My learning curve during our California trip is indeed a steep one.
We’ve only been here for three days and already I’ve learned that Roseanne Barr is on the ballot for president, highways are called freeways, Veterans’ Day ( November 11) is a school holiday here , Neil Sedaka concert tickets still fetch $90 a pop in nearby Rancho Mirage and that I Love Lucy reruns are a staple of daytime television.
Last Tuesday morning, friend Tom Butash was good enough to chauffeur Terry and I to the airport for our west coast junket. Arriving in LA at 3 pm, we were helped by a pleasant young man to find our way to the train station that would take us to San Bernardino, a town about 60 miles inland.
Terry’s sister Karen welcomed us at the end of our ninety minute Metrolink ride and we went off for a nice dinner at Claim Jumpers, California’s version of The Keg. In true American style, our meals were far too large and our waitress bagged the extras in a styrofoam container. As we left the restaurant, a homeless man approached us asking for food. The recession has left much of California in despair. Karen graciously handed over the leftovers to the shaggy middle aged vagrant who slipped away into the shadows as quietly as he had appeared.
Her boyfriend, Bill Clinton, a member of Kiwanis for the past forty eight years, spent Halloween in downtown Riverside handing out candy to inner city kids.
I will continue to learn from my American friends; that elastics are not synonymous with rubber bands, that Steve Nash isn’t being blamed yet for the Lakers 0-2 start this season, and that some here consider California as Obama’s ATM.
But more importantly, I’m learning that kindness is the universal language.
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