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PEGGY FIELDING'S
NEWSLETTER TO THE ARCHIVES Go now to the archives where the letter lives with color, pictures and little geegaws, www.peggyfielding.com If you haven't yet subscribed you may do so free of charge. CHILLED TO MY HEART On February 29th, 20/20 was about the only thing to watch so I turned to their program. The story for the night made me shiver in my little red shoes. It was all about three young women, one Australian, two Brits, who went to Japan in their early twenties to live and work. One went to teach, the other two hired on as hostesses for upscale Tokyo nightclubs. Years ago, I too decided to go work in Japan. I was twenty-three when I went there to teach. I had absolutely no fear and I often walked alone in Tokyo's streets, shopped in their stores or stayed in their hotels, since my teaching job was near Matsudo City, about a half hour train ride from the big city.
One showed his disdain by trying to run over me when my hired driver was fixing a tire on his car and I was out walking at the side of the road. A middle-aged man driving a big American car headed directly for me. There was no shoulder on that road so I was forced to jump into the rice paddy right next to the pavement. He swerved around the car and my driver and drove on but he had succeeded in frightening me as I had not been frightened since I was a kid back in Oilton. The Oilton fright was for both myself and Miss Hazel. My brother Jack had run on home ahead of us. A teen from a wealthy Oilton family, Minnie Anderson, tried to run over the two of us with her new Ford as we were returning home from Sunday morning at First Baptist Church. Maybe Minnie was only teasing? The Japanese man was not teasing. He meant to kill me with no one but another old Japanese man as a witness. Later that year I took a train trip to see Mount Fuji. As soon as the train started out of the station in Tokyo, a middle-aged man across the aisle from me stood and began removing his gray flannel suit, piece by piece. He folded jacket, vest and trousers and placed them into the overhead net for storage. I tried not to look but I was astounded at his behavior. Remember... I was just a small-town, Oklahoma girl out in the world for the first time. The guy continued disrobing with tie, shirt, shoes, socks. He sat in the seat (meant for two passengers) with his legs crossed as if on the floor at home, and dressed only in his BVDs boldly sipping tea. He also did a lot of spitting on the floor of the train.
Now, he wasn't naked, but to the eyes of the innocent from Oklahoma, he was wearing underwear such as my daddy wore. Men did not disrobe in public or even in the room with family in those days. I knew Daddy wore BVDs. I'd hung them on the line many times, but I hadnt seen my Father wearing them, for Heaven's sake! That was the moment I decided to go home, with the firm resolution, never to return to the Land of the Rising Sun. Perhaps that resolution saved my life? Or perhaps what saved me was my Baptist training saved me? I never went inside any of the many bars or nightclubs. I have always been a nondrinker so what business would I have had in any of those places? Well, it has taken years, but the man responsible for the deaths of the girls featured on 20/20, was a rich, middleaged, upper-class Japanese playboy... now in custody... after many years of avoiding jail time. CONTEST, CONTEST
OZARK UFO CONFERENCE
The last time I went to that conference, with John Davis along as my "roadie," I was shocked to see Kathryn Fanning there selling paranormal books... not her own, just books she had picked up here and there. Kathryn is a former beauty queen member of OWFI, (in my opinion) Kathryn is a good, selling writer and a good friend, or at least she used to be. Haven't seen her in ages. She was once strongly into the MIA movement for her husband who'd never returned from Vietnam. WHAT I READ TODAY You know, of course, that I read a book a day if I'm not overwhelmed with editing or writing duties. I've just finished FORBIDDEN STRANGER by Marilyn Pappano aka Rachel Butler. This book is her romantic suspense. When she writes as Rachel Butler, her books are thrillers and I think they might be too dark for me so I'm sticking to her romantic suspense from Silhouette. Marilyn's husband is an interesting man, some kind of former secret government agent, I have learned. Talk about having good material next to you in the bed! You need never run out of plots with a man like that nearby. NEW BOOK ON AWOC'S HORIZON
The cover painting for Jackie's Goodie-two-shoes book was done by another friend of mine, the Reverend Romney Nesbitt. Now you can't get more apropos than that can you... a book about cooking, praying and Bible reading, offering a cover painted by an ordained minister. How about that!
I line edited both books so I have a vested interest in their success, which will be huge, I'm sure. MY NEW PROJECT I'm searching for something, just an old HEN squawking and fluttering around the barnyard. What's next for me? Maybe FOXY HENS GO BUMP IN THE NIGHT? SAD HAPPENING IN MY FAMILY
His shark-fishing group has put up a dedication to Mike Chaney. Go to http://tx-sharkfishing.com/messageboard if you want to look at what his friends say. I think he was well loved by those men. My cousin, Margaret Clark of Madill, Oklahoma alerted me to Mike Chaney's death. I'm still too wobbly to go to Texas alone but I did send flowers. Bless my older cousin, Robert's heart. (Mikes Father) Nearly every night for the past couple of years, Robert and I have emailed jokes and family stuff back and forth. Put him and his sweet wife, on your prayer lists if you feel you could. They must be in such pain. TV I've discovered the ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL reruns on RSU Public Television. I'm thrilled. That is a really old show but I still love it. This almost makes up for "The Unit" disappearing with my lover, the Sgt. Major. The Unit seems to be gone forever. Dr. Harriot is purely my platonic interest. It's the period and the animals I love on ALL CREATURES. LAST NIGHT'S DREAM I guess I've been thinking and talking too much about old Ray Fielding. I had such a great dream last night in which he played a part. We laughed a lot in the dream, There was a lovely cat, my big old tiger striped alley cat, "Scrounge," Ray flipped him over and ran on laughing I chased after Ray, giggling and happy with our play. What do youall think? All you dream interpreters get busy and tell me what that was all about. I really enjoyed the story as it played out in my sleeping mind. Love Peggy | ||
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Vol.
8 Number 3 March 2008
I
could have gone back to teach in Japan but I decided I would rather not. The Japanese
women I met were very pleasant. The men, especially the older men, let me know
in various ways, that they hated my young, white, American guts.
My pal, Jackie King,
has just finished a new book, DEVOTED TO COOKING. All of you readers
who cook, pray and read the Bible are going to love this sweet devotional tome.
Now, Romney also has
a new book coming out but more about that book, next month.
My young cousin (37
years old) Mike Chaney, was drowned last week while shark fishing in Texas.
His Father and Mother are trying to hold up in the face of such horror.|
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