EARLY MEMORIES FROM WALLINGFORD, PA. 1992

We had arrived in Pennsylvania in January 1992 and quickly got into the rhythm of a new place. Deysi immediately had the girls enrolled in schools and they, in turn, immediately started scouting out new friends. Relocation for the three of them was now becoming quite normal. There were still some pains associated with each of these uprootings. However, they were now becoming easier to deal with and seemed to disperse more quickly.

By now Ron had experienced 10 major relocations in her 12 short years. Starting when she was still a baby and we ripped her away from her birthplace in Peru. Then, thrust her into the middle of a cold cold winter in the frozen north of Canada. This was the first major culture (and climate) shock for both her and her mom. Ange was only 6 at the time of moving to Pennsylvania, but had already been shuttled around to 6 places. This is not considering the myriad other places that we visited for short periods of time as part of our world of travel. I think it is fair to say that Deysi, at least, loved the travel and thrived on the adventure and excitement of it.

For me, I must say, work looked pretty much like work, no matter where we were. In almost all of my assignments 12 hour days, 6 or 7 days per week were the norm. I tried to put my head down and plow thru it, meanwhile taking advantage of every minute of my spare time to explore and enjoy each and every place we were in. Philadelphia and its surrounding area were no exception. Some of the early things I remember about our move and the girls go like this.

Ange was very lucky and found a little girl, about her age, living next door to us. They immediately became fast friends. Her name was Joy and like Ange had a great love of the water. With a pool next door, I expect Joy had always hoped someone her age would move in so she could play in it. The third part of Ange’s early group, was made up of the young prince of our friends, the Kiwi (remember her), and my friend and boss in Japan, NZ and now. We will call him C. The young prince was named Rosco and he and Ange were already friends from the NZ days.

The one thing that sticks out about ol’ Rosco is that he would play anything. His range was from rough and tumble boys stuff, to a rousing round of dolls with the girls. He had his own collection of dolls so he and Ange could continue their play whenever she visited at their home. Ange and Rosco had a special agreement for playtime, they would start out with a stimulating game of dolls to be followed up by a round of cars or boys stuff. What inevitably happened was that, just as the program shifted to boys stuff ol’ Rosco’s mom would arrive to pick him up. It made him furious and me howl. He provided some good fun and fit right in with us. He was like part of the family and it seemed very normal to have him with us often.

One of my fondest memories was of this group, chipping ice off the pool cover in late March, because I had told them that when the ice melted, I would pull off the cover and they could start swimming. The pool had a diving board and slide. just waiting to be used. They could not wait! Finally I relented on April 1, 1992, pulled the cover and jumped out of the way so I didn’t get caught in the stampede that ensued. Ron at this time was a little more sophisticated so bypassed the initial “polar bear” swim. But not for long I might add.

Now I might say that it was not particularly warm that day, but the sun was shining. The water temperature could not have been much out of the 30 degree F range, as it had supported ice just two days prior. This did not matter, with a shriek they were in. In a matter of minutes, they all had a blue tinge about them, especially their lips that were solidly “bubble gum blue” in color. The fact that it was cold was no deterrent. They basically played in this pool until the end of October when once again I put the pool cover back on. They were all shivering but nothing I could say would get them to admit that it might have been a little cool. Ange was like “no daddy it’s so warm”. Ron’s sophistication lasted about two more days and then she was in.