Xmas 1992

Not a Creature was Stirring, not even a

      My wife had gone to sleep early on Christmas eve, so she got up at 5:15 Christmas morning to open boxes which had been sent from overseas, and set out the Christmas presents.  At 5:30, I awoke to sounds of our cat running around the hallway, obviously chasing something.  I could also hear my wife in the kitchen opening a can of cat food after which she walked into the hall to call the cat. I yelled, "Dorothy, stay out of the hallway, the cat is chasing something."  She hurried into the living room and shut all of the doors.
     About that time, my son opened his bedroom door into the hall to let the dog out of his room.  I told him to keep the dog in his room.  Since the dog and cat don't get along, I didn't need the added confusion.
      The action in the hall continued - longer than normal when the cat is playing with a mouse.  So I started to worry that it was something else (LIKE A SNAKE)I  Finally, I turned on my bed lamp. The cat must have thought that I was coming after her because she instantly turned around and ran away, while a little mouse scurried along my bedroom wall and into the attached bathroom.
      I told my son to put the dog outside and see it he could find a shoebox (some of which are always around our house for storage).  He came into my bedroom barely awake to report he couldn't find a shoebox, and said, "What do our want one for, anyway?"  I explained that there was mouse in the bathroom and I wasn't going to let the cat get it.  I asked him to get his mother and tell her to bring a shoebox.
      Dorothy arrived asking what was happening.  I explained the situation and at that point we could see the mouse between the door and the frame.  "Oh, isn't he cute."  exclaimed my wife. "You know, Dad,"  my son said, "this is rather tacky."  Puzzled, I asked what he meant.  "Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse."
      My wife and I looked at each other saying, "So who's going to catch the mouse?"  Finally, my wife said, "Give me the box, I don't mind mice.  I'll catch him."  So she went into the bathroom and shut the door.  I heard, "Here mousie, mousie, EEEK, come on mousie, EEEK."  The shrieks occurred only when the mouse ran directly at her.  At one point she told me that mouse was hopping.  I told her that in that case, it was probably not a standard house mouse, and could be one of the endangered types. That meant that we should do something to get him away from our cat (and other cats).
      Dorothy wasn't having any luck, so I offered to get a larger box.  I took it and a broom into the bathroom. I looked at the mouse and it did appear to have a more pointed nose than the standard house mouse.  Between the box, its lid and the broom we (mainly my wife) managed to get the mouse into the box and the lid on.
      "So now what do we do?" Dorothy asked.  I told her I didn't think we could call the Conservation Commission at 6 a.m. on Christmas.  So, I told her to get dressed, we'd take it out bush. As we left, my son was singing, "I'm dreaming of a normal Christmas, just like the ones I've never had." - a slight exaggeration, although there have been other out-of-the ordinary Christmases at our house.
     We drove about 10 kilometers out of town, found some fairly dense scrub and placed the box on the ground.  Dorothy wanted a photo, so after she focused the camera on the lid, I lifted it off, she snapped a picture and the mouse hopped about 18 inches into the air and a meter or so into the bush.  Yes, it was a hopping mouse -according to a reference book we consulted later, possibly a Spinifex hopping mouse.
We returned home to open our presents.

Nov 1992

1992 GRIMM CHRISTMAS

      When I told Dorothy I had managed to get a 3 1/2 week TDY back to the U.S. in November it didn't take her long to accuse me of doing this to get out of the annual Christmas card project.  Not true. It never crossed my mind. As you can see, I didn't get out of it completely.  One of my assigned tasks while she went away for three weeks - to the Cook islands, was to draft the yearly Christmas letter. Being the perfect husband, I am doing as instructed.
      As usual, some of you may have received some other Grimm form letters in 1992, so I won't dwell too long on details.  As for those of you who didn't receive other form letters and feel neglected, write more often and you too can receive these exciting adventure stories. Oh, that's why you don't write more often, you say.
      To pick up our adventures from my last Christmas letter -Dorothy, Toby and I traveled back to the U.S. last December, through Darwin (very hot and humid), Singapore (just overnight to make connections) and Hong Kong.  I think Hong Kong is one of the most interesting cities I've been in and I could go back a third time.  We spent several delightful days there, despite wearing my feet out, and decided we did not stay long enough.  In the U.S., we spent several weeks on the east coast visiting family and friends and had a wonderful time standing up the entire way in the entryway of a railroad passenger car all the way from N. J. to Baltimore.  No more traveling on the east coast the day after Christmas - ever! I had my 1982 Buick checked over well and we, along with Dorothy's mother, drove to N. Carolina to visit Dorothy's brother and family. Then Dorothy, Toby and I drove across the country to Oklahoma where we visited friends, and I put Dorothy and Toby on a plane at that point to fly back so Toby could try out for the State Junior Ten-Pin team (he made it).  I drove on across the Texas panhandle, New Mexico, Arizona and California, and delivered the car to Dwight at Stanford. Then I flew home to Alice.
      Dwight finished his junior year in June, and came here for the summer. He was fortunate in having a month's work at the newspaper, but couldn't find any other employment while he was here. Unemployment in Australia currently is over 11%.  But he had other tasks, including cutting out all of the photos he had taken during the time he had worked for the paper.  He made up books which he may use when he goes to look for a job.
      On his way back to school in September, Dwight and a couple of friends spent several days sightseeing in Sydney. When he got back to Stanford, he couldn't locate my car.  The girl with whom he had left it had moved and then went on vacation, and Dwight couldn't find her. Needless to say, when I found out I was not happy, but he did eventually locate the car and it is OK.
      
      The day Dwight left school in June, he learned he had no place to live this year.  The school took back the house they were leasing to a local fraternity because not enough people had pledged to live there this year which meant the fraternity couldn't meet its financial obligations to the university.  Anyway, during the summer Dwight received word from the university that he had been allocated a spot in the Russian Theme House (specifically for Russian majors).  There are a number of theme houses, but apparently if they are not full the university allocates additional people to them.  Dwight was not overly amused, but he seemed pleased with his roommate since the guy is a golf fanatic.  Dwight was complaining about the meals - not enough red meat, but a number of the residents are ganging up on the cook. Dwight is ahead in credits, so thinks he will be able to finish his requirements after the winter quarter in April.  I thought it might be valuable to be ahead of the mob when looking for a job.  Here's hoping.
      Toby turned 16 in March and got his license in April.  I learned my lesson with Dwight and got another car.  I now realize that people that buy their teenagers a car are not indulging them, but assuring themselves of transportation when needed.  Once Dwight got his license and a job I never had a car.
     Toby has done all of the family traveling until recently. He went to Darwin for the state junior ten-pin bowling championships in April, the national championships in Townsville in June, back to Darwin for a Sports Excellence Camp in July, to Darwin again for a math seminar in August, and just returned from Brisbane for another bowling championship.  At this last tournament he bowled 193+ for the first 16 games but still didn't make the cut.  The winning bowler (18 and under) had an average of 225-230.  Most of the travel was either paid for by the Northern Territory govt, or fund raising by the bowling group. He is starting to consider in which colleges he is interested. He has no particular school in mind, but wants to attend one in a warm climate.
      Dorothy has been busy all year in her job and in addition to covering all of the events in town has traveled out to Aboriginal communities to cover events at them.  I went with her to Hermannsburg, which is only about 80 miles from town (of which about 15 is dirt), but she went out to another one overnight that was 5 1/2 hours by road, most of which was dirt.  I also went with her when she accompanied members of the local Rotary Club when they went to Ayers Rock to mark the chartering of a new club.  For a free night at the Sheraton and a free dinner, it cost me 5 hours each way on a small uncomfortable bus and 4 1/2 hours at the dinner listening to innumerable speeches.  I have asked Dorothy not to do any more favors of inviting me along while she covers such events.  Because of the efforts she puts in she is greatly appreciated by a large segment of the community, but doesn't get a lot of respect at the newspaper, since her articles are not considered "hard news."  She lets off steam at home about the treatment she gets at the paper, but hasn't quit yet, despite repeated threats (to me) to do so.
      Dorothy just returned from her trip to the Cook Islands.  In case you don't know where they are (we had to look at the Atlas) they are just north of the Tropic of Capricorn and south of Hawaii. So what is Dorothy doing there, you ask?  Four years ago she attended the Fifth Festival of Pacific Arts in Townsville (east coast of Australia) and thought it was fantastic.  Indigenous people from all over the Pacific gather to compare cultures through art, dance, music, crafts, etc. This year the festival was held in the Cook Islands.  There was some concern that with the main island is being so small (population 10,000) that there would not be enough fresh water for the influx of visitors from all over the Pacific.  I'm sure the trip will be the substance of a future trip report, but I can tell you from the phone conversations I've had with Dorothy that it is quite an experience for her. She described the island as "primitive" even though they have some beautiful accommodations (as well as fantastic scenery).  She has now returned home and is telling me the stories of her trip and slowing getting the 22 rolls of film developed that she took on the trip.
     All in all it hasn't been a bad year.  We did have a minor family crisis recently when Dorothy's car - the 1981 Datsun was totaled as it sat in front of our house. We bought the car new in 1981 and it has been back and forth across the Pacific on both of our moves to Australia and both boys learned to drive in it.  So when a drunken Aboriginal rammed it into the yard next door, crunching the chain link fence with the front of the car, Dorothy got very upset.  However, about two weeks later, we found a very similar car at an auction at the local YHCA. Dorothy still misses her car, but at least condescends to drive the new (1980) one.
      There is not much to say about myself. I have not been out of Alice Springs since I returned from our trip in January.  So,I am looking forward to my TDY in November.  In addition to work, I will get to see my parents, and plan to stop to see Dwight on the way out of the country.
       I hope all is well with you and all or your family and friends and that you have a great Christmas, and a wonderful New Year.

Oct 1992: Cook Islands

    Town 'n Around the Cook Island of Rarotonga for the Te Maire Nui 1992

      The Festival of Pacific Arts (Te Maire Nui) is held every 4 years in a different Pacific Island Country.  Dorothy attended the 1988 one held in Townsville, Queensland, Australia, a victim of her own publicity, and had such a good time that she decided if she were still in the southern hemisphere in 1992 she would try to attend the next one - to be held in the Cook Islands in 1992.
      A year ago, we wrote to the Cook Islands for information which was received several months later with a scarcity of information about the festival itself.  A request to a travel agent in December 1991 resulted in nothing but 'it's way too early to book.'  A subsequent request in late January 1992 resulted in Dorothy being told it was already booked out but the travel agent did put her on a waiting list and six weeks later she was notified there was a package booking available and the scene was set.
     Using her life's savings (ed. note - slight embellishment), and 3 weeks leave Dorothy's journey began on Oct 12, 1992, Columbus Day. First stop was Sydney where she spent a night and morning as the plane for Auckland, New Zealand, the second stop on her island hopping - did not leave until 3 p.m.
      Dorothy stayed in a motel, the Gemini, in Randwick, a suburb of Sydney for several reasons - it provided transportation to and from the airport, was less expensive (flash) than many, and was on a bus route to the city.  Dorothy spent the morning roaming around Circular Quay, the Rocks, and the harbor area taking pictures and going in and out of shops.  At 2 p.m., she caught the bus back to the hotel and got a ride to the airport.
     At Sydney International Airport, Dorothy saw many members of the Australian delegation to the festival, who were on the same flight to Auckland.  The festival is a South Pacific cultural event designed to promote the art, craft, music, dance and other cultural expressions of the indigenous people of the South Pacific countries. Twenty-seven countries are considered members.  The islands range from Australia and Papua New Guinea in the west to Easter Island, off the coast of Chile in the east.  Hawaii, Guam, Nuie, Vanuatu, French Polynesia and New Zealand are just a few of the others.  Most delegations averaged about 100 with contemporary cultural expression being included as well as traditional. This year's focus was on the canoes, or Vaka, which took the people from island to island. Historians have claimed the early inhabitants wee not smart enough to sail between islands, that discoveries and settlements were only started by accident when weather conditions blew a sea-going vessel off course.  For this festival many countries built canoes using traditional methods to sail to the Cook Islands, including one from
      
New Zealand which took 32 days.  The canoes were followed by support vessels as a safety measure but in each case the canoe was sailed and navigated using traditional methods such as oars and the stars, and one of the events was the traditional welcoming ceremony - with islanders playing conch shells and greeting visitors with drums and dancing.
      But back to Dorothy's story - Dorothy arrived in Auckland at midnight and reached her motel room by 1 a.m.  With her flight for Rarotonga not leaving until 10 p.m. the next day, Dorothy spent the day in downtown Auckland checking out comic book shops for additions to Toby's comic book collection, as well as any inside activity which would take her out of the cold, rainy, overcast New Zealand climate.  One good refuge was the city art gallery where she spent several hours, first listening to a talk by contemporary N.Z. artists, then studying the gallery's collections of historic N.Z. paintings, as well as a photographic display and video on the photographer's life.  The photographer, a European WWI veteran, later was based in New York (Dorothy can't remember his name). All in all she spent almost 4 hours in the art gallery.
      Finally at the Auckland airport, Dorothy began her journey to Rarotonga, the largest of the islands which form the Cook Islands. Her flight included a 50-minute stop in Fiji where she got off the plane to check the transit lounge of the Fiji airport. There, the Fijian delegation to the Festival boarded the plane.
     The plane landed in Rarotonga about 6:30 a.m., Wed, as the Cook Islands are across the date line from Australia.  So Dorothy got to live Wed, Oct. 14th twice.  Cook Islanders in grass skirts were out beating drums to welcome the visitors to the island.  As Dorothy waited to go through passport control and customs she was landed a leaflet on how to stay healthy for the festival - the key words being "Don't drink the water.  (Boil it first) and Don't eat the food (eat small quantities)."  Not being an adventuresome eater in the first place, this news was not greeted joyfully. Finally enroute to her "resort" hotel, Dorothy looked back and was amazed to see the big New Zealand jet dwarfed the little Cook island airport.
     Dorothy's 'home' for the next 16 days was the Edgewater Resort. Its big advantage was being on the Town 'N Around bus route.  The Edgewater is on the west side of the island, 7 kilometers from Avarua, the main city of Rarotonga.  As a resort hotel, the Edgewater has an activities director whose responsibility it is to plan trips for the estimated 100 guests (when there are no such things as festivals) - and things like tennis coaching, crab racing, fashion shows and so forth.
     After settling in, Dorothy decided to catch the bus to town to see just what Avarua was like.  This was when her major case of culture shock occurred.  The "town" consisted of many small (stress the word small) shops most selling tourist type souvenirs.  The main grocery store, supposedly the largest on the island made the small Alice Springs grocery stores look gigantic.  All in all, Avarua made Alice Springs look like a thriving metropolis. Evidently most people in the Cook Islands grow, catch or raise their own food as during her stay, Dorothy saw tethered goats, horses, pigs, and cows while roosters and hens and little chicks roamed freely.  Bananas grew close to the ground as well as other fruits and vegetables while coconuts on tall palm trees abound.  A sign at the Edgewater stated, "DO NOT PARK, FALLING COCONUTS."
     After walking through the town and looking for various publications which would provide more information on the festival and applying for media accrediation, Dorothy stocked up on Coke, peanut butter, bread and cookies which were to be the main stay of her diet for the next 16 days.  Back at the bus stop, Dorothy decided to take the clockwise bus around the island in order to see the rest of this island and perhaps locate some of the venues where the festival events were to be held. (The festival itself was not scheduled to officially begin until Saturday evening with an opening ceremony.)
      Back at the motel, Dorothy took a walk on the beach and a took a couple of sunset pictures before tuning in to the Cook Islands' one TV station, which only broadcasts from 5 p.m. until 10 p.m., each day.  Two versions of local news are included - English and Maori.  At the end of the broadcast, along with the weather is the status of the islands' water supply which is dependent on rainfall and the island had not had any significant rainfall for 2 months, so upon Dorothy's arrival, the supply was at the critical point (ed. note - this at a critical time of the addition of 4000 visitors to the island).
      The big news on Wednesday's TV news was the arrival of Prince Edward the next day and the public was invited.  So, after a little more sightseeing via the little yellow bus, Dorothy rode to the airport and joined the people waiting patiently in the hot sun.  The prince arrived at 1 p.m. in his Royal jet and was given the traditional welcome of the islands including children in grass skirts dancing to the beat of the drums, as well as speeches by the Cook Islands Prime Minister, Sir Geoffrey Henry.  The prince was carried in the traditional chair (paata) by islanders and Dorothy later heard him say to some of the islanders he hoped he wasn't too heavy (he is tall, thin, balding and is much like his father, Prince Phillip, in appearance and manner).
      From the airport Dorothy caught the bus back to Avarua to be on hand for when the Prince opened the city's divided stretch of road which runs  along the shore.  Prince Edward stayed in Rarotonga until Sunday morning during which time he was to unveil lots of plaques commemorating lots of things from the town's new cultural centre named by the Prime Minister after himself to the sign marking the new Sheraton Hotel/Country Club constructions site.  At 4 p.m., there was a press conference for accredited media with the festival director.  The cultural center includes a 2000-seat auditorium for the island's 10,000 residents.
      Friday, it rained and rained and rained.  Despite the weather, Dorothy made a couple of trips to Avarua and around the island, visiting the small library and old museum.  She was there for the excitement of arriving canoes - everyone gathered on the beach to watch their arrival.  Then it was back on the bus and back to the room for an evening of TV, reading and writing postcards.  The water supply level had improved significantly.
      Saturday it was back to town for the morning as everything closes and the bus stops running at noon. The afternoon was spent reading and writing letters before heading off by foot for the opening ceremony at the stadium, located about an hour's walk from the hotel.  The schedule had VIPs arriving from 4:30-6:30 p.m. with speeches until 7:30 p.m. followed by the procession of the various delegations.  Although only scheduled for 15-30 minutes, this took a couple of hours, followed by presentations and performances before the Prince, as well as a pageant by Cook Islanders - adults and youngsters.  Dorothy left at 11:30 p.m., walking back through the darkness to the hotel.
      Sunday is a holy day in the Cook Islands and the only thing open are churches.  The hotel provides taxi service to a nearby Christian Church and rather than sit in the motel the entire day (the bus does not run), Dorothy headed for church.  The majority of the service was in Maori with about the only English being a "commercial" from the pulpit that if you wanted to buy a cassette of the church's music, you could get one after the service at the mission house for $20.  The memorable attractions of the 90-minute service was the women's attire in bright colorful dresses and wide brim straw hats in may colors.  Dorothy spent the afternoon doing wash, writing letters, watching TV and taking a walk along the beach. In the evening, she walked to the stadium for an ecumenical service.  Especially memorable was a presentation of the Messiah by a choir of Islanders. This service was mostly in English although delayed for 30 minutes waiting for Sir Henry, who never came, was completed within 90 minutes, quick by Cook island standards.
      Monday - the first day of the festival was rainy - it poured and poured.  Determined to try to make the most of the situation even if it meant sitting in the film festival all day, Dorothy boarded the bus again.  She did manage to see 3 groups that day -Wallis and Futura who performed in the rain for an hour, the water causing the red dye to flow from their beads all over their outfits. Dorothy saw pieces of a few films a bit of the Australian delegation during a break in the weather and later, back in the hotel, the performance by the French Polynesian group.  Dorothy also took advantage of the rainy day to visit exhibits set up in a couple of exhibition halls as well as craft demonstrations including a pottery one by the women from Hermannsburg, the Aboriginal community 120 km from Alice Springs, for whom Dorothy has provided publicity in the past.  Another demonstration attracting a lot of attention was tattooing by the members of the New Zealand delegation.  Dorothy later read in the paper that the guy would be tattooed throughout the week from the middle of his back to his knees.  On subsequent visits Dorothy saw them applying ink and salve to the areas but never had the fortitude to watch him being stabbed repeatedly with the needle. From the way the man winced every time his tattooed area was patted with ink or salve it was quite evident he was quite uncomfortable.
      Tuesday it was back to the bus.  With the weather better, events could be stages as planned.  Dorothy spent the morning watching chanting and story telling by participants from Australia, Fiji and Guam before heading to a different area for the afternoon segment where she saw New Zealand, Wallis and Futura and Hawaii. Tuesday's big event was the firewalking ceremony which in typical Cook Island fashion was scheduled to start at 6 p.m., but really didn't start until 7 p.m.  Lots of people stayed to walk the coals but after seeing the long line, Dorothy thought she'd try to see the entertainment at another area, only upon arriving there they were having trouble with the lights and sound, so she decided to catch the next bus back to the hotel.
     Wednesday was the big Vaka pageant where the 16 canoes would be paddled or towed into the Vaka Village area on the east side of the island.  Scheduled to begin at 7 a.m., Dorothy arrived after 8 when the bus finally reached the area and stayed a couple of hours until the hoards of people, pushing media,and continual slow speeches drove her to catch the bus back to the hotel.  Off again for the afternoon events, Dorothy saw performances by Western Somoa and Papua New Guinea before heading back to the hotel as she was anxious to see the Australian delegation perform their contemporary show Bran Nue Dae, which was very good and well received by the hotel crowd.
      Thursday it was back on the bus for more entertainment -dividing her time between small groups from Guam and the Marshall Islands and the larger groups in another area, including Vanuatu and Norfolk Island.  Dorothy spent Thursday night back in the hotel, this time watching the French Polynesian group from Tahiti perform again.
      Friday, Dorothy spent watching groups from a couple different groups from the Northern Marianas, Guam, and French Polynesia, before seeing the theatre group, Wan Smolbag Theatre from Vanuatu performed a series of short pieces on Vanuatu legends.  Dorothy was very impressed by this group both by their show and their dramatic presentation.  After the show it was time for the scheduled press conference that the Prime Minister had set up for accredited media, which totaled more than 200 from 32 countries.  The press conference opened and closed with a prayer and Dorothy couldn't help wondering how may press conferences by heads of state feature prayers.
      By now Dorothy was fed up with going to scheduled events only to have long delays in starting, groups not showing up, trouble with sound equipment and so forth and beginning to worry that she wasn't getting her money's worth so she decided to pay the $10 for a ticket to the auditorium.  Besides the bus ran late on Friday nights.  Due to start at 7 p.m., the show didn't start until 8 p.m., then featured New Zealand, a group Dorothy had seen several times already.  The traditional performance was excellent, but the contemporary ones (a new show for Dorothy) were another story.  When one man lay on the stage hugging a big rock for 10-15 minutes while someone off stage read a poem, Dorothy had had enough and headed off to find the little yellow bus and return to the hotel.
      Saturday, it was back on the bus for the morning show.  This time, Dorothy went to the downtown civic center area and perched on the grandstand seating for the duration.  After watching New Zealand, Tonga, and Papua New Guinea, she noticed her legs were getting very sunburned but stuck out the 2-hour Fiji performance nonetheless, after all watching these countries perform was the very reason she had come to the Cook Islands in the first place.
      That night it was back to town on little yellow bus and the auditorium for the Pageant of Costumes and Custom.  Although late starting as usual, the show was very good with highlights being the dance presentation by members of the Australian delegation and the repeated theme of the arrival of Christianity to the people of the South Sea Islands. The most boring was a very slow fashion sequence by the Tahitian group.  The bus picked up at the auditorium and Dorothy was back at her room by 1 a.m.
      Sunday morning it was back to the Christian Church with its predominately Maori service.  The excitement of that service was when a young child was hit by a car.  An Oregon film maker saw the accident and hurried to the child to encourage him to lay still but the islanders picked up the child to comfort him, finally managed to locate a relative inside the church who went off in a car with the child, presumably for medical care, while the driver of the car who had hit the child got back into his car and drove off.  Dorothy spent the afternoon taking a short walk inland and at 7 p.m. went to the conference room at the hotel to see a video about a very popular Hawaiian singer and her family.
      Monday was a public holiday, Gospel Day, but much to Dorothy's delight, the little yellow bus was running and Dorothy was off to see some of the gospel pageants.  Gospel Day celebrates the arrival of Christianity in the Cook Islands, October 26, 1821 (she thinks) and all the churches put on pageants acting out the arrival of Christianity and/or stories from the Bible.  Dorothy arrived at 9 a.m., only to find the Prime Minister still giving his opening speech for the event which was to start at 8 a.m. (ed. note - do you get the feeling Dorothy was not impressed by the Prime Minister). Dorothy stayed until 10:30 a.m., when she caught the bus back to town so she could see the Wan Smolbag Theatre Group do their AIDS play.  The most impressive thing she saw was hundreds of islanders dressed in grass skirts marching into the park area singing something in Maori to the tune of Glory, Glory Hallelujah as the islanders recreated the arrival of Christianity.  Somehow Dorothy had never thought of that number, "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" as a Cook Island Song.
      From the AIDS play, Dorothy went back to the room to write letters as she had been under the impression the Gospel Day pageants were to end at midday.  She was later to learn that they did not finish until almost 4 p.m.  By that time Dorothy was back on the bus to town, this time to attend the presentation of a carving done during the week by the Easter Island delegation to the Cook Islands and then attended a slide show about the Easter islands.  The slide presentation was very interesting, all about the excavations and research about the statues found on the Easter Islands.  From the slide show, in the museum area of the culture center, Dorothy headed to the outdoor performance area where she saw the French Polynesians again and a contemporary band from New Caledonia known as Kauntu (she thinks).  The group of 13 musicians took 45 minutes to tune their instruments and their music wasn't a whole lot better.  During the tuning period Dorothy remarked that traditional instruments were definitely better - they don't require tuning.  Disgusted with the lack of inspiring music or precision dancing, Dorothy caught the bus back to the motel.
      Tuesday morning found Dorothy "on the bus again."  This time she wanted to see the Wan Smolbag Theatre present their environmental pantomime.  She also wandered around town and spent a little time at a perfume making place buying some coconut oil soap.
     Back in town waiting for the closing ceremony to begin, she met some acquaintances and waited with them for the event to start.  As usual everything started late, so the scheduled 4:30-7:70 p.m. closing ceremony and 9 p.m. fireworks over the water turned out to be still going on at 10 p.m., and Dorothy got to see the fireworks through the back window of the bus (ed. note - I believe it was either take the bus or walk a long distance back to the hotel).
     Wednesday - with the festival officially over Dorothy spent the day walking around part of the island in a drizzle, some last minute shopping and a fantastic contemporary show by Papua New Guinea, Sana Sana, at the auditorium.  With her plane due to leave at 2 a.m., Dorothy was determined to do everything possible to stay awake including one last ride around the island on the little yellow bus. (ed. note - did you ever think about actually getting in the beautiful crystal clear water around the island, Dorothy?)  Dorothy got to the airport OK and listened to an entertainer serenading the waiting passengers at 2 in the morning.
      Dorothy slept away the 4-hour flight across the international date line to Auckland and after an hour wait in the transit lounge there boarded an Air New Zealand flight to Sydney arriving at 9:30 a.m. Friday morning.  After getting organized in her hotel room, the Gemini again, Dorothy headed off to downtown Sydney where she divided her time between the Imperial China exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, looking for comics for Toby and walking around Darling Harbor.  Back in the room for an early evening and an early flight to Alice Springs and home.
      Although there were period during the 19-day trip when Dorothy wandered what she had gotten herself into, she was glad in retrospect that she had made the effort to do.  Dorothy did take lots of pictures - 22 rolls in fact, 2 black and white, 4 slide and 16 color print.  (ed. note - it is not true that I said most were awful - I said I was glad she did not make her living as a photographer).  The next festival will be held in 1996 in Western Somoa.  Dorothy is already talking about going.
(ed notes:
1. I'm not sure why Dorothy wrote this in the 3rd person -maybe she has been a journalist too long.
2. I would have liked to have gone, but cost was prohibitive. If we are still here in 1996 maybe I'll go too.  I would have gotten in the water.
3. I need a massage after typing this saga.)

Sept 1992: Outback

FUN IN THE OUTBACK
      I wanted to tell you about all of the fun things that have been happening to me (and the other Grimms) since I last wrote in July.
      Item - Dorothy does a lot of publicity for the Alice Springs Rotary Club.  So one Friday night she returned home after attending one of their dinners and informed me that we had been invited to go with some of the members to Ayers Rock the next day to attend the chartering of a new chapter there.  The Rotary club was to pick up all expenses.  Something told me this was not as wonderful a deal as it sounded, but I agreed to go.  The next day Dwight dropped us off at the meeting place and sure enough there was a large luxurious coach sitting there as we got our bags out of my van.  However, before we walked the short distance to where the rest of the party was standing the coach drove off.  I wondered why.  I was soon to find out. Someone said, "OK, get aboard we're ready to leave."  I looked around and was surprised, then appalled to find a "Coaster" bus sitting there.  For those of you who have never had the wonderful experience of riding on one of these vehicles, let me describe it.  It is a bus no doubt meant for short commutes, built for a Japanese body - a small Japanese body.  The seats are narrow -OK so I'm a bit overweight, but not that much, and I'm not sure all of me was ever on the seat.  Leg room you ask. There is more in the economy section of the cheapest airliner.
      Every seat was full, including the back seat which was filled with luggage - oh, you thought there was a place to carry luggage. Wrong.  I said these buses were meant for commuting.  My base uses them for off-hour commutes to town and on the occasion that I have to use them, even the 16 miles to town is too far.  So the 250 miles to Ayers Rock was very, very long.  Including two stops at road houses which make a 7-11 look good, the trip took about 5 and 1/2 hours.  When we pulled up in front of the Sheraton I breathed a sigh of relief.  I was really looking forward to getting in our room and relaxing.  Wrong.  We didn't get off the bus.  We had to rush off to one of the sunset viewing sites (there is a great myth about Ayers Rock turning various colors at sunset) to a wine and cheese function thrown by members of the new Rotary Club.  After that memorable event, we returned to the Sheraton and got to our rooms about 6:45, and asked to meet at 7:30 for dinner.  Wrong.  They changed the time to 8.  For the price of a free meal, most of which I forget, I had to endure over four hours of speeches.  We finally got out of there at 12:15.  I just wasn't in the proper mood to go on partying with the people that invited anyone to their room for drinks.
      "So," I asked Dorothy the next morning, "what about breakfast?" Of course, she wasn't sure.  No one in the club had thought to make arrangements for us, so when I inquired at the dining room and found out breakfast was either $17 (continental) or an even larger amount for a full breakfast, we left and found a cute little take-away in the "village" - a small commercial area between the various motels. Later I had a small disagreement with the Sheraton front desk clerk who wanted to charge us $94 for the room.  The club had also forgotten to arrange that - but after I stormed off to find someone to straighten it out, the lady got on the phone and verified that the club would take care of it.  The trip back to Alice Springs was just as delightful as the trip down.  Now, every time I see a Coaster bus in town I'm sorry I don't have a rocket launcher to make sure it doesn't subject other people to this type of experience.
      Item - The boys kept talking about the movie "Wayne's World" and how good it was.  I was shocked when Dorothy decided she wanted to see it.  Reluctantly, I agreed to go with her.  It must be the generation gap.  I chuckled once.  The rest of the time, I spent looking at my watch a lot.  Dorothy said she liked it, but I think that was only to show there is no generation gap.  (She is not aging gracefully.)
      Item - For those of you who read about the 100,000-mile party about Dorothy's 1981 Datsun, I have to report the demise of the car. We were watching the evening news when we heard a large bang. Dorothy asked what that was and hurried outside to see her car missing and a man getting out of his car and suggesting we call the police.  I immediately thought the car had been stolen (it was no longer in front of the house.  But when we went out onto the sidewalk we saw that the car had been driven over the curb, turned around 180 degrees and crunched into the neighbor's fence, knocking the fence down.  A Holden (Australian GM product) station wagon had obviously hit our car in the rear pushing the rear end in badly to the point that the roof and doors were all distorted.  Dorothy yelled at the three Aboriginals walking down the street, "Hey, where are you going? You've ruined my car."  The two passengers came back and hugged Dorothy saying, "Me not driving, me not drunk."  The driver, meanwhile, fled the scene.  A group of people gathered and as soon as the police arrived, the two passengers didn't hesitate to tell the police the driver's name and the direction in which he had gone.  They caught him and ascertained he was drunk (I could smell the alcohol 25 feet away), but a lot of good it does us.  I think it is safe to make the generalization that Aboriginals don't carry insurance. After the police arrived, the two passengers decided that they had sore arms, legs, and heads.  To be on the safe side, the police called an ambulance.  While waiting for it, a bystander prayed for them and they both said that they felt better after the prayer.  The ambulance did take them both away.  Fortunately, the car was covered on our policy, and after arguing with the insurance company who wanted to give us $1000-1500 less then market value because it had left hand drive, we did receive a realistic payoff from them.  I would have paid any amount to have the car fixed, but I was told there was no way.  We would have had to have found a "body shell" (basically an entire new body) and taken the salvageable parts off ours.  It wouldn't have been the same anyway. Dorothy was devastated.  We bought the car new in 1981 and it has been back and forth across the ocean with us on both tours to Australia and both boys used it when they were learning to drive.

Item - Dorothy and I were invited to the Aboriginal community of Hermannsburg (see my last letter) to the Country Music Festival and were told we could even stay overnight.  Wow!  We decided we would go out to it just for the day (forget the overnight part).  We left early Saturday morning and it was a cold overcast day (unusual for Alice Springs).  I drive rather fast in order to get there by 9 a.m., for the "Horse Parade," forgetting they would be operating on N.T. time.  Fortunately I took a book, and sat on the back seat of my van off the main road in town reading while I waited for the big parade.  I think I was lying on the seat dozing when the parade passed by at 10:20.  I was told afterward that it consisted of a total of 17 horses.  I'm really sorry I missed it. From that excitement, we drove to the oval where the music was being performed.  I wasn't able to see in but I could hear the music. Rather than pay to go in and stand around being cold listening to the melodious strains of the less-than professional groups, I chose to stay in the van reading while Dorothy went to take pictures. I was starting to get concerned that I would finish my book when Dorothy returned somewhat over an hour later.  We had a scrumptious meal from the town's take-away (fish and chips) and drove home.
      Item - I took over a week off to spend with Dwight prior to his departure. One of the things I really wanted to do was go out golfing with him again.  We kept putting it off, because Dwight was still not ready to leave and his friend Adam was working on a paper for school. We finally decided to go out on the Monday prior to Dwight leaving on Tuesday afternoon, the 15th.  Well, we didn't have to worry about other people on the course.  No one else was crazy enough.  We had winds that were so strong that at one point Dwight and I on the left side of a fairway couldn't see Adam on the right side due to the dust in the air.  I joked that instead of golf carts (which we weren't using) we should have rented camels.  I didn't play well, no big surprise since this was my sixth time in as many years.  My best shot of the day was my last - a 20-25 foot putt using my 1920's wooden shafted putter bought at a lawn sale for $5. I guess we should have been glad the wind was blowing.  Because we had a relatively mild winter here, the flies are terrible.  It is hard to explain how bad the flies can be here.  But in similar conditions a year or so ago, people were wearing fly nets just to go out walking around town. In March 1991, Dorothy saw people wearing fly nets inside the Sheraton at Ayers Rock, only raising them slightly when trying to eat.
     Well, this is not all a tale of woe.  Dwight did spend the summer here and it was nice to have him home.  Unfortunately, he was only able to find about four weeks of work.  He spent a lot of the remaining time cutting pictures out of back issues of the newspaper which he had taken over the years and put them in notebooks possibly for use in looking for a job in the future.   During his last several days in town, another friend of his arrived in town for a seminar.  Sidney Watts is one of those "larger-than-life" characters.  He is an Aboriginal - not very tall, but a big guy. The first time we saw him this time, he came into our house lugging a large ice chest containing some very large frozen fish.  He is currently working in a small town in Western Australia and had brought the fish all the way from there to send out bush to his mother.  It turns out he missed the once-a-week flight and did not get to send them to his mother.  He gave them away.  Sidney loves video games - he spent a lot of time at our house and at Adam's house playing them, and loves to gamble.  He had to travel through Perth to get to Alice Springs and had missed his flight in the early morning because he had spent the entire night at the Perth Casino. He had won $300 in $1 coins there and had not had a chance to cash them in and brought them with him. when Dwight and he went to the Casino here, Dwight was to keep Sidney's money for him so he wouldn't spend too much, but in the few minutes Dwight spend at the cashiers, Sidney had already lost 30 $1 coins in a slot machine.  At least on this trip Sidney did not spend several hundred dollars buying numerous people drinks as he had on occasions in the past.
      I was afraid we would never be able to replace Dorothy's car to her satisfaction, but believe it or not, less than two weeks later, we went to an auction at the YMCA and a local car dealer had sent three older cars to be auctioned.  One was a 1980 Datsun Sunny (the same model with a different name) as Dorothy's car, different color (green) and a right-hand drive.  But Dorothy was willing for me to bid on it.  There was a reserve price on it that was more than I was willing to pay, so I called the dealer and made him an offer that he accepted.  We again have enough cars (three) that I even have one at my disposal.
      I might not have enough desire for the adventure of staying overnight at an Aboriginal community, but Dorothy recently travelled with a couple in their four-wheel drive to the community of Yuendemu, approximately 4 hours by road (mostly dirt) from Alice Springs.  She covered a number of events there, including the opening of a new adult education building, and returned safely the next day. 
      Dwight left Alice on September 15th, spend several days in Sydney with his friend Adam and returned safely to Stanford on the 19th. I really think that is all I have to relate for now.

July 1992

THE GRIMMS IN AUSTRALIA - VOL II. CHAPTER 26

      Yes, we're still alive in the outback. The dingos have not crept into our house and carried us off.  We're still here, so you, who are on our distribution list, will continue to receive the infamous Grimm form letters from Australia.  Believe it or not, this is my 26th form letter during this tour (which began in June 1986). Yes, I have copies of all of them and you are free to read all of them if you come visit.
      This is not a trip report.  Some of us have not traveled since January.  But, I'll bring you up to date.

Dwight finished his junior year at Stanford in June.  His mother was in a slight state of panic when he was due to go to L.A. for a seminar the weekend of the riots, but the seminar got canceled at the last minute.  He tried unsuccessfully to find summer employment, and so he came home for the summer.  The newspaper's photographer went to Perth to be with her seriously ill sister, so Dwight is filling in for her (four weeks so far).  Among the things he has covered was the recent visit of the cast from a nationally televised comedy/variety show, 'Hey Hey It's Saturday!'.  Dwight had a nice chat with the star, Daryl Somers of the show and talked with others of the cast.
     I guess if the photographer comes back and puts Dwight out of work he'll just relax and maybe play some golf.  He may have to go back to Stanford a bit early.  Dwight was living in a house that was leased from the university as a local fraternity (no national ties). When it became obvious that the fraternity did not have enough people committed to live there next year in order to meet their financial obligations to the university, the day before Dwight left campus the university announced that it was taking the house back to use as a regular dorm.  Consequently, the people who were to live there next year have been evicted.  There is a slim chance that Dwight will get a place to live on campus next year, but it is more likely that he'll have to find a place to live off campus.  Oh well, he is well ahead in credits and may finish after the winter quarter.
      Toby has been the busy one since we got home.  He made the Northern Territory junior bowling team in the tryouts in January. In April he spent a couple of weeks in Darwin, where he bowled in the state championships.  Although he didn't do well himself, in part because he got sick, the Alice Springs kids won the state title, the first time in the 10 years of the championship.  He also attended the training camp for the N.T. team, in preparation for the national titles which were held in Townsville in late June.  Again, he didn't do all that well (despite bowling one 234 game), but the N.T. team placed second in the nation, their highest ranking to date.  He is back in Darwin again this week, at the expense of the N.T. government, for a sports excellence camp, a combination of lectures on all aspects of sport, training sessions in their sport, and other activities.  Dwight told me he called a few days after he got there and was complaining about the fact that he has to eat healthy foods.  (Usually when he goes away, he manages to find a McDonalds or our equivalent of Burger King, Hungry Jacks.)  Then in August he will return to Darwin, as one of only two individuals selected from his school to attend a week long math seminar.  (Some may find such an event boring, but I think Toby, who likes math, is looking forward to it.)
      Update on Toby's participation in the Sports Excellence Camp. He returned lighter (eating only bread - whole meal at that - and butter at a number of meals).  However, he enjoyed the camp and was one of four participants, two boys and two girls, to receive an award.  Since he didn't get a piece of paper to indicate what the award was for, as I understand it from him it sounds like it was for
striving to do well.  He was pleased and we were impressed.  Maybe I should try giving awards for picking up his room, etc.   

      A friend of Toby's and the family, came to visit us for almost two weeks.  Elizabeth used to live here but moved to Adelaide in 1989.  We told her she could come visit anytime, so she did.  She thoroughly enjoyed her trip and we were able to experience for a short time what it would have been like to have a teen-age daughter. I'm not sure we could have survived.  Elizabeth is a character -probably not unlike what a daughter of ours would have been like, (is Jack wishful thinking out loud,? I'm not - Dorothy)
      The same day Elizabeth arrived, one of my best friends, Jeff, arrived.  He and his wife currently live in Papua New Guinea, not a nice place to live, so he was enjoying the peace and safety of Australia.  After telling me about needing to travel in a convoy to a town 60 miles away for safety reasons, I would be reluctant to visit him as he'd like. Dorothy continues to be a conscientious reporter.  She did a good article on the scientists who came here to launch research packages on the very large balloons that I think I have mentioned before.  The head of the NASA team here at the time complimented her on the article.  The same week, the editor of the paper who barely acknowledged her existence, publicly thanked her at the opening of an art exhibit for all she does for the arts in Alice Springs.  She also is still playing basketball with the newspaper team, and Dwight
     While I haven't done much since I returned, I did have an interesting weekend some time ago.  On Friday evening Dorothy and I attended an outdoor production at the Yipirinya Aboriginal school. The kids had spend months and months put the production together, between learning the dances, fashioning costumes and some very impressive props, including an eagle with a wingspan of about 10 feet.  The numbers progressed to stories from the Dreamtime (Aboriginal myths) to modern numbers, the last of which involved all of the kids dancing to Michael Jackson's latest hit.  These little Aboriginal kids were thrilled to be performing and in the semi-darkness (the area was partially lit be a few spotlights), you could see large grins on many faces.  I couldn't help but smile and laugh along with them, and at the end of the performance, I was ready to see it all again.
      The next day, Dorothy wanted to travel to the Aboriginal community, Hermannsburg, about 75 miles from Alice Springs, about 25 of which are on a dirt road.  She wanted to attend a combined celebration of the 10th anniversary of becoming an Aboriginal community, rather than a Lutheran mission, and the opening of a new art gallery.  The drive out to the west of Alice Springs, towards Hermannsburg, is very scenic.  The road runs along the MacDonnell Ranges, and while you might think the outback is all the same, it isn't.  The scenery changes from flat areas with little growth, to dry river beds lined with white and red gum trees, to hills dotted with spinifex (a nasty weed, the stalks of which when they are dry can go through a shoe - Dorothy note: but spinifex serves many purposes including providing combustible material for Aboriginal people).  Even the colors of the mountains change.  It's interesting that the Aboriginal artists use a purplish color in their water-color scenes of the area.  People who have seen their watercolors, but not the area must wonder about their use of colors. But that afternoon, on the way home, the lighting was such that the mountains did indeed seem to be purple.
      The visit itself was fascinating.  Although there is a modern church there, the service that morning was held in the smaller old church dedicated in 1897.  By the time we got there the church was full, so we sat on one of the chairs set up outside.  A sound system was set up with large speakers outside so those outside could share in the service.  Eventually, there must have been over a hundred people sitting on chairs, on the ground, and anything else available, to hear the service.
      The service was in Aranda, an Aboriginal language with comments in English by a white clergyman.  The hymns had been printed on sheets for the service, in both Aranda and English.  During the service there was constant motion as people, kids and dogs roamed in and out of the church.  Numerous dogs lay in the aisle so the men passing the collection plates had to step over or around them.  Some kids were playing football in the open space behind us. After the service, the choir, all Aboriginal ladies wearing bright red sweaters, came outside to sand and I got what I thought were some beautiful photos of them against the white church. Unfortunately, the film turned out to be black and white.   
      After the service, we attended the opening of the museum and then went with some ladies to the building where the local crafts women produce their distinctive pottery. One of the nice aboriginal ladies who does some beautiful pottery gave Dorothy one of her pots. Finally, we decided to leave and drive back to town.  I was glad I had gone with Dorothy (Dorothy note: must be a first).
      Well, Dorothy has reviewed this and couldn't think of anything to add, so I guess that is all for now.

Feb 1992: Cross the USA

A NOT-SO-GRIMM TRIP REPORT

      I know, you probably have just about finished my Christmas letter when along comes another of those lengthy Grimm trip reports. Well, that's what you get for continuing to correspond with us. I'll tell you what, before the main feature, I'll provide a little comedy (sort of like a cartoon before the feature film).
      Dorothy's 1981 Datsun (the one we bought just before we moved here in 1981 and has been back and forth across the Pacific several times) reached the 100,000 mile mark in December.  Now, starting with iv-one of Dorothy's 1964 Studebakers, which reached 100,000 miles in November 1973, we began a tradition of having a celebration for each of our vehicles upon reaching that milestone.  This was the fourth Grimm-mobile to enjoy such a celebration - -the '64 Studebaker, a '70 Dodge Dart, a '70 Plymouth valiant, and the Datsun.  I called some Australian friends and invited them over Sunday afternoon.  I set out tables, complete with tablecloth, snacks and champagne.  Toby refused to attend - too strange, he said.  The reaction on the part of the Australians was mixed - astonishment, wonder, and "what am I doing mixed up with these weird people?"  I had prepared the car - washed and cleaned it and drove it until the odometer read 99999. Trailed by my guests with glasses of champagne, I walked to the car, drove it a block and back to move the odometer to 000000 (actually the optimistic Datsun manufacturer put an odometer in it that goes up to a million so it read 100000). One of the guests works with Dorothy at the newspaper and inserted a small item in the newspaper (see attached copy).  I think our friends enjoyed the unique event and will remember it.

And now to the main event

      The trip back to the U.S. this year was one of our longest trips ever - so sit back. Since I was a bit apprehensive about this trip    ,, anyway, I was a bit uneasy about leaving Alice on Friday the 13th. Our friend, Chris, took us to the airport in our van and as a joke J (on me later on) I took down the mileage because of Chris' tendency to use my van while we are away. We flew to Darwin and landed on one of the last days for the old terminal.  It was HOT AND HUMID.  After walking around the outside downtown mall for a short time we escaped to the only air-conditioned mall in town. That evening we visited a friend who had moved to Darwin years ago and had recently married. The next day we dove to Litchfield Park - a relatively new National Park.  Host of the roads were dirt and it was still miserably hot. We saw two pretty waterfalls and people were swimming in the pools at the base of the falls.  I was sorry I had not brought a bathing suit. We also took a short walk through the rain forest which contained many spider webs with huge spiders (about the size of my hand).  On the way back to Darwin, on a long dirt road with no signs of civilization, we suddenly came to a store.  The one clerk, a relatively young girl, was an artist of sorts and lives out bush with her husband raising hogs.  Very strange.  The rest of that day and the next day and a half we spent doing some sightseeing - a museum, old jail, and casino, as well as going to comic shops, flea markets, going onboard a visiting ship with an international crew which travels all over the world selling primarily religious books, and generally trying to survive the environment. Toby went to a bowling alley to see some friends and spent a lot of time with one who used to live in Alice.
     Monday we left Darwin on the first Qantas plane to use the new terminal.  Since no one in the Qantas lounge had a camera to take a picture of their first plane to arrive at the new terminal Dorothy offered to take some and was asked to send copies to their office in Sydney.  We arrived in Singapore, and once more were impressed with the airport. We took a cab to the YHCA for the night and early the next morning returned to airport, making excellent time thanks to an apparent former race car driver who is now a cab driver.  According to our calculations, the flight to Hong Kong was Toby's 100th. After settling in the YHCA we spent a long day walking all over the Kowloon side (or so it seemed) - shopping and just enjoying the sights of this unique city.  The city seemed more Chinese oriented this time from 1983 - no doubt in an effort to move toward the transition of becoming Chinese in 1997.  In 1983 most of the movies being shown were American, this time most were Chinese.
     Wednesday, we took the subway to Hong Kong (which is on an island off the mainland) and caught a double decker bus to the small town of Stanley on the south side of the island.  The bus ride was very scenic with the winding road climbing over large hills and around narrow curves, at times providing spectacular sights of large expensive houses on the sides of mountains overlooking a beautiful bay below.  We did not see many private homes; most housing is high-rise apartments all over Hong Kong, including up and down and on top of mountains.  As I told someone recently, while it's fun to walk through the crowded streets and see/shop for varied merchandise, there is a lot more to see in Hong Kong. But speaking of shopping, we went to Stanley because it has an interesting shopping area - narrow winding streets with shop after shop of various items from tacky T-Shirts to cashmere sweaters, junky souvenirs to fine jewelry.  This village was set on the shores of a picturesque bay.  We took a number of photos of the Chinese fishing boats in the bay.  On our return to the city, the poor old double decker bus was completely full and was really struggling up the hills.
     We took the ferry back across the harbor and went into a large shopping center to see the Toys R Us in the basement.  Later we walked along the harbor by the Peninsula Hotel (a landmark) to another shopping center and,ate in the Beverly Hills Deli!  By now it was dark so we were able to enjoy the fantastic display of Christmas lights on the sides of the tall buildings fronting the harbor.  Some of the buildings on the Hong Kong side were similarly lit and provided a beautiful setting. Much to the embarrassment of Toby and wonder of the other people I laid on the ground by the water to use the ground to stabilize my camera for time exposures.  Dorothy was sure I was going to drop the camera in the water (I didn't).
      
      The next morning, prior to our departure, we walked down to the docks through a large distribution area for fresh fruit and vegetables.  They had arrived from the U.S., Philippines, and
Australia. We wandered down a very crowded street of vendors selling all sorts of things.  Finally we visited the jade market, and bought a few small pieces. At one stand Dorothy was intrigued by a basket of old coins. Despite my cynicism on the authenticity of some U.S. silver dollars dated 1799, Dorothy bought one for 40 Hong Kong dollars ($5.20 U.S.) - more on that later.
      Our 11 1/2 hour flight to San Francisco was just that - long.  I couldn't believe one of the movies on the flight was the old Jimmy Stewart Christmas classic, "It's a Wonderful Life." On our layover in S.F., we each put a recorded message on our friend Roy's answering machine (see my letter concerning last year's trip by Dorothy and Toby).  We arrived in Newark expecting to meet up with Dwight, but he'd taken an earlier flight.  This was relayed to us by the driver of the shuttle that took us to Dorothy's mother's apartment.  Dwight told us a funny story about how the cab driver he had from Newark to Cedar Grove didn't speak English real well, didn't have a map of Cedar Grove so didn't know exactly where to take him, and he (Dwight) wasn't exactly sure how to find his way to his grandmother's, so they drove around until Dwight would spot some familiar sight.  Eventually he arrived at his destination.
     We shopped all day Friday, and the next day, Dorothy, Dwight and I went to New York City.  There were very good buskers (complete with electric instruments) in the subway tunnels and in Times Square.  Our wanderings took us to several book stores, a billiard supply store (Dwight bought a cue to use in his fraternity pool room), through some of the major department stores (Lord and Taylor and perhaps Macy's for the last time), by Rockefeller center, and in the new Toys R Us across from Hacy's.  The crowds were even getting on Dwight's nerves.  A block or so from the Port Authority Bus Station, we noticed fire engines surrounding it.  Thank goodness the problem was nonexistent or minor because they were leaving as we arrived.  As we walked through to our gate, we noticed a bowling alley we had not seen before, as well as the ever present homeless people who inhabit the terminal.
      The remaining time in New Jersey was spent doing more shopping, watching TV (including the last Redskin regular season game) preparing for Christmas and eating Christmas dinner.
      Two years ago when we drove from New Jersey to Washington D.C. the day after Christmas, we encountered an 11-mile backup to pay tolls on the Jersey turnpike.  I went slightly berserk yelling, hyperventilating and trying to tear the steering wheel out of the car.  Dorothy vowed never to ride with me again on the Jersey turnpike.  So this time, between her vow and a lack of a car, we traveled by (in Dorothy's words) a civilized mode of transport - the train.  When I called my mother on Christmas day she asked if there was a chance to reach Hagerstown by the night of the 26th - my high school was having an open house.  So, we decided to only take the train as far as Baltimore and rent a car there to travel to Hagerstown.  Rather than go through the agony of carrying all of our bags on a bus to New York City, Dorothy's mother offered to take us to a train station near the Jersey turnpike.  However, this presented a problem.  Dorothy's mother has a Chevy Escort - there was no way us and the bags (11-12) were going to fit. So we had to remove the shelf over the luggage compartment and still people had to hold some items. Fortunately, it only took 1/2 hour to get to the train station.  I had a bad feeling when I saw how many people were waiting for the train.  My fears were justified when the 8-car train arrived and every seat in every car was taken and people were standing in the aisles.  We climbed into the entry way and stacked our bags against the opposite door (hoping it wouldn't open). We stood in the unheated entry way for 2 1/2 hours until we arrived at Baltimore. Incredibly, more people got on at the next couple of stops and once I had to lay over- the bags and hold them when the door did open on that side.  Dwight said he now knew what it felt like to travel "refugee class" and several times he and I commented on this "civilized mode of transport."
      At Baltimore I threw about my only fit on the trip (Dorothy disputes this).  I had reserved a rental car and when I called upon arrival, I was told if the pickup van wasn't there then it would be shortly.  It arrived almost 45 minutes later during which time I resorted to yelling and kicking suitcases, causing one man who was waiting for something to move to the other side of the street.

      We arrived in Hagerstown to find my niece in the hospital with an eye injury.  While Dorothy stayed with my brother and his wife at the hospital waiting for them to operate, I went to the open house. Unfortunately the publicity was not good, so only a few people showed up.  My niece's eye was not injured - the lid and tear duct had to be stitched.  After visiting family and friends and doing a little shopping we went on the Washington D.C.
      Once again our good friends, the McDonalds, who live across the street from our house, graciously put up with us for over two weeks. We spent the first several days getting my 1982 Buick on the road, going to the dentist and eye doctor (me) visiting friends and, of course, shopping.  One of our friends that we visited has a habit of buying houses on hills and has become expert at terracing, so for Christmas his wife ordered him a truckload (3 tons) of rocks. He spent Christmas happily laying out rocks at the next level of terracing.  On Friday we put Dwight on the plane to fly back to Stanford.  Oh yes, while we were in a stamp and coin shop, Dorothy found her coin from Hong Kong was worth quite a bit more than she paid for it.  Now, for the rest of my life I'll be reminded how she wanted to buy more of them.
      The next week I went to work all week and on Wednesday, Dorothy and Toby took the train back up to New Jersey.  Friday, Dorothy went into New York City to visit a friend and to see Until the End of the World which had been filmed in part in Central Australia.  Dorothy had been anxious to see how the film turned out as she had met many of the cast members while on location here.  The film was being shown exclusively in two NYC theatres.  She was glad to see it but as far as the film itself, the reviewer says, "awful."
      The next two days, Dorothy and Toby returned to the city for the giant annual comic book convention. They stood in a line that was six deep for 2 1/2 hours to get in.  Toby heard 40,000 attended that day, but even though there were still lines waiting to get at 5 p.m. (when the fire marshall and police closed entry to the event), I suspect the number was more like 14,000.  Toby, of course, bought more that a few comics (in addition to those bought in numerous comic
shops during the trip).  Toby also got a lot of autographs of the guest writers and illustrators and they attended a number of talks. They both laughed at the recounting by one illustrator of starting to
draw during a long car trip with his parents. 
      Toby, Dorothy and her mother traveled to Washington by train on Monday and the next day we drove to Staunton, Va. to visit a good friend and his two precocious daughters whom we had not seen in over 7 years.  I was very glad to see them and Dorothy saw her poor old Studebaker that has been sitting there since 1974 prior to our move to Denver.  The girls kept us entertained with "blond" jokes (how do you confuse a blond - give her a bag of M&M's and ask her to alphabetize them - my apologies to blonds).
      The next day we drove on to Hillsborough, N.C. to visit Dorothy's brother and his family.  This was my first chance to experience Dwight's house (the one he lives in - they own four others).   In addition to collecting houses, Dwight also has a collection of vehicles: a Comet, an HG, a motorcycle, a Chevy Van, another van, a Honda, a boat and trailer, a camping trailer, and a tractor.  But, back to the house.  It has high ceilings, a huge central hallway and needs a bit of work.  I was a bit taken aback when I had to drive down someone else's driveway to get to their property.  Let's say it was an experience.  He spent one afternoon going in and out of antique shops where we found a few comics for Toby, saw things at outrageous prices that may be found in our basement in Alexandria, and started a search for a unique pool cue for Dwight. One day, Dorothy's brother (another Dwight) took off work and showed us around Durham and also took us to where he works at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.
      Friday, January 17th, Toby, Dorothy and I started our trek west. We traveled on Interstate 40 which we got on not far from Dwight's house and our first day's journey took us through western North Carolina and into Tennessee, passing through Knoxville and into Nashville for the night.  Most of the area we drove through was heavily wooded and some of it was through mountains.  We were struck, however, by the many billboards advertising factory outlets (we stopped at a London Fog outlet and Toby and I both got jackets), and flea markets.  However, since it was Friday, we figured the flea markets wouldn't be open, but we could stop at some the next day. Wrong - we didn't see any on Saturday when we drove through the rest of Tennessee, through Memphis and into Arkansas.  We stopped for lunch in Little Rock.  Dorothy remembered that one of our favorite restaurants (Casa Bonita) in Denver had a branch in Little Rock.  She called information, got the number and called for directions.  We found it, but I was somewhat disappointed in that it was small and couldn't compare with the one in Denver that seats 1200 and has a 35-foot waterfall in the middle.  We drove back across the Arkansas river and on into Oklahoma, stopping for the night in Muskogee. During our trip across the south, Toby was fascinated by the various accents he heard.
      The next day we arrived at our friends' house in Enid.  We had first met the Shaws in Denver and then had visited them numerous times when they lived in Pa.  Joe is employed by Phillips University and while we were there he had to fly off to Osaka, Japan to visit a campus there with which they are associated.  The Shaws have a beautiful house in an area known as 1000 Oaks - yes there are Oak trees in Oklahoma (news to me).  One morning 12 deer showed up just outside their yard, and we also saw a roadrunner in their front yard. However, we did not see the coyotes that live nearby.  We went to a mall, a comic shop, a very nice museum, a flea market, and in a pawn shop found a neat pool cue for Dwight and another Pentax camera for Dorothy.
      On Tuesday we drove to Oklahoma City and after some last minute shopping and yet another comic shop, I put Dorothy and Toby on a plane to return to Alice in time for Toby to bowl in the rolloffs to determine this year's Northern Territory junior ten-pin team.  He did very well, with his new bowling ball, placed fourth and made the team.
      I returned to 1-40 and drove 6 hours through relatively boring landscape, through the Texas panhandle, and just across the New Mexico border to Tucumcari.  The next day I drove for 13 hours (740 miles) through New Mexico and Arizona to Needles Ca. just inside the California border.  That day I saw some fantastic scenery.  It had snowed several days before and the snow on the sides of the mountains and buttes heading into Albuquerque served to accentuate them.  Then, coming out of the mountains east of Albuquerque a vista of mountain ranges lay before me that made me mad I had not kept one of Dorothy's cameras.  Later in the day I saw another scenic mountain range on the California border.
      The next day was more of the same across southern Ca. (without the snow).  I usually find freeway driving boring, but I didn't those two days. I left the sunny, fairly clear weather driving north on 1-5 and descended into a cloud bank (or heavy smog) and I never saw the sun again until I drove across another mountain and into San Jose.  I was getting a bit antsy as I drove up the freeway toward San Francisco, but finally I saw the sign for Palo Alto/Stanford.  I can't tell you how glad I was to be there.
     Using Dwight's directions, I had no problem finding his fraternity house (a semi-fraternity since the University owns the building and they are not affiliated with a national organization) and pulled into their parking lot - 3523 miles from leaving Alexandria. Dwight had a bottle of champagne waiting and we went out and toasted the car and took pictures with his camera.  He invited me to eat in the house that night and then told me that he was on the roster to help with the dishes.  He said that he really needed to study for an exam so was going to skip helping and pay the $20 fine. I said that wouldn't be necessary - I'd take his place, and I did. The rest of the guys in the house got a kick out of it.
      I stayed at my friend Roy's house, and a couple of nights took him, Dwight and friends out to dinner.  I can't thank Roy enough for all he's done for Dwight - picking him up and dropping him at the airport (about 45 minutes away), storing his stuff over the summer and inviting him out to dinner occasionally.  Dwight will of course be more mobile now with his own car, but I'm sure he will still need help from Roy.  Dwight threw a party in honor of the Super Bowl and my being there, and despite my watching the game the Redskins came through.
      I took the Buick back to a dealer while I was there to fix a few things that turned up on the road and things I didn't want wrong with it before I turned it over to Dwight.  While the car was being fixed, I walked into Palo Alto and found a number of things I had been searching for all over the U.S.  I enjoyed my stay there, but finally, on Monday got the shuttle to the airport, flew to L.A., and then on to Sydney and after a short time on the ground (too short - I wasn't sure my bags would make it - they did) flew on to Alice Springs.  It was a good trip, but it's nice to be home.  We do not anticipate returning to the U.S. until June 1993 for Dwight's graduation, so this will be the last U.S. trip report for awhile (is that a collective sigh I hear?).
     When I got home, I found that my friend Chris, who is going off to university this month, found a buyer for his motorcycle who wanted it right away;  So Chris sold it and used my van instead.  He put 1700 km (1040 miles) on it while I was gone.  Oh well, he will soon be gone and we will miss him.

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.