Thinking about fireflies, dandelions,
Chinaberry trees and Vietnam
By Joel Taylor
Senior Vice President
Emery National Bank
Special to GwinnettForum.com

(Editor's Note: Mr. Taylor has recently moved back to Gwinnett from Columbia, S.C. He is a former member of the Gwinnett School Board.)

LAWRENCEVILLE, Sept. 21 - - I spent the first 19 years of my life in Hampton, Georgia. Hampton could have been one of countless substitutes for "Grover's Corners", the New Hampshire setting for the Thornton Wilder play, "Our Town." I have vivid memories of small town assurances like safe homes with unlocked doors, a safe town, spring baseball, fall school carnivals, winter ice storms and summer explorations accompanied by fireflies, dandelions and chinaberry trees.

My schoolteachers were my Sunday school teachers. My Mother knew everything that happened at school before I got home. War was a topic of` infrequent discussion by older adults, movie entertainment and a game we boys played to imitate real heroes.

The Cuban missile crisis was my first recollection of the seriousness of war and the possibility of attack on American soil by nuclear weapons from only 90 miles away. I recall the drills of getting under my desk or squatting against the wall in the hall with my hands over my head. Being told by our parents and teachers that we would be safe was reassuring although fallout shelters were being built and our nation was on full military alert.

This crisis did pass, but for a student at Hampton Elementary School many questions remained. Many more would soon occupy my thoughts. This had been my first experience of feeling unsafe and wanting to lock our doors every night.

I was in the ninth grade when President Kennedy was assassinated. A nation grieved and wondered how such an event could happen. Again, we felt unsafe within our own country. We survived this tragic event and the NBC Nightly News soon brought new concerns to us in living color.

There was an "armed conflict" thousands of miles away in a small country called Viet Nam. President Johnson had escalated the war and the protest movement began. Our nation was divided, but we would survive. After all, this was only a "limited war" and it was not a threat to Hampton, Ga. and did not necessitate more locks on our doors. This long distance conflict manifested itself for me on June 22, 1969 when I was drafted. The war did not come to Hampton but I went to Viet Nam in September, 1970.

During my tour of combat duty I prayed that I would survive and return to that small Georgia town where family and friends assured a sanctuary of peaceful existence and no harmful threats of war existed. There would be no more jungle patrols, nightly ambush sites or the incessant possibility of loss of life. America was blessed because our citizens never had to know the fear of living in a war zone. No one dared to tread on us.

I returned home September 1971 and was greeted by protesters throwing garbage and yelling, "Baby killer". I had gone to war to fight for the freedoms I enjoyed. It was difficult at the time accepting the fact that I had also fought for the freedoms enjoyed by the protesters. I was on my way home and the war would soon end but my questions and issues would linger. I will never forget the war, but I have made friends with it.

After the war whenever I would travel on business or the family vacationed, I knew there would be no concerns about safety and we would return home without incident. As of Tuesday, September 12, 2001 that is no longer true.

We have been tread upon. That small-town innocence has been lost. Our doors have been locked for a long time. We can no longer travel within our own borders without certain doubts for our safety. We need not live in fear but somehow I feel like I am once again walking point in South Viet Nam with my German shepherd scout dog, Shep. For me, the memory of fireflies, dandelions and chinaberry trees has been reinforced as has the resolve and determination of the American people. We have been attacked and we will respond accordingly and we will persevere. It will not be easy but it will be necessary.

Like "Our Town", we need to reflect not only on what we are to become but look back at the road traveled and what allowed us to become what we are. I wonder what George Gibbs and Emily Webb would be saying today.

God Bless America.

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