![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/052911-foreignsoil.jpg\" "\\"052911-foreignsoil\\"")
\n(The Canadian Side of Niagara Falls. Photo Niagara Vacations.)<\/p>\n
\n(The Canadian Side of Niagara Falls. Photo Niagara Vacations.)<\/p>\n
The roar of V-twin engines woke me before dawn. Normally.<\/p>\n
I waded pensively through the lead story in the NY Times this morning on the challenge of the kids returning from Afghanistan. I remember painfully well what it was like. The first couple times were extraordinarily weird- we got back from deployments to the Indian Ocean that were timeless in their quality of boredom, punctuated by frenetic activity. We tanned because sometimes there was nothing else to do.<\/p>\n
We were black, and layers of skin would peel off all at once like we were reptiles molting.<\/p>\n
That was the first deployment, while the second one had the capture of the American Embassy in Tehran in the middle of it, and a lot of adrenaline and then hurry-up-and-wait and real planning for things that were very scary indeed.<\/p>\n
Anyway, the guys with families were absolutely beside themselves as the miles between them and Home Port diminished. Seeing the gals and the kids all dressed up- there were no women on combat ships then- was a trip. But since the Home Port we were returning to was Yokosuka, Japan, and foreign soil a world away from the Land of the Big PX, the bachelors just shrugged and walked to the O Club to get hammered and wonder what all the fuss was about, and when the next at-sea period would be.<\/p>\n
Completely different than ground combat, of course, though the coolest homecoming was from the cruise to the Med during which the Wall fell in Berlin. The Airwing staff got to fly off with the squadrons, a full day and a half before the dreadnaught would steam up the placid waters of the St. John’s river to moor pier-side at NAVSTA Mayport.<\/p>\n
Anyhow, the recollections of deployments gone by, and the period of readjustment to normal non-adrenal life, powerfully resonated this morning along with the roar of engines celebrating the sacrifice of a now long-ago war.<\/p>\n
I don’t know what to do today. I should take flowers over to our people at Arlington, whose murders set off all this madness. I need to swim for an hour, now that the pool is open. I should finish editing this edition of the Quarterly, and finish my research on the parent’s taxes for last year, and complete the package requesting duplicate titles for the cars…and go down to the farm, where have chores waiting.<\/p>\n
I finished scanning the Times and opened the e-mail and was surprised to see that my Sister Anook had not been sleeping, and was on foreign soil with Big Mama. I read her update with growing agitation:<\/p>\n
\u201cShe smells.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anook gazed across the hotel room her Mother and daughter were sharing.\u00a0 Big Mama looked small and fierce in the corner chair squeezed between the window and the double bed.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe smells old.\u00a0 I opened a window.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere\u2019s whatzhiz name?\u201d<\/p>\n
Big Mama was asking about Raven- her husband of 64 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhatzhiz\u2019s name is in Michigan.\u00a0 We left him home.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cReally?\u201d<\/p>\n
Raven was at the people kennel.\u00a0 Anook, Anook\u2019s family and Big Mama were on vacation.\u00a0 The vacation had changed when Annook could not find Big Mama\u2019s passport. There was no time to get a new one, but with a birth certificate and a driver\u2019s license, crossing the international border would be possible.<\/p>\n
Of course, Anook could not find that document either.\u00a0 The birth certificate for Big Mama could be obtained from her birth county in Ohio, and so instead of driving to Canada from Detroit, the merry band headed south to the most Southern county seat for Bellaire, Ohio.<\/p>\n
It was Friday afternoon before Memorial Day weekend.\u00a0 They got to the Department of Records \u00bd hour before it closed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat will be $25.00.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anook pulled out her debit card.<\/p>\n
\u201cCash.\u201d<\/p>\n
After driving back down the rolling hill to the ATM at the crowded holiday gas station and back again, Anook was handed an official birth certificate with a raised seal from the great state of Ohio.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou all certainly did not have to come all the way here to get this. You could have gone to any of the county seats in Ohio, as long as she was originally born here.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s not what the website said.\u00a0 It said original county seat of birth for same day or 6 weeks delay.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOld news, sir.\u201d<\/p>\n
Damn Buckeyes.\u00a0 Damn their lies.<\/p>\n
Anook\u2019s husband turned to her.<\/p>\n
\u201cA famous person once said, when a journey changes that is God\u2019s way of making you learn how to dance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anook would rather not have learned they did not have to go all the way downstate, and only slightly growled at her husband when she told him she could learn to dance.<\/p>\n
“Remember what you said, dear – Big Mama wanted to go home, so this was Divine intervention.\u00a0 Remember?”<\/p>\n
Anook accepted that there were greater hands at play.<\/p>\n
Now, if Anook had a large marker and a map she would\u00a0 mark a series of dots with a picture of a car going south to Bellaire, North to Pittsburgh, East to Erie, North to Niagara Falls, and would have added a picture with a green light blinking “GO” over the bridge from New York to Canada.<\/p>\n
“Yippee!!!!!”<\/p>\n
In three days they had been to 5 states and two countries and had yet to see their first play.\u00a0 Anook\u2019s daughter saw Niagara Falls from the Canadian side for the first time.<\/p>\n
\u201cAwesome.\u00a0 USA sure got ripped off on the view.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/052911-foreignsoil2.jpg\" "\\"052911-foreignsoil2\\"")
\n(The Colonel Butler Best Western in Niagra-by-the-Lake. Photo Best Western.)<\/p>\n
The car headed North to Niagara on the Lake, home of the Shaw Play Festival.\u00a0 They checked into the Best Western.\u00a0 They had two hotel rooms on the second floor \u2013 no elevator.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you have something on the first floor?\u00a0 My mother is having a hard time walking and climbing stairs.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are full.\u00a0 You should have said something before getting here.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSorry.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Anook and her husband had walked up to the counter to register, the woman had said \u201chello,\u201d and then asked them what name their reservation was under.\u00a0 As Anook and her husband have two different last names they said \u201cNotsocotra\u201d and \u201cSocotra.\u201d<\/p>\n
The woman pulled out the reservation for Notsocotra.\u00a0 It was for 2 people, 2 nights.\u00a0 Anook’s husband said they needed 2 rooms for 4 people 2 nights.\u00a0 The woman became quite distressed.\u00a0 She most certainly did not have an extra room and there was no possibility that there was an error on their part.\u00a0 Anook asked her to look for another reservation for Socotra.\u00a0 There was one.\u00a0 She told the two of them she would deal with the second reservation when she was done with the first one.\u00a0 Annook asked whether she could not be filling out the form, while the woman dealt with her husband on room number one, which really upset the clerk.\u00a0\u00a0 The clerk said she didn’t want to mess up the credit cards –<\/p>\n
“Same credit card, thanks.”<\/p>\n
– the billing address, car info –<\/p>\n
“Same billing address, car info”<\/p>\n
– who was in the rooms –<\/p>\n
“All family, 2 rooms 2 people each.”<\/p>\n
– but they had to track each room by individual key –<\/p>\n
“Three keys each room.”<\/p>\n
The clerk got to the end.\u00a0 It almost seemed like she resented the husband and wife for taking one of the hotel rooms together.<\/p>\n
“Here. Welcome. Bye.”<\/p>\n
The family made the long walk down the hall with baggage to the staircase.<\/p>\n
Big Mama had been breathy over anything physically assertive.\u00a0 Anook made a note to take her to the doctor as well as Raven next week.<\/p>\n
The town is adorable with old houses and beautiful flowers and rustic stores and eateries and small streets packed with theatergoers.\u00a0 It was a busman\u2019s holiday for this group.\u00a0 Anook\u2019s daughter took off on a well-deserved walk.\u00a0 Knowing they could not walk Big Mama up and down the stairs, Anook and her husband stocked up on food and drink and parked Big Mama in the room with the TV on and plenty of things for Big Mama to read.\u00a0 Big Mama got on her teal nightgown.<\/p>\n
Anook went downstairs to use the hotel Internet.\u00a0 Anook\u2019s husband went on his own well-deserved walk.\u00a0 Anook was immersed in returning correspondence when Big Mama burst barefoot and angry into the lobby.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere\u2019s my key!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou all deserted me without a key.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCome on, Big Mama.\u00a0 Your key is in your room.\u00a0 Come with me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anook started down the hall forcing Big Mama to follow.\u00a0 Big Mama stopped in front of the hotel room 102.\u00a0 Big Mama\u2019s room was 202.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is my room and I don\u2019t have a key.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is not your room.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is my room and I don\u2019t have a key.\u201d<\/p>\n
Big Mama started to pull up her fist to pound on the door.<\/p>\n
\u201cBig Mama, that is not your room.\u00a0 You put that hand down and you follow me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Annook and Big Mama went to the stairwell and made it back up to the second floor with Big Mama huffing and puffing.\u00a0 Annook opened Big Mama\u2019s door and escorted her back into the room.<\/p>\n
\u201cI still don\u2019t have a key.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anook picked up Big Mama\u2019s key from the light stand between the beds.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour key is right here.\u00a0 Right where it has always been.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow was I supposed to know that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The night before, while in Pittsburgh, Anook\u2019s daughter said Big Mama had gotten up and gone out to the hall at 4am insisting it was 4pm and time for dinner.\u00a0 Big Mama would look at her watch and more often than not, assume it was day instead of night or night instead of day.\u00a0 It didn\u2019t matter if it was light or dark out.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m pretty sure Mom that Grandma hauls Raven around everywhere 12 hours early or late always claiming it to be at the wrong time of day and demanding that someone was making them miss some kind of meal.\u201d<\/p>\n
And all these months we had blamed Raven for all the late night mischievous activities in the elder\u2019s ongoing routines.\u00a0 No wonder they were both exhausted.<\/p>\n
Big Mama really cannot hear and long ago swore off the possibility of hearing aids.\u00a0 But when she isn\u2019t just angry Big Mama, she is really quite funny and charming in the way she navigates through her changing elderly world.\u00a0 We knew after last year Raven could no longer travel.\u00a0 We will have to reevaluate after this trip if that is true for Big Mama as well.<\/p>\n
“Where’s watzis name?”<\/p>\n
“Not here, Grandma.”<\/p>\n
\u2018Really?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, Big Mama.\u201d<\/p>\n
Copyright 2011 Anook and Vic Socotra
\nwww.vicsocotra.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
(The Canadian Side of Niagara Falls. Photo Niagara Vacations.) The roar of V-twin engines woke me before dawn. Normally. I waded pensively through the lead story in the NY Times this morning on the challenge of the kids returning from Afghanistan. I remember painfully well what it was like. The first couple times were extraordinarily […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-socotra"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1116"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1116\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1121,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1116\/revisions\/1121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}