<Begin Segment 30>

TI: Okay, so you're now in this house. Now, your husband's career sort of had him leaving the area.

MH: Yes, he was, that's when Vietnam started, yes.

TI: Well, first the Philippines, I think...

MH: Oh, well, first we went to the Philippines, excuse me, yes. First we went to the Philippines when Brian was three years old. And Brian, so he was three to five then in the Philippines. Neither of us were, Brian nor I, were in very good health there. We both had a miserable time there as far as health was concerned. But...

LH: You might mention the DCM who you knew in China.

MH: Oh, yes. One of the people serving there, the Deputy Chief of Mission in the embassy was, not John Service... Darling, what was his name?

LH: Dick.

MH: Dick Service. Dick Service, who had been in the consulate in Tsingtao. As a matter of fact, he would take me riding out there, horseback riding in Tsingtao, and also loaned me some classical records. And so he was now Deputy Chief of Mission in Manila, and we got to know him. And then the ambassador... tell me again, Lucius.

LH: William McCormick Blair.

MH: William McCormick Blair, Jr. and his wife, Deeda Blair, had a little boy who was just about Brian's age, right, Lucius? And so they occasionally would play together, Brian and William McCormick Blair, and so forth.

TI: But it sounds like it was, because of the health issues, I mean, it wasn't the easiest stay for you and Brian.

MH: It was not. No, I was, I was really sort of restricted to house and to the air conditioning that was in the house. I was not well at all. Bad asthma, very bad asthma and bad reaction to, allergic reaction to the cogon grass that grew everywhere there.

TI: So after two years, you returned back to the States?

MH: We returned home, uh-huh. Came home through Tokyo, so Brian saw Tokyo for the first time. And returned to Washington, D.C. to, well, to our house in Carderock. And then Lucius had, was assigned to...

TI: To Vietnam.

MH: To Vietnam, to Saigon.

TI: Right. And this was in the midst of the Vietnam War, too, '68.

MH: Yes, it was. And I think you picked up quite a bit. And that was, so I was holding down the fort there alone with Brian, while Lucius was...

TI: But this was something that probably was somewhat familiar because of your upbringing, having the father stationed someplace else.

MH: Oh, yes, indeed. Indeed, yes.

TI: And the mother raising the children.

<End Segment 30> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.