In a way, I don't really need to set the scene. If you imagine a classic family get together, you're pretty close to the mark. And it was great. I waited in mid-town Baltimore for Erica, and she picked me up around 9pm on her way to a bar with her twin sister and a few other friends and family. A few drinks there and then back to her family home in Valley Heights. Thursday morning and they did a 10am breakfast, bagels and smoked salmon and other delicious delights to set the scene for the main event later on. The rest of the day was very relaxed, watched the football, met various members of the family, went for a walk, went for a drive with her cousin Aaron to buy some beers. It was pretty much just what I needed. About 5pm hors d'oeuvres were serves, carrots etc and dip, and football on the telly, then around 6pm, the main meal. Quite peculiar in a way, because from a British perspective it was a classic Christmas dinner. Turkey, stuffing and cranberry sauce. Only there was no Christmas. And everyone was Jewish! Go figure! Put simply, dinner was delicious, dessert was delicious. And then back to the sofa, and more football/sleeping. At 10pm some people went off to get in some 'Black Friday' shopping, and the rest of us put on a film, Transsiberian, an intriguing thriller set on, er, well, the Transsiberian Railway.
Now, there are two particular stories that stick with me from the day. They both involve backgrounds, and the amazing stories you can randomly come across. Firstly, Turner (I guess that's the spelling), a friend of Erica. She was born to a Vietnamese mother and American father. Nothing amazing there. The fascinating part was that her mum was working as an 'intelligence officer; for the USA from Vietnam during the Vietnam War. She was eventually airlifted from Vietnam by the US army for her own safety, and ended up marrying Turner's dad, who was in the US army. She didn't think it was particularly an amazing story, but I did!
Next is Erica's Grandfather. Unfortunately I didn't really a get a chance to talk to him, and there was never really an appropriate moment for me to talk to him. But what I did learn about him was fascinating. He joined the US Air force and was positioned in Oxford in the UK, and 20 days after D-Day was position in France where he was part of a unit that made it's advance to Germany. This was as much as I learnt, and I could have easily posed many questions and listened to him for many hours discussing his time during WWII. However it wasn't really the time or place for me to do that. Still, it was a pleasure and honour to meet in person someone who served during WWII, and there I was enjoying Thanksgiving with all his various offspring .
This morning I was driven to the Megabus stop where I listened to music on the short hour long journey to Washington DC. Here, I checked into the HI Hostel and then went for a stroll down to the Washington Monument, WWII & Vietnam Memorial (quite apt) before getting the Metro station out to Court House for Thanksgiving, Part II (and meeting distant family, Part II)...
No comments:
Post a Comment