Original DRAFT (Part I)
CHAPTER 17
Good Samaritans
Roy and Nancy Muehlberger, and More
Roy and Nancy Muehlberger, our sponsors in June 1975
First day out of Camp Pendleton: June 1975
Dieu, Marie, our niece Anh and her family
THEN 1975 AND NOW 2012
One sunny day in June 1975, the camp office phone ran. It was for me. (There were no cell phones in those days.) I picked up the phone and, on the other end of the line, was a complete stranger Roy Muehlberger. He said he wanted to sponsor me and my wife out of the camp. We would stay in his home in Montecito near Santa Barbara. I was quite surprised and told him:” I don’t know you and you don’t know me, why do you sponsor me? He said:” People do that. I have learned about you from The Los Angeles Times and several TV stations news. It could be me. You are about my age. You were from MIT and I was from Caltech.”
I could not say yes yet because I did not know enough about Roy. Besides I was seriously concerned about a gay man in California sponsoring me to his home. But naturally, I could not ask him that question directly. I tried to keep him talking for a while hoping for some breakthrough information about his background during our conversation.
Sure enough:” Que Sera, Sera” (Whatever will be, will be.)
As the conversation continued, Roy said:” I have 2 daughters, Marion and Frances. Marion has completed her studies at UCLA. Frances is still at Duke University. Nancy, my wife, a nutritionist, is living with me in our Montecito home. I have a brother who is scientist who is working on the geology of the moon…”
At this point, thank God, I felt relieved and safe to accept Roy’s offer and politely thanked him for his generosity and hospitality.
Roy & Nancy’s home in Montecito, Ca
Roy was kind enough to find another sponsor for my niece’s family so we could get out of camp at the same time. My niece’s sponsor was Peter Frick, a German American immigrant.
A few days after the phone call, Roy came to camp Pendleton with his Mercedes-Benz 450SEL. He took us home. We had not much baggage, just the little Saigon handbag and a new suitcase with donated clothing from the camp office. The Marines gave warm clothing to the refugees because Camp Pendleton weather was quite cool compared to tropical Saigon.
Peter Frick, who sponsored my niece family, was at the camp too. It was a big day for all of us, our D day in America! We all went together to Roy and Nancy’s home. After dinner, Peter went home with his five new immigrants. We felt like landing on Plymouth Rock in the 20th century.
Roy told me that for the first time in his life, he had any couple living in his home. Marie and I also, for the first time, received free room and board from complete strangers. We had our nice, private bedroom in a modest home at Schoolhouse Road. Marie and I did our best to please our sponsors.
I learned that Roy’s parents had cholesterol problems. As a result, Roy and Nancy were very strict in controlling their nutrition. It was a surprise for Marie and me to see them giving all the egg yolks to their dog. They just ate the white part. They rarely consumed red meat. Nuts were their preferred food. They always drank non fat milk. Of course they ate a lot of vegetables, fruits and cereals. I had an appetite for the foods they tried to avoid. But my flexibility to adapt to new conditions came naturally. I had no problem accepting what was available even if my stomach was half full. Frances seemed to know that we wanted red meat. She went to the supermarket for lamb and prepared lamp stew. I remembered it was quite a delicious treat. Frances also gave me a neat hair cut in the backyard. I learned from my niece's family that their German American sponsor ate a lot more and drank a lot of beer!
Roy told me that he wanted to sponsor me because he wanted to use my management and engineering background for a potential construction project in Hawaii. He wanted to participate in the building of Honolulu’s new stadium in early 1975. However, with the month long delay of my paper work, it was too late for him to involve me in that project. To my surprise he gave me a $500 dollar check as a retainer fee.
I wanted to be helpful to Roy while getting our room and board from him. My hobby was designing landscapes and Asian gardens. Looking around his existing property, I saw a good opportunity to create a beautiful Japanese garden in the vast space of his backyard: a red wood deck 5 ft above the sloping down lawn. I suggested to Roy a design of a lotus pond with waterfall on miniature rock mountain above a pool full of colorful Koi. I had had previous experience in Saigon creating my own Asian garden in my front yard and a roof garden on the third floor of my Saigon home. (See photo pages.) Roy became very interested in my garden proposal. In fact he wanted a complete, classic Japanese house. But instead of starting fromscratch, he worked with his real estate agent. With good luck, in a short period of time, he found and bought a beautiful villa built by an architect who specialized in Japanese style homes. It belonged to a rich connoisseur who even invited some experts from Japan to finish the landscape. Here again, the key was location, location, location. The house was built on the side of the hill overlooking the Catalina Islands off of the Santa Barbara coast. The view was unobstructed. There were some beautiful old oak trees next too a classical Japanese garden! It was beyond my belief to see such an authentic Asian masterpiece in a western town.
I had an opportunity to visit Roy and Nancy in their new dream house. In the 60’s, I had seen the summer
Imperial residence in Japan. I could assure you that, although Roy’s home was smaller, its modern, comfortable 20th century American plumbing made quite an improvement over the last century’s Imperial design.
Roy’s new “Imperial Summer Palace”, 1975
Back garden
Back yard lotus pond with colorful Koi near water falls
Japan’s Summer Imperial Residence
Building permits in this” high class” zone were very strict. I learned something new about discrimination by economic standards: for instance, each lot should be more than one acre and must have its own drinking water well. To find water on the hill of Santa Barbara required risky and expensive investment in drilling deep wells. Roy, a good entrepreneur, divided his avocado orchard next to the home into several lots. His newly dug water wells converted those lots into very sought after sites for expensive residences. He told me about this great financial investment!
Roy’s entrepreneurial spirit helped me a lot. I feel fortunate to have had Roy’s advice about my future career at this turning point of my life outside of Vietnam. When I was depressed and homesick, I wanted to move to France to be close to my family members. Roy convinced me that in the U. S., with my background from MIT, I could be a fish in the ocean. In France I would be a fish in an aquarium and my potential would be limited. Besides there were many more international companies in the U.S. than in France. I would have a better choice!
I learned also from Roy the “German” tradition of hard work. His parents had immigrated to America from Germany and his father had worked as a butcher in order to send their children to university. In turn, through hard work with Kaiser Engineers, Inc. Roy had become very successful and decided to start his own business. Roy and Nancy invested in a beautiful Best Western Rondee Motor Hotel in Sedona, AZ. (See photo below)
In Asia, well-to dopeople tended to avoid manual work. On the contrary, Roy and Nancy were different. They would do any type of work necessary to keep their business successful. I have to thank Roy and Nancy for their guiding by example.
Now during retirement, I have the luxury of looking back at anearlier decisionmade in July 1975, and I have to say deep thanks to Roy for helping me take the right direction. Many of my Vietnamese colleagues, who settled down in France and did not do well have proved Roy’s point of view to be right.
His money spending pattern was very sound and in appropriate relation to his wealth. His relation with his children was admirable and he took care of his grandchildren’s education.
The day we said good bye to Roy and Nancy, Marie and my niece Anh put on their traditional Vietnamese tunics, ”Ao Dai” and prepared a copious Vietnamese farewell dinner. They served spring rolls with hoi sin sauce, crispy imperial rolls with “nuoc mam” fish sauce, caramelizedpork belly stewand banana beignets for dessert.
July 1975 Farewell dinner: Marie & Anh in “Ao Dai”
Imperial Rolls Spring Rolls
Caramelized Pork Belly Stew Banana beignets
***
While living and working in San Francisco, Marie and I kept in touch with Roy and Nancy and were able to visit them on several occasions.
Visiting Roy & Nancy in Sedona with brother and nephew from France
At the wedding of Roy & Nancy’s daughter, Marion, in Santa Barbara, Nov 1980
[Add wedding family photo here]
Reunion at daughter, Frances’ home in Monterey, in 2000 when we brought a delicious feast of
Cantonese roast ducks and crispy roast pig from San Francisco.
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Reunion at Dieu’s home 2011
In 2011, Roy and Nancy wereon a cruise to Alaska and the ship stopped in San Francisco. Marie and I invited Frances and her husband for a surprise lunch-time reunion at well known Ton kiang Restaurant on Geary Street. Then in the evening we had dinner at the famous KOI Palace in the Serramonte shopping center. After dinner, we sent Roy and Nancy back to the ship in downtown. It was a lot of fun and a wonderful time together with them.
Reunion at Dieu’s home, 2011
It was a big shock to us to learn from Frances that Roy passed away in 2012 in Scottsdale, AZ. We were deeply grieved by the great loss of our exceptional Samaritan friend who voluntarily extended vital assistance to me, a total stranger, during one of the darkest periods of my American journey and an important milestone of my rebirth in this country of adoption, the Land of the Free.
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Về tác giả Khương Hữu Điểu
Than goi anh Hội trưởng Huỳnh Hường,
Toi Khuong Huu Dieu, 83 tuoi, la hoc sinh Le Myre de Vilers, Mytho nam 1944-48 va co tro veMytho day mot nam 1951-52 truoc khi duoc hoc bong sang My 1952. Toi co goi vai bai cho Đặc San hoi nha theo địa chỉ cũ.
Xin goi lai theo dia chi moi va nho anh cho biet y kien xem hội co y ddinh ddang hay khong?
Cam on anh,
Khuong Huu Dieu
(Phần sau cùng nầy là ghi chú của Hội Ái Hữu Cựu Học Sinh Giáo Sư và nhân viên Trung Học Nguyễn Đình Chiểu, Trung Học Lê Ngọc Hân và Đồng Hương Mỹ Tho )
(27-Jan-2013)