A GRIMM MINI-SERIES
The story you are about to read is true and the names have not been changed to protect the innocent. WARNING: the authors suggest reading this in installments to avoid eye-strain or insufferable boredom.
Episode 1 - Ominous start
Even before the trip began, there were indications this would be no ordinary Grimm trip. Although I had contacted Australian Airlines overseas travel as usual, my agent was relatively new at handling international travel and hence the arrangements were not the best. (Inexperienced clerks were the norm as most of the regular employees had left when the Australian domestic pilots had resigned in August causing a virtual shutdown of air travel in Australia for some time.) I did not receive our itinerary for a couple of days before we left and noticed that the agent had us going through Chicago on our return trip from the east coast to the west coast. I told her you try not to go through Chicago in January because of the chance of snow. It didn't matter in the end but that comes later. We also wanted to leave Friday and fly direct to Sydney: but because of the continuing pilots strike, we had to leave Thursday instead. So we missed the awards night at Toby's school (more on that later). I also received a lot of kidding at work because I was one of the few people who were allowed to take off over Christmas. Following the events of our trip I have not been kidded since I returned to work.
A few days before our departure I called home to give my mother our finalized plans and learned my Dad was having some medical problems and tests were being run. During Dorothy's call to her family, she learned her father was being operation for a dislocated elbow as a result of a fall during which he had also broken a couple of ribs.
On the night before we left we learned from the headmaster at Toby's school that Toby was to receive awards on Prize Night. Upon hearing that we would not be able to attend, he asked us to come to school the next morning. When we arrived he told Toby that he was receiving the Dux award, which meant he was the top of his class, and also that Toby had been given an award for "The Pursuit of Excellence" in striving in all areas. Since this is the first year that this school has operated as a day school and the first year that this award is being presented, Toby's name will be the first on the plaque, which will hang in the school for years to come. Toby was speechless (which doesn't happen often). We were very pleased.
After a frantic bit of pacing while Dorothy waited to get her holiday pay, our good friends, the Browns, once again took us to the airport and we had an uneventful flight to Sydney. Since we had to stay overnight to make connections, the airline put us up in a downtown motel - however, they didn't tell us that no transportation was provided to that hotel. We got there using a service that provides transportation to any hotel. En route we passed a hand-printed sign which read, "No wonder there is so much trouble in Australia, the wise men are under the Christmas tree instead of in Canberra." Our room was actually a suite in a high-rise hotel in the downtown section. As soon as we were settled we left to find used bookstores and comic shops. I am on a quest to find books by an Australian mystery writer named Arthur Gask who wrote in the 30's and 40's. As it turns out his novels are almost impossible to find - none were to be found in any of the stores I checked in Sydney. Toby, however, did find some comics to buy -an appetizer for the rest of the trip.
Dorothy called a friend who lives in Sydney and he met us at the hotel and we walked to Darling Harbor, which is the location of a shopping mall, convention facilities, museums, a carnival, etc. Dorothy and I had a few words along the way about where and what to eat. Since it was summer I assumed it was going to be warm so I went out in short sleeves. Bad idea. It was cool enough that with a strong wind it was quite chilly. We returned to the hotel and the next day went back to the same area to go into the Powerhouse Museum (so called because an old power station was salvaged and turned into a museum). It has many "hands on" exhibits and was quite interesting. We returned to the hotel and waited for the transportation to take us to the airport. We had ordered it for noon and it finally arrived at 12:30. I had left plenty of time to get to the airport, but I was still pacing.
The trip across the Pacific was uneventful. We did get to see three movies instead of the usual two. As soon as we arrived at L.A., I called my parents to tell them we had arrived in the U.S. My mother told me at that point that a mass had been found on my father's colon, while Dorothy learned that her father had survived arm surgery and was expected to leave the hospital in a day or two. After a 5-hour layover, we flew to Washington D.C. where we landed during a snowstorm, though the snow may have stopped before we actually touched down.
Dwight was to fly out of San Francisco and arrive at the same' airport about 30 minutes before we did. However, we couldn't find him when we got there. I finally checked with United Airlines and was told that his plane had been diverted to Columbus Ohio. (Actually, Dwight told us later that they had been in the holding pattern at Washington, and had been sent back to Columbus because they were low on fuel.) So, I asked the lady at the counter what was going to happen to the plane. She thought that the plane would be coming on it to Washington but she wasn't sure when. She also wasn't sure that Columbus was set up to handle a DC10, including whether they had de-icing equipment that would handle a plane that big! Finally, an announcement was made that the plane would arrive at 11:30. That time passed, and it got later and later and no announcement. I went back to the counter only to find that everyone had gone home. Finally another parent waiting for her college student went down to the baggage area and found someone that told her that the plane had landed on time but the ground was so slippery that they were having trouble getting up to the gate at the mid-field terminal. Dwight finally arrived at the main terminal at about 12:45.a.m. After getting his bags about 1:15, we caught a cab to Alexandria, arriving at our friends' house at 2 a.m.
Part 2 - Visiting
Our visits to the Washington area would not be nearly as nice if it were not for the warm hospitality of our neighbors the McDonalds. They treat us as part of the family and we all really enjoy our stay with them. The first couple of days we took care of a number of things in the area, like taking 2 1/2 hours to straighten out some problems with our bank (caused when a bigger and better" national bank took over a competent local one), meeting with an engineer who is in charge of a county project which will result in curbs, drains and sidewalks on our street in the next year, and re-registering my car which is still sitting in our driveway~ I left it there when I was under the assumption that we would only be overseas two years. We also did some shopping, visited come comic shops, called and visited some friends, and Mr. McDonald took us on a tour of the Washington Post building (he works there).
On the 19th, we drove to my hometown, Hagerstown Maryland, to see my parents. On the way we stopped at a small used bookstore in Frederick Maryland and I found two of the Arthur Gask books - the only two I have found anywhere. A biopsy-was-performed on my father on the 21st, the results of which were not known until the 27th and confirmed that he had a malignant tumor on his colon. We also learned that my brother had lost his job. We left on the 21st to drive to New Jersey to try and beat the worst of the holiday traffic:
We spent Christmas with Dorothy's parents, her father home from the hospital with his right arm in a cast and sling. We did more shopping and visiting used book/comic shops.
Dorothy's parents live in a one-bedroom apartment and they tend to have things. So things get a little tight when all of us are there with all of our luggage. There is very little space in the dining room to pull the table out from the wall so the boys have to crawl over the chairs to get to their place. Dwight labeled this maneuver the "Stanford Crawl" since he went the farthest down the table. Then we 1 lined up our suitcases in front of the bed that Toby slept in and he had to do the "luggage leap" each night to get into bed.
Christmas night Dorothy and her mother and I drove around looking at ~he Christmas decoration and also drove up to a park on top of a fairly high hill from where it was possible to see the entire New York City skyline. It was quite a sight from the lookout. Driving home we were stopped at a-traffic light when someone pounded on the window and told us we were leaking gas. Sure enough, gas was flowing freely from the tank allover the road. Panic! Where was I going to get that fixed on Christmas night. I pulled into a service station and a nice fast-thinking customer gave me a machine screw and loaned me a wrench and after screwing the screw into the hole as tightly as I could, the leak was basically fixed. Dorothy was apprehensive about driving back to Washington the next day with the gas tank in that condition so the next morning I got up early and drove down to the nearest Buick dealer. I lined up behind two other cars waiting for the service department to open. However, after about an hour it became evident that they were not going to open. An exhaustive search did not ~reveal any notice to that effect. I drove to the next closest Buick dealer and at least they had the decency to put up a notice that they were closed on the 26th.
After some agonizing, we decided to go ahead and drive back to Washington. Traffic on the Jersey turnpike was heavy but was moving until 11.1 miles before the toll at the end of the turnpike, where the traffic was backed up bumper to bumper all the way to the toll booths. Dorothy had to use a rest room and fortunately there was a rest stop in that stretch so we pulled off. She and one of the boys went into the tourist center. My son shortly returned and told me that it would be awhile because there was a long line for the ladies room. So I decided to take advantage of the delay and go to the men's room. As I approached the door, a lady dragging one kid by the hand and carrying another cut in front of me, saying, "This is ridiculous" and walked into the men's room ahead of me. Further on down the road there was another lO-mileback up at an area undergoing some construction, another short backup before we got to Baltimore, another one after we went through the Harbor tunnel, and finally one on the Washington beltway going from Maryland to Virginia. The trip which usually takes about 4 1/2 hours took 7 1/2 hours (Dorothy's comment: With "patient" Jack, it felt more like 7 1/2 days). In recounting the backup to Dorothy's brother he commented that if the gas tank leak had reoccurred in the backed up traffic, the only logical procedure would have been to remove passengers and luggage and throw a match on the gasoline lighting up the car as the ultimate protest to traffic jams.
During the next several days we did more shopping (buying things we can't get here in Alice Springs), went to more comic shops visiting friends and acquired a rental car since I wasn't sure how long the gas tank would hold up.
On Friday Dec. 29th, Dwight rode with a friend, in a Porsche out to a fancy house on the Chesapeake Bay to spend the night, while Dorothy, Toby and I went back to Hagerstown for a day. I spent the week after New Year's going to an office in the area while Dwight visited friends in the D.C. area. After some discussion as to the most painless way for Dorothy and Toby to return to N.J. for a few days~ Dorothy decided to take the train - enough 7 1/2 hour car trips for her~ plus there was the gas tank problem, the fact that traffic jams don't exist in Alice Springs nor do freeways or speeding cars, as well as driving on the wrong side of the road.
So early Tuesday morning, Dorothy and Toby proceeded by metro to Union Station (D.C.), train to Penn Station (NYC), walked to the Port Authority bus station, and finally bus to Montclair N.J., where Dorothy's mother picked them up. Union Station has been remodeled again - in addition to going back to the train station appearance, there are lots of little shops and boutiques providing a lot of merchandise for the shopper as well as the window shopper. A sign welcomes people to train travel as "the only civilized way to go" and after the crowds at airports and traffic jams on the freeways, there is something to be said for that. Toby could barely remember his previous train trips (to N~J. in 1979 with his father and brother, and on the Ghan to Alice Springs in 1983). As he sat down, he said, "Look Mum, no seat belts." The trip - 3 hours - went smoothly, quickly and pleasantly - indeed civilized.
I finally found out that Dad was going to be operated on the 10th, - the day we were to leave for the west coast, so I asked for an extension to our stay, and got it. The hard part was getting the airline reservations changed, some of which were non-refundable. The govt. managed to do it without any penalty although it took until the following Monday. There was some problem getting our reservations changed on the plane from L.A. to Sydney - all flights were full for several days. We were put on a· waiting list for the 20th and eventually got on it.
Toby enjoyed visiting his grandparents again and narrowly beat his grandfather in an ongoing chess match 5-4. Toby called me on Thursday night and asked if I'd mind if they waited until Saturday to come back. It turned out he and his mother wanted to attend a comic book convention at a hotel just across from the train station in New York City. They had a great time - Dorothy didn't want to leave and would have liked to have gone back the next day. Many of the artists were there and she met Tom Gill, who had drawn the "Silver" and "Fury" comics (about horses) back when she was reading comics. Comic book conventions are held regularly allover the U.S., most only bring a number of comic book dealers and maybe a token illustrator, but this one not only featured dozens of dealers with lots and lots of stock, but also 50 or more illustrators, writers and editorial staff from many of the big name comic publishers such as Scott McFarlane (Spiderman) and the editorial staff of the Archie Comics. The convention took up a whole floor of the block long Penn Hotel on 33rd and -7th Ave and thousands and thousands of people waited in line for more than an hour to attend. Though Toby would have been happy "shopping until he dropped, or the well ran dry, Dorothy's goal was to interview as many of the artists as possible, asking where they went to school, what kind of training, did they like their jobs, and so forth~ Those she talked to were quite pleasant, well trained and polite and enthusiastic people.
Toby got a number of autographed copies, but elected not to stand in the long line for Scott MacFarland's autograph who is obviously the who's who of comic book illustrators at the moment~ Evidently the thing for collectors to do to enhance their collection's value is to take issues to illustrators at these conventions and have them autographed. Another neat aspect of the convention was the panel discussions and films going on in various rooms - from developing story lines to including new characters. A comic book historian (no joke) interviewed the creator of MAD on a short-lived publication entitled HELP. Unfortunately, the organizers had trouble keeping this part of the convention on schedule and Dorothy was disappointed that she could not attend more before they caught the 3:30 p.m. train ~ to D.C. so that they could see Dwight off to Stanford the next day.
She said the convention was so good that it would be worth a special trip up from D.C. each year to attend.
The train trip home was not uneventful. A short ways from Philadelphia, the train came to a screeching lopsided stop. Kids had left car wheels and tires allover the tracks causing the train to almost derail when it hit them. After a 20-30 minute delay, while train personnel assessed and fixed the damage, the train resumed its trip and reached D.C. without further incident.
That Saturday evening, all four Grimms were once again gathered at the McDonalds. The next day we went to visit Dorothy's uncle Dwight (the first of four Dwights in the family) and then took our Dwight on to the airport to fly back to Stanford.
I went to Hagerstown on the 9th and the next day spent several tense hours in the hospital-while Dad was being operated on. The initial report was good - there were no visible signs that the cancer had spread, but the pathology report was not as good - cancer was found in a number of lymph nodes. He will require 25 radiation treatments and chemotherapy. Dad is 74 and still plays golf when he can. He seems to have recovered well from the surgery. He is concerned about his condition, but says he is going to do whatever the doctors recommend. I can only hope for good results at this point.
While I was in Hagerstown, Dorothy and Toby did more comic book shopping in Washington, mailed boxes to ourselves here, and visited some friends in Pennsylvania, where Toby beat both his friend, and his friend's father in table tennis. They also attended two small comic shows - one in Arlington, VA and one in Harrisburg, Pa. Meanwhile Dwight went with about 75 other kids in his dorm to the ski slopes in Lake Tahoe and spent two days skiing. They stayed in two houses that were designed to sleep 18 people each! Dwight was in charge of the meals in one place.
Finally it was time to leave the east coast. That morning my stomach did not feel just right and I hoped I wasn't getting the flu, which was prevalent in the area. We drove out to Dulles airport. I had a rental car that I had sot ten from the National Airport office, so didn't know where the return was at Dulles. I naturally assumed it was off the road marked "Rental Car Return." Wrong! It pays to have one of the main brands, which I didn't, and there was no place for "Thrifty" there. I got some directions to their office and still had problems finding it. We got to the airport, checked in and finally got onboard our plane. The plane taxied out onto the runway but then the pilot announced that we were holding because the corridor between Washington and Chicago was full. All of a sudden I was not feeling well. Dorothy told me I was "cold and clammy" all over and extremely pale. She tried to start a fight and when I didn't respond she knew I was sick and called the stewardess. I guess I came very close to passing out. The stewardess said there was no way she was letting me fly, so she had the pilot take the plane back to the gate. I was able to walk to the door, where an ambulance was sitting" The medic asked me if I was usually that pale. Dorothy told him I looked better then than I had several minutes earlier. It was decided (not by me) that I should go to the hospital and be checked out. After checking me out, including an EKG, the diagnosis was that I was probably coming down with a flu or virus and that was coupled with the stress surrounding my father's illness.
The doctor said I was fit to travel and gave me a note that the airline actually asked for when we got back to the airport. They put us on another flight which was leaving immediately bound for Dallas, where we were to make connections for San Francisco. When we arrived there was some confusion about which gate the connecting flight was to depart. When I checked the TV monitor, much to my dismay, I saw that the important part of the information was not the gate number, but the four letters CANX in the departure time. The flight had been canceled! We were put on a waiting list for the next available flight, which left an hour later than the original flight. While waiting to catch that flight, Dorothy made repeated attempts to reach Dwight by phone but, wouldn't you know it, that was the afternoon of the AT&T snafu which did not allow any long distance calls to go through. We made it onto the flight and landed in San Francisco about 4 1/2' hours after we were originally scheduled to arrive.
Dwight was in a bit of a panic - he hadn't known what time exactly we were to arrive but knew it-was mid-late afternoon and we didn't arrive until about 6:30.
We enjoyed our brief 2-day stay in S.F. Dorothy and I stayed with a friend of mine who has worked in S.F. for 15 years. He has been great about picking Dwight up at the airport on a couple of occasions and having dinner with him from time to time. It was nice to spend time with Roy again after a long time. Some time ago Dwight had told Toby that he could sleep in his dorm room, and Toby was very excited about the prospect. He spent both nights there and had a ball. We all went in Dwight's dorm to see his room and received a big welcome from a lot of the kids on his floor. They seemed like a good bunch of individuals.
Dorothy, Toby and I flew on to L.A., landing about mid-day. It took about 1 1/2 hours to get the rental car (1 was not impressed), and I drove south to spend a couple of hours with a contractor who does some work for the U.S. Govt. here in Alice. While I met with him, Dorothy and Toby spent several hours at a huge mall. After I finished we ate supper and decided to start driving to San Diego. I had no idea how bad the traffic would be so I did not expect to go the while way that evening. Well, the freeway was moving at about 70-75 mph, so we made San Diego in about 2 hours. I had no idea where ~o go once 1 had gotten there. There was a typical Jack-Dorothy shouting match about not planning ahead, etc., etc. Finally, Toby suggested we go down this one road, and I finally pulled into a service station to ask for help. I asked where I was, and the guy showed me on the map, and said where did 1 want to go and
I said I wasn't sure. I got a funny look. I did tell him that the next day I wanted to go to the zoo. He said there weren't any places to stay around the zoo, that it might be best to stay in that area and drive on in the next day. So we stayed in a motel just beside the water where a lot of pleasure and fishing boats were anchored. Also we were less than a mile from the San Diego Yacht Club, which took the America's Cup away from Australia.
The next day, we visited the world famous San Diego Zoo. It is not as large a zoo as I expected, and while it is beautifully landscaped, I truthfully didn't think it was any better than the Washington National Zoo, or the Taronga Zoo in Sydney. After we left there we drove down to a national reserve where an old lighthouse still stands. The view from the hill where the lighthouse is located is spectacular. The entire city of San Diego and the harbor area is visible. We also drove down a winding road to the water line to look at the tidal pools there.
The next morning we stopped at a flea market, which was supposed to open at 7, but many of the" stalls were still being set up when we returned at9. We drove back to L.A. quickly got settled in a motel, and went to Disneyland. Unfortunately, since it was a winter weekday, it closed at 6 p.m., but since there were so few people there we were able to do about everything we wanted to do at least once. I should mention that in addition to this entire time period was not the usual tourist season, it was fairly cold in southern California. We wore coats until the last day we were there.
The next morning, the day we were to leave for Australia, Dorothy called her parents in N.J. to say goodbye. Her mother told her that her father had been taken very ill, had been transported to the hospital and was undergoing an emergency operation, and there was some question whether he would survive. While Dorothy stayed at the motel, T6by and I went out to mail some final packages to ourselves. When we returned Dorothy was on the phone again and told us her father had died. While she continued to talk to her mother I went to comfort Toby and laid my glasses on the bed. After Dorothy got off the phone she came over and sat down on the bed - on my glasses and snapped off the earpiece. I was in a bit of a panic - I can't function without my glasses. Fortunately, I had my prescription sun glasses. I knew I would have to get my other glasses fixed, but the first order of business was to change Dorothy's reservations (again) and get her a flight back to the east coast. I got her one which left at 10 p.m., with the idea that she would get into New York early in the morning, rather than late at night as she would have to take one bus from the airport to the bus station, and then another bus out to N.J. The airline agent also told me that there was some possibility that our plane to Australia would be delayed or canceled due to mechanical difficulties. Thank goodness, when I checked back later in the afternoon, I was told the plane would leave as planned.
After dealing with the airlines I went out into Anaheim California to try and find an optician. After following three different sets of directions from different people I finally found one and fortunately they had a pair of frames that my lens would fit. I returned to the motel and picked up Dorothy and Toby. We spent the remainder of the day meandering through L.A., stopping to play miniature golf checking out one comic shop and a number of stores for refunds for Dorothy and finally a mall. But we had lost our enthusiasm for shopping so finally headed for the airport. We had to kill some time at the airport ("as always" - Toby's comment), but fina11y Toby and I got on the plane bound for Sydney at 8:20 p.m., while Dorothy had another hour and half to wait before catching her "red eye” f1ight to JFK airport in New York City ~
Our plane made very good time and landed early 6:15 a.m.) in Sydney. The first plane to Alice Springs, on which had reservations, was not until 3:30 p.m., so after checking our bags, we took a bus into Sydney. On arriving downtown, I called up a friend a of Dorothy's who lives in town and he said he would take a "sickie" and keep us company. We had gotten into town about 7:30, and we met him at 9, and we spent the next four hours walking around downtown Sydney. Ross went home, and I told Toby I could not walk another step. I really had not gotten any real sleep on the plane and I was exhausted. We took the bus back to the airport, finally got on the plane to Alice, and arrived here three hours later. The temperature was 38 degrees C (about 102 degrees F), which felt great after all of the cold.
Meanwhile, Dorothy's flight landed smoothly, despite the fog and rain, at 6 a.m. on Sunday, Jan. 21st. She caught a bus to the Port Authority Bus Station, which is a very scary place at 7:30 a.m. on a Sunday morning. Homeless people find its many nooks and crannies, stairwells and bus stops ideal places to sleep. Few "ordinary" people are about and the total effect is like a scene from some scary police show. She finally reached her mother's at 9 a.m. and began a week of helping her mother to make arrangements. Her brother (Dwight #2) and his wife Sue arrived in N.J. from North Carolina later in the day. Services were held Tuesday while Dwight and Sue left Wednesday because they had a non-refundable airline trip to Florida planned for Thursday. During the week, Dorothy and her mother took a trip into New York where they encountered a saxophone player busking in the tunneled corridors of the NY subway and were serenaded by a 73-year old former choir singer on a subway platform. Meanwhile her brother was being helped off an airplane and into a wheelchair in Atlanta following a bad case of air sickness.
Dorothy's return trip to Alice Springs was surprisingly uneventful. and she arrived in 44 degree C heat (about 110 degrees F) where a mountain of mail awaited her - including a very wet box of food stuffs mailed in a dry u.S. Post Office several weeks previously.
Once again we thank everyone for their Christmas cards and letters. We continue to enjoy mail and hope people will write whenever they can.
We hope 1990 is a good year and best wishes for a good decade.
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