Travels to a Different Time: Travels of My Mother: 3August1971: Skiros, Greece: We Are Sleeping Outside Under a Grape Arbor

Dear Mother:

This is my last letter till I get off Skiros. Every Greek Island brought something new. There was only one small hotel and it was full so we are out of town in vineyard. We have cots to sleep on hoping we are not visited by any scorpions. The sun wakes us up early every morning. We must wait until a room is available.

The water has been rough and I am afraid to go in. The waves bowl you over and it has been this way for 4 days. It calmed down a bit this morning but it is wild now. Our landlady is out in the field collecting almonds this morning. She gets a big stick and beats it about the almond tree and the nuts fall. Soon they will be picking their grapes to make wine. She is now boiling water to clean the sheets of people that have left. She works from morning to night. The husband and her son do nothing all day. It seems women do all the work in Skiros. There is no happy medium that I can see. It was a dreary birthday yesterday food wise. We have a 2 kilometre walk to the restaurant in the town. We have to walk to the beach, climb down to the beach on a wooden ladder and then walk into town all in the dark to return home from dinner. We are getting sick of the monotonous food here. Too much bread and olive oil. No meat. We are eating a lot of meatballs.

We leave on Wednesday morning for Skoplelos. They say it is very beautiful. If the water remains rough we just may go back to Germany.

Robert has grown during this trip and is dark brown and his hair is bleached blond. He seems to be enjoying himself and loves the rough water and will stay in it for an hour or more. My main purpose in the water is to cool down and get OUT. Even Robert notices that here in Skiros the husbands do very little the help their wives. The men are smart here as they marry young girls that will take care of them in their old age.

Robert is reading on his cot. He reads anything he can get his hands on. I never thought he enjoyed reading so much.

The trip here was very pleasant. The cabin was cool, comfortable and spotless. They say there are Greek ships and then there are Greek ships. Quite different than the one we were on to Skiros.

Love Margaret