SOAPS IN STRANGE PLACES

Hai Clay is in the process of becoming a U.S. Army officer. Not so unusual until you discover that as a child 35 years ago he was playing marbles in the streets in Vietnam....

Clay's father was killed during the war, and his mother remarried an American soldier. He moved the family to the United States when Hai was about 6 years old. "I would have nightmares when I left." he remembers. "I dreamed of a UFO coming out of the sky to pick up people. Actually my mom said it was a helicopter that came to get us."

Things were rocky at first when they moved to Florida. Hai's stepfather was black and they lived in a predominately black neighborhood. "I never really saw myself as different until I got into junior high school. "There was name calling because I was not black." It was made even harder because the three Clay children spoke only Vietnamese.

Hai, who was the middle son, adapted quickly, however. His first words were "Edge of Night" from the soap opera he used to watch.

Read the entire story, here. (And watch The Edge of Night on the AOL/PGP Classic Soap Channel, here.)