To acclimate me as quickly as possible my mother made me go outside and play at our new Long Island home; the neighborhood kids found me a curiosity, and tried their best to communicate with me and include me in their games. It was what researchers today call "full immersion". I didn't think of myself as a scientific experiment, I just wanted to play.
About a month after arriving in this country, my mother dragged me, and yes, it was dragging, kicking and screaming to begin the first grade in the school that abutted our home. I didn't want to go. I was overwhelmed. I was being thrown to the wolves. How can a mother do that to her only son, her oldest child?
But hey, it turned out alright. When I was finally assigned a classroom and teacher, they were having art class, and you don't have to know any particular language to work Crayons. But since I was late in getting into that class, the only Crayons left were the green and purple. I remember that I drew a tugboat pushing an ocean liner - a scene etched into my mind as we entered New York Harbor on a dreary overcast day to dock along a bevy of other ocean liners - in green and purple. This was during the heyday of ocean liners and trans-Atlantic travel, a few years before the age of jet liners. I'm so glad I got to experience this ancient method of travel.
And within 2½ years I would cross the Atlantic two more times on ships. Not on a tramp steamer as we had done on this 11 day crossing, but on two of the most beautiful and fastest ships that ever crossed the Atlantic, the U.S.S. America and the U.S.S. United States, which cut the crossing time to just 5 days.
But leaving Germany was leaving behind not only all of my friends but all of my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins as well. So when holidays and birthdays came around, it was only the four of us. This would continue for 17 years until I married my angel from Montgomery (to coin a phrase....), when I was blessed with an instant set of relatives.
I met Marianne in the summer of 1969 in Yellowstone National Park. She had gone there with a couple of her Montgomery girlfriends to work, I had come there to camp with a college friend. She actually saw me at Fishing Bridge when I was at the laundromat to wash a week's worth of t-shirts, shorts, and underwear. She claims she thought I was cute.
After washing clothes I took my bright green with white stripes 1969 Camaro to find some action. Just outside Fishing Bridge we picked up three hitchhiking girls who worked there and needed a ride to the Lake Hotel where there would be a dance in its ballroom. In talking to these girls I discovered that the ratio of girls to boys in the park was 8 to 1, and they\se were all college co-eds from around the country. And, at Fishing Bridge they had just fired a group of guys for some infraction.
This was all I needed to hear.
I discussed staying in Yellowstone for the rest of the summer with my college classmate, but he would have none of it, he wanted to get back to the University of South Dakota to take summer classes on his way to becoming a medical doctor. "Eight to one," I reiterated. But it was no use. So I took him to the nearest airport at West Yellowstone, Montana and paid for half of his airfare to return home. "See ya in the fall!"
I climbed back into my Camaro and headed to Gallatin, the northern entrance to Yellowstone, where I had learned I'd be able to apply for a job with the Yellowstone Park Company to work in this matriarchal society.
Upon arrival at the employment office I met two other collegians from Minnesota who were also looking to work in Yellowstone. They wanted to know if I knew the best location to work in the park, and when I told them of the beautiful girls we picked up at Fishing Bridge, the dance a the Lake ballroom, the firing of those truant boys, and that wonderful ratio, I convinced them. Too easy!
We did our job interviews and were all immediately hired, especially when we said we'd like to work at Fishing Bridge. Wow, said the staff, we just discharged a number of young men at that location, so they're looking for replacements. Wow, what a coincidence!
The next day we started our job of cleaning the camping cabins at Fishing Bridge. At the morning briefing our job descriptions and duties were explained to us, and each of us was assigned to two girls to learn the ropes.
I was assigned to Marianne, who asked, "Ya'll new heah?" "What?" "Ya'll new heah?" "What?" and after she repeated herself the third time, someone asked, "Are you new here?" "Oh, oh, yeah, we're new."
Also working with Marianne was a society girl from Mississippi, another daughter of a doctor, so I was immediately under the spell of that Southern charm. Yes, I was smitten!
On that first day, we screwed around so much, that we didn't get our work completed on time, so we had to work overtime and miss dinner to get our work done. That was a good thing, because I had a car, and employees weren't supposed to have cars, I offered to take her out to dinner at Canyon Lodge.
That sealed the deal. Thereafter we were a couple. And someday I'll write about all the unbelievable adventures we had in Yellowstone, probably a book all in itself, and probably a better movie (Ron Howard are you listening?).
A couple of weeks later, Marianne's mom, dad, younger sister, and younger brother came out for a visit. This turned out to be the beginning of my reunion family.
After the season ended in Yellowstone, I convinced Marianne to drive with me to my home in South Dakota and meet my parents. She flew home to Montgomery from there.
Three months later I flew to Montgomery to spend Thanksgiving with her and her family and as an added benefit experience the wedding of her older sister.
After a three year long distance romance we were married in Montgomery, and that officially gave me a new extended (very extended) family - grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, second cousins, second cousins once removed, and second cousins twice removed (I've never been able to understand that "removed" stuff).
In due time all of her siblings and cousins married and had kids of their own, doubling and tripling the size of my new family. Heck, we even added a couple of our own kids.
We'll with that many people the only way to get together and see every one is to have a family reunion. And for the past 40 years we've been coming to Montgomery to partake in this glorious event.
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| Montgomery Family Reunion click on collage to enlarge |
This year in Montgomery, we had 19 people converge on Marianne's 92 year old mom's house. Helen is a wonder, she could pass for 72. She reads three newspapers a day, drives all over in her own car, volunteers at the museum, plays cards, and maintains a great home, and even cleaning the swimming pool all by herself.
This reunion we celebrated: 1) the recent marriage of Marianne's oldest sister's youngest child (who is now a PhD) to a beautiful girl from Mexico who is also getting her PhD (their wedding was in Mexico), 2) the upcoming marriage of Marianne's younger sister's only child, a daughter in South Carolina in October, 3) the upcoming marriage of Marianne's younger brother's youngest daughter in Montgomery in February, 4) the upcoming marriage of our daughter in San Clemente next May, and finally 5) the surprise upcoming birth announcement of Marianne's oldest sister's younger daughter (apparently this child was conceived during the Mexican wedding - does this affect the child's immigration status?).
Watching kids grow up and then our generation become the grandparents is a rite of passage that has played out for generations, but one never thinks that this will ever happen to them. I'm even more amazed to learn that some of my high school classmates have become great grandparents. Yikes! Where has all the time gone.
But this is why I love reunions. Getting to see these people, rehash stories that have been rehashed many times before. Many stories begin with "Do you remember when....?" I will continue to travel great distances to take part in these reunions.
And in a week we'll get to join another family reunion as we travel to Louisville to immerse ourselves in the family of our daughter's fiance's family. More in-laws, more cousins, more fun.
Oh, and my college classmate? He finished summer school, college, went to medical school, and is now a respected surgeon in Minnesota.
How one's life changes with the paths one chooses. . .
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