Vitmon Vitanalitanet

At 85 Vitmon Vitanalitanet walks with a bent back and a cane for support.  Despite the surrounding loud voices and commotion she manages to push her way through the crowd in an amazingly elegant manner.  She looks like the typical grandmother with her pink-knit sweater and large circular glasses.  Her hair is a mesh of white and gray; nothing about her could convey all the changes that she’s lived through. Her fingers are adorned with gold rings and her necklace with ancient heirlooms.  She slowly moves the rings as her mind seems to wonder and reflect on matters unstated.   It’s hard to imagine that not so long ago she was once an eager little girl who liked to frolic about in the fields.  On we go into the mind of Vitmon and the story of how all these jewels came to be.

I was very young when there were a lot of economical changes around the age of twenty or thirty.  I didn’t feel anything.  When the Japanese came into Thailand I didn’t know it would cause me so much turmoil but oh-ho.  The economy rose greatly, it was even good when they came and declared war.  We bartered with the Japanese and our profit was really high, more than abundant.  It was everywhere; everyone was floating in money.  It made my life hectic because I didn’t know what to do with all the money I was making. 

Everyone would get so many things for free or at least with good profit.  For instance, a bag of fried bananas would be six dollars but the Japanese would give it to me for five dollars.  I opened my own store and had empty rooms that I turned into business rooms.  I sold almost everything to the Japanese and I made good profit.  Upon their death each of their friends would get a house.  When the Japanese lost the war they had to return to their country so they gave all their stuff out for free.  They gave out all their money, houses, and clothes…they would give it all out.  The king opened casinos and so on, all for free.  He made all gambling legal because he didn’t want us to stress.  Everybody rushed to play; even I went.  Our lives were better as the economy improved.  Day by day that’s all we did; it relieved stress. 

The Japanese were really good people but the Thai people cheated like crazy.  If burglars were caught they’d be drowned to death.  The Japanese would have oil or whatever liquid forced down the burglars throat unit they choked to death.  If they stole a bike they would get nails put into their knee sockets or a hammer would pound off their legs.  Some people would get shots on the ends of their nerves so you couldn’t walk and become paralyzed or they’d burn you.  They’d make the fire big and red.  Other times they tied the people to poles on the edges of the ocean and wait for the water to rise, then they’d die because the chains kept them from moving.  I’m telling you what I’ve seen.  If they caught you you’d die on the spot, no question -do not steal.  This is the truth, I’m not lying I saw it.  I lived across the river from the Japanese. 

In later years the people were better but the economy was bad.  The Japanese printed their money in their own money system.  They burned our banks because they had no use.  They burned it all; our money was worthless.  The government later came in and controlled the money.  The Japanese people brought more business so when they left the economy wasn’t good.  The economy was so bad everyone kept their money to themselves.  The rich people didn’t trust the banks, they never did.  We stuffed all our money under our beds.

After some years life was all normal.  Before all the chaos my business was trading, I continued to do the same after everything died down.  The king even died because he used too much money.  He had hundreds of wives and using his money drained him of his energy.  It’s true.  It’s true.  It was all for the money.  If you ask why all these events, I’ll say it’s because the money.  This is my life.  It was good.  I had enough money.