So you came to Taiwan and you were a young man, what, maybe 18 years old? And so what was in your mind when you arrived? And maybe what did you know about Taiwan before you arrived? And how did you feel then after arriving? Like, were you pleasantly surprised or kind of like going like, what in the world am I doing here? What was your reaction?

Well, probably going there, I was a little bit of fright, I'm sure.

I was an 18-year-old growing up in Ohio, Columbus, Ohio, pretty much Midwestern kind of lifestyle and hadn't been around too much.

Kind of thought the whole world was like Columbus, Ohio.

That's how kind of naive I was.

So to be honest with you, when I went to boot camp and then I went to cop training, I was a Went to the training and then I went home for a month on leave.

But just before I went home, they told me you're going to Taiwan.

Is it the food? Is it the people? Is it the scenery? Or do you miss everything about Taiwan? The

Were any of the members of the audience around at that time in the 60s and 70s? There was a couple of guys that actually worked on the bass.

And they didn't they didn't say too much, but there was a one of the academics grew up near CCK and used to babysit American children.

And she's first time she saw a waterbed was with Americans, you know, babysitting an American.

And that's the thing, see, that there's.

The one the one thing I found out is the timing of this book was in a way perfect because there's a gap or a kind of hole in that time period when the Americans were there.

And that's kind of a lost time period.

And there's especially in Taichung where the biggest base was CCK.

What were some of your experiences of counterculture in the 60s and 70s? And also while you were overseas serving in the armed forces, did you guys have a sense of what was going on back at home with counterculture?

What are they talking about?

Well, you know, there was a healthy black market thing going on there because, again, the country itself is poor.

And the stuff we could get in the PX, which is like the department store, grocery store, whatever.

And, you know, there was a Navy compound down in Taichung that now...

i saw like the edges of where it used to be and it's not a compound anymore anyway so people would uh i think cigarettes and booze was was really big but i think you know there was there were black market sales of appliances and things like that now when i worked on town patrol you know our office headquarters was in the navy compound it was right kind of near the bx and there was a liquor store I remember a couple of times one of my partners and I, you know, we did a little undercover stuff, you know, which was just kind of hang out in a liquor store and see if we see the same people or they're buying a lot, you know, and then follow them, follow them out.

A lot of times they'd walk right outside the compound and there'd be a guy with a taxi.

You know, they just do the exchange right there.

What are you doing and seeing?