[rexthecat]

The look on his face when he said those words “The things we had to do...”

That's a great story. Thanks for sharing it.

[rlmorel]

Yes.

It reminded me of a college history professor, a somewhat elderly gentleman who was telling us one day in class about having kidney stones, which is an odd subject to discuss with a class.

He was a little mousey man, and taught a philosophy class of some kind IIRC.

Years later, after I went through several months of acute and painful kidney stones, I understood completely (I had to command myself to shut up about them, even to my poor wife) and I remembered that “far away” look the professor got in his eyes when he was talking about it.

It was clear the professor was, as he related his kidney stone story, far away in another time and place as he was talking to us, and I recall thinking “Holy crap. Whatever kidney stones are like, I don’t want them because they must really suck!”

That was the exact same look the Vietnamese guy had in his eyes when he said those words “The things we had to do...”