From remembering fond memories with loved ones to selling products and even gaining clues to a grisly crime, photos have many uses.
What is the value of looking at old photos with people you don't know, taken at a time when you weren't even alive? Perhaps it's recognizing places you know in the present day and marveling at how the rapidity of change juxtaposes the permanence of reality? Or maybe it is the thrill of imagining the daily routines and life stories of the faces unable to speak to you? Could it be they offer you an opportunity to consider what your life would be like in those scenes, inviting you to question whether you have a better existence at the moment?
Perhaps that's why one enjoys these photos of Vung Tau taken in 1967–1968. They also appeal to font fanatics that will appreciate hand-lettered signs, fashionistas in search of retro trends to appropriate, classic car connoisseurs, architecture appreciators, and those amongst us that cannot look at a snapshot featuring a long, juicy cá rựa and not succumb to the splendors and terrors of the ocean.
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I once had port call in Vung Tau.
ReplyDeleteThe port there is immaculate.
Thanks and they have a front and back beach. The one visible is the front and where I went on my honeymoon which is still in business. https://freenorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2018/05/photos-take-day-trip-to-vung-tau-half.html The back beach is the favored one for many though. Went there last in 2015 and not far from Saigon. Long Hai is my special one though which is a turnoff before Vung Tau and has black rocks not far from the beach with not so many people. This is interesting: https://freenorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2016/07/amazing-at-its-height-catholic-church.html
DeleteFlew into Vung Tau many times -67, 68, 69 & 70. Flew for the 116th AHC out of Cu Chi, Republic of South Vietnam. Went to crew chief transition school in late 69. Use to park our Huey on the soccar field overnight. My pilot would send me and two girls to the beach the following morning and in he would fly. Pick all of us up and we would fly up the coast looking at the great villas and homes. Flying in civvies was always eye turning when we would pass another Huey from another company. Later we would fly down the beach and land so everyone could swim in the South China Sea. Being as we were not armed I would guard the ship with the trusted Smith ^ Wesson .38 caliber revolver that I didn't have. And just for the record, both young ladies were with the pilots. Great days in such a hectic and crazy world at the time. Thanks for all the articles and pictures you post!
ReplyDelete& thank you. Very interesting and a different world which we all miss, I am sure. :( I should have died earlier.
DeleteBrock, in '68 a friend and I, from the 117th AHC at Long Binh (Plantation), got permission to spend a weekend in Vung Tao. We happened to stay in a hotel, to the right of the photographer in the first picture. In the tenth the hotel was right behind him. I've got a few pics of the same square, from the balcony of the hotel. No '67 Mustang though. It's great to see other's pics, of places I've been, so long ago.
ReplyDeleteThank you. My honeymoon was at the Grand Hotel which is the 7th from the end.
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