Is This Akron?

September 2, 2001-War Vets Aussie Style

(photos:
Temple Shalom-Gold Coast
Our welcome home)

The day was sunny and warm for the Jewish war vets lunch at Temple Shalom. Some of our experience there was so bizarre yet some parts were so familiar. Most attendees were older. It was a side-dish pitch-in with the steak, burgers, and beef bangers (sausage) being cooked in the kitchen. I was seated next to a woman named Lily who was in turn next to her best friend Lillian. They’re known as the Lilies. They were sure I’d starve and kept asking if I’d had enough to eat.

Also at our table were two people from Scotland who’d immigrated to Australia. As if we didn’t have enough trouble with the Aussie accent now we had a Scottish burr to deal with. There were three to four Americans at the affair and each one came over with an offer to speak American to me whenever I needed to. Everyone in the room was eager to meet us and we soon found ourselves hearing a litany of names knowing we would have to remember them all.

At one point David had to meet with Alven, the president and Jack , head of the services committee. I was left alone with the masses. I just waded in. After all I’d been doing this for over thirty-two years. Before I knew it I was once again talking to strangers as if we were life-long friends. They bent over backwards to make us comfortable and we got several dinner invitations. David did get some good news. They fully expect us to take off now and then to travel for a few days or a couple of weeks. They have good coverage for services and will be most generous with our travel time. That was a relief.

Marcus (the redheaded baby) was there and his “mum” was busy teaching him manners. He says, ”Ta,” when given something. She says they teach it to children before “thank you” because it’s so much easier to say. I also learned that all the signs we saw advertising “pokies” referred to poker machines.

The raffle proceeded at a snails pace. The woman in charge plodded through over 100 gifts she had to raffle. I was wrong. They weren’t wrapped. She described each one before drawing the number and then made comments about the winner. It was interminable but funny. She has a high, screechy voice and used a mike. She wouldn’t put up with any interfering chatter and kept shushing the group. I guess winning the diamond earrings at the Mother's Day brunch didn’t use up all my raffle luck. We won a plastic chip and dip plate and a small clear glass vase. The vase will be perfect for the Shabbat flower David brings me each week. The plate will serve us well in case I need to bring a food contribution when invited to a home hosted dinner.

The Low Down

We got a tour of the temple, which has a social hall that opens up to a charming sanctuary. It has colorful stained glass windows and about six to seven rows of seating that arc around the pulpit. They have three Torahs in the ark two of which are scrolls rescued after the Holocaust. It will be a pleasant place for services. There’s an outer office, which is where Howard his secretary sits. He’s there until noon and answers the phone. The computer and copier are in Howard's office. David’s office only has a chair and table that serves as a desk. His phone is on the wall across from the "desk."

Like the Old Days

We needed to do shopping so we headed out to explore the Pacific Fair Shopping Center across the street from our apartment. It’s an open-air mall with covered garage parking. Go figure. This seems to be common here. Maybe it shelters the cars from the sun and uses less space since the garages are multilevel. The stores close at 4 PM since it's Sunday. They’re only open until 5:30 PM on weekdays except for Thursday when they’re open until 9 PM. Does this sound familiar to some of you oldies? That’s the way it used to be before 24/7 shopping.

Our first stop was Kmart. We had our choice of that or Target. Kmart was closer. We ended up buying what we think is a good camera. It’s much smaller than our old one and now we have a working flash. In U.S. dollars it was a deal. We never did get to food shopping which meant we had to eat out. That’s never a problem. We headed up to Surfer’s Paradise, which they call Surfer’s, in search of an Internet café. We asked for directions at Blockbusters and they sent us on our way. Does it sound as if we’ve left Ohio at all? We came across the ReMax Realty office here, but it was closed. I would have gone in and may in the future.

Minor Adjustments

We were able to find the right level of our car park tonight without accidentally exiting and having to re-enter. David remembered where the kitchen garbage was kept (there’s no room under the sink) even though he couldn’t find where we put the camera. I have a good handle on where the ocean is so I can find north but still confuse light switches. The buzzers and ringers are another mystery. I set the timer on the oven to time a dryer load of permanent press. When it rang, David picked up the intercom phone. Just now the intercom phone rang. It was a wrong number but I’d answered the telephone first. We both keep putting on the windshield wipers instead of the directional signal. When we do manage to find the “indicator,” which is on the right side of the steering wheel, it’s unnatural to push it up for a left turn and down for a right.

It’s nighttime and we're home. Yes, it’s home already. Even though I well up as I type it and choke when the folks here ask about our family, we’ve begun to nest. We found time to walk along the ocean road. The full moon was reflecting on the Pacific, the waves were lazily rolling in and if it had been warmer we would have walked barefoot on the beach. There’s time for that.

We’re on what they call the first floor here. What we would call the first floor they call the ground floor. As we opened our door, we looked across to the balcony and saw the pool and deck all lit up. What a greeting! We were home.

Toby