Dear Youngsters: You all brought up a nostalgia which I could not resist:
I am one of the survivor hippies of the era, which started in 1962 when I entered 6 grade in Lycee Sisowath, when the Beatles came out with "I Saw You Standing There", and the Rollingstones came out with "I Can Get No Satisfaction", and the long haired hippie named Scott McKenzie was singing " If you're going to San Francisco.... Be sure to wear a flower in you're hair......". Oh, the Animals were singing "The House of the Rising Sun". Neay Krud'th was playing drum for the original band "Seila", and on to play drum for the Boys (the Khmero-Anglais H.S. kids behind our school), then went on to play professionally for the Khmer National Radio and TV Band in the Rock'n Roll section of the band with young and sexy Var-So-Vy as the singer. Our usual hang out location was on Rue Pastor between Lycee Sisowath and Khmero-Anglais, or Phsa Chah were the old Majestic movie house was, were we use to congregate to watch all the beautiful and wealthy girls go shopping, and when time to eat there were tons of good old authentic chinese of all varieties you can order from, goat noodle soup anyone? 1970 the war came and our funs and laughters ended. Neay Krud'th was shipped out to war fighting VC and KR south side of the City such as Saang, Koki Thom, Neak Lueung etc, as a young/green/scary platoon leader, leading untrained, inexperienced troops into firefights with VC, NVA, and the latter part KR. One fateful night, KR attacked in the middle of the night, raining RPG's on our defense post to dislodge us from the wooden bridge we were tasked to hold at all cost. What funny was that one of the troop was listening to the US Army radio, and as he was rushing to man his machine gun, his transistor radio fell to the ground inside his trench, and the volume for some freakish reason got louder. I was manning the mortar, and talked to the gunship overhead, but the radio kept belching out " Bridge Over Trouble Water" by Simmon and Art Garfunkel, then "Let It Be" by Paul McCartney, we couldn't do a thing about it so we just enjoyed it, and what a party we had! I could not tell what other song came on after that because was my ears were bleeding and clogged up from the continuous blast of my mortar tube. My eyes tears up everytime I hear the song plays on the radio here in the US. Yes definitely, we salute the memories our brothers whose idea of freedom and fun are always something worth dying for. I am so impressed with you youngsters for your passion in seing the homeland move past these pains and sufferings toward happiness, freedom, peace, prosperity, and security. May the spirits our our ancestors assist us in this endeavor. MAKE PEACE NOT WAR! (if we can avoid it) MKR On Apr 2, 1:26 am, "sacravatoons" <[email protected]> wrote: > My dedications to Khmer-Hippies who died in cold blood > during > KhmerRouge's era > Cheers, > Ung Bun Heang > > Psychedelic rock-n-roll, long hair, and bell bottom pants > were some of> the other "trademarks" > > of the hippie culture...or shall i say subculture. I remember my older > > brother who was a > > big time hippie...he literally worshipped Jimi Hendrix and Carlos > > Santana. Ahhhh those days. There were > > some happy times until the Year Zero!!! > > > You are right, Lok Bong Sacrava, they were harmless to the public as > > far as I can remember. Furthermore, their fashions, values, and > > practice, rapidly influenced popular music, television, film, > > literature, and the arts, and especially the promotion of > > multiculturalism particularly in the US of A. Even though their > > culture and values spread out like wild fire to the 'old' worlds such > > as Cambodia, there was quite a resistance from traditionalists. > > Speaking from experience, my parents never approved of or accepted my > > older brother's idea of hippie-ism. > > > -Bora > > > > Hippie's Slogan 500.jpg > 140KViewDownload -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Cambodia Discussion (CAMDISC) - www.cambodia.org" group. This is an unmoderated forum. Please refrain from using foul language. Thank you for your understanding. Peace among us and in Cambodia. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/camdisc Learn more - http://www.cambodia.org To unsubscribe, reply using "remove me" as the subject.
