Story of an old man from long ago and far away

[napman]

Hi all,
first off, if you are wondering what the heck is this?
Please refer to the new member Thread, I'm just the new(oldest) member here;
And also "Maew" will translate all of this into Thai for me at his convenience.
AND HERE WE GO

This is the story (part 1) of an old man who left his homeland in Bangkok to pursue and follow his dream to the land across the ocean called America in 1972, and still got stuck over there perhaps until his dying day.

I left Bangkok on the morning of November 1st 1972 and waved good-bye to my immediate family and my loved ones at Don Muang air port.
When plane approaching LAX, I looked down from the plane windows and saw those glittering lights down below. It looked so surreally beautiful. I thought to myself ?I?m gonna get one of those diamonds? before I die.
I was one of those rockers in the late 60s to early 70s in Thailand that mainly found jobs entertaining American Gis while they were at war with North Vietnam. They came to Thailand for their vacations from killing or getting killed job and relax with the music that suit them on their time (Beatles, Stones, Led Zep, CSN & Y, Doors, Grand Funk? to name a few)
I got addicted to Music and got no way out, I was planning to graduate as Accountant and work in the banks like my peers at Thammasat do and to be able to play soccer too, but then music got me tangled up and grabbed me and wouldn?t let go!
I happily surrendered myself to the addiction and planed to kick in higher gear by going to the States and accumulate my greediness for music.
I saved up, spent for plane ticket and had not much left when I put my feet gingerly down on California soil with one hand held on to my Acoustic Yamaha nylon guitar with some clothes stuffed inside the guitar body!, and the other hand held on to the cheap Japanese bass that I bought in Bangkok (my Fender Jazz bass was stolen at The Impossible caf? while I was playing there and never to be found while I was in Thailand).
My first true friend (in need) is my sister?s friend that volunteered to take me under his wings until I strong enough to solo flight on my own. It?s my honor to know you Pete (M.R.W. Pumin Varavan). We got along so well, I think of you so often since you came back to stay in Bangkok several years ago, anybody happens to know how/where is he?
I stayed with Pete in his apartment for about a week and gratefully say good-bye to him when I successfully got contact with my other musician friend that come over to Calif. not long ago with his family, we used to be in the same band he?s also Thammasat Alumni, his name is Udom (Dang) Nakrihankanok and from him I met up with another musician friend that played at the same nightclub that I played but not in my band.
His name is Thawat Chotikamol (allow me to mention here about names, I?d like to put real names here in order to honor them for their parts that they played in my real life)
I moved out from Pete?s and moved in to stay with Thawat and one other Thai/Chinese friend (Huey) at their apartment, I?m sorry to say that I don?t remember his real name but even sadder to tell you that he?s one of the Night Stalker?s victim (Richard Ramirez) that terrorized the Hollywood area for a while before got caught and still behind bar until today. Huey was a very meticulous man, so clean and organize in everyway. Later he moved out to get marry and live alone with his wife until the tragedy struck. RIP my friend.
In those days everything is cheap and plentiful, through Thawat I got a job at Sheraton Hotel at Universal city as bus boy just like Thawat. And also went to school in order to get the diploma at that school in order to get to College in order to learn Music (jt just one of those one thing lead to another type!)
We found another musician P? Pang, Jitchai Hamichart that played organ for The Carawan back in Thailand
And we found another Thai amateur drummer by the name of Tao (sorry no real name again!) he?s a good singer too and that?s a plus!
We found time from our busy schedule to practice and form a band with 2 Thai lady singers and played at Bangkok house in Long Beach for a while.
We also played at those Thai gathering event from time to time. And I also went to Hollywood high school for Acoustic guitar class and some other schools that I laid my eyes on the music stuffs.
About a year later, I graduated from Glendale Business college that I got the Visa from. I went to high school at San Gabriel in order to get the diploma in order to get into College of my choice. And my choice is Glendale city college, the main reason was that college had 2 symphony orchestra bands and that was not ordinary to say the least.
I got in Glendale city college in the fall of 1974 and chose Music as my major, it went well for the first two semester. And then as the luck took hold of me(should I say bad luck?), For some personal reasons that I opted not to reveal here I had to go back to Thailand and was intend to come back and continue my music education as previously planned.
I came back to States but too late to enroll for that semester, so I told myself that I still can enroll next one anyway. But I guess I was destined to have it the other ways. Due to economic crisis and personal crisis that came along I was not able to do as planned.
I worked at the steak house next door to the famous ?Whiskey A GoGo? on Sunset Strips for about a year as the same busboy position and played with my band just for fun but for sure was not getting musically better.

I had to put the music education at the College level at the back burner due to what I was facing at that time of my life.

This is the end of part1
just to see if anyone wants me to continue reminiscing or simply Shut up and leave!

BTW (by the way), these will be translated into Thai by our ?Maew?, I AUTHORIZFULLY AND RESPECTFULLY TRUST HIM for his translation and editing of any kind up to his taste.

I hopefully see you all again in part 2

Now ?Maew?, please take it over, and again I?ll always gratefully thank you for this.