by Dr. Iain
Corness
BJ,
the man with the towel over one shoulder, is almost as much of a landmark
in Pattaya as was his bar, the BJ Bar in Walking Street. BJ is his own
man, an individualist, and when you look at his heritage, there is just a
slight clue. His paternal grandfather was a bootlegger who died at 42
years of age of lead poisoning administered by a Colt 45, while his
maternal grandfather was a Sheriff Marshall.
He was born in Texas. His father was in the military in
Persia (now Iran) when the blessed event happened, and Mum looked after
his elder brother and he, while waiting for her military man to come home.
At this stage in the interview we had to have a slight
break, “I’m worried about ma dawg,” said BJ, going out and bringing
back several score of canine kilograms disguised as a boxer which then lay
amiably beside me, but always ready to remove my left leg if needed.
When BJ finished school he was 18 and he went straight
into the US Air Force. “It was a sort of family tradition. My Dad was in
the military and so was my elder brother. I knew after three weeks that
I’d screwed up. I’m too much of an individual. But I completed my four
years and kept my nose clean.”
During this time in the USAF while they taught him
avionics, he was learning to be a dance instructor like Fred Astaire, was
singing in bars and even had his own rock and roll band. BJ was not
fitting in to the military mould.
Not that he didn’t try. After leaving the USAF he
joined General Dynamics in Fort Worth, building F 111 fighter jets. “I
tried to be normal,” said BJ. That trial of ‘normalcy’ lasted 12
months, but that streak he inherited from Grandpappy Bootleg came through
again. He saw an advert for technicians in Vietnam and took the job. It
was 1967 and the war in Vietnam was on, and for someone to go there as a
civilian was certainly not ‘normal’. “People thought I was mad,”
said BJ. I think the majority would agree!
It was a six month contract as a civilian and BJ’s
attitude was simple. “I can cope with that. I liked what I was doing. I
liked the partying. I was making real good money!” He made so much money
that he came to Bangkok for a holiday. “That opened my eyes to the fun
of Bangkok. I was only 24!”
He signed up for another six months in Vietnam and
suddenly found himself in the middle of the Tet offensive. “It was mind
blowing. Started on my birthday,” said BJ, delving into past memories.
That prompted moving to Nha Trang, a beach resort in Vietnam. This was
more to BJ’s liking. The war was outside Nha Trang and he kept on
renewing his contract until he had spent three years there.
It was time, however, to return to the US, but he just
thought he might have another two week holiday in Bangkok, on the way. He
didn’t quite get to Texas. He met a singer in a nightclub, “A big
place with a big stage and a Benny Goodman style band.” The little lady
with the big voice, Prakong (Lek) entranced the bootlegger’s grandson
and they settled down together, and they are still together today.
He heard that his older brother was in Utapao and so
they came down to visit him, staying in a sleepy fishing village called
Pattaya. It was 1971. There was work available with the Federal Electric
Corporation on the Eastern Seaboard building microwave communications
links between Thailand, Cambodia and Laos, and he worked with them for
three years.
By this stage he was settled here. He and his wife
opened BJ’s Bar on Walking Street, becoming one of the first ex-pat
style bars on “the strip”. It had been eight and a half years since BJ
had been in America, so he went back to Texas in September 1975, staying
for three months to refresh family ties. When he returned he found Pattaya
had changed in that time. Overseas tourists had found it. “I had
intentions of looking for work - but since the bar was full, I told my
wife, let’s just ride it till it falls.” That took quite some time -
they only closed BJ’s Bar five years ago, but had already started BJ’s
restaurant and guest house in 1983, on the corner of Soi Regent Marina and
Beach Road.
He recalled closing the bar. “It was nostalgic at the
time. Kinda historic place. I hated to leave it, but I was kinda burned
out too.”
However, BJ and his wife also know that they have to
continue, and not sit in one place and be squeezed out with high rents,
and so have bought land on Soi 3 and are building a new BJ’s Guest House
there. “That’s the future,” said BJ. “It’ll be finished by
December 31.”
BJ has probably more yarns regarding the old Pattaya
than most, but one that did amuse me was his brief career as a tele-movie
star. “I had to cuddle up to this little gal and she turned round, gave
me a karate chop and a knee in the groin and plastered me all over the
wall. They kept the scene in and all my friends in the bar saw me on TV
getting my ass kicked by a little Thai girl. I never made another
movie!”
BJ will end his days here. A fortune teller predicted the birth of his
two daughters (Jenny and Jackie) and 20 years later again walked into the
restaurant and predicted he will live to be 91 and die in Thailand. This
fits his aim, “I want to live as long as I can, and have quality of life
till I die.” BJ, you certainly will do that, and outlive the damn dawg!
