7 And…this is my story

And…this is my story

Last Christmas I was at (these are the Christmases since leaving ‘home’)
1965 – Key West, Florida, alone
1966 – New York City, with a girlfriend whom I cannot recall a name for
1967 – New Orleans – have no memory of the day
1969 – 1970 Honolulu - in a religious Order
1971 – Clifton Park, New York with a girlfriend, at my parents
1972 – Clifton Park, New York at my parents
1973 – New Orleans with Chialeah
1974 – Cheyenne, Wyoming - in a religious Order
1975 – Syracuse, New York - in a religious Order
1976 - Baltimore, Maryland - in a religious Order
1977 – Towson, Maryland
1978 - Lutherville-Timonium, Maryland - with Lynn and Tracy
1979 – Towson, Maryland – with Beverly B.
1980 – Honolulu with wife number one
1981 – Adelaide, South Australia with wife number one and Sacha
1981 – Adelaide with wife number one and Sacha
1983 - Adelaide, with wife number one, Sacha, and Leigh
1984 – Clifton Park, New York  – with my adopted brother and father, and my children were in Australia
1985 - 1987 – Mt. Compass, South Australia, with my children (three different homes)
1988 – Port Elliot, South Australia, with my children
1989 - Middletown, South Australia, with my children
1990 - 1994 – Victor Harbor, South Australia, with my children
1995 – 1997 – Hackham, South Australia, with my children
1998 – 2001 – Christies Down, South Australia, with my children
2002 – Clifton Park, NY, with my 97-year-old father, wife number two (whom we will refer to as Narda from now on) and two of her sons
2003 – Round Lake, New York, with my 98-year-old father, Sacha, wife number two and her son, Stu.
2004 – Melbourne, Australia, with Sacha
2005 – Paris, France with wife number two
2006 – Melbourne, Australia, with Sacha
2007 – Crossville, Tennessee with Narda and her son Chris (wife)
2008 - Melbourne - Adelaide with Sacha (Melbourne) Narda (Adelaide)
2009 – Hilton Head Island, South Carolina with Narda and her 3 sons
2010 – Adelaide, with Narda and her family/relatives
2011 – Adelaide, with Narda and her relatives
2012 – Hanoi, Viet Nam with Narda and her son
2013 – Krabi, Thailand with Narda
2014 – Adelaide with Narda and her relatives
2015 – Adelaide with Narda and her relatives
2016 – Washington D. C.  with Narda and her son, grandson, wife
2017 – Adelaide with Narda’s three sons (Chris – Washington DC, Brendan from Pakistan, Stu from here), wives, grandchildren
2018 – Adelaide with Narda’s son Stu and his family
2019 – Adelaide – with Narda’s three sons (Chris – Washington DC, Brendan from Pakistan, Stu from here) wives, grandchildren, Sacha and Georgia over from Melbourne
2020 – (covid – no travel) Adelaide with Stu and family
2021 - (covid – no travel) Adelaide with Stu and family
2022 – Adelaide with Stu and family
2023 – Adelaide with Sacha & Georgia over from Melbourne + Stu and family
2024 - Adelaide with Brendan here from Pakistan
2025 –
Or more specifically for the past fifty years I have been in Australia twenty times for Christmas and 30 times in other places of the world.
Twenty-five cities, two hemispheres and forty homes in the past 50 years with no end in sight. If nothing else, at least it is easy to remember where I spend Christmas because most years everything is different. My ex-wife wrote in a court order during our seventeen years of fighting over custody of our children (Family Court linguistics - the textual part of parenting – that part where lawyers, judges and even the ex-wife’s psychiatrist get to script the play which got acted out in my everyday life) that I did not have a stable background and that I never stayed in any place very long. She pointed out toward the end of our glorious court battles (battles so colossal that they actually put the Greek myths to shame as weak social dances) that the children and I had lived in ten different homes and the children went to five different schools in ten years. My point to the South Australian Family Court (misunderstood as I was) was that as she did not move during that ten years she was still stuck in yesterday’s mindset and that to raise children in today’s world one must be progressive and adaptable at change. As a case in point, in the thirty-four years since meeting wife # 1 (#1 as the first wife surely not #1 as she who is number one in my life in the murky world of marriages where in fact wife #2 is actually wife #1). I have lived in more than twenty-five homes and she in one, whereas wife #2 and I have happily lived in ten homes in three countries in fifteen years; owning then discarding four prior to our current ‘this is home.

next 8. Life as a roadmap

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