Marsha's Birthday (6/21/1983)

Tuesday, June 21, 1983

Another four-leaf clover.

Four-leaf clover

After having lots of sunny days, it was foggy in the morning, so Marsha C changed her birthday picnic from the outlook in Ried to Barbara S’s balcony in Vingelz. After work, Sylvia W took us in her little yellow Fiat 127 (the familiar sounding engine brought back memories of Italy!) to Barb’s apartment. Sylvia and I worked on getting the charcoal fire started in a borrowed hibachi from Jan & Kirby.

Tamiko playing with fire

It was impossible. The wind kept blowing out the fire, so that even the paper wouldn’t burn. Then Barb gave us some kind of alcohol to sprinkle on the charcoal. We let it soak in, then I put a match to it. Whup! A huge gaseous flame shot up, but then the little fire went out. Barb borrowed some lighter fluid from her neighbor. That got the fire going and Sylvia was doing a pretty good job of blowing on the fire to keep it going. When Ruth D arrived, she suggested we use a hairdryer.

Barb uses a hairdryer on the coals,
with Sylvia

That got the coals hot. Meanwhile Marsha was busy in the kitchen, on her birthday! She gave us the hamburger patties to put on the grill. We ended up having hamburgers on rolls with tomato slices and pickles, mustard and ketchup, and having potato chips with a French onion dip. We drank iced tea. Later came the watermelon and chocolate chip cookies.

Barb, Ruth, Sylvia, and Marsha 

Barb, Marsha, Sylvia, and Tamiko

Sylvia and Barb exchanged jokes in quick dialect. Marsha and I understood half the jokes, Half in that we got most of the story, but didn’t understand the punch line because it was said with so much laughter. One joke of Sylvia’s we hardly understood a single word, but because everyone else laughed, we decided to laugh too. That gave us the giggles, and we couldn’t stop! The weather held off, and only began to sprinkle rain much later. The view of the Bielersee/Lake Biel was really nice.

Around 22:00 we started cleaning up, but it seemed Marsha did most of the work.

Wednesday, June 22, 1983

Strange weather; sun, pouring rain, and fog all at the same time. A rainbow and a four-leaf clover.

Four-leaf clover