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The Retirees' Newsletter
The Faculty and Librarian Retirees' Association, University of Windsor, Windsor, Canada
Issue # 20 -- December, 1996
"ARE WE THERE YET?"
By Joan Hackett
(Joan recounts an early snag that occurred on a tour to Russia last summer. Sounds familiar? I should add that she has nothing but good to say about the hospitality of their Russian hosts. EDITOR.)
After 13 sleepless hours we landed in Moscow. It was raining. A murky brown fog seeped through the terminal.. The blur from a few bare bulbs, tucked into the high ceiling, barely dented the gloom. Pretty grim! But immigration and customs were a breeze. With luck we'd be on the cruise ship in no time, then a shower and bed!
An idle dream...All systems went on hold. No bus. No information. No sign of our tour guides. We stood (no seats) in little clumps and peered into the gloom. Time passed. Rumors flew. Nothing happened. We waited. Finally a Russian tour guide herded us onto a bus -- progress, we could sit. "Hope sprang eternal".
But then the clowns came out to play: Guide starts head-count; voice from back
of bus, "Debbie, DEBBIE! Where's Debbie?" Silence. Jumps off bus.
Subsequent counts interrupted by similar routines: shouting, leaping on and off the bus, searching
for yet another "missing" person. Eventually the performers grew weary and stayed put.
I was trying to remember the source of "All hope abandon, ye who enter here", when our long-lost tour guides finally surfaced -- followed by a man, looking sheepish and muttering, "It's the airline's fault. It's all their fault!" The bus revved up and we left
It was still raining as we shuffled from bus to ship: "piped aboard" by two Cossacks playing rousing Russian music. Offered bread and salt by a Fairy Queen. What was all the fuss about? For suddenly it dawned on us, "We were there !"
And the cause of the long delay? It was his wife's fault. The Russians didn't take kindly to her out-of-date passport. Our own intrepid tour guides threw themselves wholly into that snafu and left the rest of us in the dark!
Margrit Meyer,
3131 Donnelly Road,
Windsor, ON. N9C IM3
IN MEMORIAM
His many friends fondly remember Rev. John R. Dougherty, C.S.B. Born June 30th, 1928, and ordained in June 1955, Father Dougherty taught physiology in the Dept. of Biology for many years before being transferred by the Basilian Order to conduct retreats at Chelsea House in Amherstburg. He died on August 9th, 1996.
AN INVITATION TO YOU
TO JOIN FRIENDS
FOR LUNCH
Tuesday, December 10th at the
BON HOMME RESTAURANT,
PLYMOUTH, MICHIGAN
For details call Bob Whitehurst, at
735-6134
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