A grain of sand in the Sahara

the end

lauranavia — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 16:12:51 +0000

Tamy decided she was going to sell the land in Spain, she didn’t have a job and all their savings were now depleted. She left her kids with her mother and headed off to the airport. She was finally beginning to get excited to sell this land close this chapter of her life and begin a new one. It was 11:30 PM her plane left at 12, two young boys in a white Ford pickup ran the red light, crashed into her car from the side. Her car went flying it began to flip her belongings fell out of her car, she died on impact. When the paramedics cut her out of the car she was holding the key in her hand. The boys had just gotten back from their tour of Vietnam.

tears

lauranavia — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 16:12:02 +0000

Tamy walked into her hairdresser’s salon she was getting the same crew cut very short like a man. She was wearing a bright colored button down shirt with a plaid skirt and chunky shoes. The Beatles were playing on the radio at the salon, the women were talking gossip to each other. She just sat there in silence. She looked up at the television and My Fair Lady was on TV starting Audrey Hepburn. Tamy loved Audrey she admired her beauty. The magazine on the rack was showing Muhammad Ali on the cover, he had just won a gold medal as a light heavyweight boxer. She got up from her seat and walked in the bathroom and started to cry. She didn’t understand why she was crying but tears just kept running down her face. She slid to the floor and held her face in between her knees.

death

lauranavia — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 16:10:47 +0000

Back at home 100,000 people demonstrated in Washington DC against the Vietnam War. Because of the war, resources were limited and this disrupted main stream Americans. There also were not enough soldiers for war so they went into a draft. This caused terror and fright in all Americans. While in Vietnam the Vietcong were young teenagers motivated by idealism or just the ones that had been pushed into war. The Vietcong had grenades and rifles, they also homemade booby traps and mines. They would make tunnels and booby traps them so the enemies would find them and get stuck in them. While Americans had air raids, machine guns, bombs and they sprayed defoliants from planes over the jungles. Nineteen million gallons of chemicals were sprayed the one most used was Agent Orange which has caused many diseases in Vietnam vets.

life

lauranavia — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 16:09:48 +0000

(manipulated image)-my own photo

1970′s

lauranavia — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 23:48:40 +0000

The letter

lauranavia — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 23:21:35 +0000

Dear, Tamy

If you’re reading this then I’m already gone, I’m sorry. I love you and tell the kids I love them and I’m sorry also I didn’t mean for this to happen. Listen carefully, there’s a key in this envelope it opens a lock to the gate to my estate in Navia, Spain. I haven’t told you about this, well I haven’t actually told anyone about this land it’s been the only thing I’ve ever owned alone. I inherited it from my great grandfather; his name was Robert Johnson he owned this land in a small city in Spain called Navia. He was a farmer and had 6 acres of land to raise his animals, this land has house on it but it’s beautiful I assure you. I used to go here all the time when I was younger; don’t you remember my trips to Europe every summer? I went there to clear my head and to think, this was the place where I found myself, where I decided what I wanted to do for a living, where I decided I wanted to marry you, and have kids. This was my second home. I never build a house on it because it’s too beautiful to ruin if you go you will see. Since I’m gone now this is the only thing I have to leave you so please sell it I’m sure you will get good money out of it. Please send the kids to college and pay the rest of the house of with this money. I love you and tell our kids I love them,

Goodbye.

Tom

fall

lauranavia — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 22:20:42 +0000

Bern, Switzerland-2008

the old town

lauranavia — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 21:52:06 +0000

I remember the smell of the old town in which i grew up, the scent of orange trees and strawberry pie. There was a little downtown on main street with a huge park. We used to go to the park everyday after school, it was on our way home. The park was my favorite place to be, i would hide behind the huge trees until it was time to come home. I learned to appreciate nature at a very young age, i would pick oranges and make fresh orange juice, i loved the smell of blueberries when momma was making pie. The day i ran away it wasn’t hard to find me when i was hiding at the park under a tree, i remember crying to the tree and asking it why my parents where so mad at each other. When i was young this was my way of dealing with my parents divorce.

”There was a chill in the wind during the last days the sun occupied the summer place in the sky-and some thing relentless in the way the wind drove the sand and dust ahead of it.”

-Leslie Marmon Silko-Ceremony (page 64)

March 5, 1974

lauranavia — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 16:21:14 +0000

She turned the Tv on…

INTERVIEWER:” What is the most vivid and most memorable memory of Vietnam that you have? “

SOLDIER: “Most vivid are the memories of extreme violence and loss of friends.”

INTERVIEWER: “What were the first thoughts in your mind when you knew you were going to war?”

SOLDIER: “Fear. Would I act like a hero or a coward.”

INTERVIEWER: “What was a typical daily routine like, what was life like in the army?”

SOLDIER: “Life was primative, we carried everything we needed for several days in the jungle. We slept on the ground with only a nylon poncho liner for cover. Most days we moved through the jungle trying to make contact with the enemy and hoping we wouldn’t. At night we usually slept by a trail to ambush anyone who passed by, (actually we stayed half awake all the time to react instantly).“

INTERVIEWER: “What was the scariest thing that you did in Vietnam?”

SOLDIER: “I walked point about every third day, leading the column through or into whatever was in front of us. It terrified me.”

She was now sobbing and inventing things that were happening to her husband. she turned the tv off.

Music

lauranavia — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 15:32:47 +0000

Jack Johnson- Better toghether