OT - Happy Birthday J.P. !

[Jean-Pierre A. Radley]

I'm going to play the age card and 
	allow myself to violate internet etiquette by publicly
	quoting a message which was addressed directly to me
and also
	risk losing the good-will I may have with any of you by
	falling into a reminiscent mode.

Jim Asman propounded (on Thu, Feb 20, 2014 at 11:17:08PM -0800):
| 
| Thank you JP! For whatever reason I thought I recalled you saying
| at one time in the past that you arrived in NY aboard the Normandie
| in 1936 when you were 4 yrs old, which computes back to 82 yrs old.
| So again, Happy Birthday!
| 
| It's funny what miscellany one remembers.

Your memory is spot-on, Jim!  Indeed, we arrived Christmas Eve on the
SS Normandie.

My father sensed in 1936 that Jews should get out of Europe. An uncle
had a classmate who had emigrated to Chile in the 20s and was reporting
on the endless possibilities that there awaited educated Europeans.  So
we were bound for Chile, but with US visitor's visas in hand to meet
some relatives in Brooklyn, Indianapolis, Philadelphia and Detroit.

One snowy day my parents were riding a Fifth Avenue Bus, and my mother,
not yet a known dress designer but enthralled with the windows of Best
& Co, Saks, Bonwit Teller, DePinna, Bergdorf Goodman and more, said,
"Screw Chile -- no reason not to stay right here in NYC!"

My brother and I were parked with Uncle Max and Aunt Pearl in Detroit
while my parents set about getting an apartment and starting a business.
Forgoing future residency in Santiago de Chile, we went to Canada to
apply for permanent visas. (There were national immigration quotas then,
but the French one was rather underutilized).  We entered the US for
good via the tunnel from Windsor to Detroit. The freighter carrying the
dining room set, marital bed, piano, etc. made port in Baltimore, so the
stuff got offloaded there.

When Philippe and I were reunited with our parents, they of course
addressed us in French, while we replied in English -- doesn't take long
to learn a language at ages 2 and 5.  My parents honed their minimal
English by going to the movies and staying for a repeat screening.

-- 
JP