Chapter Thirty-Eight
Grandkids
After our return from our trip to Poland and Great Britain we started settling into growing our family. Like most modern day families the road down which our family traveled took many a twist and turn. In Eric’s senior year of high school due to a stressful situation with some of his schoolmates, he decided he would be better off moving to San Diego with his father Michael. Since all parties were agreeable, Eric finished high school in San Diego. During that time he met Kiesha and as their relationship grew they decided to get married. Not too long after they both graduated from high school our first grandchild came upon the scene. Britney was born in Septemeber of 1990. When Britney was still a toddler, Eric and Kiesha both decided to enlist in the army. Due to medical reasons Eric was not accepted but Kiesha was. I don’t remember if it was Kiesha’s first assignment after basic training or not but she got assigned to Ft. Huachuca just outside Sierra Vista, Arizona. We had already begun to lose contact with our new granddaughter, but issues began to arise between Kiesha and Eric and they divorced. Kiesha was reassigned to the East Coast and later remarried. Her new husband adopted Britney and we have lost all contact with her.
Two months after Britney was born Jennisha gave birth to Jazzlyn. I guess Jennisha felt real good about the birth of her baby because she gave her four names Jazzlyn Breonna Nichole Gatlin. However, when she was still in the crib we gave her another name, Boote. Jazz would go to sleep on her stomach with her booty up in the air. They had an arrangement at Muir High school for young mothers in which they could bring their child to school and put them in a nursery. The mother would spend part of the school day in class and the other part taking their turn working in the nursery. Being a young mother still in high school was difficult. Jennisha had to grow up while being a mother.
Meanwhile back in Sierra Vista after Eric and Kiesha split up, Eric and Angie got together. Marriage and four boys have been the fruitage of that relationship. Jason, the oldest, was born a couple of years after Jazzlyn, and then the other three boys followed at about two year intervals. So after Jason came Michael, after Michael came Andrew and finally Joseph (Joey). Each boy has their own distinct personality. Somewhere about the time of Michael, Jennisha gave birth to Jerron.
Even though Eric’s family lives in the Southeast corner of Arizona, about once a year we make a trip there for a visit. Most of the time Ann and I are joined by Jazzlyn, Jerron, sometimes Jennisha and even Eddie once or twice in making the trip.
On the other side of the Brady Bunch, Brad worked at Disney in Feature Animation for about fifteen years. He met Tina at work and it didn’t take too long for them to see that they were made for each other. Brad outlasted his father who didn’t get married until he (that’s me) was thirty years old. Brad beat me by a few months. In January of 2004 Tina gave birth to Aidan and about a year and a half later along came Tristan. Again they each have their own distinct personalities.
I can fortunately say that all the grandkids are good kids and healthy. Oh, they’re kids so they have their problems but they’re family.
I’ve been writing this for the grandkids and now we’ve gotten to the point that they each have their own translation and view on what goes into the chapters of our lives. Thanks for sticking with me and going down this lane of memories. I hope maybe you enjoyed some of the first hand looks at different eras especially in the earlier chapters.
Grandpa Brooks
Friday, July 17, 2009
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Chapter Thirty-Seven The British Isles
Chapter Thirty-Seven
The British Isles
Several of the friends that were in our tour group in Poland also took the tour through Great Britain. We got into London too late to do much of anything but go with a few of the friends across the street from the hotel to a nice little family own restaurant. The next morning we had a free day and with Gary and Ruby Hughes, a couple from our tour group, rode the Underground (think subway) to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guard. A lot of people showed up for the event. It was impressive but didn’t knock my socks off. What we enjoyed more was going a couple of blocks away from Buckingham to some kind of military establishment where they had a group undergoing a morning inspection. It was pretty interesting.
From Buckingham we rode the Underground again to the location of the British Museum. But before going to the museum we went to “The Plough” a pub. To my surprise a pub is not just a bar but serves food as well. So, we had lunch before going to the museum. At the museum we saw several things including the Cyrus Cylinder, the Nabonidus Chronicles and the Rosetta Stone. We really didn’t even scratch the surface of what’s there. You could easily spend days in the museum.
Ann wanted to go to Herrod’s the famous store in London, but we needed to get back to the hotel to see if the concierge was able to get us tickets to see “Cats”. The concierge had left for the day, but he had made arrangements for us and tickets were waiting for us. Unfortunately, being my first time working with a concierge I didn’t think to leave him a tip. (Oh well, next time). The show was great and the seats were first class. The theatre was a ¾ in the round with four or five rows next to the stage before there was an aisle separating the seating. We were in those front row seats by the stage. Some of the actors during the show roam through the audience and at one time Rum Digger (the alley cat) was moving around the aisle in back of us. Much to my surprise from in back of me he leaned over and kissed the top of my bald head. That was quite a memorable day for us.
The next morning we loaded on to the buses and started heading out West from London. We saw many things, more than I want to list here. The first stop on this list was Stratford on Avon. We saw the cottage of Anne Hathaway, Shakespeare’s wife, and several monuments and statues to Shakespeare. As we were walking the streets we saw this lady with a McDonald’s soda. We asked her where she had gotten it. She directed us to the oasis, after all we had been eating European food for two weeks. The McDonald’s in Stratford was interesting. It didn’t have golden arches but it did have a small black iron version of the arches over the door. I guess they had to keep in the style of Stratford. Also, it was located on three floors, but once you were inside, it was typical McDonald’s.
One memorable stop was at Bath in the Southwest of England where we toured the remains of a great Roman bath. Our farthest point West was Llangollen, Wales which was beautiful country but unfortunately I got sick and missed having diner with the friends at the hotel. The hotel staff was nice enough to fix something for me which Ann brought back with her from diner.
From Wales we headed North stopping in Windermere in the Lake District where Beatrix Potter the author of the Peter Rabbit books use to live. A sister which had toured Poland with us was from the Windermere area and her family lived there who we telephoned just to say “hello”.
We continued North to Carlisle which is just South of the border with Scotland. We visited the castle there at Carlisle in which Scottish prisoners were held during the war between Scotland and England. One of several legends has it, that the ballad “Ye Take the High Road” is about two of Bonnie Prince Charlie's men, captured and left behind in Carlisle after the failed rising of 1745. The song appears to be written by one young soldier to his sweetheart. He was to be executed, the other released. The Spirit of the dead soldier traveling by the 'low road' would reach Scotland before his comrade, struggling along the actual road over high, rugged country.
From Carlisle we headed up into Scotland where we stayed over in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. We saw where Robert Louis Stevenson lived and the tavern whose owner being a town official by day and a scoundrel at night is said to be inspiration for Stevenson’s “Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde”. I think our highlight of the visit to Edinburgh was our tour of the royal castle. Robbie Robertson was our guide who was a Scotsman with his plaids, kilt and the legendary dagger in his calf-length stockings. We had just barely started the tour of the castle and Robbie is telling us about the number of gates we would be passing through on our climb up to the castle grounds and Ann asks, "Are there elevators?” Robbie stops, looks at Ann and says, “Madame, where are you from?” To which Ann replies, “California”. He says, “I might have known!” Ann then got a good deal of attention from Robbie for the rest of the tour.
From Edinburgh we headed back down South into England seeing Hadrian’s Wall, stopping in York which still had its city wall still pretty much in tack. Farther South we stopped in Oxford/Cambridge home of the world famous universities. The city was an interesting mix of ancient and modern architecture. Finally we arrived back in London with very little free time left before flying back to the States the following morning.
It was a beautiful trip and we were glad to be back home. We were fortunate enough in 2003 to be accepted as delegates to an International Convention in Honolulu, Hawaii. That was really nice and we were able to visit Kauai and Maui also on that trip. We were accepted as delegates for the 2009 International Convention in Berlin, Germany, but due to the economic nosedive, we had to cancel.
Next chapter I’ll get into the arrival of the grandkids
Editor's Note: In Chapter Thirty-Five I mentioned having a "Chevie Civic". My wife pointed out to me that Chevrolet did not make "Civic". It was suppose to be "Chevie Citation".
The British Isles
Several of the friends that were in our tour group in Poland also took the tour through Great Britain. We got into London too late to do much of anything but go with a few of the friends across the street from the hotel to a nice little family own restaurant. The next morning we had a free day and with Gary and Ruby Hughes, a couple from our tour group, rode the Underground (think subway) to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guard. A lot of people showed up for the event. It was impressive but didn’t knock my socks off. What we enjoyed more was going a couple of blocks away from Buckingham to some kind of military establishment where they had a group undergoing a morning inspection. It was pretty interesting.
From Buckingham we rode the Underground again to the location of the British Museum. But before going to the museum we went to “The Plough” a pub. To my surprise a pub is not just a bar but serves food as well. So, we had lunch before going to the museum. At the museum we saw several things including the Cyrus Cylinder, the Nabonidus Chronicles and the Rosetta Stone. We really didn’t even scratch the surface of what’s there. You could easily spend days in the museum.
Ann wanted to go to Herrod’s the famous store in London, but we needed to get back to the hotel to see if the concierge was able to get us tickets to see “Cats”. The concierge had left for the day, but he had made arrangements for us and tickets were waiting for us. Unfortunately, being my first time working with a concierge I didn’t think to leave him a tip. (Oh well, next time). The show was great and the seats were first class. The theatre was a ¾ in the round with four or five rows next to the stage before there was an aisle separating the seating. We were in those front row seats by the stage. Some of the actors during the show roam through the audience and at one time Rum Digger (the alley cat) was moving around the aisle in back of us. Much to my surprise from in back of me he leaned over and kissed the top of my bald head. That was quite a memorable day for us.
The next morning we loaded on to the buses and started heading out West from London. We saw many things, more than I want to list here. The first stop on this list was Stratford on Avon. We saw the cottage of Anne Hathaway, Shakespeare’s wife, and several monuments and statues to Shakespeare. As we were walking the streets we saw this lady with a McDonald’s soda. We asked her where she had gotten it. She directed us to the oasis, after all we had been eating European food for two weeks. The McDonald’s in Stratford was interesting. It didn’t have golden arches but it did have a small black iron version of the arches over the door. I guess they had to keep in the style of Stratford. Also, it was located on three floors, but once you were inside, it was typical McDonald’s.
One memorable stop was at Bath in the Southwest of England where we toured the remains of a great Roman bath. Our farthest point West was Llangollen, Wales which was beautiful country but unfortunately I got sick and missed having diner with the friends at the hotel. The hotel staff was nice enough to fix something for me which Ann brought back with her from diner.
From Wales we headed North stopping in Windermere in the Lake District where Beatrix Potter the author of the Peter Rabbit books use to live. A sister which had toured Poland with us was from the Windermere area and her family lived there who we telephoned just to say “hello”.
We continued North to Carlisle which is just South of the border with Scotland. We visited the castle there at Carlisle in which Scottish prisoners were held during the war between Scotland and England. One of several legends has it, that the ballad “Ye Take the High Road” is about two of Bonnie Prince Charlie's men, captured and left behind in Carlisle after the failed rising of 1745. The song appears to be written by one young soldier to his sweetheart. He was to be executed, the other released. The Spirit of the dead soldier traveling by the 'low road' would reach Scotland before his comrade, struggling along the actual road over high, rugged country.
From Carlisle we headed up into Scotland where we stayed over in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. We saw where Robert Louis Stevenson lived and the tavern whose owner being a town official by day and a scoundrel at night is said to be inspiration for Stevenson’s “Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde”. I think our highlight of the visit to Edinburgh was our tour of the royal castle. Robbie Robertson was our guide who was a Scotsman with his plaids, kilt and the legendary dagger in his calf-length stockings. We had just barely started the tour of the castle and Robbie is telling us about the number of gates we would be passing through on our climb up to the castle grounds and Ann asks, "Are there elevators?” Robbie stops, looks at Ann and says, “Madame, where are you from?” To which Ann replies, “California”. He says, “I might have known!” Ann then got a good deal of attention from Robbie for the rest of the tour.
From Edinburgh we headed back down South into England seeing Hadrian’s Wall, stopping in York which still had its city wall still pretty much in tack. Farther South we stopped in Oxford/Cambridge home of the world famous universities. The city was an interesting mix of ancient and modern architecture. Finally we arrived back in London with very little free time left before flying back to the States the following morning.
It was a beautiful trip and we were glad to be back home. We were fortunate enough in 2003 to be accepted as delegates to an International Convention in Honolulu, Hawaii. That was really nice and we were able to visit Kauai and Maui also on that trip. We were accepted as delegates for the 2009 International Convention in Berlin, Germany, but due to the economic nosedive, we had to cancel.
Next chapter I’ll get into the arrival of the grandkids
Editor's Note: In Chapter Thirty-Five I mentioned having a "Chevie Civic". My wife pointed out to me that Chevrolet did not make "Civic". It was suppose to be "Chevie Citation".
Friday, July 10, 2009
Chapter Thirty-Six Poland
Chapter Thirty-Six
Poland
We spent the rest of the day of arrival in Warsaw mostly resting up from the long flight. The next day we started off on a five-day pre-convention tour of Poland by having an interesting breakfast. The hotel served us a sweet roll, roll & jelly, cold ham and coke in a glass bottle. After breakfast our four bus tour group of Witnesses headed for Lublin a town in the southeast of Poland. On the day of our arrival about four or five young local boys met our buses and were selling picture post cards and sold quite a few to our group. The next morning the group of boys selling post cards more than doubled. The evening of our first day in Lublin we had a nice diner in a local restaurant with a couple we knew from the Pasadena area. We had found out the day before when we were loading on to the buses that they were on the same tour with us. After our diner we had free time to walk around in Lublin. Many Polish people just stared at Ann. They were not used to seeing African-Americans. Once we were back at the hotel we had coffee and dessert. For two cups of coffee and two torts including tip it costs us thirty to forty cents. When we exchanged our currency for the local Polish zloty we felt like the rich and famous. In fact early on following the suggested guidelines we were tipping the usual 10% to 15%, but later were told not to tip so much because that was as much as many would make in a week and they weren’t coming back to work the next day.
The second day in Lublin we went just outside the town to Mydanek which had been a Nazi concentration camp during World War II. Our first look at Mydanek was of a green meadow like area, very serene and peaceful. It was difficult to imagine the atrocities and horror that went on there. We found out that over 360,000 people of 15 nationalities had been confined there and many executed in the gas chambers. The prisoners living quarters no longer exist, but the military quarters, the gas chambers and the crematorium are still there as reminders. Walking through the room where the masses took showers which calmed the hysteria to some degree is a haunting experience. And then to walk into the actual gas chambers and sense the pain and suffering that occurred there was even more disturbing. We found out that originally they did not use Zyklon B pellets but rather built wood fires, exhausting the smoke and monoxide gas into the rooms which must have been a slow and painful death. The military barracks have been turned into museums and in one they have on display a large number of leather shoes, boots, suitcases and briefcases collected from the prisoners. What was on display is a very small percent of the total collected and recycled for German use. Many of the suitcases had names and dates marked on them. It’s an image you don’t forget.
Before leaving Lublin we visited the local Kingdom Hall where a group of the younger sisters had prepared punch and pastries for us. Even though we had a language barrier with the aid of our hands we were able to communicate and have a delightful time. Before going into the hall Ann and I were standing outside greeting the local brothers and sisters. One sister came up to Ann and excitedly exclaimed “Afrika”. Unfortunately, we had to dampen her excitement by telling her we were from California.
On our way from Lublin to Krakow we stopped in Sandomerz for lunch. A nice smaller town with a town hall built in the 14th century. In Krakow we found out our hotel had overbooked and there was no room for us. While waiting in the lobby we met a group of Americans that turned out to be the choir from the Lake Ave. Congregational church in Pasadena. They were on an European tour. Since we could not stay at the hotel they were able to put us in the dormitories of a local university which was closed for the summer. The accommodations were simple but nice; however, since the university had closed for the summer the boilers had been turned off and we didn’t have any hot water. Cold showers are stimulating but you don’t stay in them very long. While on our way to dinner on campus we met a group of French brothers and sisters as well as a group of Italians who had been at an earlier convention in Poznan.
While in Krakow we went to the Old Town Market square. Most of Old Town had been built in the 13th Century. There was a group of musicians playing in the square and when they saw us they started playing “Yankee Doodle Dandy”. I guess American tourists are easily identifiable. We also went to the castle on Wawel Hill where the former kings lived and were crowned at the cathedral located with the castle. The former Pope John Paul II served as a cardinal at the cathedral. Catholicism is not only the predominant religion but most Poles are catholic.
On our way from Krakow to Katowice we went to Zakopane a mountain resort town in the Tartar mountains. It was a beautiful place. We were to take a cable car ride up to the top of the mountains but the winds were too high. Ann was not disappointed. We saw a group of gypsies performing on the street playing violins and other instruments.
From Katowice we took a day trip over to Oswiecim (Auswitz). In many ways it was like Maydanek except that the Germans had taken a former Polish Army base with its brick buildings and turned it into a concentration camp. Over the main gate there was an iron work sign which said “Arbeit Mach Frei” which means “Work makes free”. It was the Nazi’s way of trying to create a false sense of hope. In one barrack there was a display of the different patches used to designate the type of prisoners in the camp. Among the patches was the purple triangle used to designate “Bible Student” which was what Jehovah Witnesses were know as then.
The next day we headed back to Warsaw and the convention. The convention was held in a sports stadium and seating was divided in to sections for the different languages. There would be section for Polish and next to that a section for English and then another Polish section. I believe there were accommodations for fifteen languages. They had directional sound speakers for each section and when they would translate the program into English we didn’t really hear the other languages. On our first day at the convention we were trying to follow along a portion of the program which was not translated from Polish and a voice came over our shoulders saying “First Peter – chapter 3...” and so we met Wojtek and Margosza. A couple of Polish witnesses that had sat in our section. We developed a friendship and they sat with us each day. One day they brought Margosza’s father, not a witness, and he couldn’t take his eyes off of Ann. I don’t know if he was so taken with her beauty or the fact that she was African-American. Maybe a little of both. We spent time with Wojtek and Margosza during our free time, and for a while after the convention we kept in touch by mail. The baptism ceremony was quite impressive. They had the baptismal candidates seated on the sports field in front of the speakers’ platform. They had three baptismal pools at both ends of the stadium. First to come out for the baptism were the brothers who would perform the baptism, a group of nurses and other medical personnel. Then the candidates started coming out, brothers at one end and the sisters at the other end. They came out, and they came out and they kept coming out. I believe over 3000 were baptized that day. At one point the sisters were being baptized at both ends. At the conclusion of the convention nobody wanted to leave. There was continuous applause and handkerchief waving.
The day we were to leave Poland Wojtek came by the hotel to say goodbye. It was time to say goodbye to some of our tour group friends who were either going on to a different post-convention tour or home. We were heading to Great Britain. I got so verbose on Poland that I’ll go into London and the rest of the British Isles in the next chapter.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Chapter Thirty-Five San Simeon to San Diego
Chapter Thirty-Five
San Simeon to San Diego
About four years after we got married, Ann and I applied and were accepted to go to the International Convention of Jehovah Witnesses in Warsaw, Poland. We made an arrangement with a friend and spiritual sister, Jan Jones, to come to our home on New York Dr. and stay with the kids while we went to the convention in Poland. So, before going to the convention we felt like we should do something special for the kids. We started out by going north to San Simeon to tour Hearst Castle. We had a bit of a shaky start. We were driving a Chevie Civic which was not a large family car, but the kids weren’t that big either at that time. We started off on the Simi Valley route and hadn’t got out of the San Fernando Valley when we had a flat tire. We knew we were on a tight schedule so we drove up to San Simeon on the spare tire; it was one of those donut like tires. It was a bit spooky but we made it. We toured the castle and I know I was impressed and I think the rest of the family was too. Especially impressive are the two swimming pools. There’s an indoor and a outdoor pool. The outdoor pool was used in the filming of the Kirk Douglas movie “Spartacus”.
On our way back we headed back to the Simi Valley route when in the Moorpark area we had another flat tire. Fortunately, we were in town. Eric and I rolled the flat tire a couple of blocks off the beaten path to a tire place and bought a used tire. We rolled it back to the car and installed and we were off again heading south to Buena Park.
In Buena Park we first went to the Wax Museum. I think everyone enjoyed it. Most of the figures were very good likeness of the real people. I remember one display was of the USS Enterprise bridge with all the main characters from Startrek. After the Wax Museum we went to Knotts Berry Farm. I managed to lose our motel room key on one of the rides. I had the key in a shirt pocket and of course it was a ride on which you would go upside down for part of the ride. Gravity did its job and we didn’t even try to retrieve it. Fortunately the motel office supplied us with another key without any hassle. We took the kids to Medieval Times but I don’t remember whether that was a separate trip or part of this one. We all had a great time at Medieval Times.
We weren’t through yet. From Buena Park we drove down to San Diego to Vacation Village in the Mission Bay area. As I recall it was like an island retreat with water on three sides. We stayed in a nice motel room which was like separate units. We rented a bicycle like surrey that we could all ride in and went riding around the resort area which was rather extensive. Eric and I tried our hand at tennis. We also rented one of those feet paddle board type boats. I remember that Ann, Eddie (I think) and I went for a ride and had a little difficulty in fighting an outward underwater flow. We all had a great time there. I think the resort is still there but under different ownership now.
A couple of weeks after the excursion with the kids Ann and I went on our first International trip to Poland. That was in August of 1989. This August it will have been twenty years since we went on the trip. We first flew to New York and we stayed a couple of days with a spiritual sister named Becky Ramirez, her daughter Laura and son Louis. Jan Jones knew Becky and made the arrangement for us. She became our guide and we went on tour of the Brooklyn printing facilities and headquarters of Jehovah Witnesses. Also, we toured Bethel where all the volunteer workers live. At the headquarters Becky got us in to meet brother Carey Barber of the Governing Body. He was very pleasant and listened to me go on about the convention that we were going to in Warsaw and all the arrangements. It turns out he was on the program at the convention but had politely listen to me anyway. Becky also took us on the subway through New York on our way to New Jersey to see the refurbished Stanley Theatre. The Witnesses using volunteer workers refurbished the old theatre bringing it back to its original state to be used as an assembly hall. It was very impressive. We’re very thankful for Becky and her family’s hospitality shown us while we were in Brooklyn.
From Brooklyn we took what they call a “gypsy taxi” to the Kennedy Airport. The driver lived in Queens and was very talkative. He referred to the police using the French word “gendarme” which surprised Ann because she thought I was the only one who called police “gendarme”.
From New York we flew British Airways to Heathrow in London and on our long approximately nine hour flight we saw “My Alibi” with Tom Selleck for the first time. On our flight back the movie being shown was “My Alibi”. We had about an hour layover before flying a Polish airline on into Warsaw. When we landed we could see armed soldiers around our airplane. In August of 1989 the Russians were in their last days of occupation of Poland. Later that fall the Berlin Wall came down.
After de-boarding we found that though we made it safely to Poland Ann’s luggage did not. It took about four days for her bag to catch up to us. We later found that it had most likely been mishandled at Kennedy Airport. We found out the hard way that you need to pack a few essential clothing articles in a carry-on bag. Also, a husband and wife team should not have a “his bag” and a “her bag”. Fortunately for Ann some of the sisters were able to help her out, but she did have to put up with being the subject of friendly jokes.
In the next chapter I’ll relate more about our trip through Poland and Great Britain.
San Simeon to San Diego
About four years after we got married, Ann and I applied and were accepted to go to the International Convention of Jehovah Witnesses in Warsaw, Poland. We made an arrangement with a friend and spiritual sister, Jan Jones, to come to our home on New York Dr. and stay with the kids while we went to the convention in Poland. So, before going to the convention we felt like we should do something special for the kids. We started out by going north to San Simeon to tour Hearst Castle. We had a bit of a shaky start. We were driving a Chevie Civic which was not a large family car, but the kids weren’t that big either at that time. We started off on the Simi Valley route and hadn’t got out of the San Fernando Valley when we had a flat tire. We knew we were on a tight schedule so we drove up to San Simeon on the spare tire; it was one of those donut like tires. It was a bit spooky but we made it. We toured the castle and I know I was impressed and I think the rest of the family was too. Especially impressive are the two swimming pools. There’s an indoor and a outdoor pool. The outdoor pool was used in the filming of the Kirk Douglas movie “Spartacus”.
On our way back we headed back to the Simi Valley route when in the Moorpark area we had another flat tire. Fortunately, we were in town. Eric and I rolled the flat tire a couple of blocks off the beaten path to a tire place and bought a used tire. We rolled it back to the car and installed and we were off again heading south to Buena Park.
In Buena Park we first went to the Wax Museum. I think everyone enjoyed it. Most of the figures were very good likeness of the real people. I remember one display was of the USS Enterprise bridge with all the main characters from Startrek. After the Wax Museum we went to Knotts Berry Farm. I managed to lose our motel room key on one of the rides. I had the key in a shirt pocket and of course it was a ride on which you would go upside down for part of the ride. Gravity did its job and we didn’t even try to retrieve it. Fortunately the motel office supplied us with another key without any hassle. We took the kids to Medieval Times but I don’t remember whether that was a separate trip or part of this one. We all had a great time at Medieval Times.
We weren’t through yet. From Buena Park we drove down to San Diego to Vacation Village in the Mission Bay area. As I recall it was like an island retreat with water on three sides. We stayed in a nice motel room which was like separate units. We rented a bicycle like surrey that we could all ride in and went riding around the resort area which was rather extensive. Eric and I tried our hand at tennis. We also rented one of those feet paddle board type boats. I remember that Ann, Eddie (I think) and I went for a ride and had a little difficulty in fighting an outward underwater flow. We all had a great time there. I think the resort is still there but under different ownership now.
A couple of weeks after the excursion with the kids Ann and I went on our first International trip to Poland. That was in August of 1989. This August it will have been twenty years since we went on the trip. We first flew to New York and we stayed a couple of days with a spiritual sister named Becky Ramirez, her daughter Laura and son Louis. Jan Jones knew Becky and made the arrangement for us. She became our guide and we went on tour of the Brooklyn printing facilities and headquarters of Jehovah Witnesses. Also, we toured Bethel where all the volunteer workers live. At the headquarters Becky got us in to meet brother Carey Barber of the Governing Body. He was very pleasant and listened to me go on about the convention that we were going to in Warsaw and all the arrangements. It turns out he was on the program at the convention but had politely listen to me anyway. Becky also took us on the subway through New York on our way to New Jersey to see the refurbished Stanley Theatre. The Witnesses using volunteer workers refurbished the old theatre bringing it back to its original state to be used as an assembly hall. It was very impressive. We’re very thankful for Becky and her family’s hospitality shown us while we were in Brooklyn.
From Brooklyn we took what they call a “gypsy taxi” to the Kennedy Airport. The driver lived in Queens and was very talkative. He referred to the police using the French word “gendarme” which surprised Ann because she thought I was the only one who called police “gendarme”.
From New York we flew British Airways to Heathrow in London and on our long approximately nine hour flight we saw “My Alibi” with Tom Selleck for the first time. On our flight back the movie being shown was “My Alibi”. We had about an hour layover before flying a Polish airline on into Warsaw. When we landed we could see armed soldiers around our airplane. In August of 1989 the Russians were in their last days of occupation of Poland. Later that fall the Berlin Wall came down.
After de-boarding we found that though we made it safely to Poland Ann’s luggage did not. It took about four days for her bag to catch up to us. We later found that it had most likely been mishandled at Kennedy Airport. We found out the hard way that you need to pack a few essential clothing articles in a carry-on bag. Also, a husband and wife team should not have a “his bag” and a “her bag”. Fortunately for Ann some of the sisters were able to help her out, but she did have to put up with being the subject of friendly jokes.
In the next chapter I’ll relate more about our trip through Poland and Great Britain.
Friday, July 3, 2009
Chapter Thirty-Four To San Diego and Beyond
Chapter Thirty-Four
To San Diego and Beyond
Ann and the crew moved to San Diego I believe in the early part of 1985. She started out living with her oldest sister Jean. We kept the relationship going by telephone and letters. That’s right letters, snail mail. Email and cell phone texting wasn’t in yet. Early on in our courtship, Brad and I drove down to San Diego and we took Ann, Eric, Jennisha and Eddie to the Ruben E Fleet museum in Balboa Park. The museum featured two things. It had a IMAX like theatre in which we saw some kind of space film. It also had a hands on science exhibit designed for children and youth. We had a great time there and everyone seemed to get along fine.
At the time, Ann was in a bank management program and in connection with that training program she had to make trips to the Los Angeles area. On one such trip she was staying over in a hotel down by the beach. It happened to be at the time Brad was graduating from high school. So, after the graduation ceremony Brad and I went to the beach, picked up Ann and went to dinner. Another opportunity for Ann and Brad to get to know each other better.
Well, after many phone calls, letters and trips to San Diego a major milestone was reached. I had been attending both the English and the French congregation. I was pretty busy attending meetings, participating in the ministry school and field service for both congregations, but it kept me out of trouble. Anyway, the summer of ’85 I was going to attend the French District Convention in Florida, but I changed my mind and spent the vacation time in San Diego. By this time Ann and the kids had moved into an apartment and I stayed over in a motel not too far away. Again my memory is a little hazy here and I don’t remember which of the following two events occurred first. Ann and I had gone to Mission Beach to walk along in the sand. We sat down in the sand and talked a while and then, since we were already sitting I didn’t have to kneel, I proposed to her. She accepted. Now here’s the second event which may have been the first event. We went to a shopping mall, I believe it was the Spring Valley Mall, and picked out the rings. I was rather partial to a set of rings in which the engagement ring had both a diamond and two rubies. Ann liked them too. Unfortunately a couple of years ago, someone broke into our apartment here in Pasadena and stole them.
After Ann accepted my proposal we began to make wedding arrangements. We decided to get married the following November. We decided to get married in the Kingdom Hall of Ann’s congregation. Ann made most of the arrangements for the wedding. Even though it was a couple of hours drive from LA, a large number of friends from my congregation came to the wedding and reception in San Diego. So all together it turned out to be quite a nice size group sharing in our wedding ceremonies. Ginger was able to make the wedding, but Gary and Dad were not able to attend.
Unfortunately we were not able to take a honeymoon trip. On the wedding night we stayed at Ann’s apartment. Eric, Jennisha, and Eddie stayed with Jean as I remember. However, Brad had his own special event connected to our wedding night. I had driven my car down to San Diego; so, we needed to get two cars up to Pasadena. Brad drove my car up loaded with wedding gifts to our new rented house on New York Drive. That seems simple enough, right? Except on the way up to Pasadena, he had a flat tire and of course the spare was buried under a trunk load of gifts. He did finally make it. Once again, thank you, Brad. Our honeymoon consisted of having a few days in our new home, just the two of us. I had been living in the home for about a month before the wedding; so, my furniture and things were already there. After the wedding we had to pack up Ann’s furniture and things, including her full length baroque like mirror which has been with us through thick and thin and move them to the new home.
After our few days of just the two of us, we not only moved the furniture up from San Diego, but we also brought Eric, Jennisha and Eddie to their new home. And so began our adjustments to the new family arrangements. It was a change of environment for the kids, but they had lived in the Pasadena/Altadena area before. However, now they had to adjust to a new man in the family arrangements. When Ann and I got married mixed racial marriages were not common. We were both well aware of the looks we got in most places we went except at the Kingdom Hall. But now, almost twenty-five years later things have changed a lot. Either we don’t get as many looks as we use to or I’ve gotten to a point of not noticing them. Mixed racial marriages are much more common today; they even show mixed couples in commercials. In our congregation we currently have six mixed marriages, and they’re not all African-American and White. We have African-American and Hispanic and also African-American and East Indian. But when we got married the mixed marriage did mean that the kids had to make some adjustments due to it. One thing that helped was a couple from Ann’s former congregation in Altadena, James and Marsha Weems. Their marriage was a mixed marriage and they had been married for several years when I met them. They had six kids and two of them were close to Eric and Jennisha’s ages.
We had a lot of good experiences along with some challenging ones there are New York Drive, but more about that in the next chapter – San Simeon to San Diego.
To San Diego and Beyond
Ann and the crew moved to San Diego I believe in the early part of 1985. She started out living with her oldest sister Jean. We kept the relationship going by telephone and letters. That’s right letters, snail mail. Email and cell phone texting wasn’t in yet. Early on in our courtship, Brad and I drove down to San Diego and we took Ann, Eric, Jennisha and Eddie to the Ruben E Fleet museum in Balboa Park. The museum featured two things. It had a IMAX like theatre in which we saw some kind of space film. It also had a hands on science exhibit designed for children and youth. We had a great time there and everyone seemed to get along fine.
At the time, Ann was in a bank management program and in connection with that training program she had to make trips to the Los Angeles area. On one such trip she was staying over in a hotel down by the beach. It happened to be at the time Brad was graduating from high school. So, after the graduation ceremony Brad and I went to the beach, picked up Ann and went to dinner. Another opportunity for Ann and Brad to get to know each other better.
Well, after many phone calls, letters and trips to San Diego a major milestone was reached. I had been attending both the English and the French congregation. I was pretty busy attending meetings, participating in the ministry school and field service for both congregations, but it kept me out of trouble. Anyway, the summer of ’85 I was going to attend the French District Convention in Florida, but I changed my mind and spent the vacation time in San Diego. By this time Ann and the kids had moved into an apartment and I stayed over in a motel not too far away. Again my memory is a little hazy here and I don’t remember which of the following two events occurred first. Ann and I had gone to Mission Beach to walk along in the sand. We sat down in the sand and talked a while and then, since we were already sitting I didn’t have to kneel, I proposed to her. She accepted. Now here’s the second event which may have been the first event. We went to a shopping mall, I believe it was the Spring Valley Mall, and picked out the rings. I was rather partial to a set of rings in which the engagement ring had both a diamond and two rubies. Ann liked them too. Unfortunately a couple of years ago, someone broke into our apartment here in Pasadena and stole them.
After Ann accepted my proposal we began to make wedding arrangements. We decided to get married the following November. We decided to get married in the Kingdom Hall of Ann’s congregation. Ann made most of the arrangements for the wedding. Even though it was a couple of hours drive from LA, a large number of friends from my congregation came to the wedding and reception in San Diego. So all together it turned out to be quite a nice size group sharing in our wedding ceremonies. Ginger was able to make the wedding, but Gary and Dad were not able to attend.
Unfortunately we were not able to take a honeymoon trip. On the wedding night we stayed at Ann’s apartment. Eric, Jennisha, and Eddie stayed with Jean as I remember. However, Brad had his own special event connected to our wedding night. I had driven my car down to San Diego; so, we needed to get two cars up to Pasadena. Brad drove my car up loaded with wedding gifts to our new rented house on New York Drive. That seems simple enough, right? Except on the way up to Pasadena, he had a flat tire and of course the spare was buried under a trunk load of gifts. He did finally make it. Once again, thank you, Brad. Our honeymoon consisted of having a few days in our new home, just the two of us. I had been living in the home for about a month before the wedding; so, my furniture and things were already there. After the wedding we had to pack up Ann’s furniture and things, including her full length baroque like mirror which has been with us through thick and thin and move them to the new home.
After our few days of just the two of us, we not only moved the furniture up from San Diego, but we also brought Eric, Jennisha and Eddie to their new home. And so began our adjustments to the new family arrangements. It was a change of environment for the kids, but they had lived in the Pasadena/Altadena area before. However, now they had to adjust to a new man in the family arrangements. When Ann and I got married mixed racial marriages were not common. We were both well aware of the looks we got in most places we went except at the Kingdom Hall. But now, almost twenty-five years later things have changed a lot. Either we don’t get as many looks as we use to or I’ve gotten to a point of not noticing them. Mixed racial marriages are much more common today; they even show mixed couples in commercials. In our congregation we currently have six mixed marriages, and they’re not all African-American and White. We have African-American and Hispanic and also African-American and East Indian. But when we got married the mixed marriage did mean that the kids had to make some adjustments due to it. One thing that helped was a couple from Ann’s former congregation in Altadena, James and Marsha Weems. Their marriage was a mixed marriage and they had been married for several years when I met them. They had six kids and two of them were close to Eric and Jennisha’s ages.
We had a lot of good experiences along with some challenging ones there are New York Drive, but more about that in the next chapter – San Simeon to San Diego.
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