The Other Side of Heaven

My name is John H. Groberg.

I was born during the Great Depression

in Idaho Falls, Idaho.

My middle name is Holbrook,

which was my mother's maiden name.

Mom and Dad gave that name to all seven boys

of which I am the oldest.

We were poor, but we lived happily.

Large doses of homemade bread and family music.

My dad was a real estate appraiser

and a prominent democrat, which is to say

he was about the only democrat in Idaho Falls.

One year President Harry Truman came to town,

campaigning for reelection and my dad

was selected to greet him.

President Truman did very well among

the Groberg clan that year.

I went to school at a little place called

Eastside Elementary.

One morning our principal, Ms. Bunker,

gathered all us kids out front.

She told us something terrible had just happened

in a place called Hiroshima, Japan,

and she asked us to observe a moment of silence.

All I knew about the Japanese

was that we were at war with them

and yet, standing there in front of my school,

I felt something for them.

Later in my life I would come to feel

even more deeply about another people

in a land far away.

* Well it's Saturday night and I just got paid

* Fool with half a mind he don't try to save

* Heart says go go have a time

* Saturday night and baby I feel fine

* I'm gonna rip it up

* Yeah rock it up

* I'm gonna shake it up

* I'm gonna break it up

* I'm gonna ball it up

* At the ball tonight

* Well along about 10 I'm feeling high

* I walk on out to the groovy sky

* I don't care if I spend my dough

* 'Cause I'm gonna be one happy soul

* Gonna rip it up

* Yeah rock it up

* I'm gonna shake it up break it up

* Ball it up crash it up

* Rip it up

* I'm gonna rock it up

* At the ball tonight

* Well I got me a baby and I won't be late

* I picked her up in my 88

* Dragged on down by the social hall

* When the joint starts jumping

* Gonna have me a ball

* Gonna rip it up

* Yeah rock it up

* I'm gonna shake it up break it up

* Ball it up crash it up

* Rip it up

* I'm gonna rock it up

* At the ball tonight

Hey.

Hey.

'Scuse me.

Come on.

Hey, it's me, come on.

Sorry.

Whoa, hey, hey.

Go John!

I'll take that.

* Well it's Saturday night and I just got paid

* Fool with half a mind he don't try to save

* Heart says go go have a time

* Saturday night and baby I feel fine

* I'm gonna rip it up

* Yeah rock it up

- I can't believe you John Groberg.

Ah ah ah.

He's my date!

He was your date.

- So what, I'm supposed to come to the dance by myself

just because you're playing in the band, what?

- No, you can come with whomever you want.

As long as you leave with me.

Really.

- Come on Jean, I wanna show you something.

Come on, follow me!

Oh wow.

Oh it's like heaven.

Mm-hmm.

It's all yours.

I had it made special.

Moon too.

Get in, I wanna show you something.

Yeah.

Oh.

- Look in the water, tell me what you see.

I see the moon.

Look again.

I see me and the moon.

Exactly.

You and the light of the moon.

You know how many miles that light traveled

to shine on you?

I guess I don't.

- 92 million, 300 thousand, give or take.

You know what else?

- I think you were worth the trip.

I think you think too much.

Maybe I do.

No matter where they send me,

we'll be underneath the same moon.

- You're hereby called to serve as a missionary

to the people of the kingdom of--

Tonga!

You're going to Tonga!

Tonga.

Wait a minute.

Where's Tonga?

Hey John, over here!

Speech!

- Yeah, let's hear a speech, Delbert.

Go ahead, Dad.

- I hadn't really prepared for this.

Don't know how I could have.

All my life I've been taught

that God loved the world so much

he gave the world his son.

I used to think I knew what that meant.

I didn't.

I don't know anyone in Tonga well enough

to love them and send them my son.

But I guess God does.

Keep that in mind during the hard times, son.

How much God loves his children.

- Oh listen to you going on like you know something.

All aboard!

I love you Dad.

I love you too, son.

I love you Mom.

Don't come home, son.

Don't come home early.

Three cheers for John Groberg!

Hip hip hooray!

Hip hip hooray!

Hip hip hooray!

Bye, bye, see ya, bye.

Dear Jean.

It's okay you couldn't make it to the big farewell.

I wouldn't have wanted you crying and making a fuss

and if you hadn't cried, well,

that would've been worse.

There were seven of us missionaries on the boat.

But the others were all continuing

to Australia or New Zealand.

I was supposed to meet the president

of the Samoan mission at the dock

and he was going to put me on another boat to Tonga.

I guess he didn't know I was coming

'cause he didn't show up.

After a couple weeks I finally found him,

and he put me on a boat to Fiji,

where he said I could catch another boat to Tonga.

He also told me there would be two missionaries

waiting for me at the dock.

Get off me boat, mate.

Your ticket ends here.

- Stop right there, you are not on our list.

- Oh, piss on your bleedin' list, the boy gets off.

I will be arresting him.

That's his problem.

Ah, you crazy man.

Just get off the plank mate,

or I'll have to push ya.

You are under arrest.

Elder Louis Armstrong.

The missionaries in Fiji

got me a job on a freighter to Tonga.

I bunked with a guy named Swede

who promised me a girl in every port

if I left my mission and stayed on the boat.

I told him one girl was enough for me.

You know, I think he lost a lot of respect for me

when I said that.

When I finally got to Tonga, it was business as usual.

Nobody knew I was coming.

I guess word got around there was a kid from Idaho

sitting on the dock because suddenly,

out of the clear blue.

Yes sir.

- Where on earth have you been, young man?

I prayed long and hard about your assignment.

I think I have just the place for you.

Niuatoputapu.

- Oh it's a small island about 800 miles from here.

There's no white people and no one speaks

a lick of English.