Dedicated to my grandpa, Uyen Van Nguyen

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My Grandpa was born in Hanoi, Vietnam. He says the weather in Vietnam is very hot. As a child he had a lot of toys to play with and played with the neighborhood kids outside. The home he lived in had one room with no roof so rain could come in. He says that it was a common home back then. His mother is still alive and still lives in that same house today.

My grandpa was going to school like everybody else with his six other siblings. He went to school until he finished high school. He was raised in a middle class family.

My grandpa liked the idea of being in the military so he was a military police in the war. His job was to capture any Vietcong. He carried a small gun for protection. His favorite things to eat are noodles and rice.

My grandpa met my grandma when he was 23 and my grandma was 24. A friend got them both together. My grandpa married and had a small wedding in Saigon, Vietnam at 24. They had a child together when he was 25 and continued until he had 7 children. 4 of the children were twins. They lived in his wife's mother house in Saigon, Vietnam.

My grandma ran a fabric store while my grandpa was in the military and they were both very busy all the time. He would leave to work in the morning around 7 am and not be able to return until around 7-8 pm. My grandma was very busy all the time taking care of the children. Since they were so busy they were unable to do much fun things together. He says grandma was always sad when he left because she had to take care of all the kids alone.

What was your first car?

"I don't remember what I bought or how much it was I just know I bought it sometime in the 1970's. It was a motorcycle and before that we would usually ride our bicycles."

After the war had ended he was a prisoner of war. He was in jail for about 8 years in a place called long giao. My grandma was busy taking care of all the children that she didn't have the time to visit my grandpa all the time.