Meeting the Thomas'

Some time early December, I can remember leaving my job with Dr. Kuhn and going over to the Motel 6 offices to help with whatever I could with Dick's job. This was something I always did, but when I walked in, Dick's assistant and his wife were there and they were obviously excited about something. Dick waited until everyone else had gone home except Jim and Betty and told me he was giving me a trip home for Christmas. I had not been home in nine years and had only seen my parents the one time during that period when they visited me in Canada. I was speechless. It was quite a deal to get my passport that quickly, but we made it and a couple of days before Christmas we arrived in London. Dick had wanted me to surprise my family and not tell them in advance. I had reservations about this, but went along with it and in retrospect it probably wasn't the best idea we ever had.

We rented a car in London and Dick drove to Llandudno. That was an experience in itself, driving on the wrong side of the road, in the dark, with narrow roads, heavy traffic and the somewhat scary rules of the road there (first come first served attitude), it's a wonder we made it in one piece. Dick actually did a remarkable job, except for bumping the sidewalk often (hard to judge the car when you are sitting on the wrong side of it). And to make matters worse, it was standard shift - they didn't have automatic in those days.

I'm sure a lot of you have seen the series of movies about a man meeting his future wife's family (in fact I think there is a sequel coming out this coming week) - but poor Dick had his own version of this!!! We called my sister from London and she was really upset at the lack of notice and I could hear her floundering on the phone.
Mair had 'protected' her 'little sister' over the nine years and had not told her of the conditions with various members of my family. I would love to be able to write this part of my 'history' telling of the fun we had with Dick meeting the various members of my family and my first return after nine years and Dick's first visit to Britain. We DID have some great memories to take back with us and a lot of private things to laugh about, like how cold my parent's house was and our sleeping in a feather bed with sagging springs so that we both slipped to the middle of the bed and remained there. We kept our heads under the mounds of bedclothes just to keep warm. Dick said it was the first time he had ever experienced going to the bathroom inside a house and see the steam rising!! We laughed at his driving round the infamous British roundabouts the wrong way (fortunately late one evening and no other car around). We laughed at my sister asking him what time he wanted to be knocked up in the morning (in Britain, this means what time do you want me to wake you). We laughed with my father sitting in the back seat of the car giving Dick directions and having never driven a car himself never learned that you tell someone to turn left BEFORE you get to the corner, not when you are in the middle of the intersection.
We laughed at my father telling every relative we visited that Dick ate a pork chop while he was cooking the rest of them. My Dad never had never had more than one pork chop at a meal. We laughed at Norman (Mair's husband) taking Dick down to the pub and walking his usual amazingly fast pace. Dick came back, ten paces behind normal, panting! And we laughed at my sister-in-law Kitty who had to leave occasionally during the visit as she was the local 'bookie' and had to collect the bets (a perfectly legal occupation there).

But the tears came with the discovery of not only my mother's alcoholism, but also my brother's; to my sister being ailing and in a depression after surgery; and other family issues that I'm sure made Dick think he had married into the most dis-functional family. Thank goodness the years and many more visits did a lot of erase the bad memories of this visit - but it was certainly a growing experience for this 'little sister'.