Nostalgia

Tomorrow it is 33 years since I boarded a plane that would take me on my life’s biggest adventure.

I had just moved to my second apartment in January 1980. As I was unpacking my stuff I got a long-distance call from New York. It was Mrs Lipstein, who asked me if I would like to come and work for them in the fall. I had been in contact with her the year before but then they had already employed a friend of mine. And now she called me again!!! I was so exited. No use in unpacking by stuff as I was going away in 8 months.

I do remember the flight as this was the first time ever I flew. I was quite nervous and sat next to a girl my age that had already spent some time in New York and was on her way back again. And she talked and talked. Now that I know that my friend Elsa was on the same flight as me for her first visit to New York, I wish that I would have ended up next to her instead. The biggest “happening” otherwise, was that the main character from Kråkguldet was on the same flight as me, which my neighbor pointed out again and again.

I do not remember the moment I first met my new “family” but I do remember that they were very anxious to get back home as the final in US Open was on TV. It was Björn Borg against someone. If he won or lost I don’t know, I was so busy examining my new room.

My job was to take care of Hillary, a very cute girl of 3,5. And I was to do the ironing as well. Her mum’s name was Judy and her father’s was Michael. He had been married before and had two sons, Keith that was away at college in Stratton, Vermont (I think, only met him once), and Evan who was 15 and went to school in Great Neck (more about him later).

They lived approximately 30 minutes from NYC in a small place called Plandome just outside Manhasset (which I guess could be called a small town).

I had not been there long when Judy introduced me to another Swedish girl, Elaine, who worked for a Swedish-american family close by. After this I did not feel lonely any longer. We soon met with other Swedish, Norwegian and Danish girls.

I soon settled in some kind of routine. I came home from bar-hopping at four in the morning, slept until 8, went up to take care of Hillary and walked her 15 metres to the day care (which was next door) and went to bed again. At noon I picked her up and we had lunch. She had ballet on Wednesdays, which I took her to (roaming the only store next to the ballet-class for an hour each week), and then Gymnastics on Mondays.

In the evenings I made the sallad while Judy cooked the dinner. When Hillary went to bed, I was free and off to more bar-hopping with my Scandinavian friends.

The Lipsteins rented this house from the Church (where Hillary went day-school each morning). One day water was dripping from the ceiling right down on the kitchen table. When I took a broom and poked, the ceiling gave way and there was water everywhere. Above the kitchen was my and Evan’s bathroom (we shared :-(). For several weeks there was a big hole right next to the toilet, which meant that you could actually sit on the toilet and look down on the kitchen table. I did not enjoy going to the bathroom during this period.

Evan and I shared bathroom. He did not like me very much. I was mad at him for not removing all his hair from the drain in the bathtub, but finally he did, and stuck it in my toothbrush instead. And I was paid an extra 10 dollars for driving him to school each morning, or worse, he did the driving to practice for his driving license and I had to drive the car back. He was not yet 16 and driving like a maniac and I told Judy, I didn’t want the extra dollars. She then drove with him to school one morning and came back and said that nothing was wrong with his driving. You bet! The first week he got his driving license he collided with two cars at school.

During my days off, which were on Wednesdays and Sundays, I tried to go through all the amusements that the Big Apple had to offer. I once went to watch American football, which was not so funny (but the Glühwein was).

But ice-hockey was more fun. I went to the Madison Square Garden a lot of times and watched Phil Esposito and Anders Hedberg.

And, of course, I went on a lot of dates!

But there were some guys that we met that stuck to us like glue (it was impossible to make friends with girls). Greg was one of them. Elaine “found” him when he was selling a watering solution to her family’s garden and after that he took care of us. He was probably the only person who could walk into a bar together with 10 Scandinavian girls without being embarrased or feeling like a pimp.

We had some nice parties at his house. The other person that hung on to us was Bruce. We did some fun stuff with him. His brother was an artist and we went out to Sag Harbor to watch were he was exhibiting his works together with works by Andy Warhol.

But after I met Steven I never had a dull moment. Whether it was Pina-Qualude-parties, eller Banana-parties, we always had great fun! And he had so many friends  we could hang out with!

In the winter the family went to their skihouse in Stratton Vermont, so I was even able to ski some weekends (and learn to drink Irish Coffee). We spent the Christmas there and I never forget the trip up. 4 or 6 hours with a talking doll which was wrapped up as a Christmas present for Hillary, and each bump in the road made it talk, and we had to cover up so Hillary wouldn’t understand!

I am very grateful for the opportunity I had to learn a new culture, and thankful for all friends I make during my year. And to still have contact with these people through Facebook is really great. Hillary is now a mum herself and she does not remember having had me in her life, but she was really such a quite person. She was never annoyed when I spoke Swedish with my friend, quite the opposite in fact, she learned so many Swedish bad words, I had to stop using them.

So I was really in New York!

And what happened with my friend Elsa, that I didn’t meet on the plane? Well, when I stayed for 11 months, she stayed for 11 years before she came back home.