New York, Here We Come!

When Father came to the USA for the first time in 1972, we tried to do as much as we could. After Cape Cod, we drove to New York City and stayed at Sherman and Jean’s place. At the time, they had one son, Nelson. Sherman was working for the New York Public Library. We went everywhere we could in the city, including the United Nations, the Statue of Liberty, and the Empire State Building. It was very exhausting! By the time we finished, Father had a bit of high blood pressure. So we decided to go back to Tennessee. Both Pan-pan and Steven had learned to enjoy traveling. They were used to staying at different places on different nights and they certainly had learned to eat different foods with various tastes. Both children have been well-adjusted since their very young ages.

    

My First Big Catch

One other thing we do on Cape Cod is go fishing. There are a lot of options on the Cape. Since Janice has a cousin Jim, who was in our wedding and who is a professional deep ocean fishing guide during the summer months, we would usually go with him. He is a high school Chemistry teacher during the academic year and he grew up on the Cape. He knows everything about fishing! He would give us a discount rate when possible. Over the years, he has taken us on many trips to fish, most of the time on Cape Cod Bay. And we usually get plenty to show for it! The year 1972 was my first time for a big catch and I have a picture to prove it!

Cape Cod - 3

There are a lot of things you can do on Cape Cod, but, when our children were young, the main thing was playing on the beach and occasionally in the water. Nearby the house there was a nice sand box for our kids to play in, and there was also a plastic swimming pool for them to soak and splash. Then there were about two weeks when the blueberries were ripening and the kids could spend a whole afternoon picking and eating them. My father was able to get a taste of these activities as a new experience, as he had no memory of doing such things before. We were very satisfied to be able to let him truly feel the life in the USA. And he was fortunately very curious and eager to encounter this new new way of life.

Cape Cod - 2

Of course, when you are on Cape Cod you will have a chance to swim. Even though the water was very cold in early summer, the children did not have any problem to jump into the water. For adults, it generally needed some time to get adjusted. My father had never swum  before in any kind of water, lake or ocean. He had never learned how to swim, but he was interested in watching the kids play in the water and on the sand. He even sat on the beach to feel the fun. That was quite an experience for him.

Cape Cod - 1

Finally, my Father got to meet Janice’s parents on Cape Cod. The summer place which Janice’s parents built in the nineteen forties, using material from an old Army barracks, has provided a lot of joy to the whole Fernald family. In the summer of 1972, my Father got a wonderful chance to experience their family life. We were there for quite a while. It was also the first opportunity for my older generation and Janice’s older generation to get to know a little bit of the other side. Not only did my Father get to see the Light House in North Truro, he also saw our children enjoying the ocean - swimming and just playing around in the water. He had never experienced that before and could not even imagine the fun. I will show you a few pictures, not only in this blog but in the next few ones, to give you taste of what he experienced for the first time when he was in his seventies!

Aunt Flo

Janice’s favorite aunt - Aunt Flo - was living  in the Boston area when we got there in the summer of 1972. We stayed at the Paul’s home in Lexington, because Janice’s parents were staying in their Cape Cod house during the summer months. Aunt Flo was Janice’s favorite aunt because she was a very caring person. And she always treated me very kindly and made me feel part of the family. Of course, when my Father came to this area we made sure that she was one of Janice’s relatives on my Father’s “must see” list. They did get a chance to visit for a while in the Paul’s living room. Flo was actually Janice’s great aunt as she was her grandmother’s youngest sister. My Father also got a chance to visit their yard outside where the Paul children and ours (and our dog Princess) were playing.