Nam.  Many of the sites honor men and women that I knew during my previous time here in 1971/72.

A number of them, including my father-in-law Dat, play major roles in the story I have come to Vietnam to tell.  This is the site where he rests.

During our time in Vietnam, American soldiers had access to the PX when in base camp, a kind of poor man’s Walmart.  Cameras and other electronics were by far the most popular items, many of them making their way into the thriving Da Nang black market.  Nearly every American GI hootch had a reel to reel tape player as this was before the availability of cassette tapes.  Not surprisingly, the problem was getting quality music that 19 year old rock and rollers with one foot in the grave wanted to listen to.  Tapes for sale in the PX generally ran to the “Bing Crosby’s Christmas” and Nat King Cole’s “Love Songs” variety.  Most of our music was bootlegged, sent from brothers and sisters at home originally and duplicated and reduplicated (my apologies to the artists of the time).  We wanted Jimi and Janis and the Airplane and the Stones and the Dead.

I had purchased a reel to reel at the PX for Dat’s house in his village of An Cu.  He took great pride in this gift and would bring others from the village to look at it.  Strangely, looking seemed to be enough.  I never saw him once demonstrate the machine for anyone. I had the good fortune to get my hands on a copy of “Freewheeling’ Bob Dylan” and would play it soft and low some evenings when staying in the village.  This recording was Dat’s favorite and he would often look up from his reading during particular segments of the playback.  Of all of the brilliant tracks on that album, the B Side of “Blowin’ in the Wind”, “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright” was dearest to him.  On hearing Dylan perform that song, Dat would have me rewind the reel so he could hear it again.  And maybe again.

While visiting Dat’s grave this week I took along my Da Nang built May Guitar and played two songs for him. The first, “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” I do not know if he had ever heard before as it was released one year after my time with him in Vietnam.  But it somehow seemed just right and if even unfamiliar, I am hopeful he accepted it with the gratitude and love with which it was meant.  the second song, “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright”, I knew he would recognise and being the man that he was, forgive my sloppy rendition.  So marvelously coincidental that Bob Dylan has been rewarded with the Nobel Prize in Literature at the time that I could share Bob’s masterful work with Dat one more time.  Rest in everlasting peace my friend, Huynh Dat.