When I moved to Cleveland, OH in 1966, I rented a space in an apartment in the Shaker Heights area with three other women whom I had never met. The apartments were large and so the landlord rented them out like this. It had a big living room and kitchen and dining room, but two tiny bedrooms with four single beds. The whole building was young people our age, but somehow I don’t remember becoming friends with any of them or having parties together or anything. My roommate in our little room was Mary Pat. She and I got along really well. She was a teacher. We didn’t like our other roommates because they didn’t clean up after themselves and didn’t do the chores we agreed on.
There was virtually no parking on the street in our neighborhood, so I was able to rent a tiny garage space in the back of the building, reached by a narrow driveway. One day this car was parked in the driveway so I couldn’t get to my space. I was in a hurry, had nowhere to park so I could find the person who was blocking my way, so I had to double park to go into the building to knock on every door to find the culprit. Finally I found him, this big huge guy. I politely asked him to move his car. He took his good old time doing it, but I was able to finally park. The next day, his car was blocking my driveway again! This time I was furious. I quickly found him and asked him to move, please. He went on doing what he was doing. After a few more minutes, and since it was the second time he did this, I started to yell at him and even banged on his chest with my fists. I guess I had a temper tantrum. It didn’t look good, however he was obviously goading me and I didn’t like it.
One of our roommates was named Marion. And believe it or not, she was a librarian. There was a popular song out then called Marion the Librarian. She also drove a red Thunderbird convertible. There was another cute blonde gal in the building we all liked. She drove a yellow VW bug. My VW bug was older and was a light blue color and not a convertible.
One weekend they had a wine tasting in the square in Shaker Heights. We decided to go, but had no idea about drinking wines. There were about 25 different tables with different kinds of wine. We thought you had to taste every kind in order to learn about wines, so we did! We started with the sweet wines, and really liked them, and then moved around the tent to the driest wines. We had gone the wrong way. However, by the time we got there, we didn’t care. We were lucky we didn’t have to drive home. This was back in the days of when you ordered Champagne, Burgundy, Chablis, or Chianti. Those were the only wines served in restaurants. So this wine tasting was to introduce people to other types of wines, which still would not be available in restaurants, but you could buy them at a liquor store.
Mary Pat and I finally moved out together to an apartment building on Euclid Ave. This was a very large apartment with an elevator and a bar on the ground floor. It was very close to my work. There were lots of people our age in this building, some graduate students at Case Western Reserve, now Case. We had parties and lots of fun.
One day I went to drive my car and it sounded really loud. By the time I got to my destination, I realized my muffler was gone. My first reaction was that someone stole it! Our neighborhood wasn’t that great. But when I went in to get a new one, they told me it had fallen off because it was rusty. I was very naïve about cars. A year or so later, my car wouldn’t start at all at someone else’s house. I couldn’t figure it out. I had it towed and the garage said my engine was seized up. It seems I needed to put oil in it on occasion. What a concept. Speaking of cars, much later, while living in Seattle, I had a popular book onhow to take care of your Volkswagen. It had detailed instructions and diagrams for how to change the oil, the spark plugs, do your own tune-up, even take out the engine and fix something and put it back in again. The VW was an easy engine and it was in the back of the car. I took to this challenge and started doing my own tune-ups and minor maintenance.
Back in Cleveland, we decided once to go to the bar in our building. It was always busy and looked like it would be fun. Well, we got there and realized that the only patrons were men! We had a drink and then left pretty soon after. On Valentines evening, we noticed in the parking lot all these beautifully dressed ladies with gorgeous hair, shoes, and makeup. It took us awhile to realize that they were all men.
One weekend we saw that someone was moving into the apartment across the hall. He was very busy making shelving everywhere. Then he hauled in these big boxes. We became friendly and he showed us into his place where he was putting his record collection. He was a local disk jockey who was apparently quite famous in Cleveland, and needed a place to sleep in town occasionally when he had to stay late and not drive back to his home in West Cleveland. He also needed a place to house his records, which filled the walls from floor to ceiling of the living room and second bedroom. He said he had about 5,000 records. He played a few of his favorites for us when we came over. He was about 20 years older than us, but he sure paid a lot of attention to us. At that time, disk jockeys were celebrities. He liked us because we had never heard of him and we treated him like a normal person. I wish I could remember his name, and I wonder what ever happened to all those records.
While living in this area, I participated in the cultural opportunities that were right there in walking distance. I could go to the Cleveland Museum and sit in the garden, or visit my favorite paintings. I became an usher at the Severance Hall and see George Szell conducting the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra. We also went down the other way on Euclid Avenue to some of the Negro night clubs to see groups like Gladys Night and the Pips and Little Richard. Cleveland was a happening town. We also had the Cleveland Indians baseball team and the Cleveland Browns football team when they were the teams to beat.
For some reason, Mary Pat and I decided we wanted to really live it up as bachelorettes and live in the really swinging part of town, which was on the lake. We found an apartment in a building on the beach of Lake Erie with a view of the water. It was more expensive, but had a lot of light and was a much nicer apartment. We must have felt richer or something. That building was really fun. There were parties all the time and lots of single professionals, not students, our age. I remember a clam bake party where you could barely get into the door of the apartment having the party. Mostly it was in the yard and on the beach. There was a garbage can that had fruit punch in it. You were supposed to bring a bottle of liquor, whatever kind you wanted, and pour it into the garbage can. The punch that was created was what you drank. They may have had some clams, I don’t remember much else of that party.
One day in the elevator, Mary Pat met a cute guy named Daryl. They started dating. Up to then, our plans were to work for two years and then move to Switzerland and work there. Mary Pat went to Europe after she graduated from college, and decided she wanted to live and work there because she liked it so well. She had heard that you could do that if you had two years of experience in your profession. She found out that teachers and Medical technologists, like me, would be the type of careers they were looking for. We sent for the application and filled it our when we were close to our two years of work experience. For some reason, the Swiss government sponsored this program and got you a job and everything. Mary Pat decided that Switzerland was the place to go because it was in the middle of Europe so you could travel from there to see the rest of it.
Well, Mary Pat and Daryl decided to get married. Her plans of going to Europe vanished. In fact, Daryl was working for Everyready batteries and was being transferred to Chicago, so the wedding was planned to coincide with that. I was a bridesmaid. However, I had to move out of our luxury apartment and find something cheaper that I could afford myself. I still didn’t have my two years of experience as a Medical Technologist yet. I got a new job at the Cleveland Clinic Hospital in the microbiology department which I found was a step up from working in hematology at the Jewish Hospital. I liked microbiology, and it was a huge department and the supervisor was a sister of a boy I knew in Akron.
I found an apartment in this old, run down building with no elevator that looked out into a parking lot, but it was kind of funky and it was mine. I even had my own TV. One night it was so hot I could barely breathe, so I even bought an air conditioner. It never got that hot again, but I still used it. I somehow gathered a group of friends who would come over for dinner or watch TV or something, so I was never alone. I always thought of something fun to do each night with someone.
During this time, I received a post card from the Peace Corps telling me that they finally found a medical spot for me in a project in Africa, so if I was still interested in working as a Medical Technologist with them, I could contact them. I think the day before I had just finished sending in my paperwork for Switzerland and was committed to going there on my own without Mary Pat. So I never responded to the Peace Corps. I made my reservation to get to Europe on the ship the Bremin which was a German ship. That was I would have to start to speak German, because I was going to Bern, the capital, which was German speaking. I also took a class at the Cleveland University in German language, but I really only learned how to count and say yes and no, after a whole semester.
Before I left, I had to sublease my apartment and get rid of my furniture and TV and air conditioner. All the belongings I took had to fit in my black travel trunk I had from college days. I sold my furniture to the gal who moved in for a measly $200.00! I was disappointed, but glad to not have to worry about it anymore. At the time, I kind of thought I would be returning to Cleveland, and would only be gone a year. Luckily I did break ties there, because I never returned. I still have some of the friends I made there on my Christmas mailing list, however.
There was a big going away party before I left in my apartment. I invited lots of people and many came. We tried to think of a German toast to give with our beer, but didn’t know the German word, so we said “Zweibach”, which is the name of a German toast that we used to eat as children, sort of like a teething biscuit.
I don’t remember what happened to my car, or how I got to New York to embark on the ship, but I remember being in New York with my parents. They were there to say bon voyage. Maurice took us the night before to a very expensive French restaurant. The food was fabulous and he wanted to introduce me to French food and wines and tell me all about France that evening. I was going to be meeting his cousin, Lucienne, who would take me on a tour of Paris when I arrived in Europe. I was so nervous about leaving my life in the United States and going off alone to a foreign country that I couldn’t eat and had to throw up. It was finally hitting me that I was making a huge change and I would be all alone doing it.
The next day, my parents and friends could come onto the boat for the afternoon with me to help me settle into the boat and have a bon voyage party. I invited some guy I knew whom I forget his name, but he actually came. My parents got me some champagne and flowers. Then they blew the whistle and they had to leave and I was on my own on this German speaking ship going across the ocean.
4/28/09
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Above Average
I’ve always been above average. My brother Larry was considered the genius. Mother said his IQ was so high they didn’t really have a number for it. He got F’s and A’s in school, depending on if he was interested in the subject or not. He almost completed his PhD, but got Barbara pregnant and had to quit school and raise a family. He got a job with a company for awhile, but it didn’t work out for some reason. Then he went out on his own as a consultant for most of his career, and only in the last few years has he had a real job with a real salary. My youngest brother, David, was considered the slow one, always goofing off and never taking things too seriously. Mother got him a tutor in 8th grade because he was falling behind. The tutor taught him that you had to study. He finally got it. He is now a Medical Doctor.
In school I did really well, getting mostly A’s, unlike my brothers. I was obedient and liked to play outdoors. I was once the fastest runner in the neighborhood. I could swing on the swings almost all the way around. I could hang on the bars by my heels, and could go the whole way there and back swinging like a monkey on the ladder gym. I was able to teach myself how to ice skate backwards, to do a twirl or two, and lift one leg backwards with my arms out to the side.
Mother took us to swimming lessons, first at the Jewish Center, then in the summer to the Portage Country club where my Grandparents were members. You could have a grandchild membership in the summers. I learned how to swim all the strokes and soon became a Life Guard. Then I took the class to become a Water Safety Instructor. In the summer I was on the diving team and learned the back dive, the front pike, the back pike, and the swan dive. I could never do any somersaults, however. I usually came in third in the diving contests. I was on the swim team and raced against other swim clubs. My best stroke was the breast stroke. I could do the crawl and the butterfly, the side stroke and the back stroke, but wasn’t that fast. We had a lot of fun competing, however.
In high school I was in a lot of activities, I don’t remember exactly what, like the future nurses or the biology club or something. I was in the newspaper once as a “teen of the day” which listed all my accomplishments. But in applying for college, with my above average grades and activities, I was only accepted to one school and it was my last choice. I was on the waiting list for Allegheny College. My Grandparents knew someone on the Board of Directors and talked to them and suddenly I was admitted, albeit late, so I stayed in another dorm than most of the Freshmen. The whole college process was a blur to me. It seemed like it I had nothing to do with it. My Mother picked out the colleges and helped me fill out the forms. We went to see Allegheny but not the other schools, and I don’t even remember which ones they were. For some reason I did not apply to Univ of Akron, where her Grandfather had been President of the original Buchtel College. There is an oil painting of him in the hallway of that old building on campus.
I also took water ballet and loved that. We had a couple water ballet shows a year. I could do all the basic stuff, and am really good at sculling still.
I was a lifeguard in the summers during high school and college at various country clubs and such. I also taught swimming classes. The summer after my third year at Allegheny, before I began my year of Medical Technology Internship, I got a job as a camp counselor at this fancy camp in Michigan on Torch Lake. There was a girl’s camp and a boy’s camp. They were loosely connected by a long trail. We had socials on the weekends, but everything else was separate. I was in charge of the Waterfront. I taught swimming, diving, water ballet, and was the lifeguard for open swim. It was a pretty big job. We had a water show at the end of each 4 week session with water ballet and diving and races and such.
In college I took normal classes and ended up with a 2.9 GPA. I got a D in Chemistry, but I loved it. The Professor encouraged me to continue and even major in it for some reason. I majored in Biology. My advisor was Dr. Bugbee! The Chemistry Professor was Dr. Pugh! We always concocted smelly compounds in our labs. Science labs took up a lot of time, but I still was in a modern dance club and finally joined the Alpha Chi Omega sorority. I was the Historian. When we went back for the 40th reunion, we went to the sorority rooms, the same ones we always had at the top of Brooks Hall, and my scrap book from our years there was still there. It wasn’t so badly done, either.
I don’t remember much of the year long Medical Technology Internship except a few things. We got paid! $50 a month. We didn’t have to pay tuition.
When the boys were young, they joined the West High swim club, the Aquanauts. It was a non-profit swim club that competed with other clubs throughout the area and the state not connected with the schools. We had a coach we hired. Practice was almost every day of the week, with frequent swim meets. As a parent, we came to the meetings, and I soon became the President of the Club. This required me to go to the area wide meetings that organized meets and such. I took the test and became an official time keeper, and then became a race director. I was qualified to be in charge of all the timekeepers. I was once the starter, a timekeeper, and a meet director. I mostly ended up running the meets. All the officials were parents. Later we had a state wide meet, one of two or three a year and I volunteered to be in charge. It was held at Bartlett pool, the only 50 meter official pool in the state. I had to arrange for housing for the out of town swimmers, be in charge of all the officials and meet directors, arrange for the concession stands, the locker rooms, the ticket sales, security, etc. It was quite a big undertaking. I did this only one time.
10/20/09
In school I did really well, getting mostly A’s, unlike my brothers. I was obedient and liked to play outdoors. I was once the fastest runner in the neighborhood. I could swing on the swings almost all the way around. I could hang on the bars by my heels, and could go the whole way there and back swinging like a monkey on the ladder gym. I was able to teach myself how to ice skate backwards, to do a twirl or two, and lift one leg backwards with my arms out to the side.
Mother took us to swimming lessons, first at the Jewish Center, then in the summer to the Portage Country club where my Grandparents were members. You could have a grandchild membership in the summers. I learned how to swim all the strokes and soon became a Life Guard. Then I took the class to become a Water Safety Instructor. In the summer I was on the diving team and learned the back dive, the front pike, the back pike, and the swan dive. I could never do any somersaults, however. I usually came in third in the diving contests. I was on the swim team and raced against other swim clubs. My best stroke was the breast stroke. I could do the crawl and the butterfly, the side stroke and the back stroke, but wasn’t that fast. We had a lot of fun competing, however.
In high school I was in a lot of activities, I don’t remember exactly what, like the future nurses or the biology club or something. I was in the newspaper once as a “teen of the day” which listed all my accomplishments. But in applying for college, with my above average grades and activities, I was only accepted to one school and it was my last choice. I was on the waiting list for Allegheny College. My Grandparents knew someone on the Board of Directors and talked to them and suddenly I was admitted, albeit late, so I stayed in another dorm than most of the Freshmen. The whole college process was a blur to me. It seemed like it I had nothing to do with it. My Mother picked out the colleges and helped me fill out the forms. We went to see Allegheny but not the other schools, and I don’t even remember which ones they were. For some reason I did not apply to Univ of Akron, where her Grandfather had been President of the original Buchtel College. There is an oil painting of him in the hallway of that old building on campus.
I also took water ballet and loved that. We had a couple water ballet shows a year. I could do all the basic stuff, and am really good at sculling still.
I was a lifeguard in the summers during high school and college at various country clubs and such. I also taught swimming classes. The summer after my third year at Allegheny, before I began my year of Medical Technology Internship, I got a job as a camp counselor at this fancy camp in Michigan on Torch Lake. There was a girl’s camp and a boy’s camp. They were loosely connected by a long trail. We had socials on the weekends, but everything else was separate. I was in charge of the Waterfront. I taught swimming, diving, water ballet, and was the lifeguard for open swim. It was a pretty big job. We had a water show at the end of each 4 week session with water ballet and diving and races and such.
In college I took normal classes and ended up with a 2.9 GPA. I got a D in Chemistry, but I loved it. The Professor encouraged me to continue and even major in it for some reason. I majored in Biology. My advisor was Dr. Bugbee! The Chemistry Professor was Dr. Pugh! We always concocted smelly compounds in our labs. Science labs took up a lot of time, but I still was in a modern dance club and finally joined the Alpha Chi Omega sorority. I was the Historian. When we went back for the 40th reunion, we went to the sorority rooms, the same ones we always had at the top of Brooks Hall, and my scrap book from our years there was still there. It wasn’t so badly done, either.
I don’t remember much of the year long Medical Technology Internship except a few things. We got paid! $50 a month. We didn’t have to pay tuition.
When the boys were young, they joined the West High swim club, the Aquanauts. It was a non-profit swim club that competed with other clubs throughout the area and the state not connected with the schools. We had a coach we hired. Practice was almost every day of the week, with frequent swim meets. As a parent, we came to the meetings, and I soon became the President of the Club. This required me to go to the area wide meetings that organized meets and such. I took the test and became an official time keeper, and then became a race director. I was qualified to be in charge of all the timekeepers. I was once the starter, a timekeeper, and a meet director. I mostly ended up running the meets. All the officials were parents. Later we had a state wide meet, one of two or three a year and I volunteered to be in charge. It was held at Bartlett pool, the only 50 meter official pool in the state. I had to arrange for housing for the out of town swimmers, be in charge of all the officials and meet directors, arrange for the concession stands, the locker rooms, the ticket sales, security, etc. It was quite a big undertaking. I did this only one time.
10/20/09
Amsterdam
About 1997 David and I went to Europe by ourselves while we sent the boys with Eurail passes to travel Europe for their graduation present. Each had graduated: Aaron from Occidental College, Andrew from West High. We spent two weeks driving around France in Champagne, Alsace and Lorraine, and Burgundy. We all met up in Paris at the Hotel de Lille for three days. Our plane home stopped in Amsterdam. The boys fly another way. We decided to take a weekend there. We found a cozy hotel near downtown but we had to take a bus to get there from the train station. Everyone on the bus was friendly and helped us find the hotel and find our way around town. We were coming from Paris which is a couple hours away, but with finding the correct Gare in Paris to get to the train, the four hour train ride, going through customs, making our way to the hotel, we spent all day traveling and we were tired.
About 5:00 we checked into the hotel and saw a brochure for a local comedy club. I decided that was just what I needed after the long day. The brochure said to come before 6:00 for tickets and get a discount on the price. So we hurried there and asked for tickets for that night’s performance. Unhappily, they were sold out. I pleaded that we had been traveling all day and really needed a break. They offered to sell us tickets for the next night. We asked what else there was to do that was special. They said that there was a place called the Supper Club. It was dinner with entertainment. We were tired and it sounded great so we asked them to call and make reservations which they did. We got the address and decided to walk about and see downtown Amsterdam while we looked for the place which didn’t open until 8:00pm.
We found a coffee shop that sold marijuana cigarettes so we stopped in there and had no idea how or what to do. They had a selection of single cigarettes. You could smoke there so we got one and a soda and sat there very embarrassed and partook. Feeling really great, we then wandered the streets looking for the Supper club.
Jonge Roelensteeg 21
1012 PL Amsterdam, Netherlands
+31 20 3446400
Our map was confusing and it took us awhile to find the gold door with no sign out front and went in right at 8:00pm. The doorman checked our reservation. We told them we had made the reservation through the comedy club. They perked up and said, oh, you are with the comedy club. We didn’t know if they understood our English or if they couldn’t speak English themselves very well, so we decided to go with the flow. We were ushered downstairs into greeting rooms and a waiter asked us if we wanted a drink. Each room had benches around with enough room for about 12 people. It was dark and had a fluorescent glow. People slowly came in and we chatted, but most people were speaking another language. After about a half hour, another person came in and invited to seat us.
We went up some stairs into a large room, like a big barn. Who knew there was so much room from the outside of the building, which looked like several flats crammed in a row on this narrow cobbled street.
The room was open with a stage of sorts in the front. It was two stories tall. The second story, where we were taken up narrow stairs, was like a balcony overlooking the main floor. There were no chairs, just white mattresses. Little tables tall enough to fit over the mattresses if you were lying down in it, were next to them. They were arranged in intimate positions separated slightly from the couple next to you. We were in the back next to a larger area for party of six. The waiter who escorted us made a point of telling us we were next to the comedy club. He said the owner was here to be interviewed for a TV show.
The waiter asked for our drink orders and left. We were awed by the atmosphere of the club, especially in our altered state. The room was darkened and surreal. The “stage” was really the kitchen where chefs were preparing our dinner. We were too far away to really see what was going on, but we could watch the plating of each dish on a large butcher block. Above the kitchen was a huge movie screen. During the whole evening the movies were of underwater scenes, beaches, ocean waves, and other soothing slow artistic moving pictures. It was like movie art, something we had never seen before. Music was playing by a disc jockey which was rhythmic and pulsing and noncommittal, more like background sounds.
Just before our first course, the comedy club party arrived. We later learned that it was the owner and his business partner and wife, the two main stars of the club, and a black couple from New York with a bevy of camera equipment. They told us that the black couple with the cameras were interviewing them for a piece on Americans abroad for Channel 7 in New York. Their business was doing such interviews around the world and selling them to TV as special interest pieces that could be inserted into nightly news as needed. They loved their job, especially since their children were now grown and away at college. We had the ages of our children in common so we struck up an enjoyable conversation with them in between their business of interviewing the comedy club group. We soon became involved in the whole group conversation and party.
The couple on the other side of our mattresses was from London. They said they often came for the weekend to Amsterdam. It was a short, inexpensive boat ride for them and a very popular weekend destination for Londoners. However, we got caught up in the comedy club discussions.
The Supper Club came through with supper. Each course was brought to us by our waiter up the narrow stairs. They were delicious. About every hour something new would be brought. In the mean time, you could lounge on the mattresses, talk to your neighbors, have a massage by one of the many masseuses wandering the room, or watch the cooks, moving art, disc jockey, or performance art on the main floor. Once two women came out, one in a white knit dress. They began dancing while one pulled on the end of the bulky yarn and begun to unravel the dress. It was very exciting to watch the disrobing of this beautiful girl. She had a skimpy bikini on underneath, in case you were wondering. We thought, since it was Amsterdam, that she probably would be naked, but no such luck.
After the dessert, about 12:30am, the comedy club group began to depart. They said that the nightclubs were just now opening up and they were going to take the couple interviewing them along and would we like to join them. Of course we would. It was way past our bedtime, we were exhausted, but we knew we would never have such an opportunity again to be invited to a nightclub with such distinguished and local people, and what the heck. We would never have thought to go to a nightclub at all or which one to go to anyway.
We walked there through the crowded cobbled streets. Bicycles were parked everywhere. They told us we should go to a certain bicycle shop and go on a ride to see the sights, and then rent bicycles for the weekend to get around. But you had to be sure they were old beat up bikes, because anything new would be stolen. In fact, as you entered the center of town, there were banners announcing that you should be careful of your valuables because of pick pockets. How clever. As soon as you saw the sign, you would touch your wallet to be sure it was safe, tipping off anyone as to where your valuables were.
We finally came to the club, all lit up with neon and entered. It was a dark, cavernous two story building once again, but with no balcony. There was just a towering stage with a disc jockey atop, playing very loud rhythmic music. The floor below was crowded with young people gyrating to the music, dressed in the latest fashion, smoking or drinking. Our hosts paid the entrance fees, bought us drinks and offered us a reefer, off to the side. We partook to show we were not stuffed shirts and proceeded to dance. David did his wiggly disco and I got energized and did my side skipping and generally danced like I did when I was a bachelorette in Cleveland. A young girl took us aside so we could hear since the music was so loud, and asked us what we were on. Our host said she probably thought we were on cocaine or ecstasy or something, not just two old farts reliving the sixties.
Around 2:00am, our hosts helped us get a cab to our hotel. We spent the next day on a bicycle tour which was wonderful and then rented our bikes for the rest of our stay. That night we went to the comedy club finally.
We were seated in very good seats. The show was really funny. At the intermission, the owner and one of the stars came over to talk to us and ask us how we liked it and how our day was, as if we were old friends. We wondered what the people next to us thought. Why would two old Americans warrant the owner and the star to come talk to them like they knew us well! It was a real surprise and flattered us immensely.
We got the contact information for the TV interviewers who we really liked, and tried to contact them once, but they were probably in Portugal or someplace like that once again interviewing Americans living abroad. We will always remember Amsterdam and the Supper Club.
There are now Supper Clubs in Amsterdam, San Francisco, London, Singapore, and Istanbul. The concept has obviously caught on. And it is surprisingly inexpensive for the. Entertainment changes all the time as well as the menu, but the beds, pillows and surreal atmosphere are all there to make a unique dining experience.
10/10/09
Frommer's Amsterdam Day by Day (Frommer's Day by Day - Pocket)Amsterdam Sights 2011: a travel guide to the top 50 attractions in Amsterdam, Netherlands (Mobi Sights)
Lonely Planet Amsterdam (City Travel Guide)
About 5:00 we checked into the hotel and saw a brochure for a local comedy club. I decided that was just what I needed after the long day. The brochure said to come before 6:00 for tickets and get a discount on the price. So we hurried there and asked for tickets for that night’s performance. Unhappily, they were sold out. I pleaded that we had been traveling all day and really needed a break. They offered to sell us tickets for the next night. We asked what else there was to do that was special. They said that there was a place called the Supper Club. It was dinner with entertainment. We were tired and it sounded great so we asked them to call and make reservations which they did. We got the address and decided to walk about and see downtown Amsterdam while we looked for the place which didn’t open until 8:00pm.
We found a coffee shop that sold marijuana cigarettes so we stopped in there and had no idea how or what to do. They had a selection of single cigarettes. You could smoke there so we got one and a soda and sat there very embarrassed and partook. Feeling really great, we then wandered the streets looking for the Supper club.
Jonge Roelensteeg 21
1012 PL Amsterdam, Netherlands
+31 20 3446400
Our map was confusing and it took us awhile to find the gold door with no sign out front and went in right at 8:00pm. The doorman checked our reservation. We told them we had made the reservation through the comedy club. They perked up and said, oh, you are with the comedy club. We didn’t know if they understood our English or if they couldn’t speak English themselves very well, so we decided to go with the flow. We were ushered downstairs into greeting rooms and a waiter asked us if we wanted a drink. Each room had benches around with enough room for about 12 people. It was dark and had a fluorescent glow. People slowly came in and we chatted, but most people were speaking another language. After about a half hour, another person came in and invited to seat us.
We went up some stairs into a large room, like a big barn. Who knew there was so much room from the outside of the building, which looked like several flats crammed in a row on this narrow cobbled street.
The room was open with a stage of sorts in the front. It was two stories tall. The second story, where we were taken up narrow stairs, was like a balcony overlooking the main floor. There were no chairs, just white mattresses. Little tables tall enough to fit over the mattresses if you were lying down in it, were next to them. They were arranged in intimate positions separated slightly from the couple next to you. We were in the back next to a larger area for party of six. The waiter who escorted us made a point of telling us we were next to the comedy club. He said the owner was here to be interviewed for a TV show.
The waiter asked for our drink orders and left. We were awed by the atmosphere of the club, especially in our altered state. The room was darkened and surreal. The “stage” was really the kitchen where chefs were preparing our dinner. We were too far away to really see what was going on, but we could watch the plating of each dish on a large butcher block. Above the kitchen was a huge movie screen. During the whole evening the movies were of underwater scenes, beaches, ocean waves, and other soothing slow artistic moving pictures. It was like movie art, something we had never seen before. Music was playing by a disc jockey which was rhythmic and pulsing and noncommittal, more like background sounds.
Just before our first course, the comedy club party arrived. We later learned that it was the owner and his business partner and wife, the two main stars of the club, and a black couple from New York with a bevy of camera equipment. They told us that the black couple with the cameras were interviewing them for a piece on Americans abroad for Channel 7 in New York. Their business was doing such interviews around the world and selling them to TV as special interest pieces that could be inserted into nightly news as needed. They loved their job, especially since their children were now grown and away at college. We had the ages of our children in common so we struck up an enjoyable conversation with them in between their business of interviewing the comedy club group. We soon became involved in the whole group conversation and party.
The couple on the other side of our mattresses was from London. They said they often came for the weekend to Amsterdam. It was a short, inexpensive boat ride for them and a very popular weekend destination for Londoners. However, we got caught up in the comedy club discussions.
The Supper Club came through with supper. Each course was brought to us by our waiter up the narrow stairs. They were delicious. About every hour something new would be brought. In the mean time, you could lounge on the mattresses, talk to your neighbors, have a massage by one of the many masseuses wandering the room, or watch the cooks, moving art, disc jockey, or performance art on the main floor. Once two women came out, one in a white knit dress. They began dancing while one pulled on the end of the bulky yarn and begun to unravel the dress. It was very exciting to watch the disrobing of this beautiful girl. She had a skimpy bikini on underneath, in case you were wondering. We thought, since it was Amsterdam, that she probably would be naked, but no such luck.
After the dessert, about 12:30am, the comedy club group began to depart. They said that the nightclubs were just now opening up and they were going to take the couple interviewing them along and would we like to join them. Of course we would. It was way past our bedtime, we were exhausted, but we knew we would never have such an opportunity again to be invited to a nightclub with such distinguished and local people, and what the heck. We would never have thought to go to a nightclub at all or which one to go to anyway.
We walked there through the crowded cobbled streets. Bicycles were parked everywhere. They told us we should go to a certain bicycle shop and go on a ride to see the sights, and then rent bicycles for the weekend to get around. But you had to be sure they were old beat up bikes, because anything new would be stolen. In fact, as you entered the center of town, there were banners announcing that you should be careful of your valuables because of pick pockets. How clever. As soon as you saw the sign, you would touch your wallet to be sure it was safe, tipping off anyone as to where your valuables were.
We finally came to the club, all lit up with neon and entered. It was a dark, cavernous two story building once again, but with no balcony. There was just a towering stage with a disc jockey atop, playing very loud rhythmic music. The floor below was crowded with young people gyrating to the music, dressed in the latest fashion, smoking or drinking. Our hosts paid the entrance fees, bought us drinks and offered us a reefer, off to the side. We partook to show we were not stuffed shirts and proceeded to dance. David did his wiggly disco and I got energized and did my side skipping and generally danced like I did when I was a bachelorette in Cleveland. A young girl took us aside so we could hear since the music was so loud, and asked us what we were on. Our host said she probably thought we were on cocaine or ecstasy or something, not just two old farts reliving the sixties.
Around 2:00am, our hosts helped us get a cab to our hotel. We spent the next day on a bicycle tour which was wonderful and then rented our bikes for the rest of our stay. That night we went to the comedy club finally.
We were seated in very good seats. The show was really funny. At the intermission, the owner and one of the stars came over to talk to us and ask us how we liked it and how our day was, as if we were old friends. We wondered what the people next to us thought. Why would two old Americans warrant the owner and the star to come talk to them like they knew us well! It was a real surprise and flattered us immensely.
We got the contact information for the TV interviewers who we really liked, and tried to contact them once, but they were probably in Portugal or someplace like that once again interviewing Americans living abroad. We will always remember Amsterdam and the Supper Club.
There are now Supper Clubs in Amsterdam, San Francisco, London, Singapore, and Istanbul. The concept has obviously caught on. And it is surprisingly inexpensive for the. Entertainment changes all the time as well as the menu, but the beds, pillows and surreal atmosphere are all there to make a unique dining experience.
10/10/09
Frommer's Amsterdam Day by Day (Frommer's Day by Day - Pocket)Amsterdam Sights 2011: a travel guide to the top 50 attractions in Amsterdam, Netherlands (Mobi Sights)
Lonely Planet Amsterdam (City Travel Guide)
Careers
My career life is sort of like our furniture: varied and eclectic.
As a teenager, I loved to swim, took lifeguard and WSI training, and was a life guard at various country clubs in the summers during college. You had to wear a black one piece bathing suit and sit on a chair all day and watch the kids. At the Jewish country club, it wasn’t very busy, so I learned to play the ukulele during my breaks. At the Canton country club, where the Hoovers were members, I got fired after a few weeks. I had failed to rescue a child who was in trouble because I saw the parent was going to get there first. It also might have had to do with the fact that I dated one of the Hoover boys and he raped me.
During college I waited on tables because I had a small scholarship. I only went to Allegheny College in Meadville, PA for three years. I knew I wanted to be a Medical Technologist, and the requirement was to only have three years of college. I petitioned my Biology Dept Chair, Mr. Bugbee, to allow me to get credit for the one year internship, but was denied. So I left school and entered the Akron City Hospital school of Medical Technology. We rotated in and out of every department for a month or two, and had lectures every Friday. There were tests along the way and a final national exam at the end of a year. At this time I was paid $50.00 a month because we actually did work in the lab. We also got our meals free. After completing my training, I moved to Shaker Heights in Cleveland and started work at the Jewish Hospital there in Hematology. I got really good at making blood smears for differentials. They did their difs by sliding two coverslips with a drop of blood in between quickly apart. Most everyone else in later labs used glass slides, using the cover slip as a slide.
After a year, I moved to a job in Microbiology at the Cleveland Clinic. I loved the challenge of figuring out the puzzle of which bacteria and down to the species, we had isolated. Because it was such a big hospital, we also cultured Tuberculosis and fungus. We had people who made our augers and reused the glass petri dishes. We always pipetted with glass pipettes and when I later worked in Chemistry, we made our own reagents out of the elemental materials or acids kept in the reagent room.
My roommate and I had planned on working in our careers for two years and then go to live in Switzerland which had a program for importing skilled workers to this 0% unemployment country. Mary Pat met someone and got married, so I decided to go on my own. I had my ticket for the ship and all my paperwork complete when I got a postcard from the Peace Corps that they finally had a medical need for a team to go to Africa. I had applied a couple years before and never heard anything until then. But I was committed to Switzerland, so off I went.
In Switzerland, I was assigned to a heart catheterization lab. There was Herr Prof. Dr. Gurtner in charge, and four Residents under him, plus one other Med Tech, Fraulein Mueller, and one Secretary, Fraulein Stahli. I would be present when a catheterization took place, then take some blood and test it for oxygenation. We used this complicated glass contraption that was very hard to calibrate, the test was very time sensitive and subject to error. It was fun to interact with the other people in the lab, we had five weeks of vacation a year, and I loved living in another culture, but the work was sort of boring. Once or twice I would help them translate their scientific articles into readable English. Everyone there spoke English, so it was hard for me to learn German, but somehow I managed through the Berlitz School.
I almost married one of the Residents, Dr. Peter Walser, but he went off to study in Mexico under a famous Cardiologist there and I remained in Bern for another year and met other people.
After returning to the United States, I came home to Akron, OH and decided I should finish my degree. I got a parttime job at Akron City Hospital again, working 30 hours a week, and went full time to University of Akron where I majored again in Biology. This time, I knew what I wanted to learn, was paying for the classes out of my pocket, and had to structure my study and work time wisely, so I ended up with straight A’s. It took me a year to complete the requirements to get a degree from a different institution. My Great Grandfather had been the President of Buchtel College, the original liberal arts college out of which the University grew. My Grandfather and Grandmother were Professors as their first careers at that school. Grandma Evelyn Smith received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Akron, so I was proud to finally graduate from this University.
A failed relationship inspired me to travel to Seattle to end up getting a Medical Technology job at Harborview Medical Center in Chemistry. Soon an opening came up in Microbiology and I was back into the job I loved. While working there I met David Case, and we were married in 1973. After he graduated from Law School, he had to find a job. So far I knew that I could find a Med Tech job just about anywhere, so we concentrated on finding him a job. We traveled for a week all over Washington State to small towns that had Legal Services offices, because he liked to serve poor people. He had participated in a program that gave legal services to prisoners, and worked with his Native Law professor. We happened to go to a party one night where a Vista Volunteer recruiter told us about opportunities in Alaska. We signed up, and by early August, were settled in Anchorage.
My job was as an Investigator for the Alaska state Commission on Human Rights. The Alaska oil pipeline was just beginning to be built. There was a huge influx of people at that time coming to get jobs. The US government and the state had recently written laws that said that employers could not discriminate in their hiring practices for reasons of race, religion, sex, natural origins or religion. Alaska added parenthood. We were flooded with complaints from these immigrants to Alaska who were unable to find the golden jobs promised. We had caseloads in the hundreds, and there were eventually 12 of us investigators, all housed in a tiny office above Replacement Glass Co on the corner of Arctic and Fireweed. It was exciting. David was working at Legal Services. We got $600 per month between us that we had to live on, and our rent was $350.
Close to the end of my year of service, the State opened up several real salaried positions for this office. Of course I applied. I had my interview for an Investigator position, but a Native woman from St Lawrence Island got the position. Then the Assistant Director position became available. I applied for that also, and to my surprise, I was chosen! So now I was supervising the lady who got the job I wanted! Our Director, a tall, handsome, well respected Native man was killed when driving to Fairbanks by hitting a moose. My new Supervisor and Director of the Agency was Niel Thomas. We had outgrown the tiny offices and moved to a real office building downtown. I had my own office and Secretary! I helped write the regulations for the Human Rights laws we were to enforce. I made sure that all the complaints were assigned and trained the Investigators. It was a really wild, busy time because the pipeline fueled the economy and stretched all the State agencies. I even was inspired to go to Law School after I completed a class in legal research. It was much like microbiology, searching out clues to find the precedent to back up your argument. I was accepted to one school and enrolled, but decided not to pursue that when my husband made it clear he would not join me in Washington State. His career was blossoming in the field of Native Law.
After VISTA, when we both had jobs, with combined salaries of $60,000 per year rather than $7,200, we moved into 2102 Forest Park Dr. The previous owners were kind enough to give it to us as a 6 month rent to own. We had 6 months to come up with $10,000 for the down payment! We just lived like VISTA volunteers for another 6 months and saved that amount of money!
I worked as the Asst Director until I got pregnant with Aaron, so until about the summer of 1978. After Aaron was born, I worked at the Ombudsman’s office part-time and brought Aaron to work in a little basket thing. Then I got a more permanent part-time job at the Office of Consumer Affairs, in the Attorney General’s office. I shared a job. I worked there for awhile, and then got fired. My supervisor was on vacation, and while she was gone, I apparently calculated some figures for a case that were wrong and the attorneys used them and got screwed. I was given a really old manual calculator you had to hand crank with no paper trail and it made mistakes all the time, but I did my best. I think they didn’t like the idea of job sharing either because the attorneys didn’t know who was working on what and when and where, and it made it difficult for them and difficult to supervise two people instead of just one. Anyway, as soon as Connie got back from her trip, I was called into the office and fired. I didn’t protest it or anything, but wish I did. But I was happy to not have to work.
After Aaron was born I went to a group called MotherShare. We met at least weekly with our babies and helped each other out. During that time I saw someone who made a big sack for her kid to go over the Gerry Backpack. She made it out of quilted material. I thought that was a great idea. I went home and tried to make one myself. I designed it much better, put pockets for bottles and baby food, adjusted it for the backpack’s stand, and added a hood. I started to make these for other people, and eventually received a patent and trademark “Babycase” and packaged it with a picture of David and Aaron. I did that for 5 years, still after Andy was born, and even went to Colorado to see if the Gerry Co would buy the patent. I set $30,000 as the price, but they were very nice, showed us around the factory, but didn’t buy it. I never saw anything like it, so they didn’t steal it either. I eventually sold the patent and patterns for $2,000 to a woman in Seattle whose husband was a doctor. I never saw one she made or knew if she did anything with it. I made several trips to Seattle to buy fabric ends at a fabric company and also bought wholesale thread and scissors. I paid for my sewing machine and trips and patent and materials from the Babycases I sold, to stores in Seattle, and Anchorage, and by myself. The price was $40.00 which was pretty high back then, but I still sold about 600 of them, mostly ones I made myself. I tried having someone else sew them once, but it didn’t work out.
During this time with young kids, I also worked as a bagger and eventually deli worker at Carr’s. I lost weight getting all that exercise pushing out carts for people. I could work at night and David would take care of the kids at home. It got to be too much and the deli supervisor was starting to suspect me of stealing. It was really this large woman who closed who once slipped in the cooler and claimed worker’s comp and damages.
I also once worked as a photographer at D and M photography which was on 7th ave where the big silver sky scraper is today. I took portraits, passport photos, did the darkroom work, and ran the store. Dick, the owner, wasn’t well. He latched on to a good looking man once who tried to get a job. He was a pathological liar. Dick gave him a car and loan and all sorts of stuff. He got engaged to the head of Personnel at the City of Anchorage. But he was a complete lie.
When we were in Fairbanks from 1982 to 1984 I didn’t work. We were renting our house and building the cabin and finishing the cabin in the summers and I had two small kids to take care of so I just did some babycases and was a Mom.
When we got back, David was asked to join a law firm from Seattle. He opened up their Anchorage office in that tall silver building on the 13th floor. Ziontz, Pirtle, Morrisett and something. Well six months after he was open, the law firm decided to split up because one of the partners wanted to move to Israel. So David had the choice of going with one of the firms or opening up his own office. I started looking at the numbers, and said that this was a gold mine and we should go in business for ourselves. So I became the office manager and did the books and some paralegal work and computer work. Back then it was a big deal to get our first fax machine. It was over $2,000. We only had one or two clients who had fax machines themselves, but we had too many faxes to take to a fax place, so we bought one. Computers were really expensive then too, over $2,000 and they had like 64mb of hard drive! We used 5 ¼ inch diskettes. You just had a C: prompt to start out with, and no color. We also bought a copy machine and then an office phone system which we put in our home in 1988. Dad hired an associate after awhile and we had a Secretary and me who did the filing and books and whatever else needed to be done. It was fun. I joined the Legal Administrator’s club in Anchorage, and even went to Chicago once for a Legal Administrator conference. I had to learn all about how to run a business, do all the business taxes and accounting (by hand in a ledger) and make sure we had all the insurances and leases and the legal book subscriptions, etc. David dictated everything and the Secretary had to transcribe it. I worked about 30 hours a week. We made lots of money and I kept the expenses down by watching everything and shopping carefully.
David’s practice became so busy and he had a big client, UIC, so David Wolf talked to him and offered him to join the firm of Copeland, Landye, Bennett and Wolf. Since then Mark Copeland quit suddenly, and David Wolf lost his biggest client and started another business and quit, so it is now Landye, Bennett and Blumstein. It has always been a thorn in David’s side that his name is not on the door, which it should be.
I started work as a Medical Technologist parttime at Alaska Hospital, then Humana. Then I got a full time job, but working the night shift. I was unable to get the sleep I needed and became very sick and had to quit.
As a teenager, I loved to swim, took lifeguard and WSI training, and was a life guard at various country clubs in the summers during college. You had to wear a black one piece bathing suit and sit on a chair all day and watch the kids. At the Jewish country club, it wasn’t very busy, so I learned to play the ukulele during my breaks. At the Canton country club, where the Hoovers were members, I got fired after a few weeks. I had failed to rescue a child who was in trouble because I saw the parent was going to get there first. It also might have had to do with the fact that I dated one of the Hoover boys and he raped me.
During college I waited on tables because I had a small scholarship. I only went to Allegheny College in Meadville, PA for three years. I knew I wanted to be a Medical Technologist, and the requirement was to only have three years of college. I petitioned my Biology Dept Chair, Mr. Bugbee, to allow me to get credit for the one year internship, but was denied. So I left school and entered the Akron City Hospital school of Medical Technology. We rotated in and out of every department for a month or two, and had lectures every Friday. There were tests along the way and a final national exam at the end of a year. At this time I was paid $50.00 a month because we actually did work in the lab. We also got our meals free. After completing my training, I moved to Shaker Heights in Cleveland and started work at the Jewish Hospital there in Hematology. I got really good at making blood smears for differentials. They did their difs by sliding two coverslips with a drop of blood in between quickly apart. Most everyone else in later labs used glass slides, using the cover slip as a slide.
After a year, I moved to a job in Microbiology at the Cleveland Clinic. I loved the challenge of figuring out the puzzle of which bacteria and down to the species, we had isolated. Because it was such a big hospital, we also cultured Tuberculosis and fungus. We had people who made our augers and reused the glass petri dishes. We always pipetted with glass pipettes and when I later worked in Chemistry, we made our own reagents out of the elemental materials or acids kept in the reagent room.
My roommate and I had planned on working in our careers for two years and then go to live in Switzerland which had a program for importing skilled workers to this 0% unemployment country. Mary Pat met someone and got married, so I decided to go on my own. I had my ticket for the ship and all my paperwork complete when I got a postcard from the Peace Corps that they finally had a medical need for a team to go to Africa. I had applied a couple years before and never heard anything until then. But I was committed to Switzerland, so off I went.
In Switzerland, I was assigned to a heart catheterization lab. There was Herr Prof. Dr. Gurtner in charge, and four Residents under him, plus one other Med Tech, Fraulein Mueller, and one Secretary, Fraulein Stahli. I would be present when a catheterization took place, then take some blood and test it for oxygenation. We used this complicated glass contraption that was very hard to calibrate, the test was very time sensitive and subject to error. It was fun to interact with the other people in the lab, we had five weeks of vacation a year, and I loved living in another culture, but the work was sort of boring. Once or twice I would help them translate their scientific articles into readable English. Everyone there spoke English, so it was hard for me to learn German, but somehow I managed through the Berlitz School.
I almost married one of the Residents, Dr. Peter Walser, but he went off to study in Mexico under a famous Cardiologist there and I remained in Bern for another year and met other people.
After returning to the United States, I came home to Akron, OH and decided I should finish my degree. I got a parttime job at Akron City Hospital again, working 30 hours a week, and went full time to University of Akron where I majored again in Biology. This time, I knew what I wanted to learn, was paying for the classes out of my pocket, and had to structure my study and work time wisely, so I ended up with straight A’s. It took me a year to complete the requirements to get a degree from a different institution. My Great Grandfather had been the President of Buchtel College, the original liberal arts college out of which the University grew. My Grandfather and Grandmother were Professors as their first careers at that school. Grandma Evelyn Smith received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Akron, so I was proud to finally graduate from this University.
A failed relationship inspired me to travel to Seattle to end up getting a Medical Technology job at Harborview Medical Center in Chemistry. Soon an opening came up in Microbiology and I was back into the job I loved. While working there I met David Case, and we were married in 1973. After he graduated from Law School, he had to find a job. So far I knew that I could find a Med Tech job just about anywhere, so we concentrated on finding him a job. We traveled for a week all over Washington State to small towns that had Legal Services offices, because he liked to serve poor people. He had participated in a program that gave legal services to prisoners, and worked with his Native Law professor. We happened to go to a party one night where a Vista Volunteer recruiter told us about opportunities in Alaska. We signed up, and by early August, were settled in Anchorage.
My job was as an Investigator for the Alaska state Commission on Human Rights. The Alaska oil pipeline was just beginning to be built. There was a huge influx of people at that time coming to get jobs. The US government and the state had recently written laws that said that employers could not discriminate in their hiring practices for reasons of race, religion, sex, natural origins or religion. Alaska added parenthood. We were flooded with complaints from these immigrants to Alaska who were unable to find the golden jobs promised. We had caseloads in the hundreds, and there were eventually 12 of us investigators, all housed in a tiny office above Replacement Glass Co on the corner of Arctic and Fireweed. It was exciting. David was working at Legal Services. We got $600 per month between us that we had to live on, and our rent was $350.
Close to the end of my year of service, the State opened up several real salaried positions for this office. Of course I applied. I had my interview for an Investigator position, but a Native woman from St Lawrence Island got the position. Then the Assistant Director position became available. I applied for that also, and to my surprise, I was chosen! So now I was supervising the lady who got the job I wanted! Our Director, a tall, handsome, well respected Native man was killed when driving to Fairbanks by hitting a moose. My new Supervisor and Director of the Agency was Niel Thomas. We had outgrown the tiny offices and moved to a real office building downtown. I had my own office and Secretary! I helped write the regulations for the Human Rights laws we were to enforce. I made sure that all the complaints were assigned and trained the Investigators. It was a really wild, busy time because the pipeline fueled the economy and stretched all the State agencies. I even was inspired to go to Law School after I completed a class in legal research. It was much like microbiology, searching out clues to find the precedent to back up your argument. I was accepted to one school and enrolled, but decided not to pursue that when my husband made it clear he would not join me in Washington State. His career was blossoming in the field of Native Law.
After VISTA, when we both had jobs, with combined salaries of $60,000 per year rather than $7,200, we moved into 2102 Forest Park Dr. The previous owners were kind enough to give it to us as a 6 month rent to own. We had 6 months to come up with $10,000 for the down payment! We just lived like VISTA volunteers for another 6 months and saved that amount of money!
I worked as the Asst Director until I got pregnant with Aaron, so until about the summer of 1978. After Aaron was born, I worked at the Ombudsman’s office part-time and brought Aaron to work in a little basket thing. Then I got a more permanent part-time job at the Office of Consumer Affairs, in the Attorney General’s office. I shared a job. I worked there for awhile, and then got fired. My supervisor was on vacation, and while she was gone, I apparently calculated some figures for a case that were wrong and the attorneys used them and got screwed. I was given a really old manual calculator you had to hand crank with no paper trail and it made mistakes all the time, but I did my best. I think they didn’t like the idea of job sharing either because the attorneys didn’t know who was working on what and when and where, and it made it difficult for them and difficult to supervise two people instead of just one. Anyway, as soon as Connie got back from her trip, I was called into the office and fired. I didn’t protest it or anything, but wish I did. But I was happy to not have to work.
After Aaron was born I went to a group called MotherShare. We met at least weekly with our babies and helped each other out. During that time I saw someone who made a big sack for her kid to go over the Gerry Backpack. She made it out of quilted material. I thought that was a great idea. I went home and tried to make one myself. I designed it much better, put pockets for bottles and baby food, adjusted it for the backpack’s stand, and added a hood. I started to make these for other people, and eventually received a patent and trademark “Babycase” and packaged it with a picture of David and Aaron. I did that for 5 years, still after Andy was born, and even went to Colorado to see if the Gerry Co would buy the patent. I set $30,000 as the price, but they were very nice, showed us around the factory, but didn’t buy it. I never saw anything like it, so they didn’t steal it either. I eventually sold the patent and patterns for $2,000 to a woman in Seattle whose husband was a doctor. I never saw one she made or knew if she did anything with it. I made several trips to Seattle to buy fabric ends at a fabric company and also bought wholesale thread and scissors. I paid for my sewing machine and trips and patent and materials from the Babycases I sold, to stores in Seattle, and Anchorage, and by myself. The price was $40.00 which was pretty high back then, but I still sold about 600 of them, mostly ones I made myself. I tried having someone else sew them once, but it didn’t work out.
During this time with young kids, I also worked as a bagger and eventually deli worker at Carr’s. I lost weight getting all that exercise pushing out carts for people. I could work at night and David would take care of the kids at home. It got to be too much and the deli supervisor was starting to suspect me of stealing. It was really this large woman who closed who once slipped in the cooler and claimed worker’s comp and damages.
I also once worked as a photographer at D and M photography which was on 7th ave where the big silver sky scraper is today. I took portraits, passport photos, did the darkroom work, and ran the store. Dick, the owner, wasn’t well. He latched on to a good looking man once who tried to get a job. He was a pathological liar. Dick gave him a car and loan and all sorts of stuff. He got engaged to the head of Personnel at the City of Anchorage. But he was a complete lie.
When we were in Fairbanks from 1982 to 1984 I didn’t work. We were renting our house and building the cabin and finishing the cabin in the summers and I had two small kids to take care of so I just did some babycases and was a Mom.
When we got back, David was asked to join a law firm from Seattle. He opened up their Anchorage office in that tall silver building on the 13th floor. Ziontz, Pirtle, Morrisett and something. Well six months after he was open, the law firm decided to split up because one of the partners wanted to move to Israel. So David had the choice of going with one of the firms or opening up his own office. I started looking at the numbers, and said that this was a gold mine and we should go in business for ourselves. So I became the office manager and did the books and some paralegal work and computer work. Back then it was a big deal to get our first fax machine. It was over $2,000. We only had one or two clients who had fax machines themselves, but we had too many faxes to take to a fax place, so we bought one. Computers were really expensive then too, over $2,000 and they had like 64mb of hard drive! We used 5 ¼ inch diskettes. You just had a C: prompt to start out with, and no color. We also bought a copy machine and then an office phone system which we put in our home in 1988. Dad hired an associate after awhile and we had a Secretary and me who did the filing and books and whatever else needed to be done. It was fun. I joined the Legal Administrator’s club in Anchorage, and even went to Chicago once for a Legal Administrator conference. I had to learn all about how to run a business, do all the business taxes and accounting (by hand in a ledger) and make sure we had all the insurances and leases and the legal book subscriptions, etc. David dictated everything and the Secretary had to transcribe it. I worked about 30 hours a week. We made lots of money and I kept the expenses down by watching everything and shopping carefully.
David’s practice became so busy and he had a big client, UIC, so David Wolf talked to him and offered him to join the firm of Copeland, Landye, Bennett and Wolf. Since then Mark Copeland quit suddenly, and David Wolf lost his biggest client and started another business and quit, so it is now Landye, Bennett and Blumstein. It has always been a thorn in David’s side that his name is not on the door, which it should be.
I started work as a Medical Technologist parttime at Alaska Hospital, then Humana. Then I got a full time job, but working the night shift. I was unable to get the sleep I needed and became very sick and had to quit.
Hawaii
Hawaii, specifically Honolulu, has the highest average longevity age in the nation. Sitting here by the ocean I feel like I am experiencing sensory overload with the warm heavenly ocean breeze constantly in the background or against your face. The subtle smell of nearby oleander, the feel of soft cool sand beneath your feet on your daily walk, the soothing ocean waves drifting you off to sleep. Is there any other Paradise? What more could man want, except the friends and family in your daily life?
4/20/09
4/20/09
Best Friend
By fifth grade, I had a best friend! Jan Kilgore, this beautiful brown haired girl in my class thought I was neat and invited me over for sleepovers and she came to my house. We had a grand time together. She was in my Girl Scout group. She was one of the more popular girls in the class, so I was pretty happy that we became friends. We liked to look out her window and talk about boys and play Ouija board and cards. She had a neighbor, Denny Gutschal. I thought he was really cute. Pretty soon that was all I talked about, especially since he just lived across the street from Jan’s house.
One day at school, Jan told me that she couldn’t have me over anymore. Her Mother told her that I was too boy crazy. I was devastated. Pretty soon I saw Jan in the company of Brooke. I was no longer in the in crowd. I instead hung out with Jane Mansfield and Mary DuPree and Judy Davis, the second line of popularity. I discovered that these girls were also nice to hang out with. We had slumber parties at Jane’s house because she had a huge house. We played Ouija board a lot, and I was supposed to marry someone named David who lived on the West Coast. Well, that was disappointing that it wasn’t Denny Gutschal, and I had never been to the West Coast nor did I ever think I would.
2/10/09
One day at school, Jan told me that she couldn’t have me over anymore. Her Mother told her that I was too boy crazy. I was devastated. Pretty soon I saw Jan in the company of Brooke. I was no longer in the in crowd. I instead hung out with Jane Mansfield and Mary DuPree and Judy Davis, the second line of popularity. I discovered that these girls were also nice to hang out with. We had slumber parties at Jane’s house because she had a huge house. We played Ouija board a lot, and I was supposed to marry someone named David who lived on the West Coast. Well, that was disappointing that it wasn’t Denny Gutschal, and I had never been to the West Coast nor did I ever think I would.
2/10/09
Pioneer application
I was born in Akron, Ohio where I lived until I went to college at Allegheny College, Meadville, PA. After college, I became a Medical Technologist and lived in Cleveland, OH for two years before moving to Bern, Switzerland for two years, 1968 to 1970 where I worked as a Medical Technologist. Then I moved back to Akron for a couple years and then drove to Seattle, WA where I worked at Harborview Hospital and met my husband who was in Law School there. We married his last year of school, and came to Alaska in a large group of VISTA volunteers. He was assigned to Legal Services and I worked at the State Human Rights Commission. I later became the Assistant Director for the Southcentral Region until I had my first child. I was on the Girl Scout Board of Directors, the Women’s Credit Union Board, and President of both the Aquanaut Swim Club, and the NOW in the 1970’s and attended the National Women’s Conference in 1977. After giving birth, I worked part-time as a Paralegal for the State and then after giving birth to our second son, we moved to Fairbanks where my husband taught Native Law and wrote the book “Alaska Natives and American Laws”. Then our family moved back to Anchorage where my husband started his law practice. In 1988 we moved to our present home and he joined the Law Firm of Landye, Bennett and Blumstein. Our children attended Inlet View School, Romig, Central and West High. While raising our two sons, I worked part-time in various jobs, including Law Office Manager for my husband, photographer, inventor of the Babycase cover for the Gerry backpack for babies, Carr’s bagger and deli worker, Medical Technologist for Alaska Hospital and Medical Park Family Care, Special Ed Teacher Assistant at West High, and finally Secretary for the Slingerland Program with the School District. I retired from the School District in 2004. I have entered handmade items such as quilts, jams and jellies, knitted items, homemade wines and liqueurs, cross stitch, embroidery, and such at the Alaska State Fair every year I have lived here. I have made over 100 batches of homemade wine, mostly from berries I pick locally or grow in my garden. My handpicked cranberry sourdough sauce won best of class one year. I also was once Second in both the Softasilk Cake flour contest and the Land O’ Lakes sour cream contest and participated in the chili making contest. My garden was on the Garden Club garden tour 15 years ago. One summer I was a tour guide for the Historical Society. My friends and I have had a booth selling knitted goods at the Girdwood Forest Fair for the last four years. For many years my family and I hiked throughout the area and have enjoyed cross country and downhill skiing and berry picking. My current hobbies are walking, biking, reading, knitting, quilting, and playing duplicate bridge. I was the Club Manager of the Bridge club all last year and am a Life Master and Director. I also attend classes at the University through OLE. My oldest son is in Medical School after a five year career in a touring rock band, and my youngest son is in Nursing School in Chicago after working as a Marine Biologist observer on fishing boats in Alaska.
Dorothy Case
Dorothy Case
Fathers
“Why is Grandma picking us up? I thought we had until 4:00 to skate today? Well, see you later, got to go, Sally”.
“Larry, David, we have to go now, Grandma’s here!”
“Grandma, I thought we could skate until 4:00. Why do we have to leave so early?”
“Your Mother will let you know as soon as we get home. Hurry up and change out of your skates”, said Grandma calmly.
“Hey, Mom! Why did we have to come home so early?” No answer.
“Where’s Mom? Why is the Minister here, Grandma? Where’s Daddy? Okay, I’ll go upstairs and change and wait for Mom.”
In my room, changed into dry clothes, I waited for my Mother to come tell me what was going on. I was sitting on the floor cleaning up my clothes and putting them away. Soon she came to my bedroom door with her bathrobe on.
“Dotty Lou, your Father is gone. He didn’t want to live anymore and thought it was best for all of us that he leave us now. It happened while we were at church. He told me he had to go to the office to work so that is why he didn’t come to church today with us, but he didn’t work after all. I had no idea, except he had been very sick for quite awhile,” said Mother, slowly, breaking with soft tears and snuffles.
“Sick? What do you mean? He seemed fine to me all the time.”
“He hid it very well. He tried very hard not to let you three know anything, but he was very ill. Remember when we all went to Boston? And we went to the magic store and saw the home of Paul Revere? Well your Dad went there to get treatment for his illness. They told him that he would have to go into a Mental Institution. So he decided not to do that in order to spare us all the shame, plus he wouldn’t be able to take care of us anymore, so he ended his life instead. He left a note saying he thought that was the best thing for all of us. He was very determined, because he had a gun, a noose and a syringe.”
Crying softly, I kept putting things away in my drawers. Then I started sorting out my drawers and cleaning them out while Mother went to tell Larry and David. The Minister and Grandma and Grandpa came into my room to say how sorry they were. There was not much more to say. Mother would not answer any more questions. My Father’s parents were not around that I can recall; it was Mother’s Mother, Grandma Evelyn, who picked us up from skating. Later I found out that my Father’s parents blamed my Mother for his illness and not telling them about it. They never spoke to her again.
My whole life had changed. The light seemed dimmer and surreal. I felt like I was moving in some sort of strange world, not the one I knew. A few days later I went to public school. We could no longer afford Old Trail School where I was in ninth grade and where all my friends were, nor could we afford to live in our house. Grandpa eventually bought it from Mother and then sold it when he could later, so Mother could have enough money to move into a much smaller home. Life insurance doesn’t pay when there is a suicide. Mother had never worked, but she had a career, Medical Technology, so the hospital hired her as Head of Blood Banking and life went on.
I don’t remember my Father much. He was a doctor who went on house calls. He had his black bag filled with pills and pink sugar pills and a stethoscope and tongue depressors. He went out in the middle of the night and was there when the man next door died of a heart attack. He had cool machines in his office. He took us on drives in the country on Sundays and we picked weeds. He would distill them and make shots out of them to desensitize people with allergies. He came home every night and had dinner with us all at 6:00pm. Then he went down to the basement into his laboratory (the old coal storage room) and sometimes let me look into the microscope. He diagnosed my appendicitis about a year before he died. I had it taken out two hours after he diagnosed the condition.
I don’t remember a funeral, but I visit my Father’s marker where his ashes are in the Rosemont Cemetery in Akron, OH whenever I am in town. My Mother’s ashes are there now, too in the same plot with Grandma and Grandpa. The headstone says Smith. My Mother’s maiden name was Smith and she married my father whose last name was Smith.
During college, for some ironic or subconscious reason, I dated “Bucky” Robert Smith, an SAE, Robby Smith, a Theta Chi, and later Bob Smith and Dr. Richard Smith. My Father’s name was Dr. Robert Benjamin Smith.
Two years after my Father’s suicide, my Mother’s insurance agent introduced her to a man named Maurice Patry. He was newly divorced and was leaving the business of selling farm equipment to buy a bankrupt company that made adjustable lawn lighting and flag pole posts, called Adjusta-Post Manufacturing, still in business today.
Maurice was the ugliest man I had ever seen – balding, grey hair, short, stubby, and wore thick glasses. My Mother was taller than Maurice and I, by two inches. He had twin children about two years older than I, Lee and Maurita. They were grown and out of the house, so that is why he felt he could get a divorce.
Soon Mother and Maurice were married and we moved into a really nice bigger home in the suburbs and I had a pink and red room. But I was a teenager, raging with hormones and angst. Maurice and I didn’t get along at first. However, after a year or two, he kind of grew on me. Maurice was a genuinely “happy” human being, told jokes, and had a winning, ‘always a salesman’ smile. He started the hugging that we do to this day in our family. I was taken by his astute observations on almost anything – politics, the economy, and business in general. Mother asked me to call him Dad as a Christmas gift to him one year, and I always did after that.
Dad had heart trouble. But I was the one who read in Reader’s Digest that Cleveland Clinic had a new procedure to bypass clogged arteries and fix his heart. Dad had the operation and lived a full life for another ten years. The two of them traveled all over the world, especially to France, where he was born. Maurice spoke perfect French. One year they came to visit me while I lived in Switzerland and took me to Geneva, the part of Switzerland where French is spoken. I was living in Bern, where I spoke German.
I always remember that Maurice took me to the finest French restaurant in New York City the night before I was to embark on the ship “Bremen”, for Switzerland, all by myself. He wanted it to be a special meal and ordered the finest on the menu. However, I was so scared about my trip, going to live and work in a foreign country for a year all alone, that I couldn’t eat and actually threw up.
A few months before my wedding, Dad went into Cleveland Clinic for another bypass surgery. This time it wasn’t so successful. He died five days before my wedding. When we got back from our honeymoon, there was a check from him in the mail for $500.00 which he had written to cover the costs of the wedding, like a real Father would do, and apologized for not being able walk me down the aisle. He was the most handsome Step-father a girl could have.
Even today, catching a glimpse in a crowd of people at the State Fair, I sometimes notice a man with a round, balding head about the same height as Maurice. I wistfully wish it was really him so I could give him a hug, hear him comment on today’s political situation, the economy, and things in general.
4/3/09
“Larry, David, we have to go now, Grandma’s here!”
“Grandma, I thought we could skate until 4:00. Why do we have to leave so early?”
“Your Mother will let you know as soon as we get home. Hurry up and change out of your skates”, said Grandma calmly.
“Hey, Mom! Why did we have to come home so early?” No answer.
“Where’s Mom? Why is the Minister here, Grandma? Where’s Daddy? Okay, I’ll go upstairs and change and wait for Mom.”
In my room, changed into dry clothes, I waited for my Mother to come tell me what was going on. I was sitting on the floor cleaning up my clothes and putting them away. Soon she came to my bedroom door with her bathrobe on.
“Dotty Lou, your Father is gone. He didn’t want to live anymore and thought it was best for all of us that he leave us now. It happened while we were at church. He told me he had to go to the office to work so that is why he didn’t come to church today with us, but he didn’t work after all. I had no idea, except he had been very sick for quite awhile,” said Mother, slowly, breaking with soft tears and snuffles.
“Sick? What do you mean? He seemed fine to me all the time.”
“He hid it very well. He tried very hard not to let you three know anything, but he was very ill. Remember when we all went to Boston? And we went to the magic store and saw the home of Paul Revere? Well your Dad went there to get treatment for his illness. They told him that he would have to go into a Mental Institution. So he decided not to do that in order to spare us all the shame, plus he wouldn’t be able to take care of us anymore, so he ended his life instead. He left a note saying he thought that was the best thing for all of us. He was very determined, because he had a gun, a noose and a syringe.”
Crying softly, I kept putting things away in my drawers. Then I started sorting out my drawers and cleaning them out while Mother went to tell Larry and David. The Minister and Grandma and Grandpa came into my room to say how sorry they were. There was not much more to say. Mother would not answer any more questions. My Father’s parents were not around that I can recall; it was Mother’s Mother, Grandma Evelyn, who picked us up from skating. Later I found out that my Father’s parents blamed my Mother for his illness and not telling them about it. They never spoke to her again.
My whole life had changed. The light seemed dimmer and surreal. I felt like I was moving in some sort of strange world, not the one I knew. A few days later I went to public school. We could no longer afford Old Trail School where I was in ninth grade and where all my friends were, nor could we afford to live in our house. Grandpa eventually bought it from Mother and then sold it when he could later, so Mother could have enough money to move into a much smaller home. Life insurance doesn’t pay when there is a suicide. Mother had never worked, but she had a career, Medical Technology, so the hospital hired her as Head of Blood Banking and life went on.
I don’t remember my Father much. He was a doctor who went on house calls. He had his black bag filled with pills and pink sugar pills and a stethoscope and tongue depressors. He went out in the middle of the night and was there when the man next door died of a heart attack. He had cool machines in his office. He took us on drives in the country on Sundays and we picked weeds. He would distill them and make shots out of them to desensitize people with allergies. He came home every night and had dinner with us all at 6:00pm. Then he went down to the basement into his laboratory (the old coal storage room) and sometimes let me look into the microscope. He diagnosed my appendicitis about a year before he died. I had it taken out two hours after he diagnosed the condition.
I don’t remember a funeral, but I visit my Father’s marker where his ashes are in the Rosemont Cemetery in Akron, OH whenever I am in town. My Mother’s ashes are there now, too in the same plot with Grandma and Grandpa. The headstone says Smith. My Mother’s maiden name was Smith and she married my father whose last name was Smith.
During college, for some ironic or subconscious reason, I dated “Bucky” Robert Smith, an SAE, Robby Smith, a Theta Chi, and later Bob Smith and Dr. Richard Smith. My Father’s name was Dr. Robert Benjamin Smith.
Two years after my Father’s suicide, my Mother’s insurance agent introduced her to a man named Maurice Patry. He was newly divorced and was leaving the business of selling farm equipment to buy a bankrupt company that made adjustable lawn lighting and flag pole posts, called Adjusta-Post Manufacturing, still in business today.
Maurice was the ugliest man I had ever seen – balding, grey hair, short, stubby, and wore thick glasses. My Mother was taller than Maurice and I, by two inches. He had twin children about two years older than I, Lee and Maurita. They were grown and out of the house, so that is why he felt he could get a divorce.
Soon Mother and Maurice were married and we moved into a really nice bigger home in the suburbs and I had a pink and red room. But I was a teenager, raging with hormones and angst. Maurice and I didn’t get along at first. However, after a year or two, he kind of grew on me. Maurice was a genuinely “happy” human being, told jokes, and had a winning, ‘always a salesman’ smile. He started the hugging that we do to this day in our family. I was taken by his astute observations on almost anything – politics, the economy, and business in general. Mother asked me to call him Dad as a Christmas gift to him one year, and I always did after that.
Dad had heart trouble. But I was the one who read in Reader’s Digest that Cleveland Clinic had a new procedure to bypass clogged arteries and fix his heart. Dad had the operation and lived a full life for another ten years. The two of them traveled all over the world, especially to France, where he was born. Maurice spoke perfect French. One year they came to visit me while I lived in Switzerland and took me to Geneva, the part of Switzerland where French is spoken. I was living in Bern, where I spoke German.
I always remember that Maurice took me to the finest French restaurant in New York City the night before I was to embark on the ship “Bremen”, for Switzerland, all by myself. He wanted it to be a special meal and ordered the finest on the menu. However, I was so scared about my trip, going to live and work in a foreign country for a year all alone, that I couldn’t eat and actually threw up.
A few months before my wedding, Dad went into Cleveland Clinic for another bypass surgery. This time it wasn’t so successful. He died five days before my wedding. When we got back from our honeymoon, there was a check from him in the mail for $500.00 which he had written to cover the costs of the wedding, like a real Father would do, and apologized for not being able walk me down the aisle. He was the most handsome Step-father a girl could have.
Even today, catching a glimpse in a crowd of people at the State Fair, I sometimes notice a man with a round, balding head about the same height as Maurice. I wistfully wish it was really him so I could give him a hug, hear him comment on today’s political situation, the economy, and things in general.
4/3/09
My Mother
For some reason, the picture I have in my mind of my Mother is the one taken when my Father was about forty. They both had photographic portraits taken and I still have the one of the three of us, Larry, Dorothy in the middle, and David on the green couch in the living room. Mother’s picture had her hair pulled back into a bun. She had beautiful eyes and dark brown hair and full, pretty lips. I thought she looked like a movie star.
Younger, she wore her hair in a bob, but it never cooperated fully, becoming unruly upward curls. That was when I was little.
My memories of Mother were that she was a typical 50’s Mother. She braided my hair before I went off to walk to grade school. We came home for lunch and had toasted cheese sandwiches and tomato soup, or peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, always at the kitchen table. We hardly ever ate in the formal dining room. She fixed city chicken, hot dogs, spaghetti, chili, fried chicken, and lots of different casseroles for dinner which was always at 6:00pm. Daddy was always home then for dinner. We were usually outside after school or in our room doing homework. No TV then. We often played board games like Monopoly or card games, or were read to at night, but bedtime was early. I remember feeling guilty turning my radio on low and listening to George Burns and Gracie Allen or Hopalong Cassidy later than lights out.
From age about 5 to 13, we had a live in maid, Clarabell. She stayed in the attic room. There was a back stairs. She did the laundry and babysat and cleaned and maybe fixed meals, I don’t remember. Mother was always volunteering. She was a member of the Junior League, on the Board of the Sumner Home, and the Women’s Auxiliary of the hospital where Daddy had privileges. She took us to the Doctor, mostly for me for allergy shots. If we were bad, she told us that we would get spanked when Daddy got home. He used the back of a brush on our bare bottoms. Mother would tell us that we were stupid, we should be ashamed of ourselves, and to shut up a lot. That was her form of discipline. Maybe she got that herself at home, she never said. The child rearing guide at the time was Dr. Spock.
She took us each week to First Congregational Church, where our Minister of decades was Dr. Pelletier. When I was in high school, I once got mad at Mother for making me go to church one day, I forget why I didn’t want to go, but I called her a hypocrite. We almost came to blows.
After Father died, she worked at the hospital and we were on our own after school. Then she married Maurice Patry, and she seemed happy again. We moved into a nice neighborhood and she started volunteering again.
When I dated David, my eventual husband, she was very critical of us living together. That Christmas I asked for a slip. She gave me a very plain, white slip. David’s Mother gave me a beige two piece slip with pretty flowers embroidered on it. We lived far apart and she didn’t like to call long distance or talk long on the phone, so I would get occasional letters, and replied. Maurice at that time had undergone a second bypass surgery and was not doing very well. He died at home 5 days before our wedding. They had plans to come, but she told me weeks before that it didn’t look like he would make it and she would try to come. Well anyway, she did come, with a bottle of booze, and all the California relatives came to the wedding, where they saw Mother to console her. She later said to me that the only reason everyone came to my wedding was to see her. Grandma Evelyn was at the wedding. So was Uncle Kim, her brother and Aunt Patty, Aunt Elaine, her sister and her husband Craig Woolman. Grandpa KD had already died, I think.
Later, our Grandmother Evelyn broke her hip and went into a nursing home. Mother visited her every day until she died, about a year or so later.
David and I went to Alaska and Mother visited us almost every year. She planned some sort of excursion, cruise, or tour before she saw us. She was still very active in the Junior League Sustainers, the Sumner home, and the hospital Women’s Auxiliary. Her best friend was Lucille Palmer. I was surprised that after a few years she decided to leave Akron, OH where she was born and had all her friends, and moved into the retirement community at Village on the Green in Longwood, FL. In fact, she was one of the first occupants, having bought into it before the ground was broken. She decided to end her days near her son David, the doctor, in Florida.
She went there at a relatively young age, around 62. She lived there, was very active in all the activities and ran lots of things, until her death in 2003 at the age of 84.
She came to Alaska after the birth of both of my children. She stayed a couple weeks after Aaron was born, and was there before Andy was born, and after, to take care of Aaron. She moved to Fairbanks with us and helped with that. I remember her bringing Aaron to the hospital after Andy was born to see the new baby.
A year or so after we moved to Alaska, we were drawn to the rustic life, and wanted a cabin in the woods. We were both working with good jobs, but we couldn’t afford the whole thing. We found a property on the Kenai Peninsula that was both on the water, and had a view of the mountains! Mother pitched in $35,000 to help us put up a cabin. We did all the work inside, because we just bought a shell. She had loaned David about the same amount to start his Oncology practice, and Larry the same amount also. She always tried to deal with the three of us equally.
To help pay for the cabin, we at one point ran a bed and breakfast there during the week. We shared all the profits as well as the expenses evenly with Mother. After about 15 years, she deeded her half of the cabin to us. She spent time there for many summers and sometimes even at Christmas. We promised her a white Christmas one year, and it didn’t snow until the day after Christmas! She was nice to have with us, but she was always anxious to get home and back to her activities at Village on the Green.
The last few years, her sister Elaine joined her there and they were a team. Mother organized a group composed of women who had been in Sororities. She called it the Panhellenic group. She ran the Friday bridge game. A group of women friends won the grand prize every year at the Halloween costume party. They had one white sheet, and the rules for their group were that you had a theme using the white sheet. They came up with something different each year! They were angels, Romans, unicorns, brides, etc.
Mother was never jovial, affectionate, smiley. But she always pitched in to help, organize, plan, and was the instigator of many activities.
In 2003, she said she would come visit us in the summer. For some reason, I asked her to join us in Palm Springs where we had a Timeshare. She could see her brother Kim who spent the winters in his home on the Thunderbird golf club subdivision, and see both Aaron and Andy who were now off to college and not always around. We had a two bedroom unit, so she could have her own bedroom. At first she said no, but later she called and said she bought a ticket and would come to Palm Springs. When the day came, her flight was cancelled, but she didn’t give up and came the next day. She said that on the plane the flight attendant had to waken her. She was out of it and didn’t know it. She didn’t know what had happened. The whole time she was in Palm Springs, she said she didn’t feel stable. She wouldn’t walk far, or go very many places with us. She just wanted to sit most of the time. But she got to visit with all of us and her brother, and went to my birthday dinner. That was on March 19th. Shock and Awe, the beginning of Pres. Bush’s war on Iraq, started that week, and was the only thing on the television.
I got a call from my brother David on April 6th, that Mother had not woken up the night before. She had gone to bed after attending the Symphony, changed the clocks to daylight savings time, and didn’t show up for Sunday brunch. No one checked on her until that afternoon when they found her in a coma in bed. I got the first plane to Florida, but she was gone by the time I arrived. She had had a massive aneurism in her brain stem and was never going to wake up. My David arrived later and so did Larry and we spent the week dividing up her possessions which she had carefully outlined in a letter. Then we sent letters to everyone on her Christmas list telling them that she had passed, called Lucille Palmer, which was very difficult for me, and then I called my step-brother Lee Patry. He drove 5 hours to the funeral. Little did I know that he was there because he thought he was due half of her estate?
Village on the Green put on a very nice memorial service which Mother had planned herself. Many people attended. I spoke about how she was always there for me.
There was a memorial fund started which had quite a lot of money. Aunt Elaine took charge of what to do with the money. Eventually they decided to put in a putting green and dedicate it to Mother. One of the residents thought it should be a very nice putting green and donated about $10,000 which added up to enough to make a three hole putting green with the right kind of grass, holes, flags, etc. as well as a nice plaque commemorating Mother.
I remember being very very sad after my Mother’s death. I had a hard time for several months. I still think of her a lot and wish she were around to talk to. I cried and cried after the service in Aunt Elaine’s car when she was taking me to the airport.
I went through her closet and took the nicest dresses and things for myself. It seems that, even though she was three inches taller than me, somehow we ended up the exact same size, even her shoes. She gave me her diamond from Maurice which she wore around her neck, and the Chinese chest from her parents estate that she inherited from them. She lived on her inheritance from her parents and a trust set up for her by Maurice after he sold the company. She got half and his son Lee got half, which was in a trust managed by Old Phoenix bank. David said she lived on $40,000 per year. She would buy a new car every couple three years and paid cash and bargained like crazy. I eventually inherited almost $500,000 from her estate.
I tried to talk to her in her later years about her early life and life with my Father and things, but she wouldn’t say much. I gave her a book to fill out with questions to answer that would help me understand her more, but she left it blank. She never seemed to be happy, but was always willing to do stuff and helped out a lot and was well respected at the retirement home where she lived her last years. She went to church regularly and was even in the bell choir for awhile. She played golf when she first arrived in Florida, but gave it up. She also gave up smoking at age 60 and was very proud of it. She rewarded herself every year on the anniversary of her quitting. She smoked for almost 40 years, however, and I’m pretty sure it was the reason for the deep wrinkles on her face and her “warts” in her throat. She called them warts but it could have been cancer, I don’t know.
Grandma Sweetheart’s niece, the one that inherited all of my Father’s parents’ money, Betty, told Larry after Louise’s death, that my Father had jilted her for my Mother! Mother said that was a lie and she knew nothing about it.
I have Mother’s photo albums, diaries (of weather and daily mundane things) and her cookbooks and travel diaries. She kept track of mundane things, nothing of her thoughts or feelings.
About a year before her death she had a cold and got up to get something in the kitchen in the middle of the night and fell down and went out cold. She had trouble ever since then but wouldn’t talk about it really. Her handwriting was shakier is all I noticed. She had osteoporosis although she denied it, but she broke both her wrists, and a bone in her foot, and some other bones I think while she was in Florida. Other than that, she got colds a lot, mostly after traveling.
4/3/09
Younger, she wore her hair in a bob, but it never cooperated fully, becoming unruly upward curls. That was when I was little.
My memories of Mother were that she was a typical 50’s Mother. She braided my hair before I went off to walk to grade school. We came home for lunch and had toasted cheese sandwiches and tomato soup, or peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, always at the kitchen table. We hardly ever ate in the formal dining room. She fixed city chicken, hot dogs, spaghetti, chili, fried chicken, and lots of different casseroles for dinner which was always at 6:00pm. Daddy was always home then for dinner. We were usually outside after school or in our room doing homework. No TV then. We often played board games like Monopoly or card games, or were read to at night, but bedtime was early. I remember feeling guilty turning my radio on low and listening to George Burns and Gracie Allen or Hopalong Cassidy later than lights out.
From age about 5 to 13, we had a live in maid, Clarabell. She stayed in the attic room. There was a back stairs. She did the laundry and babysat and cleaned and maybe fixed meals, I don’t remember. Mother was always volunteering. She was a member of the Junior League, on the Board of the Sumner Home, and the Women’s Auxiliary of the hospital where Daddy had privileges. She took us to the Doctor, mostly for me for allergy shots. If we were bad, she told us that we would get spanked when Daddy got home. He used the back of a brush on our bare bottoms. Mother would tell us that we were stupid, we should be ashamed of ourselves, and to shut up a lot. That was her form of discipline. Maybe she got that herself at home, she never said. The child rearing guide at the time was Dr. Spock.
She took us each week to First Congregational Church, where our Minister of decades was Dr. Pelletier. When I was in high school, I once got mad at Mother for making me go to church one day, I forget why I didn’t want to go, but I called her a hypocrite. We almost came to blows.
After Father died, she worked at the hospital and we were on our own after school. Then she married Maurice Patry, and she seemed happy again. We moved into a nice neighborhood and she started volunteering again.
When I dated David, my eventual husband, she was very critical of us living together. That Christmas I asked for a slip. She gave me a very plain, white slip. David’s Mother gave me a beige two piece slip with pretty flowers embroidered on it. We lived far apart and she didn’t like to call long distance or talk long on the phone, so I would get occasional letters, and replied. Maurice at that time had undergone a second bypass surgery and was not doing very well. He died at home 5 days before our wedding. They had plans to come, but she told me weeks before that it didn’t look like he would make it and she would try to come. Well anyway, she did come, with a bottle of booze, and all the California relatives came to the wedding, where they saw Mother to console her. She later said to me that the only reason everyone came to my wedding was to see her. Grandma Evelyn was at the wedding. So was Uncle Kim, her brother and Aunt Patty, Aunt Elaine, her sister and her husband Craig Woolman. Grandpa KD had already died, I think.
Later, our Grandmother Evelyn broke her hip and went into a nursing home. Mother visited her every day until she died, about a year or so later.
David and I went to Alaska and Mother visited us almost every year. She planned some sort of excursion, cruise, or tour before she saw us. She was still very active in the Junior League Sustainers, the Sumner home, and the hospital Women’s Auxiliary. Her best friend was Lucille Palmer. I was surprised that after a few years she decided to leave Akron, OH where she was born and had all her friends, and moved into the retirement community at Village on the Green in Longwood, FL. In fact, she was one of the first occupants, having bought into it before the ground was broken. She decided to end her days near her son David, the doctor, in Florida.
She went there at a relatively young age, around 62. She lived there, was very active in all the activities and ran lots of things, until her death in 2003 at the age of 84.
She came to Alaska after the birth of both of my children. She stayed a couple weeks after Aaron was born, and was there before Andy was born, and after, to take care of Aaron. She moved to Fairbanks with us and helped with that. I remember her bringing Aaron to the hospital after Andy was born to see the new baby.
A year or so after we moved to Alaska, we were drawn to the rustic life, and wanted a cabin in the woods. We were both working with good jobs, but we couldn’t afford the whole thing. We found a property on the Kenai Peninsula that was both on the water, and had a view of the mountains! Mother pitched in $35,000 to help us put up a cabin. We did all the work inside, because we just bought a shell. She had loaned David about the same amount to start his Oncology practice, and Larry the same amount also. She always tried to deal with the three of us equally.
To help pay for the cabin, we at one point ran a bed and breakfast there during the week. We shared all the profits as well as the expenses evenly with Mother. After about 15 years, she deeded her half of the cabin to us. She spent time there for many summers and sometimes even at Christmas. We promised her a white Christmas one year, and it didn’t snow until the day after Christmas! She was nice to have with us, but she was always anxious to get home and back to her activities at Village on the Green.
The last few years, her sister Elaine joined her there and they were a team. Mother organized a group composed of women who had been in Sororities. She called it the Panhellenic group. She ran the Friday bridge game. A group of women friends won the grand prize every year at the Halloween costume party. They had one white sheet, and the rules for their group were that you had a theme using the white sheet. They came up with something different each year! They were angels, Romans, unicorns, brides, etc.
Mother was never jovial, affectionate, smiley. But she always pitched in to help, organize, plan, and was the instigator of many activities.
In 2003, she said she would come visit us in the summer. For some reason, I asked her to join us in Palm Springs where we had a Timeshare. She could see her brother Kim who spent the winters in his home on the Thunderbird golf club subdivision, and see both Aaron and Andy who were now off to college and not always around. We had a two bedroom unit, so she could have her own bedroom. At first she said no, but later she called and said she bought a ticket and would come to Palm Springs. When the day came, her flight was cancelled, but she didn’t give up and came the next day. She said that on the plane the flight attendant had to waken her. She was out of it and didn’t know it. She didn’t know what had happened. The whole time she was in Palm Springs, she said she didn’t feel stable. She wouldn’t walk far, or go very many places with us. She just wanted to sit most of the time. But she got to visit with all of us and her brother, and went to my birthday dinner. That was on March 19th. Shock and Awe, the beginning of Pres. Bush’s war on Iraq, started that week, and was the only thing on the television.
I got a call from my brother David on April 6th, that Mother had not woken up the night before. She had gone to bed after attending the Symphony, changed the clocks to daylight savings time, and didn’t show up for Sunday brunch. No one checked on her until that afternoon when they found her in a coma in bed. I got the first plane to Florida, but she was gone by the time I arrived. She had had a massive aneurism in her brain stem and was never going to wake up. My David arrived later and so did Larry and we spent the week dividing up her possessions which she had carefully outlined in a letter. Then we sent letters to everyone on her Christmas list telling them that she had passed, called Lucille Palmer, which was very difficult for me, and then I called my step-brother Lee Patry. He drove 5 hours to the funeral. Little did I know that he was there because he thought he was due half of her estate?
Village on the Green put on a very nice memorial service which Mother had planned herself. Many people attended. I spoke about how she was always there for me.
There was a memorial fund started which had quite a lot of money. Aunt Elaine took charge of what to do with the money. Eventually they decided to put in a putting green and dedicate it to Mother. One of the residents thought it should be a very nice putting green and donated about $10,000 which added up to enough to make a three hole putting green with the right kind of grass, holes, flags, etc. as well as a nice plaque commemorating Mother.
I remember being very very sad after my Mother’s death. I had a hard time for several months. I still think of her a lot and wish she were around to talk to. I cried and cried after the service in Aunt Elaine’s car when she was taking me to the airport.
I went through her closet and took the nicest dresses and things for myself. It seems that, even though she was three inches taller than me, somehow we ended up the exact same size, even her shoes. She gave me her diamond from Maurice which she wore around her neck, and the Chinese chest from her parents estate that she inherited from them. She lived on her inheritance from her parents and a trust set up for her by Maurice after he sold the company. She got half and his son Lee got half, which was in a trust managed by Old Phoenix bank. David said she lived on $40,000 per year. She would buy a new car every couple three years and paid cash and bargained like crazy. I eventually inherited almost $500,000 from her estate.
I tried to talk to her in her later years about her early life and life with my Father and things, but she wouldn’t say much. I gave her a book to fill out with questions to answer that would help me understand her more, but she left it blank. She never seemed to be happy, but was always willing to do stuff and helped out a lot and was well respected at the retirement home where she lived her last years. She went to church regularly and was even in the bell choir for awhile. She played golf when she first arrived in Florida, but gave it up. She also gave up smoking at age 60 and was very proud of it. She rewarded herself every year on the anniversary of her quitting. She smoked for almost 40 years, however, and I’m pretty sure it was the reason for the deep wrinkles on her face and her “warts” in her throat. She called them warts but it could have been cancer, I don’t know.
Grandma Sweetheart’s niece, the one that inherited all of my Father’s parents’ money, Betty, told Larry after Louise’s death, that my Father had jilted her for my Mother! Mother said that was a lie and she knew nothing about it.
I have Mother’s photo albums, diaries (of weather and daily mundane things) and her cookbooks and travel diaries. She kept track of mundane things, nothing of her thoughts or feelings.
About a year before her death she had a cold and got up to get something in the kitchen in the middle of the night and fell down and went out cold. She had trouble ever since then but wouldn’t talk about it really. Her handwriting was shakier is all I noticed. She had osteoporosis although she denied it, but she broke both her wrists, and a bone in her foot, and some other bones I think while she was in Florida. Other than that, she got colds a lot, mostly after traveling.
4/3/09
Spirituality
I just didn’t get it. My teacher practically force fed the answers to me. I still did not understand what a mustard seed had to do with religion and Jesus. I had to give a fifteen minute talk for this little church in southern Ohio on Sunday morning. I was the special speaker, and I was all of 14 years old. Somehow I wrote out something on a couple pieces of paper to read, but I never really understood what I was saying, nor do I to this day. I understand the crucifixion, I understand the virgin birth, I understand the Last Supper, I understand the loaves and fishes, the Philistine met on the path, and many other Christian stories. They were stories to me, however, not real events or anything magical. Just stories that illustrate moral virtues or points. To me, Christianity can be summed up in one sentence: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
Our church youth group went to a poor rural town in Southern Ohio by the border between Ohio and Kentucky. The boys were assigned to paint the church white, and the girls were teachers in a children’s summer bible camp. The only thing I remember was having to give the sermon, and how hot it was.
Our First Congregational Church youth group was quite large and very active. We met every Sunday night. I met my first boyfriend there. He was Catholic. Our youth group was so much fun and active, people brought their friends from other religions to participate in the parties and activities. The biggest thing we did, besides paint the Southern Ohio church, was a trip to Salt Lake City to meet up with a Mormon Youth group and exchange ideas and friendship. Our church youth Sunday school spent many Sundays going to other churches to learn about other faiths. I liked the Jewish religion the best, but after we met the Mormons, I thought that was cool also.
To raise money to go to Salt Lake City, we washed cars, had bake sales, and collected soda pop cardboard six pack containers. We had a contract with a recycle company to sort out the containers. Every Saturday for months a big truck would pull up to our church and dump off these cardboard containers. All of us (20 or 30 would show up), would sort through the mess and put the Coca Cola ones that were still okay in one container, the Pepsi in another, the RC Cola and the Hires Root beer, Verner’s Ginger ale, 7 up, Orange Crush, and other soda brands in specific containers. We would fold them neatly and throw out the bad ones. For this we got paid.
We were able to raise enough money for all of us to ride a bus across country to Mormon country. We stopped to see the National Park sites along the way, and stayed on the floor of churches, whose church women would also feed us a spaghetti dinner. One night to dispel the tensions of a long day on the bus, the counselors went into town and bought shaving cream and eggs. They staged a fight between the boys and girls. It was quite a free for all fun time. Everyone was a mess.
When we arrived in Salt Lake, we met with a youth group our age for the afternoon and evening. They were really nice and good looking and fun. We had a big party at a park. Some of the Mormon boys played guitar and sang. The food was good. The kids were really friendly and talked about how they would be going on their missions soon, and how fun it was to be a Mormon. They didn’t use the term Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints at all. We held a worship service together the next morning. I had a crush on one of the guitar players, but we had to leave and get back to Ohio.
First Congregational Church was one of the biggest churches in Akron, OH. Our whole family went there, both sides. It had a huge organ with real pipes that were in the front of the church. The organist was up there, too, to the left. The choir was also up front in the balcony, the men in the back, the Sopranos on the right and the Altos on the left. We had four professional singers who sang the solos. I was a soprano in the youth choir and then from about 8th grade until I graduated from high school in the regular choir. We had special robes and weekly choir practice. I knew all the major hymns. I loved Christmas and Easter music. My brother David was also in the choir and had to do a solo once. He moved his mouth and looked great, but no sound came out of his mouth! He was petrified. I never had to do a solo.
We would go to church about 9:00am so we could go to Sunday school. I don’t know what my parents did, they either went to an adult Sunday school or just had coffee with the other parents. Our church was so big they built a huge addition for all the classrooms. We had a big social hall, reception area, and the huge auditorium where the services were held. It was in a round formation, not straight aisles like most churches. The pulpit was raised on a half circle, with three big chairs, one for the minister, Dr. Pelletier, one for the Assistant Minister/Youth minister, and one for the Lay Leader. There were lots of ushers, one at each aisle; I think there were four or six aisles. We always dressed in our best dresses with petticoats, shoes (maryjanes) and camel hair coats to go to church. At first men had to wear hats and so did women. Then the men were not allowed to wear hats. We usually also wore gloves. I had several pairs of white gloves. We also had a balcony. When I was older, my brothers and I would sit up there because we didn’t want to be seen with our parents. I remember deep red carpet, dark mahogany pews, little holders on the back of the pews for the grape juice cups for communion which was once a month. We used bread cubes for the body of Christ. The ushers would bring this to each row. They also took the offerings.
I remember I liked getting dressed up, seeing my friends, hearing and singing the music and sometimes even the sermon. It was a nice, quiet, reflective time.
The last time I was in Akron, OH a few years ago, I drove by the church. It looked the same, the grey stones, the tall steeple, the imposing façade that you had to walk up many steps to get to the doors, but I was told that it was almost closed, that people didn’t come downtown anymore to church.
Dr. Pelletier was the Minister for over 40 years. He died soon after I moved to Alaska. One of his Assistant Ministers came to Seattle where David and I were living while he was in Law School. My Mother said we should go to his small church. We avoided it for quite some time, but she insisted and made a point of letting us know where it was. It turned out the church was within walking distance, so we went one sunny day. David kept looking at the Minister, and finally said he thought he knew him! Sure enough, by the end of the service, he remembered that Steve Bauck had gone to Whitman College with him and was in his class! We then started to go to his church regularly and became good friends. When we needed a minister to get married, he married us. He still lives in Seattle, although with a different wife. He visited us here in Alaska once.
When David and I moved to Anchorage, we lived in Turnagain. We somehow started to go to Turnagain United Methodist Church. The Minister then was quite dynamic. We had babies and had them baptized in this church and became part of the church community, going to the social events, Sunday school and services on a regular basis. I even joined the choir for a time. Our favorite family event was the Christmas eve candlelight service. Just hymns and then we sang Silent Night while lighting candles from one candle.
Aaron benefited most from TUMC. He was in the most active youth group, led by the then Minister, Dennis Holway. They lived right behind us on Esquire drive, and their two boys were the same ages as Aaron and Andy. Aaron went several times to Indian reservations where they did construction work on houses. By the time Andy was that age, the Holways had moved on. Aaron learned all the hymns and Christian stories and culture, but Andy didn’t want much to do with it and it seemed to pass him by. After the boys went to college, we attended less and less, and then when David joined the Opera Board, we decided that our budget could only handle one thing like that, since he had to contribute about $2,500 per year to be on the Board. So we dropped church, and then eventually officially dropped our membership. David was on several committees and served as a popular Lay Leader, and we were ushers a lot, but the ministers started to change frequently and we had other friends and other interests. David used to say that he was an atheist, but church was the only place where you could discuss moral and religious issues and relate them to the times, but that finally wore off and he is now a devout atheist and not even interested in the new “cool” churches.
We once went to the Anchorage Baptist Temple Christmas and Easter pageants, just to see what it was like. We were overwhelmed with the commercialization and drama, TV broadcasting, huge auditorium, etc. But you could be saved if you wanted to be!
4/3/2009
Our church youth group went to a poor rural town in Southern Ohio by the border between Ohio and Kentucky. The boys were assigned to paint the church white, and the girls were teachers in a children’s summer bible camp. The only thing I remember was having to give the sermon, and how hot it was.
Our First Congregational Church youth group was quite large and very active. We met every Sunday night. I met my first boyfriend there. He was Catholic. Our youth group was so much fun and active, people brought their friends from other religions to participate in the parties and activities. The biggest thing we did, besides paint the Southern Ohio church, was a trip to Salt Lake City to meet up with a Mormon Youth group and exchange ideas and friendship. Our church youth Sunday school spent many Sundays going to other churches to learn about other faiths. I liked the Jewish religion the best, but after we met the Mormons, I thought that was cool also.
To raise money to go to Salt Lake City, we washed cars, had bake sales, and collected soda pop cardboard six pack containers. We had a contract with a recycle company to sort out the containers. Every Saturday for months a big truck would pull up to our church and dump off these cardboard containers. All of us (20 or 30 would show up), would sort through the mess and put the Coca Cola ones that were still okay in one container, the Pepsi in another, the RC Cola and the Hires Root beer, Verner’s Ginger ale, 7 up, Orange Crush, and other soda brands in specific containers. We would fold them neatly and throw out the bad ones. For this we got paid.
We were able to raise enough money for all of us to ride a bus across country to Mormon country. We stopped to see the National Park sites along the way, and stayed on the floor of churches, whose church women would also feed us a spaghetti dinner. One night to dispel the tensions of a long day on the bus, the counselors went into town and bought shaving cream and eggs. They staged a fight between the boys and girls. It was quite a free for all fun time. Everyone was a mess.
When we arrived in Salt Lake, we met with a youth group our age for the afternoon and evening. They were really nice and good looking and fun. We had a big party at a park. Some of the Mormon boys played guitar and sang. The food was good. The kids were really friendly and talked about how they would be going on their missions soon, and how fun it was to be a Mormon. They didn’t use the term Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints at all. We held a worship service together the next morning. I had a crush on one of the guitar players, but we had to leave and get back to Ohio.
First Congregational Church was one of the biggest churches in Akron, OH. Our whole family went there, both sides. It had a huge organ with real pipes that were in the front of the church. The organist was up there, too, to the left. The choir was also up front in the balcony, the men in the back, the Sopranos on the right and the Altos on the left. We had four professional singers who sang the solos. I was a soprano in the youth choir and then from about 8th grade until I graduated from high school in the regular choir. We had special robes and weekly choir practice. I knew all the major hymns. I loved Christmas and Easter music. My brother David was also in the choir and had to do a solo once. He moved his mouth and looked great, but no sound came out of his mouth! He was petrified. I never had to do a solo.
We would go to church about 9:00am so we could go to Sunday school. I don’t know what my parents did, they either went to an adult Sunday school or just had coffee with the other parents. Our church was so big they built a huge addition for all the classrooms. We had a big social hall, reception area, and the huge auditorium where the services were held. It was in a round formation, not straight aisles like most churches. The pulpit was raised on a half circle, with three big chairs, one for the minister, Dr. Pelletier, one for the Assistant Minister/Youth minister, and one for the Lay Leader. There were lots of ushers, one at each aisle; I think there were four or six aisles. We always dressed in our best dresses with petticoats, shoes (maryjanes) and camel hair coats to go to church. At first men had to wear hats and so did women. Then the men were not allowed to wear hats. We usually also wore gloves. I had several pairs of white gloves. We also had a balcony. When I was older, my brothers and I would sit up there because we didn’t want to be seen with our parents. I remember deep red carpet, dark mahogany pews, little holders on the back of the pews for the grape juice cups for communion which was once a month. We used bread cubes for the body of Christ. The ushers would bring this to each row. They also took the offerings.
I remember I liked getting dressed up, seeing my friends, hearing and singing the music and sometimes even the sermon. It was a nice, quiet, reflective time.
The last time I was in Akron, OH a few years ago, I drove by the church. It looked the same, the grey stones, the tall steeple, the imposing façade that you had to walk up many steps to get to the doors, but I was told that it was almost closed, that people didn’t come downtown anymore to church.
Dr. Pelletier was the Minister for over 40 years. He died soon after I moved to Alaska. One of his Assistant Ministers came to Seattle where David and I were living while he was in Law School. My Mother said we should go to his small church. We avoided it for quite some time, but she insisted and made a point of letting us know where it was. It turned out the church was within walking distance, so we went one sunny day. David kept looking at the Minister, and finally said he thought he knew him! Sure enough, by the end of the service, he remembered that Steve Bauck had gone to Whitman College with him and was in his class! We then started to go to his church regularly and became good friends. When we needed a minister to get married, he married us. He still lives in Seattle, although with a different wife. He visited us here in Alaska once.
When David and I moved to Anchorage, we lived in Turnagain. We somehow started to go to Turnagain United Methodist Church. The Minister then was quite dynamic. We had babies and had them baptized in this church and became part of the church community, going to the social events, Sunday school and services on a regular basis. I even joined the choir for a time. Our favorite family event was the Christmas eve candlelight service. Just hymns and then we sang Silent Night while lighting candles from one candle.
Aaron benefited most from TUMC. He was in the most active youth group, led by the then Minister, Dennis Holway. They lived right behind us on Esquire drive, and their two boys were the same ages as Aaron and Andy. Aaron went several times to Indian reservations where they did construction work on houses. By the time Andy was that age, the Holways had moved on. Aaron learned all the hymns and Christian stories and culture, but Andy didn’t want much to do with it and it seemed to pass him by. After the boys went to college, we attended less and less, and then when David joined the Opera Board, we decided that our budget could only handle one thing like that, since he had to contribute about $2,500 per year to be on the Board. So we dropped church, and then eventually officially dropped our membership. David was on several committees and served as a popular Lay Leader, and we were ushers a lot, but the ministers started to change frequently and we had other friends and other interests. David used to say that he was an atheist, but church was the only place where you could discuss moral and religious issues and relate them to the times, but that finally wore off and he is now a devout atheist and not even interested in the new “cool” churches.
We once went to the Anchorage Baptist Temple Christmas and Easter pageants, just to see what it was like. We were overwhelmed with the commercialization and drama, TV broadcasting, huge auditorium, etc. But you could be saved if you wanted to be!
4/3/2009
Living in Switzerland
My roommate, Mary Pat set the ball rolling. She went to Europe for her college graduation present and decided she wanted to go back to live. I said I’d go along. We just needed to have two years of experience in our professions and the Swiss government would give us a job. She chose Switzerland because it was in the middle of Europe. She was a teacher, and I was a Medical Technologist.
In the second year of our Bachelorette years, she met and married Darrel Musick. I had already filled out the paperwork and the Swiss were expecting me. I had a job at the Inselspital in Bern, Switzerland, the capitol city. In 1969 there were no transatlantic airflights. I had to take a ship. Going to Europe on a ship was not considered a cruise. It was a mode of transportation. I chose a German ship, the Bremin, with the Cunard line. The final destination was Bremen in Germany, but I decided to get off at the first stop in France so I could visit my Step-father’s cousin, Germaine, in Paris. I packed up my college trunk and a suitcase and somehow got to New York where the ship embarked. Maurice and Mother took me out to dinner at a fine French restaurant the night before, where I got sick and threw up because I was so nervous. It suddenly hit me that I was going alone to Europe, where I had never been, where they speak a different language, and I knew no one. An old boyfriend and my parents came on board the ship for the disembarking party. Then they blew the whistle and everyone had to leave and I was alone in my cabin with three other single women. Luckily, one of them was Annaliese. She was a couple years older than I and German. Coincidentally, she had been living in the US for two years working as a Medical Technologist and was now going home. She spoke English well and helped translate for me because the whole ship was German speaking only. We traveled second class. That meant that we had areas we were not allowed to visit, we had a separate dining area, and separate entertainment and bar area. Annaliese introduced me to the Compari unt Soda. She swore that this drink would cure any seasickness. We soon had a good time drinking Compari unt sodas all evening while listening to German polka and folk music and dancing. We met some of the crew who were out on a cigarette break. They took us to their rooms and we had parties. They met us while we were outside having a cigarette. The guy came up to us with his lighted cigarette and asked us if we had a match! We ended up the last night before I got off in Le Havre, staying up all night. I got off the ship at 5:00am to catch the Paris train. It took a few hours to get to Paris while I nursed my hangover and got some sleep, but I was still pretty much a basket case when I met Germaine at the Gare. I only had until that evening to catch my train to Bern, so he just drove me around Paris and said “This is Notre Dame”, this is the Louvre, etc. I saw it all from the window of his car. We stopped several times so I could go to the bathroom. I had to ask him for 10 centimes each time, because there was a lady who blocked your way into the WC and you had to pay to get in, or there were coin machines on the locked doors, and one I remember was just on the street, a “pissoir”, that you had to put in the coin to get in and it smelled awful, which was pretty much how all of Paris smelled, actually. He took me to a French restaurant, but nothing like the one Maurice had taken me to in New York. We had boef et pommes frites. Just an overcooked, skinny steak and skinny French fries. Germaine did not speak English very well at all, so it was a very trying day – me with a hangover having to go to the bathroom every hour, he trying to show me the sights from the back seat of his car.
He eventually got me to the correct Gare to go to Bern. It was an overnight trip. I was assigned to a sleeping car with 6 berths. To my surprise, there were 5 other people of course, but males and females, young and old. The bath was at the end of the car. In the morning the porter came and converted the beds to seats. I arrived in mid morning at the train station. I had a reservation at a cheap hotel in town for a few days before I talked to the hospital and found a place to stay. I hailed a cab outside the train station. Heaven knows how I got all my stuff and the big trunk up all the stairs and outside. I do remember that during my whole stay in Europe during all my travels, I never had to carry a bag. Because I was traveling alone, there was always a nice gentleman ready to carry my bags and be of any assistance. I was very naïve and accepted it gracefully every time because I was so amazed that everyone was so friendly.
At last I found a cab and got all my stuff in it, and gave the driver the address. He drove less than a block, but I think he went around the block just to get a fare. I could have walked to the hotel.
A block away from my hotel was a very fancy hotel, the Sweitzerhof. I ate there my first night and had a very nice Italian waiter who was very attentive. He made sure I knew his name and contact information. He was short, but cute, and was learning English. He was from Sardinia, where the language was a slightly different form of Latin. He asked me out a few times. We went to a pretty park once, and out to coffee, but then I met other people and I don’t remember what became of him later.
I found my way to the personnel office of the Inselspital, was introduced to the Cardiologia lab where I would work, and given some names where I might find lodging. I decided to stay with Frau Amstutz on Fabrikstrasse. Frau Amstutz was a widow living in a two bedroom apartment on the second floor. I had my own room with a garderobe, a single bed with built in bookcase, a small chest of drawers, and a desk that was really where you put your makeup and it had a mirror. I used my trunk as a little table and stored some of my stuff there. She worked at this factory where they make a malt beverage that is famous in Switzerland and was sold in the US as well. Swiss women did not have the vote then and she said she was glad. They only go the vote in the 80’s I believe. There was a dark living room with a small TV that she never went into, her bedroom, a small kitchen where I was allowed to keep a few things of my own, and a bathroom we shared. Wash day was once a week and she did it in the sink and then hung up the clothes to dry on her balcony or in the shower. She seldom washed anything, preferring to just air it out on a hanger on the balcony as well. We had a little compartment by the front door where they could deliver milk or bread, called a milch malchli, kokish kashli. I don’t know how to really spell it, but it is the only Swiss German I know.
Frau Amstutz had muesli in the morning, then she came home at noon and cooked herself a big dinner of meat, potatoes and a vegetable, either cut up meat in a cream sauce, or breaded and fried. Spaetzle, the Swiss flour noodles that look like scrambled eggs with butter, or fried potatoes. Then for supper, she ate yoghurt and maybe some muesli with it. I had never seen or heard of yoghurt before. I lived on it. We could go shopping around the corner and down the street where there would be a bakery, then a butcher, then a dairy store with the milk and yoghurt, all flavors, and a flower shop, and candy store, and a small grocery with eggs kept at room temperature in the aisles, oil, veges, etc. all fresh. I mostly ate yoghurt for breakfast and dinner with muesli, and had my main meal at the hospital where the cafeteria had a hearty meal prepared cafeteria style each day. Then I would go home and do stuff before I went back to work at 2:00pm. Everyone in town got those two hours off. That made rush hour four times a day, but it was really nice to have a big break in the middle of the day which made it easier to go back to work refreshed. And since everyone had this schedule, the whole town adhered to it so the movies, stores, restaurants, etc. worked with this as well. It was nice to eat your main meal early so it could digest, and you had energy to finish the day.
Fabrikstrasse means factory street. Next door to my apartment building was a piano factory. You could hear piano music during the day as they did the quality control testing. Across the street was a huge factory that made gondolas, called the Von Roll company. The gondola at Alyeska resort is a Von Roll. Just about any gondola I have ever seen anywhere is made by Von Roll. At the far end of the block was the Toblerone factory. They make the triangular shaped chocolate bars in the yellow and red packaging. The windows are all blocked and barred and it has high security because the recipe is secret. But many days while listening to piano music from next door, a waft of chocolate aroma would blow in the window.
Inselspital was a conglomerate of many buildings, with a tall white duo tower in the center. But it was the new hospital under construction. It looked completely finished when I arrived in Summer of 1969, and it was still not open for business when I left the spring of 1971. I learned that the Swiss build their buildings to last for centuries, unlike the United States. I also observed this in other ways. There was a new road being built. The first year they grade it and put gravel on it. Then it is graded and graveled for several more years until all the potholes and indentations have worked themselves out. THEN they pave it. The stone buildings in downtown Bern were built in the 1500’s. The building code requires that if you buy one of these buildings and want to put in a store or restore it and live in it or something, you have to leave the outside of the building exactly the same, or build it to look exactly the same as it was. All the buildings in the old part of town have covered walkways with rounded arches. The stone is a yellowish color, and the streets are all brick. There is usually a fountain or statue or clock where two streets cross, or a square. It is very charming. Of course there is the bear pits, at the far end of the town. Yes, they keep two or three bears down in a pit. You view them from above which is street level. It looked rather cruel to me. There are a couple of charming mechanical clocks with figures that come out and rotate around on the hour, and bells that chime. The town is centered in a turn of the river Aare. This river flows through the town and divides it with several bridges. On a hill is the center of government. On the square outside this area is a beautiful view of the mountains, mainly the Eiger, Monch, and Jungfrau. The Eiger is the tall pointy one, the Monch is the middle, more rounded one, and the Jungfrau is the largest one. Every mountain in Switzerland has a name, unlike Alaska. On this square you also stand to watch the fireworks which happen once or twice a year but I forget when, of course not on July 4th.
A story about the river Aare. Peter took me swimming on the Aare. That was one of our favorite things to do in the summer on a hot day. The women have a huge area of lawn and dressing area, and the men have another separate area. Basically the dressing area just covers your middle of your body. Your head and feet are open to view. Most women wear no top when sunbathing, but stick to the women’s side. We would get our swim suits on, then jump in the river and float with the current down to a get out point, then walk back and do it again. It was really refreshing and fun. The river went pretty fast, too, so you really had to be quick to get out when the spot appeared.
So I started work in one of the older hospital buildings in Kardiologie. Herr Professor Hans Peter Gurtner was the head of the lab. There was no doubt who was in charge. He had a certain air about him. He had a white lab coat, a mustache goatee, graying at the sides, and glasses. He authored all the papers, he presided at all the catheterization tests, he had his own office. There were three Residents with white coats working for him under his tutelage. Peter Walser, Dr. Munger, and Dr. Saltzman. Munger was small, blonde, and very kindly. Gerhinger was very tall, dark, and aloof. Walser was large like a teddy bear, had a mustache and small beard, glasses, and a twinkle in his eye. They all spoke English quite well, so I had to try really hard to speak German, since they wanted to always practice their English with me. They had desks in this large room where my desk was as well. Then there were two Fraulein’s. Fraulein Stahli was the secretary. She answered the phones and did the correspondence. Fraulein Munger was the other laboratory technologist. They were about my age. Stahli was short, plump, cute personality and fun, with dark curly hair. Fraulein Munger was tall, blonde, beautiful and aloof. I usually hung out with the two girls, but it was a formal relationship. We used the formal form of “you”. I tried to say “du” once, and was rebuffed. I learned later that you had to know someone for a certain amount of time and then one of you would ask if you could “dutze”. I didn’t learn about that until it was too late, so I worked with these two women for two years and we addressed each other as Fraulein. I learned years later that Fraulein Munger committed suicide after a bad love affair.
My work consisted of sitting at my desk, being asked to come along to observe catheterizations, and after I learned how to do the tests, which were using specialized glass bulbs and tubing and old fashioned electronic devices to mostly measure oxygen saturation, I assisted and also assisted and did tests in heart surgeries, even open heart surgeries. It seemed they did heart catheterizations almost every day. They also wrote papers and I was even asked to check the English translations of the synopsis a few times after I had learned German sufficiently. We hardly ever socialized, except once we all went bowling together. That’s when I got to know Dr. Walser a little. He sort of became my friend, and then boyfriend, and then we were an item.
When I first came to town, I signed up for German lessons at the Berlitz schule. There were about 20 people in our class. The woman who taught it just started out speaking German and only German. We had to figure out what she was saying and repeat after her. We had books to go with it with pictures but they were written in German. She couldn’t speak in our own language to help us because almost everyone in the class spoke a different language! There were people from England, Ireland, Scotland, Italy, Sardinia, Turkey, France. I struck up a friendship with a group who would go out to coffee after the class. There were about six of us or more. It was really helpful because we HAD to speak German since that was the only language we had in common. My biggest compliment was one day when I got on the street car, my most common form of transportation, and the ticket taker asked if I was a German girl.
I started dating the Turkish guy. We hung out with these two or three Northern Italian guys and a couple girls. We started meeting Saturday mornings at a coffee house and spend all morning there until everyone who said they were coming showed up. We would decide what we were going to do for the day. Sometimes we would go to a park, sometimes to a movie, sometimes walk around town or go shopping. Sometimes someone would get a car and we would drive somewhere. I remember driving with the two Northern Italians and they would just sing and sing opera arias like they were popular hits. They had such joy. They were fair haired and large boned and not anything like what my concept of Italian was. We decided to take ski lessons. My Turkish friend and I signed up for these classes every Saturday. We got on a bus downtown in the morning, went to a different famous Swiss ski area each week, and had a lesson all day. We went to Grindlewald, Adelboden, Muren, Gstaad, Zermatt, and Interlaken. My last lesson, they asked us if we wanted to take one more run. I was finally getting it so I said ya. However, my body was obviously tired because I fell down half way to the end and wrenched my knee and had to be put on a sled to the bottom. Somehow I made it home and nursed a sore knee at home off work for over a week. I was pretty miserable and learned the word for homesick, heimweh.
But I must have gotten back on my skiis because I went skiing another time and fell and my ski pole cut open my lower lip. I put snow on it to stop the swelling, but it was still a huge lip when I got back to Bern, all by myself without the group. I called my new friend Peter Walser and he took me to the Emergency Room at the Inselspital. Well, they had no emergencies at that time. In fact, it looked like they hardly ever had any. There was one doctor who talked to Peter over coffee for half an hour before he even looked at me. Then he decided, in consultation with Peter, that I should have stitches, and also a tetanus shot. So that took another hour or so. Then Peter decided to take me out to dinner, which was a joke since I could barely talk. But by morning my lip was not so swollen. Peter was going skiing and wanted me to join him. We went to Murren, where they had just finished filming the James Bond 007 movie “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” set there. It features a Von Roll gondola. So we rode the gondola and skied the slopes. In the middle of the day I started to get a high fever and feel really sick. But Peter just wouldn’t believe me and didn’t want to spoil his day so I had to carry on. I remember going down this particularly steep slope. He said to just go down like a shlicht punkt (Exclamation point). Just go straight down and then fall down at the bottom. So I did.
Peter and I dated steadily after that. We went skiing, cross-country skiing, movies, drives in his VW bug, restaurants, beer halls, and traditional Swiss events like Swiss wrestling. That was really interesting. They had the Swiss polka music and band and the big Swiss horn, and the Swiss costumes. The men wrestled by holding on to each other’s under pants, which were special white pants that looked like underpants. Then they threw each other around like that. They were usually really big men.
He took me swimming in the Aare, to local restaurants that served bull’s balls only on Friday nights, spaetzle and made me schnitzel with cream and whisky sauce once. His mother was a terrific cook and had us over for dinner a lot. She made the best weiner schnitzel (topped with lemon) and these hash browned potatoes. His father had been a dentist and he was an only child. His father was retired and was morbidly obese. He lived in his own room in his parent’s apartment. His mother had her room, a small sitting room and kitchen. His father died a few short years after I left, but his mother lived about 10 years or more, still in the same apartment. Most people lived in apartments. Herr Professor lived in a small house and so did Dr. Munger after a few years in a house out in the suburbs. But Peter always lived in an apartment until his death about 1995. He became morbidly obese as well. He had three children. Concheta, his wife, still lives there and we send Xmas cards to her.
After I started dating Peter, I stopped hanging out with the Berlitz crowd. Also, because we had finished all three books. We were the only class to go this far. Peter and I went skiing in winter, to restaurants and movies (spaghetti westerns with “Make my day” guy. This was how he got famous. We also went to museums and beer halls and such. We also visited his parents. We traveled together a little bit. After a year I bought a yellow VW from the gas station on the corner near my place. I paid $2,000 SF for it. After a year, I sold it back to the same gas station for the same price. Once Peter and I went across the state to see a friend of his who was selling an old vintage Mercedes Benz convertible. When we saw it, the engine was out of it and it was in the process of being restored and didn’t look like it would make it for awhile. They wanted 500 SF for it, but when they found out I was American, the price went up, so I decided not to buy it, especially since it was not driveable. That’s when I bought the VW. Peter and I also went to the Basel Fastnacht in February. It was something else. For several days the streets were filled with costumed parades, mostly at night. After the parade you would go to restaurants and have onion quiche and onion soup and flour soup. I took lots of black and white photos and they are in an album somewhere.
I bought a Minolta camera a few months after I got to Switzerland in a camera shop and bought more lenses and filters and such and learned all about photography. I took photos everywhere and really got an eye for good artistic photos. I persuaded the hospital to let me use their dark room and I bought some trays and chemicals and used the stuff there and made lots of prints for my photo albums. One day I was in the dark room making large prints so I had to make the adjustments to the enlarger by stepping up onto a stool and back down again. The next day I could hardly walk, and thought I had something really wrong with my leg until I realized I had been doing that motion for like 8 hours the day before and didn’t realize it, I was so engrossed.
We went hiking almost every weekend in the summer. We had maps of the mountains for hiking and would pick a spot, go to the store and buy wine and bread and cheese and sometimes dried meats and fruit and take it in a rucksack to the top of the mountain. I loved the part where we got to the top and could see the other side of the mountain. That is such a thrill. Then we would drive home and stop off at a small restaurant in the middle of nowhere on the road or in a little village and have fondue. Every time I ate fondue in Switzerland it tasted different because each area had their own cheese. The wines of Switzerland were wonderful. When I got back I could sometimes find some to buy, but they are no longer available to buy in the US, mainly because the Swiss drink it all themselves. We went to Gruyere one time where they make the Gruyere cheese and had clotted cream, something I had never seen or eaten before. Cream that you eat with a spoon. Gruyere is on a hill, a walled town. The dairy fields are all around it below. It is quite beautiful. Switzerland itself is beautiful everywhere. The roads are always groomed, the grass is always cut, the farms are like photos.
Once Peter took me to Nice in France. He really liked the South of France. We went to a glass factory and Calder art museum and all sorts of places. He took me to visit cousins in the North of Italy. It was absolutely beautiful. The church bell was the only sound. We were offered traditional Swiss milch café. Hot strong coffee with chicory in it, poured at the same time into your cup with hot milk. Delicious. We also went to Florence together in October. We stayed in this castle overlooking the town. It had no heat, and the bathroom was down the hall, but we had breakfast on the balcony in the sun in this old palace castle which made you feel like a Florentine. We went to the Ufizi, saw the David, saw all the other museums, and were so busy we forgot to eat one day. We tried to find a restaurant at 3:00pm but everything was closed. We also went to Parma where I learned that here is where they make Parmesan cheese and it isn’t anything like the green can of Kraft parmesan I was used to. It was a delicious hard cheese and there were several kinds, and you could buy it ungrated and by the pound! Then we went to Pisa and went up the leaning tower. It wasn’t very big, in a big grassy field. The steps were really worn and small. Driving back up the Western coast of Italy, we stopped at a seaside stand and got an Italian pizza right from Italy. It was called quatra stagioni (four stages, or four different things on it). It was all seafood, no cheese or red sauce. The beaches were beautiful and the day was very hot, in the 80’s but no one was on the beach at all, I guess because it was October.
In the mountains, every once in awhile Peter would point out a camouflage tented area where the Swiss army had a bunker for maneuvers. He said that there are bunkers all over Switzerland big enough for the whole population to go into in case of a bombing attack or something. Every man is required to go to the military for two years after high school. Then they are required to go to camp for two weeks of training each year to keep up. Every man in the country has a military rifle and fatigues at home, ready to go if necessary. There are bicycle troops, airplanes, etc. all at the ready. Switzerland was not in World War I or II. They remained neutral. They were able to do this because the other countries knew that they had a strong military force and wouldn’t be able to be conquered. That’s what Peter said.
Peter and I dated seriously for a year. Then he decided to go to Mexico to study under some famous Cardiologist in Mexico City. He wanted me to stay in Switzerland to wait for him to return. I upped for another year at the Inselspital but got the idea that it was a favor. The first letter or two Peter asked me to marry him. I was so excited. I wrote back that we didn’t have to wait, I could come to Mexico and be with him, or get a job there or something. He wouldn’t go for that, and I didn’t understand. Then he started talking about this friend he met, a woman who was a travel agent, Conchita. Then he broke off the engagement, saying that I had been unfaithful to him with Francois. I was, but he had no way of really knowing, I think he just wanted an excuse because he was dating Conchita.
Peter was always in a jazz band. He played drums. They played a couple times a month. One of the guys in the band was Francois. When Peter left for Mexico, he asked Francois to “take care of me”. Francois was very good looking, smiley, friendly guy and very smart. He was a graduate student in German and French, he said. I never saw him go to class. His Mother spoke French and his Father spoke German. They understood each other, but only spoke their own language. So Francois grew up speaking French to his Mother and German to his Father! He had a sister. His Father was the Treasurer of Switzerland. But when I knew him, his Father was on suspended leave from his job because he was being investigated. Gradually I learned that what he was being investigated about was the fact that he was taking gold Swiss coins or collector coins from the treasury and selling them to collectors and replacing the coins with equivalent currency in the new coinage. There was no law against doing this, so he was put on leave.
Francois and I hung out together a lot as friends. He was really easy to get along with. We kissed and acted like boyfriend and girlfriend, but I only had eyes for Peter and talked about him all the time. Francois invited me to the South of France to this little village for Christmas. We drove there and stayed in someone’s home. It was a very tiny village with one pub. We met there and had a party. They all sang drinking songs and one of them was “buve, buve, buve”. Everyone was named and then they sang buve buve buve. That meant you had to drink up a glass of wine while they sang that, which was pretty fast. I was very drunk that night and only remember the buve buve buve. We slept in the huge feather bed but the room wasn’t heated and it was below freezing. They put a pan with hot coals in it in the foot of the bed. The feather comforter soon held the warmth from our bodies and it was warm. I told Peter’s mom about this trip and I think this is why Peter felt I was not being faithful to him.
Francois and I went to his University “prom”. I got a new fancy dress and Francois wore a nice tuxedo. We went to this huge fancy hall like the house of government or something, it was very elaborate architecture, marble, etc. There were many rooms and several bands to dance to. Everyone looked very prosperous and beautiful. It lasted until early in the morning. After the dance we came back to Francois’ apartment where he lived with his parents. He offered to have me stay there overnight. He offered me smoked salmon and champagne that he had prepared for us for when we got back. However, his Mother came in to interrupt us to tell him that his Father had shot himself in the head and was in the hospital. This obviously interrupted our evening and I went home, worried about what was happening. It turned out that they must have decided to fire his Dad and accuse him of crimes or something so he just tried to commit suicide. It took him a week to die. I heard that his mother was so distraught that she died a year later.
Another trip I took was to Paris in the Spring. I don’t know if I knew Peter then or not. I went by myself. I had to take that overnight train again. This time I was prepared that my sleeping car was coed. And lo and behold I knew the guy above me! He was the teller at my Swiss bank. He said he was going to visit the United States and was going to Paris for a day or two before going to get his ship in Le Havre. He was taking his motor cycle which he had shipped ahead of him. I can’t believe I did this, but I had no idea where I was going to stay in Paris. Luckily, he knew a cheap hotel and I was able to get a room there as well. He took me out the first night there. We went to a jazz club and then went to Les Halles late at night. This is where all the food vendors came to sell their fresh fish and vegetables to the restaurants. There were famous restaurants in Les Halles for the vendors that sold fresh oysters and onion soup. So we got that, like at 2:00am. That was how you were supposed to see Les Halles. I remember sitting on a big stool while they shucked the oysters and brought them to you. Then we got a big bowl of onion soup covered in hot broiled cheese toast, just like French onion soup in US restaurants. Les Halles has since been torn down and moved to the suburbs. This guy introduced me to his friends who called on me the next day and went with me to the Louvre. I remember the entrance was up these long stairs into this castle like building. I remember the Louvre was too huge to see everything, so I gave up, but I saw most of the famous things like the winged victory and Mona Lisa. When we went there a few years ago, they had that pyramid entrance and Mona Lisa was behind glass. It was also too huge to see it all, though, so it hadn’t changed that much.
That night I went to a dance club alone that these guys told me about. I don’t know how I had enough nerve to do that. It was two or three flights down. Outside as I was walking there, some guys tried to proposition me. I remembered my high school French enough to tell them to get lost.
The next day I was in line to get tickets to the Folie Bergere. There were two guys in front of me speaking what I knew was Schweitzer Duetch. I could even tell they were from the Bern area. I asked them in German if I was correct, and they said yes. They offered to get tickets together for the show so I would have someone to go with. They took me out that night to another jazz club after the show and may have gone with me to another museum. I remember that I was never alone in Paris, that I never ate alone, and that I never had to carry my suitcase because there was always some gentleman to help. Today I would never have been allowed to do that or even considered doing all that alone at that age, 25. I was very naïve and lucky.
About a month after I was in Bern, I got very homesick and so I arranged with Annaliese, the girl from my ship, to visit her in Reutlingen. I took the train (not carrying my suitcase again). In the German style, they had cold cuts for breakfast, a heavy meal at lunch, and cold cuts and fruit tart for dinner. She invited over some friends and had a party. There were two guys there who had climbed the Eiger North Face. They wrote a book about it. They had frozen off several of their toes doing it. They were fascinating to talk to and to hear their stories of this treacherous climb. If you have ever seen a picture of the Eiger, it is a triangle, going straight up. The North Face looks like you have to go straight up a wall. And then the top is actually curved over towards you and very pointed. Not many people have climbed it.
Another trip I took in my VW was to Austria to the Black Forest. I stayed in Saltzburg where Mozart was born. I went to the Mozart house, and this cathedral with these amazing carved doors. I ate Viener Schnitzel and black forest cake, but didn’t go to Vienna. I went to the Neuschwanstein Castle and drove through the black forest which was mile upon mile of forest. I also went to Insbruck, but I don’t remember anything about it except it was pretty.
The first summer my parents came to visit me from their biannual trip to France to pick up their Mercedes Benz. They spent two weeks with me. I was supposed to show them around Switzerland and make them an itinerary, but I was hopeless and had no idea what to do. They met me in Geneva at a fancy hotel. Peter was supposed to maybe come to meet them there but he never showed up or called. We toured all around Lake Geneva and saw the castle in the middle of the lake there, Chillon. We even went to Lauzanne where I had never been. Probably because I spoke German and these were French areas of France. It was nice to see them and to have Maurice there to translate.
In the second year of our Bachelorette years, she met and married Darrel Musick. I had already filled out the paperwork and the Swiss were expecting me. I had a job at the Inselspital in Bern, Switzerland, the capitol city. In 1969 there were no transatlantic airflights. I had to take a ship. Going to Europe on a ship was not considered a cruise. It was a mode of transportation. I chose a German ship, the Bremin, with the Cunard line. The final destination was Bremen in Germany, but I decided to get off at the first stop in France so I could visit my Step-father’s cousin, Germaine, in Paris. I packed up my college trunk and a suitcase and somehow got to New York where the ship embarked. Maurice and Mother took me out to dinner at a fine French restaurant the night before, where I got sick and threw up because I was so nervous. It suddenly hit me that I was going alone to Europe, where I had never been, where they speak a different language, and I knew no one. An old boyfriend and my parents came on board the ship for the disembarking party. Then they blew the whistle and everyone had to leave and I was alone in my cabin with three other single women. Luckily, one of them was Annaliese. She was a couple years older than I and German. Coincidentally, she had been living in the US for two years working as a Medical Technologist and was now going home. She spoke English well and helped translate for me because the whole ship was German speaking only. We traveled second class. That meant that we had areas we were not allowed to visit, we had a separate dining area, and separate entertainment and bar area. Annaliese introduced me to the Compari unt Soda. She swore that this drink would cure any seasickness. We soon had a good time drinking Compari unt sodas all evening while listening to German polka and folk music and dancing. We met some of the crew who were out on a cigarette break. They took us to their rooms and we had parties. They met us while we were outside having a cigarette. The guy came up to us with his lighted cigarette and asked us if we had a match! We ended up the last night before I got off in Le Havre, staying up all night. I got off the ship at 5:00am to catch the Paris train. It took a few hours to get to Paris while I nursed my hangover and got some sleep, but I was still pretty much a basket case when I met Germaine at the Gare. I only had until that evening to catch my train to Bern, so he just drove me around Paris and said “This is Notre Dame”, this is the Louvre, etc. I saw it all from the window of his car. We stopped several times so I could go to the bathroom. I had to ask him for 10 centimes each time, because there was a lady who blocked your way into the WC and you had to pay to get in, or there were coin machines on the locked doors, and one I remember was just on the street, a “pissoir”, that you had to put in the coin to get in and it smelled awful, which was pretty much how all of Paris smelled, actually. He took me to a French restaurant, but nothing like the one Maurice had taken me to in New York. We had boef et pommes frites. Just an overcooked, skinny steak and skinny French fries. Germaine did not speak English very well at all, so it was a very trying day – me with a hangover having to go to the bathroom every hour, he trying to show me the sights from the back seat of his car.
He eventually got me to the correct Gare to go to Bern. It was an overnight trip. I was assigned to a sleeping car with 6 berths. To my surprise, there were 5 other people of course, but males and females, young and old. The bath was at the end of the car. In the morning the porter came and converted the beds to seats. I arrived in mid morning at the train station. I had a reservation at a cheap hotel in town for a few days before I talked to the hospital and found a place to stay. I hailed a cab outside the train station. Heaven knows how I got all my stuff and the big trunk up all the stairs and outside. I do remember that during my whole stay in Europe during all my travels, I never had to carry a bag. Because I was traveling alone, there was always a nice gentleman ready to carry my bags and be of any assistance. I was very naïve and accepted it gracefully every time because I was so amazed that everyone was so friendly.
At last I found a cab and got all my stuff in it, and gave the driver the address. He drove less than a block, but I think he went around the block just to get a fare. I could have walked to the hotel.
A block away from my hotel was a very fancy hotel, the Sweitzerhof. I ate there my first night and had a very nice Italian waiter who was very attentive. He made sure I knew his name and contact information. He was short, but cute, and was learning English. He was from Sardinia, where the language was a slightly different form of Latin. He asked me out a few times. We went to a pretty park once, and out to coffee, but then I met other people and I don’t remember what became of him later.
I found my way to the personnel office of the Inselspital, was introduced to the Cardiologia lab where I would work, and given some names where I might find lodging. I decided to stay with Frau Amstutz on Fabrikstrasse. Frau Amstutz was a widow living in a two bedroom apartment on the second floor. I had my own room with a garderobe, a single bed with built in bookcase, a small chest of drawers, and a desk that was really where you put your makeup and it had a mirror. I used my trunk as a little table and stored some of my stuff there. She worked at this factory where they make a malt beverage that is famous in Switzerland and was sold in the US as well. Swiss women did not have the vote then and she said she was glad. They only go the vote in the 80’s I believe. There was a dark living room with a small TV that she never went into, her bedroom, a small kitchen where I was allowed to keep a few things of my own, and a bathroom we shared. Wash day was once a week and she did it in the sink and then hung up the clothes to dry on her balcony or in the shower. She seldom washed anything, preferring to just air it out on a hanger on the balcony as well. We had a little compartment by the front door where they could deliver milk or bread, called a milch malchli, kokish kashli. I don’t know how to really spell it, but it is the only Swiss German I know.
Frau Amstutz had muesli in the morning, then she came home at noon and cooked herself a big dinner of meat, potatoes and a vegetable, either cut up meat in a cream sauce, or breaded and fried. Spaetzle, the Swiss flour noodles that look like scrambled eggs with butter, or fried potatoes. Then for supper, she ate yoghurt and maybe some muesli with it. I had never seen or heard of yoghurt before. I lived on it. We could go shopping around the corner and down the street where there would be a bakery, then a butcher, then a dairy store with the milk and yoghurt, all flavors, and a flower shop, and candy store, and a small grocery with eggs kept at room temperature in the aisles, oil, veges, etc. all fresh. I mostly ate yoghurt for breakfast and dinner with muesli, and had my main meal at the hospital where the cafeteria had a hearty meal prepared cafeteria style each day. Then I would go home and do stuff before I went back to work at 2:00pm. Everyone in town got those two hours off. That made rush hour four times a day, but it was really nice to have a big break in the middle of the day which made it easier to go back to work refreshed. And since everyone had this schedule, the whole town adhered to it so the movies, stores, restaurants, etc. worked with this as well. It was nice to eat your main meal early so it could digest, and you had energy to finish the day.
Fabrikstrasse means factory street. Next door to my apartment building was a piano factory. You could hear piano music during the day as they did the quality control testing. Across the street was a huge factory that made gondolas, called the Von Roll company. The gondola at Alyeska resort is a Von Roll. Just about any gondola I have ever seen anywhere is made by Von Roll. At the far end of the block was the Toblerone factory. They make the triangular shaped chocolate bars in the yellow and red packaging. The windows are all blocked and barred and it has high security because the recipe is secret. But many days while listening to piano music from next door, a waft of chocolate aroma would blow in the window.
Inselspital was a conglomerate of many buildings, with a tall white duo tower in the center. But it was the new hospital under construction. It looked completely finished when I arrived in Summer of 1969, and it was still not open for business when I left the spring of 1971. I learned that the Swiss build their buildings to last for centuries, unlike the United States. I also observed this in other ways. There was a new road being built. The first year they grade it and put gravel on it. Then it is graded and graveled for several more years until all the potholes and indentations have worked themselves out. THEN they pave it. The stone buildings in downtown Bern were built in the 1500’s. The building code requires that if you buy one of these buildings and want to put in a store or restore it and live in it or something, you have to leave the outside of the building exactly the same, or build it to look exactly the same as it was. All the buildings in the old part of town have covered walkways with rounded arches. The stone is a yellowish color, and the streets are all brick. There is usually a fountain or statue or clock where two streets cross, or a square. It is very charming. Of course there is the bear pits, at the far end of the town. Yes, they keep two or three bears down in a pit. You view them from above which is street level. It looked rather cruel to me. There are a couple of charming mechanical clocks with figures that come out and rotate around on the hour, and bells that chime. The town is centered in a turn of the river Aare. This river flows through the town and divides it with several bridges. On a hill is the center of government. On the square outside this area is a beautiful view of the mountains, mainly the Eiger, Monch, and Jungfrau. The Eiger is the tall pointy one, the Monch is the middle, more rounded one, and the Jungfrau is the largest one. Every mountain in Switzerland has a name, unlike Alaska. On this square you also stand to watch the fireworks which happen once or twice a year but I forget when, of course not on July 4th.
A story about the river Aare. Peter took me swimming on the Aare. That was one of our favorite things to do in the summer on a hot day. The women have a huge area of lawn and dressing area, and the men have another separate area. Basically the dressing area just covers your middle of your body. Your head and feet are open to view. Most women wear no top when sunbathing, but stick to the women’s side. We would get our swim suits on, then jump in the river and float with the current down to a get out point, then walk back and do it again. It was really refreshing and fun. The river went pretty fast, too, so you really had to be quick to get out when the spot appeared.
So I started work in one of the older hospital buildings in Kardiologie. Herr Professor Hans Peter Gurtner was the head of the lab. There was no doubt who was in charge. He had a certain air about him. He had a white lab coat, a mustache goatee, graying at the sides, and glasses. He authored all the papers, he presided at all the catheterization tests, he had his own office. There were three Residents with white coats working for him under his tutelage. Peter Walser, Dr. Munger, and Dr. Saltzman. Munger was small, blonde, and very kindly. Gerhinger was very tall, dark, and aloof. Walser was large like a teddy bear, had a mustache and small beard, glasses, and a twinkle in his eye. They all spoke English quite well, so I had to try really hard to speak German, since they wanted to always practice their English with me. They had desks in this large room where my desk was as well. Then there were two Fraulein’s. Fraulein Stahli was the secretary. She answered the phones and did the correspondence. Fraulein Munger was the other laboratory technologist. They were about my age. Stahli was short, plump, cute personality and fun, with dark curly hair. Fraulein Munger was tall, blonde, beautiful and aloof. I usually hung out with the two girls, but it was a formal relationship. We used the formal form of “you”. I tried to say “du” once, and was rebuffed. I learned later that you had to know someone for a certain amount of time and then one of you would ask if you could “dutze”. I didn’t learn about that until it was too late, so I worked with these two women for two years and we addressed each other as Fraulein. I learned years later that Fraulein Munger committed suicide after a bad love affair.
My work consisted of sitting at my desk, being asked to come along to observe catheterizations, and after I learned how to do the tests, which were using specialized glass bulbs and tubing and old fashioned electronic devices to mostly measure oxygen saturation, I assisted and also assisted and did tests in heart surgeries, even open heart surgeries. It seemed they did heart catheterizations almost every day. They also wrote papers and I was even asked to check the English translations of the synopsis a few times after I had learned German sufficiently. We hardly ever socialized, except once we all went bowling together. That’s when I got to know Dr. Walser a little. He sort of became my friend, and then boyfriend, and then we were an item.
When I first came to town, I signed up for German lessons at the Berlitz schule. There were about 20 people in our class. The woman who taught it just started out speaking German and only German. We had to figure out what she was saying and repeat after her. We had books to go with it with pictures but they were written in German. She couldn’t speak in our own language to help us because almost everyone in the class spoke a different language! There were people from England, Ireland, Scotland, Italy, Sardinia, Turkey, France. I struck up a friendship with a group who would go out to coffee after the class. There were about six of us or more. It was really helpful because we HAD to speak German since that was the only language we had in common. My biggest compliment was one day when I got on the street car, my most common form of transportation, and the ticket taker asked if I was a German girl.
I started dating the Turkish guy. We hung out with these two or three Northern Italian guys and a couple girls. We started meeting Saturday mornings at a coffee house and spend all morning there until everyone who said they were coming showed up. We would decide what we were going to do for the day. Sometimes we would go to a park, sometimes to a movie, sometimes walk around town or go shopping. Sometimes someone would get a car and we would drive somewhere. I remember driving with the two Northern Italians and they would just sing and sing opera arias like they were popular hits. They had such joy. They were fair haired and large boned and not anything like what my concept of Italian was. We decided to take ski lessons. My Turkish friend and I signed up for these classes every Saturday. We got on a bus downtown in the morning, went to a different famous Swiss ski area each week, and had a lesson all day. We went to Grindlewald, Adelboden, Muren, Gstaad, Zermatt, and Interlaken. My last lesson, they asked us if we wanted to take one more run. I was finally getting it so I said ya. However, my body was obviously tired because I fell down half way to the end and wrenched my knee and had to be put on a sled to the bottom. Somehow I made it home and nursed a sore knee at home off work for over a week. I was pretty miserable and learned the word for homesick, heimweh.
But I must have gotten back on my skiis because I went skiing another time and fell and my ski pole cut open my lower lip. I put snow on it to stop the swelling, but it was still a huge lip when I got back to Bern, all by myself without the group. I called my new friend Peter Walser and he took me to the Emergency Room at the Inselspital. Well, they had no emergencies at that time. In fact, it looked like they hardly ever had any. There was one doctor who talked to Peter over coffee for half an hour before he even looked at me. Then he decided, in consultation with Peter, that I should have stitches, and also a tetanus shot. So that took another hour or so. Then Peter decided to take me out to dinner, which was a joke since I could barely talk. But by morning my lip was not so swollen. Peter was going skiing and wanted me to join him. We went to Murren, where they had just finished filming the James Bond 007 movie “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” set there. It features a Von Roll gondola. So we rode the gondola and skied the slopes. In the middle of the day I started to get a high fever and feel really sick. But Peter just wouldn’t believe me and didn’t want to spoil his day so I had to carry on. I remember going down this particularly steep slope. He said to just go down like a shlicht punkt (Exclamation point). Just go straight down and then fall down at the bottom. So I did.
Peter and I dated steadily after that. We went skiing, cross-country skiing, movies, drives in his VW bug, restaurants, beer halls, and traditional Swiss events like Swiss wrestling. That was really interesting. They had the Swiss polka music and band and the big Swiss horn, and the Swiss costumes. The men wrestled by holding on to each other’s under pants, which were special white pants that looked like underpants. Then they threw each other around like that. They were usually really big men.
He took me swimming in the Aare, to local restaurants that served bull’s balls only on Friday nights, spaetzle and made me schnitzel with cream and whisky sauce once. His mother was a terrific cook and had us over for dinner a lot. She made the best weiner schnitzel (topped with lemon) and these hash browned potatoes. His father had been a dentist and he was an only child. His father was retired and was morbidly obese. He lived in his own room in his parent’s apartment. His mother had her room, a small sitting room and kitchen. His father died a few short years after I left, but his mother lived about 10 years or more, still in the same apartment. Most people lived in apartments. Herr Professor lived in a small house and so did Dr. Munger after a few years in a house out in the suburbs. But Peter always lived in an apartment until his death about 1995. He became morbidly obese as well. He had three children. Concheta, his wife, still lives there and we send Xmas cards to her.
After I started dating Peter, I stopped hanging out with the Berlitz crowd. Also, because we had finished all three books. We were the only class to go this far. Peter and I went skiing in winter, to restaurants and movies (spaghetti westerns with “Make my day” guy. This was how he got famous. We also went to museums and beer halls and such. We also visited his parents. We traveled together a little bit. After a year I bought a yellow VW from the gas station on the corner near my place. I paid $2,000 SF for it. After a year, I sold it back to the same gas station for the same price. Once Peter and I went across the state to see a friend of his who was selling an old vintage Mercedes Benz convertible. When we saw it, the engine was out of it and it was in the process of being restored and didn’t look like it would make it for awhile. They wanted 500 SF for it, but when they found out I was American, the price went up, so I decided not to buy it, especially since it was not driveable. That’s when I bought the VW. Peter and I also went to the Basel Fastnacht in February. It was something else. For several days the streets were filled with costumed parades, mostly at night. After the parade you would go to restaurants and have onion quiche and onion soup and flour soup. I took lots of black and white photos and they are in an album somewhere.
I bought a Minolta camera a few months after I got to Switzerland in a camera shop and bought more lenses and filters and such and learned all about photography. I took photos everywhere and really got an eye for good artistic photos. I persuaded the hospital to let me use their dark room and I bought some trays and chemicals and used the stuff there and made lots of prints for my photo albums. One day I was in the dark room making large prints so I had to make the adjustments to the enlarger by stepping up onto a stool and back down again. The next day I could hardly walk, and thought I had something really wrong with my leg until I realized I had been doing that motion for like 8 hours the day before and didn’t realize it, I was so engrossed.
We went hiking almost every weekend in the summer. We had maps of the mountains for hiking and would pick a spot, go to the store and buy wine and bread and cheese and sometimes dried meats and fruit and take it in a rucksack to the top of the mountain. I loved the part where we got to the top and could see the other side of the mountain. That is such a thrill. Then we would drive home and stop off at a small restaurant in the middle of nowhere on the road or in a little village and have fondue. Every time I ate fondue in Switzerland it tasted different because each area had their own cheese. The wines of Switzerland were wonderful. When I got back I could sometimes find some to buy, but they are no longer available to buy in the US, mainly because the Swiss drink it all themselves. We went to Gruyere one time where they make the Gruyere cheese and had clotted cream, something I had never seen or eaten before. Cream that you eat with a spoon. Gruyere is on a hill, a walled town. The dairy fields are all around it below. It is quite beautiful. Switzerland itself is beautiful everywhere. The roads are always groomed, the grass is always cut, the farms are like photos.
Once Peter took me to Nice in France. He really liked the South of France. We went to a glass factory and Calder art museum and all sorts of places. He took me to visit cousins in the North of Italy. It was absolutely beautiful. The church bell was the only sound. We were offered traditional Swiss milch café. Hot strong coffee with chicory in it, poured at the same time into your cup with hot milk. Delicious. We also went to Florence together in October. We stayed in this castle overlooking the town. It had no heat, and the bathroom was down the hall, but we had breakfast on the balcony in the sun in this old palace castle which made you feel like a Florentine. We went to the Ufizi, saw the David, saw all the other museums, and were so busy we forgot to eat one day. We tried to find a restaurant at 3:00pm but everything was closed. We also went to Parma where I learned that here is where they make Parmesan cheese and it isn’t anything like the green can of Kraft parmesan I was used to. It was a delicious hard cheese and there were several kinds, and you could buy it ungrated and by the pound! Then we went to Pisa and went up the leaning tower. It wasn’t very big, in a big grassy field. The steps were really worn and small. Driving back up the Western coast of Italy, we stopped at a seaside stand and got an Italian pizza right from Italy. It was called quatra stagioni (four stages, or four different things on it). It was all seafood, no cheese or red sauce. The beaches were beautiful and the day was very hot, in the 80’s but no one was on the beach at all, I guess because it was October.
In the mountains, every once in awhile Peter would point out a camouflage tented area where the Swiss army had a bunker for maneuvers. He said that there are bunkers all over Switzerland big enough for the whole population to go into in case of a bombing attack or something. Every man is required to go to the military for two years after high school. Then they are required to go to camp for two weeks of training each year to keep up. Every man in the country has a military rifle and fatigues at home, ready to go if necessary. There are bicycle troops, airplanes, etc. all at the ready. Switzerland was not in World War I or II. They remained neutral. They were able to do this because the other countries knew that they had a strong military force and wouldn’t be able to be conquered. That’s what Peter said.
Peter and I dated seriously for a year. Then he decided to go to Mexico to study under some famous Cardiologist in Mexico City. He wanted me to stay in Switzerland to wait for him to return. I upped for another year at the Inselspital but got the idea that it was a favor. The first letter or two Peter asked me to marry him. I was so excited. I wrote back that we didn’t have to wait, I could come to Mexico and be with him, or get a job there or something. He wouldn’t go for that, and I didn’t understand. Then he started talking about this friend he met, a woman who was a travel agent, Conchita. Then he broke off the engagement, saying that I had been unfaithful to him with Francois. I was, but he had no way of really knowing, I think he just wanted an excuse because he was dating Conchita.
Peter was always in a jazz band. He played drums. They played a couple times a month. One of the guys in the band was Francois. When Peter left for Mexico, he asked Francois to “take care of me”. Francois was very good looking, smiley, friendly guy and very smart. He was a graduate student in German and French, he said. I never saw him go to class. His Mother spoke French and his Father spoke German. They understood each other, but only spoke their own language. So Francois grew up speaking French to his Mother and German to his Father! He had a sister. His Father was the Treasurer of Switzerland. But when I knew him, his Father was on suspended leave from his job because he was being investigated. Gradually I learned that what he was being investigated about was the fact that he was taking gold Swiss coins or collector coins from the treasury and selling them to collectors and replacing the coins with equivalent currency in the new coinage. There was no law against doing this, so he was put on leave.
Francois and I hung out together a lot as friends. He was really easy to get along with. We kissed and acted like boyfriend and girlfriend, but I only had eyes for Peter and talked about him all the time. Francois invited me to the South of France to this little village for Christmas. We drove there and stayed in someone’s home. It was a very tiny village with one pub. We met there and had a party. They all sang drinking songs and one of them was “buve, buve, buve”. Everyone was named and then they sang buve buve buve. That meant you had to drink up a glass of wine while they sang that, which was pretty fast. I was very drunk that night and only remember the buve buve buve. We slept in the huge feather bed but the room wasn’t heated and it was below freezing. They put a pan with hot coals in it in the foot of the bed. The feather comforter soon held the warmth from our bodies and it was warm. I told Peter’s mom about this trip and I think this is why Peter felt I was not being faithful to him.
Francois and I went to his University “prom”. I got a new fancy dress and Francois wore a nice tuxedo. We went to this huge fancy hall like the house of government or something, it was very elaborate architecture, marble, etc. There were many rooms and several bands to dance to. Everyone looked very prosperous and beautiful. It lasted until early in the morning. After the dance we came back to Francois’ apartment where he lived with his parents. He offered to have me stay there overnight. He offered me smoked salmon and champagne that he had prepared for us for when we got back. However, his Mother came in to interrupt us to tell him that his Father had shot himself in the head and was in the hospital. This obviously interrupted our evening and I went home, worried about what was happening. It turned out that they must have decided to fire his Dad and accuse him of crimes or something so he just tried to commit suicide. It took him a week to die. I heard that his mother was so distraught that she died a year later.
Another trip I took was to Paris in the Spring. I don’t know if I knew Peter then or not. I went by myself. I had to take that overnight train again. This time I was prepared that my sleeping car was coed. And lo and behold I knew the guy above me! He was the teller at my Swiss bank. He said he was going to visit the United States and was going to Paris for a day or two before going to get his ship in Le Havre. He was taking his motor cycle which he had shipped ahead of him. I can’t believe I did this, but I had no idea where I was going to stay in Paris. Luckily, he knew a cheap hotel and I was able to get a room there as well. He took me out the first night there. We went to a jazz club and then went to Les Halles late at night. This is where all the food vendors came to sell their fresh fish and vegetables to the restaurants. There were famous restaurants in Les Halles for the vendors that sold fresh oysters and onion soup. So we got that, like at 2:00am. That was how you were supposed to see Les Halles. I remember sitting on a big stool while they shucked the oysters and brought them to you. Then we got a big bowl of onion soup covered in hot broiled cheese toast, just like French onion soup in US restaurants. Les Halles has since been torn down and moved to the suburbs. This guy introduced me to his friends who called on me the next day and went with me to the Louvre. I remember the entrance was up these long stairs into this castle like building. I remember the Louvre was too huge to see everything, so I gave up, but I saw most of the famous things like the winged victory and Mona Lisa. When we went there a few years ago, they had that pyramid entrance and Mona Lisa was behind glass. It was also too huge to see it all, though, so it hadn’t changed that much.
That night I went to a dance club alone that these guys told me about. I don’t know how I had enough nerve to do that. It was two or three flights down. Outside as I was walking there, some guys tried to proposition me. I remembered my high school French enough to tell them to get lost.
The next day I was in line to get tickets to the Folie Bergere. There were two guys in front of me speaking what I knew was Schweitzer Duetch. I could even tell they were from the Bern area. I asked them in German if I was correct, and they said yes. They offered to get tickets together for the show so I would have someone to go with. They took me out that night to another jazz club after the show and may have gone with me to another museum. I remember that I was never alone in Paris, that I never ate alone, and that I never had to carry my suitcase because there was always some gentleman to help. Today I would never have been allowed to do that or even considered doing all that alone at that age, 25. I was very naïve and lucky.
About a month after I was in Bern, I got very homesick and so I arranged with Annaliese, the girl from my ship, to visit her in Reutlingen. I took the train (not carrying my suitcase again). In the German style, they had cold cuts for breakfast, a heavy meal at lunch, and cold cuts and fruit tart for dinner. She invited over some friends and had a party. There were two guys there who had climbed the Eiger North Face. They wrote a book about it. They had frozen off several of their toes doing it. They were fascinating to talk to and to hear their stories of this treacherous climb. If you have ever seen a picture of the Eiger, it is a triangle, going straight up. The North Face looks like you have to go straight up a wall. And then the top is actually curved over towards you and very pointed. Not many people have climbed it.
Another trip I took in my VW was to Austria to the Black Forest. I stayed in Saltzburg where Mozart was born. I went to the Mozart house, and this cathedral with these amazing carved doors. I ate Viener Schnitzel and black forest cake, but didn’t go to Vienna. I went to the Neuschwanstein Castle and drove through the black forest which was mile upon mile of forest. I also went to Insbruck, but I don’t remember anything about it except it was pretty.
The first summer my parents came to visit me from their biannual trip to France to pick up their Mercedes Benz. They spent two weeks with me. I was supposed to show them around Switzerland and make them an itinerary, but I was hopeless and had no idea what to do. They met me in Geneva at a fancy hotel. Peter was supposed to maybe come to meet them there but he never showed up or called. We toured all around Lake Geneva and saw the castle in the middle of the lake there, Chillon. We even went to Lauzanne where I had never been. Probably because I spoke German and these were French areas of France. It was nice to see them and to have Maurice there to translate.
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