Heading to Fiji

Heading to Fiji

Hawaiian Airport

February 2015

I arrive at the Hawaii airport at 9PM.  But my flight to Fiji is not until 4AM.  I have a very long wait until I move again.  So my first stop is the bar.   Two men sit beside me and they speak a language that I have never heard. I don’t recognize any tones or words.

“Where are you from”, I ask them, interrupting them and unabashed at my question. “I don’t recognize your language”, I tell them with a tone of authority, as if I have heard all languages and dialects to date.

“Fiji,” they tell me in unison, not bothered by my interruption. “We speak a half broken language, “ one of them adds.

It is a language I have never heard before.  “Does anyone speak English in Fiji?", I ask in a little bit of tone of desperation and hopefulness.

“Oh, yea, everyone”, they announce. “We just speak Fiji when we don’t want you to hear our conversation", one of them laughingly tells me.

What a relief, yet another country that will tolerate my language ineptness.

It's Really Cold Today

It’s Really Cold Today

Sias University

Henan Provence, China

Monday, April 2, 2012

The temperature is around 38F.  It was sleeting a little bit this morning. Now it’s just rainy and windy and miserable. It’s been like this for the last three days and it doesn't look as if it’s going to be warmer for another few days. To make matter worse, the heat was turned off on Monday.  Every building on campus has a cold, cold, damp feel to it.  When I speak, even when I am inside, I can see my breath.  This afternoon, , I had to wear my gloves and scarf while I was teaching. Tonight, I will have to wear my coat to bed.

The Tailor Shop

The Tailor's Shop

Henan Province

China

Spring 2012

A woman, in her fifties, sits at this stool all day and stoops over, awkwardly, to use her manual sewing machine.  She is the local tailor.  For fifty cents, she will cuff  your pants.  For a dime, she will sew  buttons on your blouse.  

On a good day, she makes about two dollars.  When it rains, she seeks shelter nearby, leaving all of her materials right there in the streets.  When it is cold, she just adds more layers of clothing. She works every day because when she does not work, she doesn't have money to feed her family. 

Sometimes, her mother stops by and assists her as needed. Other times, the older woman just sits on that yellow chair and keeps her daughter company  It's a harsh life but she is grateful to have a skill.

Beggar Man

Beggar Man

Elkton, MD

Fall 2015

We had just had three days of heavy rain. I had been in a discussion with someone about the people in our tent cities that lived near the river. I go down there to see what the rains had done to their meager belongings.

A man, my age. is sitting on the curb by himself. He is rocking ever so slightly and murmuring to himself.

 “How are you today, it’s a beautiful day, isn’t it.”, I comment, interrupting him.

“Yes mama, yes mam, the Lord gave us a beautiful day today. “ he responses.

“How did you survive the rains these last few days?”

“Oh, it was tough but I got one of them tarps so I just put that over my tent so it wasn’t too bad.  But it’s good to have the sun today.’

"Do you live down here", I ask, pointing to the dozen or so tents in front of us.

“No, no. Me and my buddy live on the other side of the road.  We stay away from here.  There are them young kids who live here and they wreck everything for everyone. Jesus, you would think they would leave our stuff alone but them don’t.  They just bust it up for the fun of it and then we have nothin’. Like, I was picked up by the police.  I was sorta driving without a license so I got 60 days in the clinker. I just got out.  I left my tent here. Well, I didn’t have a chance to take it down or nothin.  They just put me in jail that day.  And when I come back, them kids, well I call them kids cause I’m 60 and they’re about 25. They ripped the shit outta all of my stuff.  Now I got nothing.  So I moved in with my buddy.”

“How do you earn money?  Do you have a job?” I ask.

“No, no, no. No mam. I’m on disability.  But you want to hear something.  When you are in the clinker, you don’t get no check.  Can you believe it?  So I went in right before my check was supposed to come and they stopped it.  Then I was away for two months and now I’m out and I don’t have no money and I got out right after my check shoulda been sent to me.  Now I have to weight another month before I get my money.  And I need my money.”

He doesn’t ask me for money but he asks, “Do you happen to have any spare socks in your car.  My feet are wet,” he confesses with shame.

“I’ll go get you some sock, I tell him, don’t go away, I’ll come right back.”  And I do.  I bring him a package that has six pairs of socks and he is filled with glee.

“Holy shit, are these all for me?” He asked, just a little giddy.

“Do with them what you want.  Keep them all, give them away or sell them to the others.  They’re yours.”

“I’m going to give half to my buddy.  He needs socks too.  Hey, thanks. Thanks a lot.  My feet are really cold.”

Girl Scouts

Girl Scouts

Our Lady of Lourdes Grade School

Philadelphia, PA

1964-1967

I was in the girl scouts in 4^th, 5^th and 6^th grade and I loved it. We met every Thursday after school in our little basement cafeteria of my elementary school.  We were allowed to wear our green uniforms, which was a welcomed relief from the mandated plaid uniform we wore every other day.

Mostly, we played.  We ran around in the courtyard and chased each other and screeched and yelled to each other. Sometimes we had a few projects to do.  I did earn three badges: hospitality, trees and sewing.  I never did get around to sewing my sewing patch on my sash.  I can still identify a Sycamore leaf and I always tell people which forks to use when we are in a fancy resultant.  So all was not a waste of time.

I was the high cookie sales person in my troop.  I sold 120 boxes of cookies each year and I only had to go, literally, door to door.  I went next door to Mr. Treresey”s house and he bought 100 boxes for the local orphanage.  He paid for all of these cookies in rolls of nickels which he thought was hysterical.  A box cost 45 cents back when I sold them.

Then my mother bought 20 boxes and ten minutes into this effort, I was finished with my obligation to sell those cookies.  While the rest of my scouting friends spent their afternoons going door to door to try to beat my records, I sat on the couch and watched Merv Griffin.

Phone Numbers

PHONE NUMBERS

TR7-5775: my mother’s phone number

MI9 2335: my grandparents’’ phone number

GR8-4589: my friend, Kathy’s, phone number

I think it was in the late 80’s when phone companies moved away from using the combination of letters and numbers as phone numbers and moved to just numbers.  For most people, that was not a big adjustment.  But for me, these three numbers were numbers that were permanently etched in my brain and there was not way I was able to make the conversion, no matter how hard I tired.  But really I didn’t try too hard.

So my friend, Sam, asks me, “Where can I reach you this weekend?  I’ll call on Saturday.”

“Call me at my mother’s house, TR7- 5775,” I tell her.

“What, give it to me in numbers only,” she insists.

“I don’t know the number, I tell her honestly.  I always look for the letters and I’ve never noticed or connected the numbers.

“You’ve been dialing this number for 25 years and you don’t know what numbers you dial.  Now she is annoyed at me and sees me as being obstinate.

“Nope, I don’t have I clue.  I just know one think, when I call TR&-5775, my mother answers and she talks to me in the kindest voice.  She’s always happy to hear form me and that’s all that matters to me”.

December Memories

December Memories

• Christmas trees, snow men, decorated houses, gingerbread cookies, Santa Claus.  It seemed as if I always had a headache from too much excitement.
• 
  
• One million Christmas recitals attended to date.

• Christmas mornings- a moment of magic. as a kid.
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• December 25, 1925- Ida and Jack’s wedding anniversary- They were married for 49 years.
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• December 27, 1986- Patricia, my sister's wedding anniversary.
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• December 29, 1951- my parent’s wedding anniversary. They were married for 47 years. 
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• When we were kids, my mom made us make all of our Christmas tree decorations.  She would set up the kitchen table to resemble a third world child sweat shop and the six of us would spend the afternoon making dozens of felt decorations.  One year we made white doves and red cardinals.  Another year we made multiple designs of Ginger bread men and tress and candy canes and Christmas bulbs.

•     
• 1974- December 5- my grandfather died at 1:20 PM.  Every year, I seem to remember this moment when my world fell apart.
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• 1975- I transferred to Penn State as a junior.  I was so damn excited to go to school there that I stayed and earned my BS, Master's and Doctoral degree from PSU.
• ·       
• 1980- we are sitting at the Brick House Bar in State College, PA.  It is snowing outside so the comfort of this small bar is greatly welcomed.  The place is so small that we can talk to everyone in the bar without straining our voices.  So when Deb and I hear someone yell “Oh, no”, we look up.  On the TV screen is a photo of John Lennon. He had just been murdered. No one speaks as we listen in disbelief to this very sad news.
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• 1980- I became an aunt; Kevin is born and my world is filled with love.
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• December 27, 1988- Trisha and Bill’s wedding anniversary: this is the best time to get married.  The church was beautifully decorated with hundred of bright, bright red poinsettias and the marble alter looked snowy white under the gold filtered, holiday lighting
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• 1995- River Dance at Radio City Music Hall
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• 2003- Galapagos Islands

• 2006- a student walks home and finds that his mother has died of carbon monoxide poisoning.  He is a well-know kid and I ask students if they will give up some spare change so we can buy him Christmas gifts. Their kindness explodes and by the time, the money stops rolling in, we have collect d $20,000.
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• 2007- Antarctica and the Wedel Sea.
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• 2015- Christmas in Quebec City.
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• 2017- traveled to Bhutan and Nepal
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