by Admin and Richard Turner, Contributing Editor
© SaigonKidsAmericanCommunitySchool.Com
Tony Doggett (1963-65)
I was a fifth-grader in Chevy Chase MD when I learned that we were going overseas again.
My dad was a USAID officer, and previously we had lived in Pakistan, Greece, and Italy.
I remember my older brother Peppy showing me the Life Magazine pictures of Buddhist monks self-immolating on the streets of Saigon and saying, “This is where we’re going.” I was a bit stunned, but I had faith that my parents would keep a protective shield around me, and they did.
Soon I was a happy preteen walking the streets of Saigon, smoking cigarettes with new friends, swimming at the Cercle Sportif, watching movies at the Capitol Kinh-Do, going steady (what a concept!), and generally taking advantage of all the freedoms available to a young expat kid in that prewar twilight of Saigon of the early sixties.
I had arrived.
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