{"id":1373,"date":"2020-11-26T13:55:22","date_gmt":"2020-11-26T18:55:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vietphilly.net\/hq11\/?p=1373"},"modified":"2025-01-28T18:27:40","modified_gmt":"2025-01-28T23:27:40","slug":"03-the-time-we-were-on-guam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vietphilly.net\/hq11\/03-the-time-we-were-on-guam\/","title":{"rendered":"03. The Time We Were on Guam"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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03. The Time We Were on Guam<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>

Line after line of people herded onto cargo ships
<\/span><\/span>While family members clung to one another.
<\/span>We would leave for Guam as soon as we could;
<\/span>\u201cKeep moving,\u201d guards shouted. Mom, dad, \u201cWhere are you?\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>

Waiting in line for meals was all we did.
<\/span><\/span>Mealtimes and movies were our happiest times.
<\/span>After movie, naughty males with time on their hands,
<\/span>Crept around female bathing areas with their dirty plan.<\/span><\/p>

New and used clothes were distributed freely.
<\/span><\/span>Taking free clothes was one way of making petty money.
<\/span>Some brought them to the impromptu flea market,
<\/span>Peddling the clothes for cash that wouldn’t last.<\/span><\/p>

For myself, I concocted a story of fibs;
<\/span><\/span>Writing a letter to my Filipino English teacher
<\/span>That someone had stolen the money I did not have,
<\/span>Asking the teacher to spare me some change if she could.<\/span><\/p>

Soon after the teacher finished class,
<\/span><\/span>I approached her with the letter, ready to ask.
<\/span>She was surprised, glancing at it fast
<\/span>Then put the letter in her purse and did not ask.<\/span><\/p>

I quickly said to the teacher:
<\/span>\u201cPlease open it; I wrote the letter for you.\u201d
<\/span><\/span>After reading, she opened her purse,
<\/span>Placing in my hands a bunch of quarters, \u201cThis is all I have\u201d.<\/span><\/p>

I was so happy I could burst,
<\/span><\/span>My dream money was right in my hands.
<\/span>How to spend this money, I already had a plan,
<\/span>Buying cigarettes for my craving mouth and itchy hands.<\/span><\/p>

I ran to the PX nearby,
<\/span><\/span>Purchased six packs of Pall Malls on the fly.
<\/span>Two of us gulped a can of Coca-Cola,
<\/span>Cigarettes were to share with other tent-mates.<\/span><\/p>

Several families camped at night for their resettlement fate
<\/span><\/span>Hoping to buy their luck for living in the warmest states.
<\/span>They were the families with money willing to buy their stake,
<\/span>Which made California the most desirable place.<\/span><\/p>

The rich were always a privileged group.
<\/span><\/span>If they could speak some English and with money in hand,
<\/span>They would no doubt be the ones getting the upper hand,
<\/span>To be on the first flight to California, bye bye, friends.<\/span><\/p>

Those with no money were feeling pissed off.
<\/span><\/span>Soon, they would be corralled like cattle being roped off.
<\/span>One day several soldiers came to our barrack,
<\/span>Guarding the entrances, both front and back.<\/span><\/p>

The empty buses were already waiting outside,
<\/span><\/span>Parked by the barrack with soldiers blocking on both sides.
<\/span>\u201cEverybody get up!
<\/span><\/span>Get in line to go to the airport.\u201d
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03. The Time We Were on Guam Line after line of people herded onto cargo shipsWhile family members clung to one another.We would leave for Guam as soon as we could;\u201cKeep moving,\u201d guards shouted. Mom, dad, \u201cWhere are you?\u201d Waiting in line for meals was all we did.Mealtimes and movies were our happiest times.After movie,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"default","_kad_post_title":"default","_kad_post_layout":"default","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"default","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"default","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[125],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-1373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-sailor-named-lay","tag-the-sailor-named-lay"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vietphilly.net\/hq11\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vietphilly.net\/hq11\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vietphilly.net\/hq11\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vietphilly.net\/hq11\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vietphilly.net\/hq11\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vietphilly.net\/hq11\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1373\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vietphilly.net\/hq11\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vietphilly.net\/hq11\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vietphilly.net\/hq11\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1373"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vietphilly.net\/hq11\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=1373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}