| America entered
World War II.
In the South
Pacific, an explosion on his ship and burns to my father’s face, arms and
hands - and a time in the Naval hospital in Wellington, New Zealand - meant
the end of that wandering life. Then he met my mother at a hamburger stand
in Pasadena, California. They married three weeks later. They walked everywhere,
including past large homes in Pasadena and San Marino, dreaming…
The GI Bill
was passed and four years later, my father, mother, my younger sister and
I moved into the tin-roofed Quonset huts set up for GIs at Occidental College
in Los Angeles. My father had his chance at a higher education. When he
finished at 40, he didn’t have to go through a mid-life crisis and, instead,
became an elementary school teacher. My brother was born, Sputnik was launched
and Eisenhower put “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance.
My dad retired
at 62, in 1975, and his income as a teacher had never been over $20,000.
My mother went to college after my father finished and she worked for 13
years as a teacher. Her income never matched my dad’s. Seven years younger
than my dad, she retired at 55. Their mortgage had been paid off and they
paid cash for a house with ocean views in Lanikai, Hawaii, on the leeward
side of Oahu, near my sister. An ideal spot for retirement--never need
to move again, you would think.
My parents’
generation--the one they say saved the world--does seem to have had some
special blessing on it. But most have died or soon will. Having grown up
during the Depression, my parents had a desire to have jobs that seemed
to weather economic ups and downs; they had observed that teachers always
seemed to be able to find work. They had a desire to do better than their
parents. They were good savers of money. My father took the advice of real
estate experts to buy what you could afford in the best places. We moved
a lot in the search. My dad was always a rather restless soul and looking
for something to “eventuate,” as we say in New Zealand.
In all of our
moving, we did end up living for the longest time in a home in San Marino,
California, where the three children graduated from high school. The house
was stucco with a red-tile roof in the Californian Spanish style. It was
designed by the architect, Wallace Neff (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f
=/c/a/ 2004/05/19/HOGAU6MV5H1.DTL), the designer of Mary Pickford’s
and other early celebrity homes. Brad Pitt, the actor, apparently, is buying
up Neff-designed homes today.
Our beautiful
little home with a Juliet balcony at 581 Berkeley is featured in a retrospective
of his work about his innovative design of smaller “tract” homes. Neff
was way ahead of his time. Located near the California Institute of Technology
and the Huntington Museum (where Pinky and Blue Boy reside http://www.huntington.org/),
there are just a few streets of these homes in San Marino and Pasadena.
How different California would look today if Neff’s architectural leadership
had been followed!
There was even
a time when my parents owned a vacation property on Lido Isle next to Jane
Wyman’s house—one she owned after she and Ronald Reagan divorced. They
bought that property after an aunt left my mother some money. “Aunt Ella
believed in real estate,” my mother said and then this property happened
at just the right time. Love motivated my mother.
How did these
things happen to my parents? I don’t know. They must have wanted them,
worked hard and made prudent and interesting choices based on values other
than the desire to make money. However, I have wondered if that little
boy from the mountains who had to do so much wandering before he found
his true love in my mother ever wished he could be a millionaire. Their
estate was worth about that when they died within seven weeks of each other
in 2001, both in their 80s, having clung to each other as long as they
could. And, it would all mean nothing if it weren’t for their love.
And while my
parents always did well by investing in real estate, they always sold right
before values went up dramatically! It was a pattern. They kept moving
on over the years—the various places in southern California as we kids
grew up, then Hawaii where my sister lived, then North Carolina to be on
the East Coast for easier travel to Europe, then back to Hawaii before
spending their last ten years in Florida on the East Coast where I was
living in Pennsylvania and my brother, the monk, at Holy Transfiguration
Monastery in Brookline, Massachusetts.
What did my
Dad have to say when we talked about what a former home was worth at the
time? “I won’t forget what I did for love…,” he always said. My parents
loved the musical The Chorus Line. Here are some of the words to the musical’s
song What I Did For Love:
Gone,
Love is never
gone.
As we travel
on,
Love’s what
we’ll remember.
Kiss today
goodbye,
And point
me t’ward tomorrow
We did what
we had to do.
Won’t forget,
can’t regret
What I did
for love.
Yes, when my
parents moved, they moved for love: a better home or better schools for
their children, to be near grandchildren, to be closer to my brother just
in case the monastic life didn’t work out.
My father had
encouraged my brother, born eight years after I was, to invest in the stock
market when he was a boy. They sent him on a trip around the world as an
undergraduate. While my sister and I grew up under more frugal circumstances,
my brother had another experience growing up in San Marino around privileged
peers, in a household with two incomes. It was a heartbreaker for my father
when my brother chose to give up the worldly life for a monastic one. But,
after more than 25 years as Father Anthony, my brother is “happy as”. Now,
there’s a place to escape from America!
Like most of
us, my parents were always looking for the best quality for the best price.
That is only intelligent. Travel or moves, especially these days, whether
just around the corner, to another state or another country or continent,
it seems to me, have to be grounded in something more than getting the
best deal. However, as my friend, the travel agent says flying in and out
of New Zealand to various parts of the world provides some of the cheapest
airfares today. Let me tell you what I have discovered in the last seven
years.
When my late
husband, Tom, and I arrived in New Zealand in July, 1997, we flew in on
one-way tickets. We had our application for permanent residency papers
filled out and $30,000US from the sale of our house in Pennsylvania.
We were two
adults (49 and 51) and four children (18, 14, 13, and 10). We thought we
had been smart to purchase only one-way tickets. We figured we weren’t
going to be going back to America for a while and probably not as a group,
so why spend the money on round trip tickets?
As the six
of us sat in an alcove waiting to find out if we were going to be able
to enter the country, we began to feel a little foolish. Tom had presented
application forms, the money, and told them our intentions. But, now, we
had to wait. Happily, when the uniformed official came back, the news was
good: we could enter the country on the 3-month visa, just like any tourist
and hope that our application for permanent residency would be approved
within that time. Love and hope for the future were motivating us.
We lived for
two months on the North Island in pastoral Snells Beach, near Warkworth,
where we set up our bank account—at the time our $30,000US turned into
$45,000NZ. If we were to do this today, the exchange would be less. We
were thrilled at the time, but during these seven years we have seen the
exchange rate fluctuate greatly. Three years ago, our $30,000US would have
turned into almost $60,000NZ! What we do we do for love…
Our immigration
case worker was in Auckland, an hour and a half away, and overworked. After
we moved to less-populated Christchurch here on the South Island, things
moved more quickly. By the end of our visa time, we had our permanent residency.
Our one-way
tickets cost about $1000US each. Round trip fare from Los Angeles to Auckland
has stayed around $2000US over the years. However, it usually costs between
$1500 and $2000NZ to fly to Los Angeles—this is about $800 to $1200US,
so I have always thought something was wrong (or right) for someone travelling
from there to here or here to there!
The times they
are a changing, though. Tom’s family is coming to visit in December, and
they were able to get tickets online with Air New Zealand, set to begin
flying from Los Angeles to Christchurch (rather than Auckland which has
been the only port of entry) in November. Their cost is around $900US which
is quite a savings, comparable to the airfare from here to there.
I am planning
to take six months off and travel around the world on a ticket that is
good for a year. I will arrive late to the Big OE (or Overseas Experience),
a Kiwi phenomenon (http://www.tandempress.co.nz/inprint/book.cfm?bookid=121).
Airfare from here is based on kilometres travelled. The basic fare of $2100NZ
would take me to Singapore, Frankfurt, London and Los Angeles. Around the
world, sure, but just…
For $3500NZ
more cities can be added. But, for not more than $4500NZ I can go to ALL
the places I want to: Singapore, Toyko, Seoul, Bangkok, Frankfurt, Bombay,
Vienna, London, New York City, Boston, Merida (Mexico), Philadelphia, Los
Angeles and Honolulu.
Here is the
response I received from Rob, the travel agent, with regards to round the
world airfares from America: 3 Continents $3500US, 4 continents $3800US,
5 continents $4600US or 6 continents $5000US. Rob also tells me:
Pricing is
dependent upon type of fare class, number of continents visited, and country
of origin. Starting such a trip in North America is one of the most
expensive places to start. Tickets issued in some European and African
countries can cut the ticket price nearly in half.
A typical around
the world fare allows up to 20 segments total, and all these are included
the price of the ticket. You have 12 months to use the ticket from
the time you start your trip. There are routing restrictions and
in-continent segments restrictions that need to be understood. A single
flight number is considered a segment, even if there is a stopover and
a change of equipment. Planning a valid itinerary is time consuming.
More information
can be found at: http://www.hardlink.com/~markdu/OWFiles/.
So, all
that is left is for me to make the big decision to “go for it.”
Planning, for me, will involve deciding which direction to go in. Whether
I go east or west, near Merida, Mexico, in Playa del Carmen, I plan to
do a four-week CELTA (International House Barcelona, training@bcn.ihes.com)
course to increase my qualifications to teach English as a second language.
Then, as my Head of Department has told me, I can go anywhere in the world
and teach!
This week
I received a most interesting email in response to a young woman reading
my first article for Escape From America magazine “Life, Liberty, the Pursuit
of Happiness…and Dying.”
Dear
Ms. Green,
I know this
is and might be completely strange, but...I just read your article, "Life,
Liberty, the Pursuit of Happiness", and was immensely touched by it.
As I was reading it, though, it reminded me of a similar story of a girl
I met when I was in college. Her name is Shoshanna Hill. I
don't know if you know her, but, according to your life story as presented
in your wonderful essay on seeing life differently through "shifting" and
experience, you might??
Here's
why:
--her parents
lived in New Zealand when I met her in a Geology class at
UW-Madison.
--I know
her maiden name was Green. She married a fellow named Hill, hence
the new surname.
--her father
was a television producer for a TV station
--she has
a younger sister (Hadassah) and you mentioned having a younger
daughter
--I know
Shoshanna is originally from PA (I believe she's in NJ now--that's where
her husband Pat got a job).
--You mentioned
travelling to Hawaii, and I know Shoshanna went there over the spring semester
that I met her (2001). She brought me back rocks.
I am currently
moving. I don't handle it well, but to hopefully feel
better
I did a Google search--all I entered was: "moving unsettled new love
life together".
Your essay was the second listing that came up, so I read
it and,
as I wrote, was very moved by how affected you were by the Kiwi
people.
I was especially comforted by the line: "I realized I might just
be where
I was supposed to be".
Maybe you
don't know Shoshanna, and if so, I am glad that I get to express
to you
that I found your writing very poignant. But there are so many
details
that line up that, in the case that she's your daughter, I wanted
you to
know how small the world wide web is, and how much you can affect
someone
so faraway in Madison, WI.
Thank you
for reading my response, and my very best wishes to you and your
family.
I am so interested in Kiwi thought and phrases now.
All she
did was put MOVING UNSETTLED NEW LIFE LOVE TOGETHER into her search engine!
This dear stranger is, indeed, a friend of my darling daughter Shoshanna
who I will visit on my stop in Philadelphia as, Love Willing, I wend my
way around the world. I may not do my Big Overseas Experience as
a nun, but, perhaps, like Chaucer’s nun in his Canterbury Tales, I can
have, in a spiritual way, LOVE CONQUERS ALL emblazoned on my bodice.
Kiss today
good-bye.
Point me toward
tomorrow.
Jiminy Cricket,
it’s a small, small world!
The following
are the previous articles that Candy has written about New Zealand for
the magazine:
To contact Candy
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