The first time....

The first time I ever traveled alone on business was in 1974. All of my previous trips had been with colleagues, and this was to be a new experience. I was in a new job, a grant supported, one-year position, and I was flying solo to San Francisco. I had been there before and had no fear of flying, but in order to get the best plane fare, I went on Friday so I could stay over a Saturday night, and had some time to kill.

I had friends in the Bay Area, and had made some arrangements to see people. As I remember, I found an inexpensive motel near my friend Barry, and that was a story by itself. However, on Saturday night I made arrangements with Arthur Hoffman, who has been mentioned before in these pages, to see him in Sausalito.

Arthur let me know that Mark Snowhite and his family had moved to Tiburon for the year as he was on sabbatical. Arthur arranged for me to go out to Mark’s house Saturday night and we could all visit. He suggested I come at about 7:30.

OK, the thing is, I’m from Baltimore, and if you say come on by at 7:30 you probably have some coffee and dessert waiting maybe, or some little snack stuff. I was not into any kind of California laid back sophistication, and I decided that if I was going to Mark’s, I should catch some dinner first.

I was a father with three boys who missed his family, especially with my being alone. My family loved San Francisco and I wished I could bring them along, but this was a business thing eventually. The easiest thing for me to do was go to McDonald’s on the way to Marks house; at least it was the first place I saw.

Early Saturday evening it was packed with noticeable divorced fathers feeding the kids and families of every description. I got a Big Mac and fries and watched the happy families and was really lonely, even though I was off to see friends. After dinner I got back into the rental car and took off to Tiburon.

I arrived on time and had a drink with everyone, and Mark’s former wife Hope was busy in the kitchen for a while, and finally they let me know it was dinner time! No one ever said dinner, it was implied! I didn’t say anything until now (to be fair, I may have told Mark or Arthur several years ago but who knows) but it sort of never came up.

Everyone who knows me will know I ate the dinner, of course, and just wrote the two dinners off as a good nights eating!

I may have held back a bit when it came to dessert.