December 1991: Alice Springs

CHRISTMAS 1991  

      Yep, it's that time again, already. And - in case you didn't get last year's, please don't take us off your Christmas card list, yet. We mailed out Christmas cards (with letters) last year. Unfortunately, one of many breakdowns in our mail system occurred on one of the days when Dorothy mailed out over a hundred pieces of mail. An entire bag of mail went missing. This episode, along with potential future problems (see next paragraph) prompted Dorothy to write to an Under Secretary of Defense who oversees the APOs/FPOs. His office informed us the "delay" was probably due to a wildcat strike." Presumably this strike is still on since we've never heard that any of the missing mail arrived.  But someday in the future you may be lucky enough to receive our 1990 Christmas card and letter.

        On the subject of mail, apparently someone in the Department of Defense had to protect his job, or thought our mail system was functioning too well, so it was decided to change the entire worldwide APO/FPO system.  We don't understand why. Cities and states are no longer used with APO/FPOs.  In addition, our particular zip code has changed. Unfortunately, while this new address works, the computers in individual post offices that are used to calculate rates for parcels do not recognize the new address (no state - can't be valid).  So our old address is good until next year or until the Defense Department and the U.S. Postal Service agree that the new system is unworkable (did they talk to each other first?).

     We stayed in Alice Springs for Christmas last year - the first in awhile.  Dwight didn't want to make the long trip home for his short Christmas vacation.  His roommate invited him to go along with and his two aunts to Mexico. Dwight said they had a good time. Shortly after Christmas, Dorothy and Toby went on a visit to the U.S. I decided not to so since I was planning to make a trip in June -more on that later.  They had a good time - no disasters and went to a gigantic comic book convention in New York City.  They had discovered this event (3 days) the previous year and since they both enjoyed it had made plans to attend again. While they traveled, I stayed home and enjoyed the peace and quiet, and thoroughly cleaned house without any supervision.
      In March, Dorothy and I spent 10 days in Perth.  This was the first trip alone in 20 years and despite the fact that the kids weren't along to referee any "domestics" (family arguments), we survived! The highlight of the trip was going into the water off one city south of Perth and having dolphins swimming around me.
      I had planned to go home in June on "turnaround" (a break between tours).  I put in paperwork in October requesting a new tour. I heard in January it had been approved by two of the three offices that are involved. But thanks to your tax dollars paying for our huge bureaucracy, formal approval did not arrive at site until 4 June! By then it was too late to make plans. I had wanted to go mid-June to mid-July (during Toby's mid-winter school break) and that would have allowed me to go to my high school class' 30th reunion, play some golf with my father and take the boys to the seashore.   After the approval arrived so late, I asked to postpone the   turnaround until school holidays in December-January.  I did receive a new tour, though, which means we’ll be here until at least 1993. Toby should be able to finish school here.

     In late August, Dorothy's mother, Adelaide, came to visit. After an 8-day stay in Alice, we all (including Dwight who was here on summer vacation) flew to Adelaide where we rented a car and drove to Canberra and Sydney. Dwight and Adelaide flew home from there. Adelaide arrived safely back in New Jersey and apparently enjoyed her trip.  Dwight is back at Stanford.
     Dwight successfully completed his sophomore year in June. During his spring break, he and a group of his friends went to Fort Lauderdale.  From the little bit we were told, I believe they had a good time. On his way here for his summer break, a friend invited him to stay with he and his family in Hawaii for a week. Some people have all the luck. He wasn't able to find as much work this year as the previous year (the economy here is not in very good shape), but he did earn some money.  Just before the end of the school year, he was hit in the eye with a water balloon and was kept in the hospital five days as a precautionary measure.  So his last couple of weeks were pretty hectic.  His eye seems to be OK now.  I guess he's going well in his junior year. We are yet to receive a letter from him, though we have talked to him on the phone.
     Toby has done a bit of traveling this year.  One of his main interests in life continues to be ten-pin bowling.  He was an alternate for the Northern Territory state team to the National Junior Championship. He traveled to Darwin to practice with the team and then to Canberra in July to compete as an individual. He did well but didn't win anything.  In October he went to Brisbane to complete in another tournament, sponsored by Coca Cola. Again, he did well but is still not in the same league with some of the junior bowlers who average over 200. Dorothy figures is that's his big interest, we might as well encourage him.  She wrote to the American Bowling Congress and asked if there were colleges with bowling programs.  They sent a lot of information and a list of colleges back, and some of the schools even give financial aid and scholarships for bowling!
      Toby's other main interest is comics - he now has over 6000.  He knows what issues he is missing, which issue a character was introduced, and a lot of other trivia about them. Once on our trip we saw a movie on TV about the return of the Hulk and his encounter with Thor. We received a lengthy dissertation about the history of Thor.

Dorothy continues to put in many hours covering events around town. Unfortunately, the 'management' at the paper doesn't appreciate Dorothy as much as the people in the community, and thus not all of her stories are run. Once this year, one of the domestic airlines
started a new run to Ayers Rock and invited someone from the paper to go along.  Somehow, Dorothy ended up with the invitation.  She enjoyed the tour, and dutifully wrote an article about it. The newspaper didn't run the article. As a joke, Dorothy entered exhibit in the Advocate Art Award (an art contest sponsored by the newspaper).  To show the quality of the management - the editor
didn't attend the opening of the exhibit although the paper was sponsoring it. But a number of people understood the joke (an old suitcase with all of the brochures and photos Dorothy had taken
during the trip in it).   
        In addition, the Alice Spring Rotary Club awarded Dorothy a plaque for Vocation Excellence.  Two other people received similar awards - a local singer who is nationally known, and a man who was a leader in the tourism industry here for 30 years and recently received a national award in tourism.  So, it was a very nice and meaningful gesture on the part of the Rotary Club.  It's a reflection on the newspaper that in a recent issue they did an article on the staff and not only did not mention Dorothy, but stated that all of the photos were the work of the two photographers. Dorothy takes many of her own photos and in some issues has had 10-15 photos.
      So what do I do? Well, last night Toby made a list of all the fun (he meant boring) things done in the house - most of which I do. Keep up the family stamp albums, keep up Dorothy's list of contacts, catalogue my books (and read them), update Toby's list of comics that he is looking for, organize Dorothy's refund trash (yes - she is able to do some refunding here), write letters (including my form letters, and do a lot of the household chores while Dorothy is out "covering" things.  I also forgot the famous key sorting incident. We have a friend who collects keys, and one day at a lawn sale, some guy sold me 720 keys for $5.  I decided to sort them to see how many different varieties there were and you should have seen the look on Toby's face when he walked in to see me sorting keys.
     Dorothy and I were trying to think of any other interesting incidents and the only one that came up was the 21st birthday party we went to for one of Dwight's friends.  I believe earlier 21st birthday parties for older members of the family must have gotten slightly out of hand so to cut down on damage, they held it in a meat packing plant - not the cooler - but there were the rails hanging from the ceiling.  Certainly one of the stranger venues for a party I've ever been to.
      
     Well, that's it for this year.  As I said, we are going home in December, by way of Hong Kong, and may drive back across the county, so that will be exciting. Meanwhile, I hope you have a great Christmas and a wonderful New Year.