After months on the line on a minesweeper off Vietnam resupplying by underway replenishment, as it was called, my ship made liberty port at Hong Kong. I had a custom-made suit tailored and bought a great leather jacket that was eventually stolen stateside, and just by chance, I took the ferry to Kowloon and happened upon the most elaborate parade I've ever seen, and watched it with a crowd of probably fifty thousand. It was the Chinese New Years parade, with scores of those dragons operated by teams of acrobats who got on each other's shoulders to make the dragon rare up and blow smoke from its nostrils. I feel for the Chinese of Hong Kong these days. At the time, Hong Kong was a British Crown Colony leased from mainland China, and reverted back to mainland control in 1997, which seemed the distant future when the tour guide told us about it on the way to the floating restaurant, where we were taken in a small boat propelled by a single oar by an elderly woman.