Vietnamese Visitors - With Correction

Editor's Correction:
Ann quite correctly identified the priest in the story below as Fr. Farrell,
who always wore orange shorts.

Fr, Feiten was the priest who gave us the lovely two-toned wooden dish
that he had gotten in Germany some time or another.

Hi Dad;

I was watching a documentary last night about the Viet Nam War. And then I remembered when that group of Vietnamese people visited us at Bass Lake. But I can't remember the circumstances of their visit. Was it somehow associated with the church?

Did you ever write about this event for your book? Just curious,

Love,

Pete

Dear Peter,

I think that it was Fr. Feiten who had established some kind of
relationship with a young man from North Vietnam. Fr. asked if a number
of the young man's friends could come down from the cities and spend the
weekend at the lake. We said OK but were aware that one of the
parishioners at St. Mary's Church in Winnebago had a son in our Army who
fought for the South Vietnam  in the Vietnam War and who had been
severely wounded. This family were unhappy with Fr. Feiten's association
with the North Vietnamese young man.

The weekend arrived promising ideal weather and so also arrived about
twenty Vietnamese about evenly mixed as regards the sexes. I think that
many, if not all, were students at the U of MN.

At that time we still had the big Kayot pontoon and they were all eager
to fish.
One of you boys took them out and they did catch a number of fish.

Upon their return they asked me to clean the fish for their supper that
evening, suggesting that they did not know how. Yet when they saw me
start to filet the fish they asked that I simply scale and gut the fish,
leaving the bones and head untouched.

The supper hour was approaching. They had brought a large bag of rice
with them, and asked if they could cook their own supper outside. And so
it was that I provided them with our Coleman stove and went into the
"cabin" to enjoy our own supper. It wasn't long before they brought us
some of their soup which was clear, heavily seasoned with garlic and
other spices. It was delicious!

The evening approached and we put up our large Sears tent. They had
brought with them an old ragtag tent and erected it. The men decided
that they would sleep in our much nicer tent, the girls in the other.
This was likely a Vietnamese tradition, favoring the men. It was then
that your mom put her foot down and told them that the girls would have
the better tent.They grumbled but realized that your mom was adamant
about it.

By then it was dark and the social hour began. Fr.Feiten had brought out
several bottles of sacramantal wine from the church and it was
excellent. The music was played on our inexpensive tape player which I
still have. All was going well until the men by then rather intoxicated
decided to take a ride around the countryside and I thought poorly about
that and suggested that Fr. Feiten intervene which he did. Eventually
the party ended and all of us retired for the evening.

Morning arrived and our bathroom was very busy. I recall seeing one of
the girls combing her very beautiful black hair, the bathroom door being
open.
Around noon they gathered up their tent and belongings and after their
polite thank you's they left.

I then turned my attention to cleaning up the Coleman stove. It was a
mess and reeked wih garlic but I did accomplish it and put it away.

I realized in retrospect that these Vietnamese were from wealthy parents
who had provided their children with passage to the US  and access to
education at the U of MN.

I was relieved that Fr. Feiten did not ask for a repeat visit. We never
did know what the Winnebago folks thought about the whole event.

--Forwarded Message Attachment--
From: somerspete@msn.com
To: maryannandjoe56@webtv.net
Subject: Vietnamese visitors
Date: Sun, 27 Mar 2011 14:19:34 +0100