Christmas 1983

A Larry story about getting caught in a lie while in Beirut, care packages for the troops, and the spirit of Christmas.

Time for a quick Larry story. If you’re not familiar with the stories I tell about my dad, Larry, you can read one here about the time he tried to talk the Sultan of Oman into hosting my Bar Mitzvah, and how that irreverent request set in motion a chain of events that pissed off Bob Hope. Or, you can check out my dad’s bio here. Spoiler alert: he was the world’s best sound man.

OK, so this story takes place in 1983, around Christmas time. I was six, Allison was four.

One day, Dad announced that he was going to Beirut on a USO show with Bob Hope. Lebanon was in the middle of a civil war, and U.S. Marines were on the ground in Beirut. There were important geopolitical considerations here about empire, ideology, power, humanity, and the absurdity of “peace-keeping” with heavy artillery, but none of that was a priority for Dad. He was a sound man. He was Bob Hope’s sound man. Beginning in the late 1960s, Dad was a regular on Bob Hope’s crew, traveling to Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and various…