Jerry’s sister Linda and her husband Tom went on a multi-week cruise that set off from the East Coast of the USA and ended up in Sydney, Australia (with stops along the way). Upon leaving Sydney, they spent a few days in Singapore before arriving here to spend a month in Southern Spain. They arrived, of course, bearing gifts. I mentioned the Godiva chocolate (click here) — two bars for me and two for San Geraldo, which (I’ll admit now) became four bars for me (and, no, I didn’t ask permission). And, in case you’re wondering, Godiva chocolate is the perfect topping for peanut butter on rice crackers.
Linda and Tom also brought us a funny, charming, and heart-warming dish towel from New Zealand. Kiwis (the birds; not the fruit; and not the people of New Zealand who are known as kiwis) displaying their pride in all the colors of the “gay rainbow.” I love it. It’s so much better than one of those T-shirts that reads, “My sister went to New Zealand and all I got was this lousy T-shirt.”
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| RAINBOW KIWIS. |
Speaking of which (lousy T-shirts): More than 30 years ago, San Geraldo and I were traveling somewhere and I decided to buy my mother a souvenir T-shirt. I thought it was very clever. She thought it was worth a polite smile before she tucked it away in a dresser drawer where it has remained ever since.
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| I DON’T UNDERSTAND WHY THE DOWAGER DUCHESS WON’T WEAR THIS SHIRT. (WELL, OK, THE LETTERING ISN’T VERY ELEGANT.) |
My sister Dale and I usually bought better gifts for the family when we traveled (well, at least Dale usually did). I took pictures of a couple of the items gathering dust back in Brooklyn. We bought them for The Kid Brother and I don’t think he was any more excited than the Dowager Duchess was about the [lousy] T-shirt. He left them behind when he moved out in 1987. The ingrate!
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| PISA, 1974: PURCHASED BY ME FOR THE KID BROTHER. |
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| SEVILLA, 1970: PURCHASED BY SISTER DALE FOR THE KID BROTHER. (WHERE SAN GERALDO AND I LIVED MORE THAN 40 YEARS LATER.) |
By the way, when I met San Geraldo 32+ years ago, I was wearing an old pair of Fiorucci jeans, a green ribbed T-shirt (that cost $1.99 at Macy’s), and green suede sneakers. He was wearing Calvin Klein jeans, a maroon(ish) polo shirt, and brown leather casual shoes. It was a sunny Sunday afternoon in August. Ah, yes, remember it well.
