Happy Days
By: susan peterson stamis
Tags: cousins, garndmother, grandfather, mother may i, summer, tootsie roll, vacation
Category: Uncategorized
Candy was rationed in our house. I can’t really blame my mother, because I got my first cavity at the tender age of 4 and my painful early experiences with foreign dentists set the tone for my lifelong terror.
Every two years we vacationed in Los Angeles, staying in the home of my immigrant Greek grandparents where we caroused with our numerous noisy cousins. Papou John wasn’t much fun and his interaction with us was generally from behind a newspaper, yelling at us to “sharrup.”
Yiayia Evangelia, however, even though mostly pre-occupied with feeding the masses, did occasionally play with us, and with her we frequently enjoyed a rousing game of Mother May I. On those idyllic summer days, the Good Humor Ice Cream Truck made regular passes down our street and with our finely developed yet selective hearing we could hear its cheerful jingle from miles away.
Yiayia forked up quarters for each of us and we ran into the street to purchase whatever would do the most damage to our teeth and our appetites. Frozen bubble gum was one of my personal favorites. On the days that the Good Humor man was a no-show, Yiayia would apparate a giant Tootsie Roll and ask, “Wannatuttsiroll?” while breaking it apart to give each one of us a single, soft, sweet, chocolatey, chewy segment.
Happy days…
2 comments on “Happy Days”
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About Me
My father was a Consular Officer in the United States Foreign Service. He was first stationed in post World War II Berlin, where I was born in 1950. Subsequently, we lived in the Philippines; Jamaica; Guatemala; Washington, DC; Greece; Ceylon and Mexico; visiting many places in between. I was reared by my parents and nurtured by the various amahs, nannies, and housemaids who, every two years or so, entered and exited my little life.
I was educated in American Schools in “foreign lands,” but the most fascinating classrooms were the exotic locales where we lived, and the most inspiring teachers were the colorful people of those exotic and ancient cultures.
The bi-annual “home leaves” which my family spent at my grandparents’ homes in Los Angeles, California provided a sense of constancy to our nomadic lifestyle. My many aunts, uncles and cousins lived there and I eagerly looked forward to those vacations. We were 1st and 2nd generation Greek Americans (all 4 of my grandparents had immigrated at the turn of the century), and thus had foreignness stamped onto us even though we were Americans.
Two of my father’s siblings were also in the diplomatic service, and we world-traveling cousins were a source of endless curiosity to our domestic counterparts when we came home speaking English with unusual accents, reducing the statesiders to hysterics.With his various cameras, Kodachrome, Ektachrome, 16 millimeter, Super 8 and Polaroid, my father rarely lost an opportunity to document the events unfolding around us. After years of waiting patiently in boxes under the stairs, these photographic records are now fulfilling their purpose as mnemonic retrievals of my little life.
Mnemonic Retrievals 
Wonderful photo and memories, Susan. Which excited kid are you?
Marta
Marta Fuchs, MLS, MFT Speaker, psychotherapist Author, Legacy of Rescue: A Daughter’s Tribute Co-producer, “The Soldier’s Uniform” http://www.MartaFuchs.com
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2nd from right, looking down ❤️