A Night at Ray's

A Night at Ray's While the ancient Wurlitzer jukebox played an old Credence Clearwater song two young Asian waitresses with long black hair wearing traditional ao dai dresses moved barefooted across the deck carrying platters stacked high with steaming crab, shrimp and large two-pint dimple mugs of foaming beer. Silvia was behind the sun-bleached cypress-wood bar pouring out drinks to a couple of navy pilots wearing leather "Top Gun" jackets. Master Chief Raymond J. Meisenhelder, USN, Ret., sat, as always, at his corner table telling old war stories, that span two generations and five decades, to a captivated audience. History comes alive against the backdrop of a Mississippi roadhouse, overlooking a bayou, Who financed the Nazi Party and Hitler's rise to power? Could President Truman have prevented the Vietnam War? Did Nazi war criminals escape to Indochina at the end of WWII? Was Ho Chi Minh recruited by Wild Bill Donavan's OSS? Why did the United States provide funding to Charles de Gaulle for the French Indochina War? Did President Eisenhower setup de Gaulle for failure at Dien Bien Phu? There's history, and then there is "History." A Night at Ray's is the latter. Doc Hanson