It all began in Europe in 2004 on a Trafalgar Tours bus. There were about 50 of us from various parts of the world taking a 3 week bus tour of Europe. We started in London, spent time in Belgium, Germany, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, France, and then back to London.. As would be expected, when 50 people get together, groups with the same interests hang out together. There were the church folks who headed for the nearest cathedral or church, there were the artists who searched out the art museums, the historians who found the historical points of interest in each place we stopped in, and then there was my group- the pub crawlers and beer gourmets who headed for the nearest local watering hole to begin the tour of the real parts of the town by starting with the local brew. Between pubs, we still managed to see most of the sights that the other folks saw, but with eyes fueled by the products of the European Purity Laws. We had mature American ladies on a 'girls only' vacation, we had a bunch of beautiful people from South Africa, we had a few token English families with their children, on an extended holiday, and we had the beer crew, mostly from Australia, along with me, a product of the mixed cultures of South Florida, Miami in particular. Of course, there were many group dinners where we all were together to trade stories of the days events and discoveries. We pretty much all ended up on a first name basis, and when the tour finally made a last stop in Paris, we had a rowdy dinner and drank wine and beer, exchanged addresses and phone numbers and swore to visit if the opportunity arose. It was a wonderful trip with wonderful people.
When we got back to Miami, life resumed its normal routine of work and weekends. When we decided to correspond with those from the trip, it seemed that there were only 2 couples that had really bonded with us and us with them. We sent cards for a while to the rest of the group, but Christo and Marietjie from South Africa, and Jim and Helen from Melbourne, Australia received and returned detailed letters. We became familiar with their families as they did with ours. Always there was the promise from all, that a visit would happen if circumstances allowed. Then Fate showed up.
The job I was working at, was in Ft. Lauderdale. It involved being the driver and technical assistant for a man named Dr. Louis W. Parker. (How I ended up here will be detailed at another time). He was an inventor, and held several hundred patents, and had made quite a bit of money from his inventions. The main invention, around 1946, was 'The Intercarrier Sound Circuit' that made the audio potion part of a television possible. Before this, it had required a separate 'box' to tune in the sound, and the speech did not always match what the actors were saying. This is the invention that got him into the US Inventors Hall of Fame, along with Edison, Bell, and a bunch of other guys. Google 'Louis W. Parker' or 'National Inventors Hall of Fame' sometime. When I went back to work after returning from the European bus trip, I went to work that next Monday and learned that he had died just the Saturday 2 days before. I knew that while I was in Europe, his wife had planned to take him on an Alaskan cruise, then visit her Christmas tree farms in Oregon, but I had not expected this. I should add that he was 87 years old and not in the best of health, but still, it was a shock to me. His son, who had never liked me, or anyone his father had working with him, immediately told me that I was no longer employed by Parker Electronics. So I left the premises.
A few weeks later I got a call from the son, asking me to come up to the office in Ft. Lauderdale. When I arrived, he informed me that his father had left instruction for severance packages to be given to the few employees working there. When I looked at it, it was a very generous package indeed. He also informed me that I could go to the storage facility out back and take as much test equipment and parts as would fit in my car, as he was having it all removed for junk to next day. That man did not know what he was doing or what he had. I wasn't going to tell him. I went the the shed and probably loaded up several thousand dollars worth of electronic parts and test equipment, which I could use or sell.
It was time to look for a new job, something I had not done for a long time So, after several false starts, including one at Tandy Corp's ill fated 'Incredible Universe' super store, doing things that I did not do very well (salesman), I found a home at a used medical supply company near the airport in Miami. It was a good challenging job, that paid well, and the people I worked with were easy to get along with. My boss would buy hospital equipment as a hospital upgraded their systems, I would repair it if needed, certify it safety wise, and he would then sell it to hospitals in Central and South America. It was a very interesting job because of the many different types of equipment involved. We were moving a lot of stuff, everything from hospital beds to x-ray machines. Life was good again.
In 1997, my wife was involved in a very serious auto accident that almost took her life. It did cost her the vision in one eye and the mobility in one arm. At the end of a very long recovery period, when she was relatively mobile, I suggested a trip to Australia to visit Helen and Jim. I had done some homework, and found that American Express had a deal going on for the holders of an Amex Platinum Card - if you bought one Business Class ticket, you would receive an identical ticket at no charge. I crunched the numbers,(I hate that phrase, but it does describe the process), I found that we could go to Australia, New Zealand, and stop in Hawaii on the way back. It would only cost about $200 more to ride up front, than it would to ride in the back in the cheap seats. I was given the okey-dokey, so I called Jim and Helen to find out when they might have room for us for about 5 days. Once I had those dates, I talked to my boss and cleared a 3 week block where I wouldn't be missed too much, put together a travel plan, booked some hotel rooms, and said-'Down Under, here we come.
By sheer coincidence, the America's Cup, the big sailing race was occurring in Auckland, New Zealand at just the time we would be there. How Neat!! We would be flying to Los Angeles and back on United Airlines, and we would be flying the Pacific on Air New Zealand on a 747, sitting up in the little part in the front of the airplane, the second deck. so to speak, above the pilots. There were a total of 24 seats and 2 stewards in our little part of the plane. I found this out on line after we got seat assignments. What a way to go. So we did.
This brings us to the end of Part One. Next we will explore the Kangaroo part of the Blog.
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