Favorite Southern Writer

Lee Smith is my favorite Southern writer. In her third collection of short stories, News of the Spirit , she gives one of her characters a memory that could have been her own:

"More than anything else in the world, I wanted to be a writer. I didn't want to learn to write, of course. I just wanted to be a writer, and I often pictured myself poised at the foggy edge of a cliff somewhere in the south of France, wearing a cape, drawing furiously on a long cigarette, hollow-cheeked and haunted."

Ho Chi Minh Getaways

My husband, Eddie, is a Vietnam veteran and I have heard him tell many stories from when he and his best friend (now deceased) were in Vietnam. Not necessarily together at the same time. They would just get together over the years and talk about their separate times together while they were there. It turns out that they were only about 10 minutes from each other and didn't even know it until after they came back to the states.

One of the funny stories he tells is about these sandal type shoes they wore while they were in Vietnam. They called them "Ho Chi Minh Getaways". Eddie said they were made and sold by the Vietnamese to the servicemen because the servicemen had no access to real sandals. Since it was really hot in Vietnam, at least 150 degrees, they were happy to get these getaways. He said they were made from old tires that the Vietnamese had found. The bottom of the sandal (the sole part) was made from old tires and still had the tread on them. The inner tube part came around the top of the sandal some way and made the straps of the sandal. I'm sure it was a sight.

I would love to see what a pair them looked like, but when I do a search in Google for "Ho Chi Minh Getaways" all I get is hotel information for a "getaway" to Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam. I even did an Images search in Google and I got a picture of a high rise hotel from the Vietnam Tourism web site.

How ironic. Somehow I think during the Vietnam conflict, the term "getaway" had a whole different meaning.

Ok, I did some research and found some pictures that must be similar to what these looked like. There is even a web page that someone created with instructions for how to make them. Here is one of the pictures that I found, not from Vietnam, but apparently the Vietnamese weren't the only ones who made these.

Poetry

I was excited to learn yesterday that one of my poems made it into the literary magazine that we have here on campus. It's not published for sale, but it's really exciting to see something I've written in a publication for the first time. Mostly the magazine is distributed here on campus. You can see them lying around. Here is the pdf file, but I don't know if you can view it this way or not. Hopefully, you can. Just look for Sharon King in both the Biography section and the Poetry section. It's really exciting for me to think that someone thought my poem was good enough to appear here.

In my last post I talked about dressing in thrift store finds and being comfortable and not worrying about what other people think. Being ourselves. During the summers on campus, we are allowed to wear jeans to work, but when school starts in the fall we will be required to dress more professionally. More professionally in my view is not wearing jeans. I don't have that many professional type clothes, just some slacks, and a few dresses. I don't feel comfortable in professional type clothes. All dressed up and uncomfortable. There is another person in my office who also marches to her own drummer, thank goodness. She wears black type jeans and doesn't dress up that much unless she is giving a special presentation or is going to a workshop of some kind that calls for professional dress. There is another term they like to use around here. Professional casual. What the heck does that mean? To me, it's either professional or casual. Either way, I just dress in what is comfortable for me, and so far that has worked out fine.

I really would love to be able to wear jeans every day to work. That would be right down my alley. That's why I love summers here so much. Everything is much more laid back. It's hard to believe that summer classes end Aug. 9 and we will soon be gearing up for the fall semester. That's always a stressful time, but once it's fallen into its routine, it's not so bad. I am excited about the fall semester this time, though, because I registered for a Creative Writing Poetry class. I have really become interested in poetry writing within the last year and have enjoyed it. Since I work here the class is free for me, so why not take advantage of it? I would be a fool not to.