Christmas in the States (12/22/31/1982)

Wednesday, December 22, 1982

Marsha C accompanied me to the train station. The streets were icy and slick. I bought a half-price ticket to the Zürich airport for 14 CHF/$7 and said goodbye to Marsha. She took the bus back to the hospital, and I boarded the 8:23 train. Arrived at the airport at 10:15 and checked in at 10:35, taking the risk to check my luggage.

ZRH to JFK boarding pass

I wandered around the shopping complex, buying a small box of fondue cheese. There was a long line at passport control, so I went ahead and joined it. In the area beyond there were only a few shops, so I sat down to read. At 12:25 I used the restroom. Someone had left a duty free bag in the stall I used, but I didn’t look in it. A black lady was changing her clothes and had the contents of her suitcase spread all over. At 12:30 I went through the security x-ray to Gate B29. Boarding started 5 minutes late at 12:40. I was on the second of three buses that took us out to the Capitol Airways DC-10. I had the window seat, but a girl was sitting there, so I just sat in the middle seat. Later a stewardess came to check our boarding passes, and the girl was supposed to be across the aisle. I sat in my proper seat. We were at the bulkhead, so I couldn’t put my plastic bag under a seat. I placed it next to my feet, and I guess the stewardesses never saw it to make me put it in the overhead compartment.

We left a half hour late at 13:45. There were head winds behind us (tail winds?), so our flight was to be faster than usual, only 8 hours and 24 minutes. That made our estimated time of arrival at 22:10, when the scheduled arrival was 22:25 (16:25 local time). They passed out airline goodie bags and free champagne. They skipped me when serving drinks. We could see the vast city of Paris, and we passed over the tip of Britain. I though I could see ships in the ocean. There seemed to be white chunks in the water (ice bergs?) Lunch started with a salad of peas and carrots mixed with mayonnaise, shrimp, boiled egg slice, tomato wedge, and smoked salmon that I ate in the roll. Then broccoli and carrots, noodles, and geschnetzeltes veal. I skipped the dessert of Kirsch/cherry cake, but finally got a beverage of ginger ale. Later we had a snack and I left the 2 slices of Leberkäse, and just had a ham sandwich. Afterwards we were given Swiss chocolates.

Swiss chocolate box

We flew over the tip of Long Island, banked hard left, then hard right, righted ourselves, and landed at JFK at 16:25, on time. Went down the corridor for US passport holders and no one was there to even check if we had passports. Picked up my luggage, the last to come out! The customs line was long and I had a thorough older lady who insisted I was a Swiss resident and had to pay duty since I was allowed to bring in only $100 rather than $300 worth of items. I had carefully itemized everything to $286, so paid 10% on the difference.

Duty receipt

I went out to catch the terminal bus, and two terminals later at 17:30 I was at US Air checking in and risked checking my bags again. Caught the 18:30 flight to Buffalo at Gate 40. The plane didn’t even arrive until 18:30, so we left an hour late. We had box dinners handed out by the steward. The guy on my right was a man of Norwegian descent from Minnesota who lived in L.A., but was going to Buffalo to spend Christmas with his wife’s family. The guy on my left was not happy with the smoking, same as me. We had assigned seats, but due to the lateness of the flight, they announced open seating. Having kindly let people board in front of us, we ended up in the few seats left in the smoking section. Touched down in Buffalo and in the arrival area a huge crowd was waiting. Only a few of those were waiting for me; Terry, Kathy, and Frank found me and we went down to wait for the luggage. We drove to the house where Grandma, Mom, Dad, and Paul were waiting. An artificial tree was already set up, so I let everyone open the ornament gifts. There were several inches of snow on the ground and it was lightly snowing. I found that my little toe nail was bleeding, getting blood on my new boots and Strumpfhosen/tights. I got to sleep in the attic bedroom.

Thursday, December 23, 1982

Went to the post offices to mail the packages from Helen S and Barbara S to their friends in Ohio, and to mail calendars to Phil and David. Did some shopping for Marsha’s list. Watched slides.

Friday, December 24, 1982

After dinner we drove over to Amherst and joined a line of cars on Lebrun Road, passing houses decorated with Christmas lights, especially one that had lights strung all over its façade and in the trees and bushes of its well-landscaped yard. Plus a Nativity scene of plastic figures lighted from within, flat life-size figures of the Three Kings, Santa and reindeer, several choirs, etc. Santa and his helper were out in the street looking for kids to hand them goodies. It had gotten warm and the snow was melting.

We then drove to Niagara Falls to the Festival of Lights where all the trees were covered with strings of lights and there were billboard-size painted scenes of various cartoons characters, each sponsored by some local business. We parked in the Rainbow Centre parking ramp and took the elevator down into the mall.

Rainbow Centre

We went next door to the Winter Garden, like a giant greenhouse. There were only floor lights and tiny Christmas lights; enchanting!

Winter Garden

Mall from the Convention Center

We walked up an open mall to the Convention Center that has an ice skating loop. Out in Niagara Falls State Park, they called the Christmas display “Fantasyland.” You could hear the Falls, and see that red and green colored lights were aimed at the American Falls. It was raining a little.

We went to Midnight Mass, first hearing Christmas carols, then a mime group did the Nativity scene to the music of the theme from the “Chariots of Fire” movie. We held small lit candles for the beginning of Mass.

Mass program

Mass Program

Saturday, December 25, 1982

Merry Christmas!

It was pouring rain and only little piles of snow remained. Almost 50 degrees F. When we opened gifts, I played “Santa Claus,” handing out the gifts. I needed help interpreting some of the tags, such as “to the wacky WUWU wadio wistener.”

Christmas in Buffalo

Frank, Terry, Tamiko, Paul, Mom, Kathy, Dad, Grandma

Our turkey dinner included stuffing made with a beefstick sausage, creamed peas and onions, string beans, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, pineapple slices, rolls, and ice cream for dessert. Grandma, Daddy, Terry, Frank and I went to see the movie “The Trail of the Pink Panther.” It was pretty funny. Inspector Clouseau disappears and an interviewer talked to all his acquaintances. The funniest was the father and the clips from old Pink Panther movies.

Movie ticket

They say it went up to 62 degrees today!

Sunday, December 26, 1982

Went to 10:30 Mass. Not very crowded!

After lunch, Terry, Kathy, Frank, and I went to a Buffalo Stallions (of the Major Indoor Soccer League) soccer game. They had a huge plaster stallion under which the players entered the field. They had cheerleaders including a male cheerleader (Buffalo Jack) who wandered through the crowd leading cheers. At halftime the entertainment was Santa drawing winning tickets, and kicking soccer balls into the crowd. There was a stallion mascot, “Sylvester.” After the third quarter, three contestants tried to kick a soccer ball past a plywood goalie, either between his legs or through a hole in his stomach. Regulation time ended in a 5-5 tie, and 15 seconds in the sudden death overtime, the Cleveland Crunch scored to win. The playing included purposely bouncing the ball off the walls, and penalties in a penalty box.

Buffalo Stallions soccer game ticket

After dinner Grandma, Daddy, Mommy, and I went to see the movie “E.T.”

Movie ticket

Wednesday, December 29, 1982

Nina S picked me up at 18:05 and we went to Chi Chi’s which was very crowded. We would have an hour wait. Linda S arrived. We were seated at 19:30. There was a jug of ice water on the table, and Linda and Nina had wine. There were also nacho chips and a mild and a hot salsa. We ordered Cancun: 2 seafood (crab, etc.) enchiladas with a cheesy white sauce and Mexican rice and a chopped salad. Then Linda and Nina had coffee. The bill came to $17.61 that Nina paid. Linda gave Nina her share and left a tip. I was not allowed to pay. Nina had me drive to my house and Linda followed. We looked at some photos of Nina’s. They admired the candle carousel and music box. We watched some of my slides, then “gossiped” while nibbling on Christmas cookies, chocolate chip cookies, cranberry bread, nuts and pretzels, chocolate covered cherries, and Swiss chocolates. They left about midnight.

Thursday, December 30, 1982

Kathy C arrived after 11:00. We went to Pizza Hut to get Personal Pan pizzas using discount coupons. We went to the zoo where we had coupons to enter for free. The entrance building was new, with a gift shop and restrooms. It was cold and windy, but sunny. We headed past the neighing caribou and shaggy camels to the bear pits. Around the elephant house to the giraffe house to see the new “stall” being re-hayed, and then the giraffes were patiently herded back in. Then through the series of buildings with the reptiles, primates, and cats to the new area for the gorillas.

Afterwards we went to the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, and Kathy dropped in a donation. We wandered past the contemporary and impressionist areas, then using a newspaper coupon, we got three free postcards in the gift shop. Next through a hall of Kurt Seligmann’s weird stuff, to the children’s section. Upstairs past modern and more traditional art, and sculpture. On the way out I dropped in a donation.

We went to Boulevard Mall and ate in the New York Steak House. I had sirloin tips and Kathy had sirloin strip. We headed to the New Garden of Sweets shop on Bailey near Kensington. Sat in a wooden booth and Kathy had a Buster Brown and I had a Chop Chop Delight (vanilla and chocolate ice cream with chocolate sauce, whipped cream, and chopped nuts). Kathy’s was similar but had almonds. Kathy drove me home, then she headed back to Syracuse at 19:00.

Friday, December 31, 1982

Terry brought the car over at 14:00 and it was too late to go shopping since stores closed early on New Year’s Eve. So we went to the movie “Best Friends,” which had scenes shot in Buffalo.

Movie ticket

Watched the ball drop in Times Square on TV.