by Dr. Iain
Corness
What makes a blue eyed, all-American girl return to
Pattaya ten times in fifteen years? Has she found something the rest of us
are unaware of? I believe so.
Nancy Hunter was the first of four daughters born to an
American steel worker in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. Raised in a Catholic
household (four children in five years is proof enough) she had a good
Catholic education, under a variety of nuns.
With
a burning desire to better herself, she won a scholarship to Slippery Rock
University, and at age 22 she emerged with a B. Sc. in Education. Marrying
an enlisted man in the US Air Force she followed her husband on his
various postings, first to Omaha, Nebraska, then overseas to Suffolk in
the UK and then finally to San Antonio in Texas, where she still resides
today. The moves were an important part of Nancy’s maturation, “It was
then I realised there was more to the world than Pittsburgh, PA. I began
to see beyond.”
I asked, why Texas and was informed that in the Air
Force you filled out transfer ‘Dream Sheets’ on which everyone would
generally have Europe or Hawaii, but, “You go where the Air Force sends
you, and you get something like North Dakota or Texas!”
By this stage, Nancy had two small children, and since
parental duties came first restricted her work to only doing relief
teaching for children on the Air Force base. However, after three years in
Texas she and her husband parted. Suddenly she was a single parent and the
advice was the usual “go back home and stay with the family.” This was
not Nancy’s way, though, “Going back home was not the way to go. I
knew I would have been stifled - same life, same community.”
In this initial trying stage she found great support
from a Thai woman who was married to another Air Force officer. Her name
was Dow and she and her husband Harvey are still Nancy’s greatest
friends today. A certain fighting spirit also became apparent in Nancy.
“I was tired of people saying, ‘Nancy, you can’t.’ That made me
say, ‘You can’t - but I can!’ I just don’t take no for an
answer.”
This stance brought her back into the workforce and she
began work full-time in special education and then completed a Master’s
degree at the University of Texas studying in the evenings for three
years. “I had to prove to myself there was the strength in me. I had to
make a life for myself. I could stand on my own feet.”
This attitude also saw her relationship with her faith
alter radically. When her daughter was seven years old and preparing for
her first communion, adverse remarks were passed about children of
divorced parents. “It was the wrong thing to do to the wrong person.”
Since then, she has moved her personal faith to one more aligned with
Buddhism, and in fact these days teaches English to the Thai Buddhist
monks in San Antonio.
The next watershed in her life was in 1985. Her friend
Dow’s father died in Thailand and Dow asked Nancy to travel with her. It
was the Xmas/New Year break and Nancy thought, “Me in Asia? The other
side of the world.” But that inner drive for adventure came out and she
hopped on the plane for Bangkok, with no real prior knowledge of the
country.
As she set foot on the tarmac at Bangkok airport she
was smitten. “I have been here before,” was the immediate feeling. The
next time she arrived, the feeling was ten times stronger. “I felt that
life was an oyster that had just opened for me.”
Each time that she has returned to Thailand it is the
same, so I asked her how she feels when she returns to Texas. “I become
a different Nancy when I leave (Thailand). I become what people expect to
see - the administrator - the persona, but not the person.” She
expounded further, “Thailand lets me be (me), that’s why I like
Thailand. Here there is an acceptance of what there is, accepting each
other and the different ways. There is a mix of every possible culture. I
like that - it makes me survive the mundane 49 weeks till I can get back
here.”
I asked her why she comes in particular to Pattaya,
which brought the response, “When (I am in America and) I say
‘Pattaya’, if they know Thailand there’s a gasp, but Pattaya has
everything. A diversity so abundant. Where else can you find everything -
and by the sea! You can’t go home and explain it. Pattaya has to be
experienced. On New Year’s Eve in Walking Street there were eight
beautiful young women performing traditional dances, but they still fitted
in even with all the raucousness and drinking.”
Nancy Hunter has Pattaya in her future objectives too.
“I will retire in Pattaya in five to six years and spend a large portion
of the year here. I am planning for a new chapter, another adventure. I
wake each day and know that it’s all out there for me. Meeting people,
Thais and people from all over the world.”
Her advice for young women mirrors her own life and
personal drive. “There are no boundaries. The world can be yours, not by
making plans but by working your plans. When people say to me ‘Some day
I will ...’ I say, ‘What are you doing to get there?’”
So does our lady from Texas judge herself to be a
success? “I do consider myself to be successful because I am happy. I
have had such a richness of experiences in my life. Not material
possessions or money - they don’t buy happiness. If I were to die
tomorrow I would be able to say I had a great life!”
Nancy Hunter, Manit Boonchim from the Tourism Authority
of Thailand should put you on the payroll today!
