Thinking about Christmas without snow and again living in Southeast Asia brought back memories of Christmases I have spend in this part of the world.
Christmas 1973 I was in Udorn, Thailand as part of an American fighter squadron located on the Royal Thai Airbase. A large percentage of the squadron had gone home for Christmas; those of us who were there celebrated Christmas. We looked around for Rudolph and his reindeer friends and their sleigh but they were in other parts of the world. OK, we can make do with what we have here, hefty water buffalo and wooden carts.
We rented six water buffalo and three carts, told the farmers what when on the air base they had to clean up what the water buffalo left behind. The carts arrived on Christmas Eve we loaded into the carts and headed off to regale the base with Christmas carols.
First stop the nurse's quarters, then the base commander's home. As we traveled from place to place I saw the farmer's children keeping to our bargain. When a water buffalo would leave something behind, one of the children would bend over the pile and sweep it off to the side or the road with his hands.
On Christmas day we had a party in our recreation room. The squadron commander ordered two large bowls of drink bloody marries and screwdrivers. We all brought our Christmas goodies sent from home and had a very nice spread.
Three years later I spend Christmas in the Philippines at Clark AFB, where I rented a house off base. Udorn was at the end of the Southeast Asia supply line, Clark was the beginning. When it came Christmas we could get just about anything, we could even purchase a real Christmas tree. I decided I would go native.
Two weekends before Christmas I took my four-wheel-drive out into the jungle, cut a banana tree, tied it on top and took it home. A normal Christmas tree has a hard wooden trunk; a banana tree has a very soft trunk, not suitable for a Christmas tree stand. What to do?
I pounded a nail in the ceiling, tied a piece of monofilament fishing line to the nail, stood the banana tree up and tied the fishing line around the tree just below the leaves. I hung it so it would stand in a bucket of water, decorated it with some small flashing lights and Pilipino Christmas tree.
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