Christmas season 1982 taken at the Detroit Autoshow. Us children are all a little taller, but our cloths are still the same. They were donated clothing from the church or bought at the thrift store. Polyester bell bottoms were still alive. The first few years were pretty hard for our family. Perhaps because our sponsors were so well off, they did not believe welfare, and thus did not introduce it to us. Two months after our arrival, they found a job for my dad in a machine shop doing janitorial work. Until he finally passed his driving test he would run a mile everyday in the snow to catch the bus to his work.

This must have been the refugee version of "I walked fifteen miles in the snow to school..." story. For my dad however, schooling in America was not an option. He had to support our family and repay loans in Vietnam. In addition, his lack of English mastery forced him to accept his place as a low wage laborer in America. 1980 coincided with recession and economic instability in America. He was eventually laid off from his first job. A co-worker, and not the sponsors, told him to get unemployment benefits, and after doing so, his benefits were three times his monthly earnings!

My parents knew welfare was only temporary, so he found another machinist job soon after and worked there for sixteen years.

A few years after, my mom took a meat wrapping job and she worked there for over twelve years. Despite the unpleasant working conditions, she stayed on because it allowed here to be with us when we came home from school. This is probably one reason why all of us children still know how to speak, read, and write Vietnamese.