 New
TSA
Rules
The States have new regulations for travellers on airplanes.
I have always been a rule follower. In January 1969 I was flying from Honolulu to Fiji with 70 other Peace Corps Volunteers. We had it drummed in that our luggage had to be correct, so I spent many hours of packing then weighing and tossing things out. Well, the first one to weigh in was about 7 pounds over and guy said never mind. Then they didn't even weigh the rest of ours.
Ever since 2001 screenings have been tight. In 2002 I was getting onto a plane in LA to Phoenix. I quite stupidly showed my NZ passport, not my US one. I was pulled to the side by a TSA officer and made to remove my belt and take off my shoes.
Senad was strip searched when arriving back in NZ from Singapore. Simply because of his age and looks. Titania was fined for having way too many cigarettes.
Paul was almost denied entry to the States when he couldn't pass the hand scan. Trouble was he had lost a top of a finger and the gizmo needed a complete hand.
 At the pump:
$NZ 2.55/litre
$NZ9.82/gal ($US5.65) |
I knew Rene from our Richfield days in the 1950s-60s. Last time that I saw her was in 1975 at a reunion. 31 years later we connected via emails. She told me that her father, Art, owned a café/pool hall on Lake Street. And that my father would eat there. So our fathers kind of knew each other, but I never knew that.
In 1972 while I was in Fiji I sent a letter to Washington DC asking for them to return my Naturalization papers which were taken from me when I joined the Peace Corps. It came back as undeliverable. I had not put a return address on the envelop. And it hadn’t been opened. Still the main Post Office in Suva delivered it to me. I can only imagine that they recognized my handwriting. I had been sending 3 or 4 letters each week for three years.
In Hawaii Dec 1969 I went to a 7AM Mass with Barb Mutz and her teacher supervisor, Chris Brown and two primary school teachers. One, Jeanne, turned out to be from St Paul, and she was very homesick so was anxious to talk to me about "home". She also knew two girls that Barb, from Illinois, went to school with. Amazing.
Okay, NZ is not a large place with only a population of 5 million. In 2009 (we were living in Waiuku) Gail was in Middlemore hospital from her car crash. One of my client/friends, Helen W (left) from Bombay ended up in Gail’s room. Later Gail was switched to another room and who was there, Mrs Haddad from Drury. Our daughters had gone to school together and played on the same netball team.
We were eating out in 1995 (we lived in Papakura at the time) and our waiter, Walter told us that he had a friend in Papakura who had spent a year in Minneapolis.
My doctor from 1993-2012 had a doctor friend at the Mayo Clinic and he had been to Minnesota to visit him and he took in a Twins game.
The headmaster. John Mc (right) at QVS in Fiji, left in 1972 and got a job at Rosehill in Papakura, NZ. He hired me in 1973. In 1974 we hired Simon B (Science) and he lived next door to us. That made three families from an out of the way school in the Pacific living in the same town in NZ. Jim M applied to work at Rosehill but failed to get it. He ended up in Pukekohe which is the nearest town to Papakura. I also taught Simon’s daughter, Julie (we had babysat her!!).
Its not what you know, but who you know. Especially for people from QVS in Fiji. When I was working at NZ Steel I hired my best friend Ian, who wanted out when the coup happened in Fiji. I was also able to employ Chris (left), who was Simon’s son (we had babysat him!!!) and James who was Jim M’s son. I actually tried to hire Jim M, but Personnel felt he was too old. |
2025 - No. 3 www.malecek.com 2025 - No 3
