On the Rainy River

Tip Tip Resort

http://tiptopresortmn.com/layout/images/tip-top-view16.jpg

 

 Tim O'Brien has some interesting stories that he writes about in the book, "The Things They Carried." I will write about "On the Rainy River." In this one in particular, he recieves a letter from the government. This letter is to inform him that he has been selected, drafted, to go to Vietnam. This is the worst thing that has ever happened to him! He is just TOO good to have to go! He heads out of town, heading to Canada. He stops at a place called "Tip Top Resort." He stays there for six days, trying to decide if he should go fight or leave his life behind and start a new one with nobody. Everyone he knows would call his horrible names he couldn't handle. He ends up going to war and when he returns he thinks of himself as a "coward" that went to war. 

I feel bad for this man at twenty-two and the thoughts that ran through his mind and what he had to see. I don't think he was a very positive man to begin with. When he received the draft letter, he was working at a slaughter house and he wasn't to happy with that either. To make matters worse, he gets the draft letter to go fight in a war that he was 100% against! Elroy, the owner of the resort, spoke very little. It is amazing how neither of them said much about what he was doing there or why and while they were together on the boat Tim knew why he took him to that spot on the river. That is when Tim made his final decision of going to war.

 Here are some interesting facts about the "Vietnam War." You must check out!!
http://www.vhfcn.org/stat.html