Post Twelve

We spent two months in Europe and saw all the famous buildings around Paris and the Loire Valley- so ancient and historic. My favorite was the Chenonceau Chateau, built over the water, but the most stupendous was Blois with the outside stairways where the ladies were enthroned to watch the tournaments. It was here in a little shop beneath the castle walls that I bought the two vases:  one red and one blue. The young girl who waited on us said when I decided on them that they were her favorites. Her father created all the ornaments in the shop and all were different.

On our trip to the Chateau country we met several very interesting people – two were ladies from Boston.  And when we arrived at  Soissons I got a dreadful headache.  I did go down to dinner as we hadn’t had much lunch. But I didn’t want the wine they served, so asked for water. The waiter brought me hot water and I tried to explain that I wanted cold water but he failed to understand, so one of the Boston ladies told him sharply to go and get me some cold water. Later when we said we were planning to fly to England, she asked me if I had a family, and I said yes, I had three children. She exclaimed that I had no right to fly and take the risk. But, anyway the encounter with the waiter over the water made me sure that my children would learn French to speak it properly

There is an old saying that “dresses made men”, or something to that effect. And Daddy certainly must have believed it because he bought me beautiful dresses to  go with – not many but lovely ones – and I was, indeed, the best dressed woman on board ship. I remember the cocktail party in the captain’s cabin and the seat at the Purser’s table. Everything was delightful and I forgot all about the disharmony at the leave taking at the station in Proctor and enjoyed everything fully.

Then came the time when we flew to England and to London for two weeks visiting the Houses of Parliament for which my Father had written a letter to a member he knew asking him to show us around, which he did. It was during this trip around when we was showing us something in the ceiling that I bumped into someone who gently put his hands on my shoulders and apologized. After, our member of Parliament asked me, “If I knew who had bumped into me?” Of course, I didn’t, so he said it was Winston Churchill. Ever after, I always told my friends, “That I had close contact with Winston Churchill.”