SWEET TALK IN HAITI

Hey, I'm back after a long dry spell where nothing to write about came to mind. Hope this keeps you entertained and hope I can write more after this.

Many years ago my husband, Louis, and a co-worker were in Haiti on behalf of Reynolds Caribbean Steamship. Business tended to, they went to the airport for their flight home. It was not a large airport and there were a lot of people pushing and shoving and becoming rather rough when an airline employee motioned for my husband and his co-worker to go behind the desk and out to the tarmac through a door there. Louis had a big box of seashells he had bought for our children and he was trying not to drop them. They were walking out on the tarmac headed for the plane when they each felt something poke them in the back. Turning around they saw two uniformed Haitian soldiers pointing machine guns at them and telling them they couldn't get on the plane. Louis asked them why and they said that Baby Doc Duvalier, the dictator, and his family were to board first and that everyone else had to wait. The guy with my husband started to push the machine gun away and my husband thought he was going to die right there in that horrible dirty, hot country with a box of shells in his arms. He put the shells between himself and the gunmen and assured them that they would no longer try to get on board early. As he always could, Louis was able to convince them that he was sincere and harmless so the soldiers let them stand off to the side and wait.

Sure enough, here came Baby Doc and family strutting up to the plane, all dressed for the cold weather in Washington, D.C., their destination. When they got to airport customs in Miami, he tried to get ahead of everyone else and was refused. He proclaimed loudly, "I am the leader of Haiti!" and the little Cuban customs employee said, "I don' care eef ju are the king of eenglan', ju ain't gonna get ahead of the others!" Louis was grateful to be back in the U.S.A.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

THREE SQUARES

All this to-do about toilet paper has brought to mind various experiences pertaining to that life essential. Right now I am sitting two rooms away from an open package of lavender scented toilet paper, the only kind my son could find, with a scent that is so strong I will not have to spray for as long as this stuff lasts. Anyone who thinks they can cause the smell of our body function to disappear is operating under a delusion. Ain't nothin' that really covers it up. Back to the subject at hand; the first thought that came to my mind in the midst of the tp frenzy was my husband telling me one thing they instructed him to do when he was in the Air Force. He was told that they could use only three squares of toilet paper per visit. Evidently there was someone outside the stall handing it out. Which memory then connects to our drive up the autobahn through Germany many years ago. They have handy rest stops on the way and we pulled in to one to use the facilities. Right outside th...
Read more

HALLOWED EVE?

Well here it is, almost Halloween 2020, one that will be completely different from any others thanks to the current pandemic. I don't know anything about Halloween in other countries but here in the U.S. it's been a big deal. I would like to share with you some of my past adventures which happened on the "Hallowed Eve".  When I was very young I belonged to the Girl Scouts and in those days we didn't have to go around peddling candy. We did all sorts of interesting and constructive things and even had campouts. On one overnight campout outside of town, I remember sitting around the campfire listening to Rocky Reagan tell ghost stories. He was a real rancher and a master story teller. I think that was on a Halloween but even if it wasn't it would have been appropriate for that time. They were wonderful tales. Look him up. He wrote some interesting books about Texas and ranching. The first Halloween experience I remember occurred when I was in junior high. A bunc...
Read more

TO BE AN ONLY CHILD

 I think I told my readers, if there are any, that I am an only child. Little did I realize growing up that that would allow me to have a few interesting adventures as an adult. Today I have decided to share some of those with you and I hope I am not repeating any stories. I will try to keep them in chronological order but that may be impossible for me. I start by reminding you of my flight from New Orleans to Athens, Greece. That's a tale you may find in my blog of June 30, 2019, so I won't retell it now. After that I flew to Washington D.C., which I wrote about on May 18, 2019. These are trips that I made alone and somehow managed to come away unharmed.  Then there was the trip to Mexico City before things like email and all the other rapid communication stuff existed. I took some papers containing our shipping company business to the capital for a fellow to sign because at that time there was no way to have that done electronically. Of course when I arrived in Mexico City I...
Read more