Travels to a Different Time: Travels of My Mother: 28July1971: Skiros, Greece: Old And Very Clever Husband and Young Wife

Dear Barbara:

If you could see us now you would wonder what is coming off. We left Crete yesterday for Skiros which is 8 hours by sea from the Greek mainland. No rooms were available so we slept in a person’s backyard under a grape arbor. We have no choice but to wait for a room. It gets cold overnight and we sleep with our clothes on and a linen blanket. We are 5 minutes away from a beach and the swimming is good. But we must climb down a ladder to get to the each like Billy goats. The toilets like all Greek toilets stink and ours has no toilet seat. It is a cold shock if you have more than the usual to do. Robert is still asleep with his head covered up. Last Nite we went to the local restaurant and there was nothing but fish and meatballs and the inevitable spaghetti. Sitting across from us was a woman who came from New York to Athens on Overseas National Airways. She told me there is an ONA flight back to New York from Athens on September 17^th. She spent $238 to get over here and I didn’t let on we travelled for free. Good thing Rob has good eyes as we returned from the restaurant and it was pitch black when we climbed up the ladder from the beach to the back yard. Things are so crude here you think you were in a different time. This woman doesn’t even have a refrigerator. They have a deaf and dumb son about 25. A handsome man. One son died and they have a daughter. As usual the woman is much younger than the man. These Greek men are clever as they will have a nurse in their old age.

I am getting that “kind of want to go home feeling”. It has been a long time to be away. It is 8:45 a.m. and very hot so it will be a long day and I only wish I could take a siesta like the natives. No doubt if you were here long enough you would get into the habit.

Love Mum