Having gone west in the summer of
’75, we went east for the next year. Besides the alternating directions as a
reason, we hoped to connect with family and friends of Betty Olsen and Hank
Blood along the way.
Early Tuesday morning we left for
a performance at Morden, Manitoba and the next day crossed into the United
States to perform the play at a Baptist church in Devil’s Lake, North Dakota.
It was a small little church seating about 120. They had contacted us about
doing the play in their church. It worked out, as St. Paul Bible College really
wanted the play. Betty Olsen was a grad of that college and this was a good
stop along the way.
We had preformed the play several
times around Saskatchewan and developed our approach. We simply began by
turning the lights off in the sanctuary and slowly bringing up the stage
lights. Then immediately Betty, Hank and Mike with a Vietnamese boy were pushed
onto the stage, Hank tripped and fell giving the boy a feeling that he might
escape. He would then take off running down a side aisle and out the back. When
the boy ran, the AK-46 sounded and it was very loud.
As soon as that happened, a young
man ducked under the pew and covered his head. Both the pastor and I saw it and
the poster when to the man immediately, helped him up and took him out. I went
to see what happened and was very concerned about our opening. He was a Vietnam
vet and when he saw the guns and heard the gunfire he automatically moved to
protect himself,
We already knew to warn parents
with small children to wait until after the opening. I never once thought about
a US veteran being in the audience and how he might respond. To us, it was just
a play. But that day we learned how real the rifles looked and the tension veterans
faced. The soldier apologized and took it all well. I apologized for not
warning him of what to expect and told him there would be no more gunfire.
Regretfully, he did not return to the play, but we learned our lesson. We asked
that every vet be identified before the play so I could warn him about the
opening.
The possible contacts with Betty
and Hank’s families did not materialize. None of them came. The story was too
fresh for them. I understood completely. Apparently one family member of Hanks
was in a performance in Indiana, but we never knew about it until after the
tour.
After a few more stops, we
returned to Canada for two performances and them dropped into Pennsylvania to
my friend Floyd Meier’s church, When we returned to Canada we got hung up at
the border for a couple of hours. The guard who met us did not know what to do
about the stage lights we were carrying. They had been bought in the Canada but
he was convinced we were smuggling them in. At least he acted like that was the
problem. We had all the paper work but he still did not accept that. No
explanation was working. We were going to have to wait for his supervisor to
return. When the boss showed up, he immediately waved us through and I hope
jumped all over the newby.
We kicked around Ontario and even went
to Montreal for one performance before making our way back to Saskatchewan.
With a couple of stops in Manitoba
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