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Date:         Fri, 9 Oct 1992 16:34:00 EDT
From:         gilbertsmith <N567126@NCSUADM.ACS.NCSU.EDU>
Subject:      WHTMINJ 5
Comments: To: English Language Discussion Group <words-l@UGA.CC.UGA.EDU>

What Happened To Me In New Jersey 5
=================================================
   For Grissom, God, and <Country>
=================================================
15)  So, riding toward Hoboken, in the car with primogentio
and tc/sw, he hears the story about how tc/sw had arrived on
Wednesday and spent that night at home of pri and nuera instead
of at the home of friends around the corner, sleeping on the
floor beside the mother of the nuera, who, fresh from Chile
three days before, would not stop talking about the <bebe> and
about what it is like to be in a house without a single *maid*.
Then, on Thursday, hampered by the fact that the colleague from
the old country wanted the hotel room to herself for just one
night (for reasons about which <one> should not inquire), tc/sw
spends *another* night on the floor beside the nuera-mama, who
tells a story about leaving her own son when he was only six
weeks old to go on a European trip with her now deceased husband,
and having a vision that the boy was dying.  Which in fact he
almost was, but was saved by some miracle that had something to
do with the nuera-mama's <perceptivity>, details of which were
not clear to tc/sw, trying to get some shut-eye on the futon
while baby Smith-Valdes cried most of the night, in a loud
four-day-old voice, wondering where his supper was.
.
  16)  So, -ggs finally arrives at the HSH of his son and nuera
and finds everyone beginning to show the wear and tear of a cute
little newborn creature who has learned very quickly how to get
what he wants.  But, no matter, because he is every bit as cute
and darling and beautiful and gootchee-goo as -ggs thought he
would be, looking *exactly* like every one of -ggs' four babies
at birth and *exactly*, also, like baby Gilbert at birth,
except for piles of dark brown hair and skin showing just a hint
of his mama's beautiful olive complexion.  The <bebe>, having
already learned how to charm the grownups, opens the pretty blue
eyes and goes goo-gooo at grandaddy, who can't stop giggling.
.
  17)  Then, it becomes apparent that it is time for tc/sw to
finally venture into the <city>, find the hotel, and start
preparing for the presentation that she must make in <tandem>
with the CFWOWC, who must be <rested> enough by now to plan
what they are going to say to the masses who show up for the
lecture on revolutionary Central and Eastern European Poster
Art on Saturday afternoon.  -ggs, in his perceptive way, suspects
that tc/sw is nervous  about getting to the upper East side by
herself and offers to go with her.  She says no no no you want to
visit with your family and he says I can visit later I'll go with
you and she says but you came to see your family and he says I
will go with you and she says but that is too much trouble I can
just *not* believe that you would come all this way stay ten
minutes and then go off somewhere else you really shouln't I can
go by myself and.....   Fortunately, the primogenito of -ggs
resolves the impasse by announcing that they must take the bebe
to the hospital for his first check-up and he can deliver tc/sw
and her hubby at the appropriate subway station in Manhattan to
be whisked, trouble-free, to the Barbizon.  Good solution.  No
<bebe> to visit, so tc/sw *allows* him to accompany her to the
hotel.  Manwhile, the nuera-mama, the *consuegra* of -ggs, is
standing there with that I-have-another-spooky-story-to-tell
look in her eye and everyone slips out the front door before
she is able to begin.
.
  18)  So, the firstborn son drives the car through the Holland
Tunnel, with his father commenting on $4 as a lot of money just
to go through a tunnel, and son saying *Daaadddd*... you're in
New York City, you know.... and then the awful traffic and it
becomes obvious that the son is going way out of his way to get
his father and father's-second-wife to the subway, because they
didn't think they could get there on their own.  Finally arrive,
lot's of goodbyes and see you later and then tc/sw says to -ggs
that she's too anxious and tired to take the subway and wants
a taxi.  It's only money.  So, they wait until son and nuera and
<bebe> are out of sight, because -ggs doesn't want his firstborn
son to know that he brought them all this way when they could have
taken a taxi from the hospital, but didn't.  They find a taxi
with no trouble, with a driver who speaks something that no one
present is familiar with, but seems to understand "Barbizon" and
creeps along for twenty-five minutes while -ggs has to comment
every two blocks on the strange phenomenon of people wanting to
*live* in all this.
  19)  tc/sw and -ggs then have the following conversation:
    tc:  It is *so* sweet of you to come with me.
    -ggs: (not being able to just leave that alone):  What?  I
         thought you didn't want me to come.
    tc:  Of course I wanted you to come.  Why would you think I
         didn't want you to come?
    -ggs:  Well, you kept saying I *ought* to visit with my family,
         didn't you?
    tc:  Yes, but....  You mean you didn't know that I really wanted
         you to come with me.....???????   You just don't understand
         anything, do you?
  And, -ggs falls silent and remembers once again the words of his
  tc/sw's sister's husband, smug as he is, who says, with reference
  to <getting along> with the daughters of our mother-in-law, that
  "You have to learn the language, and then there's no problem."
  --------------------------tbc----------------------------------
  --ggs