My father preceded my mother and I in coming to the United States and attached is his immigration passenger arrival list. My father sailed from Southampton in September 1954 aboard the Queen Elizabeth. He went to a place called CRI in Reisterstown, northwest of Baltimore, Maryland, where, as a physiotherapist, he went to work with cerebal palsy children. My mother, Yoria C. George, and I (age seven) sailed from Liverpool in January 1955 aboard the Saxonia. I can remember that my mom's cousins who had a greengrocers and produce company supplying the ships with meat, filled the cabin with carnations. After a bad passage during which my mother was ill most of the time, we arrived in cold but blue-skied New York City, and my father was there to meet us.
I can remember being taken up the Empire State Building and places such as an automat, where you were served sandwiches in little windows-- it seemed the latest in luxury and modern conveniences. Also after arrival, it was a miracle to find that supermarkets had doors that opened for you.
We traveled by train to Baltimore and stayed with Miss Flavin, who worked with my father, at her row house (terraced house) on Guilford Avenue, which is the address that is shown on the immigration document for my mother and myself. Although we lived in Wallingford, Connecticut, for a year until the hospital where Dad worked declared bankruptcy, and I also came back to Liverpool to go to school (Rose Lane and Quarry Bank) we lived most of the time in the Baltimore, Maryland area, where I still live, close to the Johns Hopkins University campus.
My father died in 1979 of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. My mother, age 86, is still alive and living in a senior citizen high rise in downtown Baltimore about fifteen minutes away by car. Baltimore, by the way, used to be known as the "Liverpool of the East Coast of America" and there are similarities -- both seaports with a big working class population, row houses here, terraced houses in Liverpool, and the people have a nice sense of humor similar to Scousers.
The first graphic below represents one of Baltimore's finest moments, when Fort McHenry in Baltimore harbor withstood the British naval bombardment of 1814, prompting Georgetown lawyer Francis Scott Key to write the poem, "The Star-Spangled Banner" the words of which became the lyrics of the U.S. national anthem in 1932, to the music of an eighteenth century British drinking song, to "Anacraeon in Heaven." Also shown is a recent view of Baltimore's popular Inner Harbor.
Chris
Fort McHenry, Baltimore, September 1814, by Dale Gallon. The painting represents the moment the large Star-Spangled Banner was raised on the morning of September 15, 1814 when it was realised that the British were withdrawing. A ropewalk near Fells Point in the city of Baltimore is seen burning to the northeast at top right of the picture. The American garrison is seen cheering on the ramparts. Image courtesy of the Patriots of Fort McHenry.
This shows the condominium apartment building at 3800 Canterbury Road, Baltimore where my wife Donna and I have lived for the past 13 years. Our apartment is the one with the balcony on the right (3rd floor).
A side view of our condominium apartment building at 3800 Canterbury Road, Baltimore. Looking south up the road toward the Johns Hopkins University stadium in the disance. You see how our smaller building is dwarfed by some of the neighboring apartment buildings!
Scatter of holly berries on the snow opposite the Broadview Apartments. There has been a sharp, frigid wind since the snowfall on Tuesday and Wednesday. However the local robins have been attacking the hollies and ivy to get berries so it could have been their doing as well that so many berries are scattered on the ground. The poor things must be ravenous in this freeze.
See "Berry Beak" by poet and photographer Leslie F. Miller. See my blog for more on the difference between the small European robin and the bigger American robin.
Thanks, Brenda, Max, and Kev. Shytalk mentioned last night that we might start an expats thread. Kev, I really don't mind if you want to merge this thread with the old one or just restart from here. I think such a thread gives us expats somewhere to express ourselves and also to provide useful information and guidance to anyone who is considering emigrating or coming on a tourist visa to our respective farflung lands.
Give me some help as to which forum I should put the sub forum in... 'People, Culture and Communities'?
That sounds fine, Kev, although since our communities are overseas communities, would that work? Maybe a whole new area as you did with the creative expression area? By the way, I think merging with your old thread might be good if you can do it as I would like to meet more of the expats as I am sure others would as well.
That sounds fine, Kev, although since our communities are overseas communities, would that work? Maybe a whole new area as you did with the creative expression area? By the way, I think merging with your old thread might be good if you can do it as I would like to meet more of the expats as I am sure others would as well.
Chris
Chris, the 'old thread' existed as part of scouseology.com and was lost when we had the 'hacking' incident.
I'll have a think about this one. I'll deffo add it, just where, hmmm.....
I moved to Arkansas when I retired at the end of last March. I had been in Florida for 25 years and needed a change, it was getting way too overpopulated and the roads were so crowded it was no fun driving any more.
I have been visiting the Ozark mountain area since 1976 and love it so I decided this is where I wanted to be. Property prices were another incentive houses here cost 20% of what the do in Florida.
The first pics are Heinz investigating the first snow he has ever seen, first I have seen in 25 years. The bird on the feeder is a Cardinal, we get a good selection of birds here.
Hi Shy
Interesting pics and information, Shy! I think I mentioned by PM that one of my poet friends is a lady who now lives in Virginia and who grew up in the county next to yours in Arkansas.
I love those red cardinals. Can't get enough of them.
We get a lot of Bluejays too, I agree, very pretty. I think they might be aggressive though because I never see another bird on the feeder when a Bluejay is there. I've seen a few around recently but not as many as in the summer.
Hi Sloyne and Shy
I've seen a few blue jays of late here in Maryland. A pretty bird and I agree that the other birds stay away from them, perhaps because they are a member of the crow family and are seen as predators. By the way, Sloyne do you have any information or thoughts about the fact that there are black squirrels in Canada -- I have seen them on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls -- while most at least mid-Atlantic east coast squirrels are gray squirrels? I have though seen black squirrels in the grounds of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, outside of Washington, DC.
do you have any information or thoughts about the fact that there are black squirrels in Canada
They, the black squirrels, came to Canada on the squirrel underground "Freedom railroad". Having been exploited in the Southern US states, including Merrihlind, by the evil gray squirrels they decided to escape and come north to freedom.
Well! it's only a theory.
They are the very same genus as the grays, some of their coats change to grey in the winter. I wondered that aswell but was told the above by a vet.
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