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RETURN TO BELGIUM...AND THE NEXT SEVEN YEARS OF ADVENTURE


"When a man fell into his anecdotage, it was a sign for him to retire from the world."
                          Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield  1804-1881


How do I collate seven more years of experiences living and learning abroad without trying the patience of my readers?  I could easily proceed in a chronologic timeline...but, memory serves me poorly as to times and dates.  What I do remember are the unusual experiences I came upon, what I saw, who I met...the friendships, the challenges, and the very good times Suzanne and I had and the places in which we lived.  I think the best approach would be anecdotal rather than attempting to give my reader a detailed accounting of week after week and year after year.  The next few posts will be about the years Suzanne and I spent in Belgium and I hope you find it interesting.

Now a married man, my worldview had changed and my incentives for succeeding were all the more prominent in my mindset.  Suzanne would be arriving in January and I wanted to exit from my rental with Mme. DeBecker and find more spacious digs.  I decided to take over a friend's apartment, quite small and nothing fancy, in the rue Francois Dons in Ixelles, a much nicer part of Brussels than San Gilles.  It was a basement apartment, nonetheless, but it gave  way to a small garden area in the rear.  It was next to a butcher shop and a bakery that emitted wonderful fragrances each morning of fresh Pain de Campagne and Pistolets.  I was also near the main University which offered me frequent bus service back and forth to the medical campus downtown.  My landlord was a Monsieur Helin, who counted every franc to make sure I wasn't stiffing him on the rent.  An elderly gentleman, his dentures would always be loose when he spoke to me, producing a clicking sound which I found quite humorous.

One evening, my doorbell rang and, when I opened the door, there was a nice-looking young man, about my age, who greeted me with a drawl: "Hi, I'm your new cousin, Dave!"  He was, in fact, my wife's first cousin whom I had never met, David Majors, from El Paso and a Texas Aggie!  He was an Army 1st Lieutenant, stationed at Zaventem Airport, where he was a diplomatic courier.  We became good friends that Fall as did his fiancé, Irene Cressy, a lovely young English woman who worked as a translator.  One of the nice perks he had was his PX privileges, and I became a frequent visitor to Zaventem where he would make us all Tacos with Old El Paso Taco mix...my first Tex-Mex culinary experience.   He was probably the only person in Brussels who wore cowboy boots.  He would tool around town in his little red Porsche.

Suzanne, Cousin Dave Majors, his fiancé Irene Cressy, and their friends, Tom, Vicki Knowles, and Jane.  Vicki was a ranked English tennis player and, in the future, would become the mother of world-famous doubles player, Mark Knowles.

School was going well and, as January approached, I was becoming excited about Suzanne's arrival.  In the meantime, I had made some very good friends, Bob and Becky Rosenfeld.  Becky was also from Texas and her father was the head of the AMA.  They had a dachshund by the name of Noodle and a nice little Sunbeam Chamois that, when Bob transferred back to the states to Albany Medical School, would become my car.

My little Sunbeam Chamois

 Bob went on to become a psychiatrist and had a long career in government in the CIA and Defense Department.  There were other friends...Bob Drimmer, now an internist in Florida, Jeff Mogelof, now a forensic neurologist in Fresno, and I kept up my friendship with Don Heise with whom I had initially traveled to Belgium.  There was an older Arab student from North Africa that Bob Rosenfeld and I had befriended by the name of Ali Chachar , a former flight controller, who invited us for lunch one day for couscous.  Bob and I would disrespectfully joke about his name by referring to him as "alte kacker", a Yiddish term that pejoratively means "an elderly man"...our little joke.  Maturity had not yet quite kicked in for me!

Along with the arrival of January, came the long-awaited Suzanne after a separation during the first six months of our marriage.  She arrived at Brussels Airport accompanied by cousin Dave who had flown back to the states on a mission.  It was very Hollywood, running into each other's arms and embracing.

Brussels Airport...Oh Happy Day!

We didn't have much money in those days and so, we ate quite a bit of Spanish rice and tuna noodle casserole.  Once, after I had casually invited Don Heise over for dinner, we realized we had only some beef bouillon cubes and rice to serve him...so he gladly took a raincheck.

I have to say, Suzanne adjusted to the new country and language quite well and we started to socialize more as a couple.  We spent a fair amount of time with Dave and Irene as well as other couples from class like the Rosenfelds and the Webers down the street who had the luxury of a large apartment and a television.  One evening, Art Weber invited us over to watch Hitchcock's "Psycho".  As we all had seen it before, we knew the scarier parts of the film, which prompted Art and myself to go hide behind the couch to avoid seeing them, leaving our brave spouses watching it alone!  What was even funnier was that Art was a big fellow who had played center for Colgate's football team...two brave guys!

We quickly outgrew the small apartment and moved upstairs to a more spacious one with two bedrooms and a big living room.  After living there for several months, one night, there was a knock on the door and, upon opening it, was greeted by another student, Rick Brownstein from California with his adorable German Shepherd puppy, Rex.  He and his wife, Rosalie, had decided they had had enough of Belgium and medical school and were leaving the country for further pursuits.  However, he explained, they couldn't take Rex and asked if Suzanne and I would be kind enough to find him a new home.  I had a feeling that WE would be the new home and, indeed, we were now a threesome!  Rex grew up to be an intelligent and faithful pet that was our companion for many years to come.  I'll have some Rex stories in future posts.

Suzanne and Rex, the wonder dog, in our living room

 It was about this time that my parents decided to take their first European trip to several countries with a stop in Brussels.  We decided to throw a party for all our friends to meet them, a "Meet Bea and Monroe Party".   Our apartment was quickly filled with a large crowd, Americans, Swedes, English, Belgians, and Army people...and the booze flowed freely.  We must have had over fifty people in our apartment that night.  As you might know, most homes in Europe have bidets, and I discovered that filling it with ice, along with the bath tub, made a perfect wet bar to stow beer and wine!  My dad was feeling no pain and, towards the end of the evening, noted him being pulled out of the bathtub (sans water) by two charming English girls.  As they say, " a good time was had by all!"

 My Belgian Wet Bar

Bjorn Forsell, Hal Fenster, and Don Heise feeling no pain!

Mina Fraser, Judy Weber, Barry Levine and Art Weber...everyone dressed up for parties and most people smoked!

Brigitta Forsell and Andrea Mogelof

Suzanne, Ronnie and Dennis Novak

Suzanne, who had been a Biology major, decided to find work to support us.  Obviously, there were no "biological" jobs available but, having been an excellent math student, started to do some tutoring for student's attending some of the international schools in Brussels.  One evening, I decided to meet her at the home of one of her students whose father, Melvin Manfull, was the Head of Mission in the American Embassy and, previously held the same post in our embassy in Viet Nam.  It was a beautiful mansion on Avenue Franklin Roosevelt, in the fashionable Waterfall-Boitfort section of Brussels near the Hippodrome de Botisfort where thoroughbreds raced until 1987.  Mrs. Manfull, a charming red-headed woman, met me at the door and said "You MUST stay for dinner!"  Never having turned down an invitation for a meal, I entered this elegant ambassadorial home as Suzanne and her student, Greg, were just finishing up their session.  We were led into a formal dining room with fine china and silverware, where we were waited upon by butlers and maids...unlike any experience I had ever had.  I don't know why but I even remember that we had the most tender of lamb chops with mint jelly, and vegetables cooked to perfection.  Ambassador Manfull joined us at the table, a gregarious, warm gentleman, who regaled us, over dinner, with stories of his work in Viet Nam with Henry Cabot Lodge, Gen. Maxwell Taylor, and the Tet offensive.  This was to be the first of MANY memorable dinners in Belgium over the next seven years with some of the most interesting people.  Mr. Manfull, after Belgium, went on to be our Ambassador to the Central African Republic and Liberia.

Suzanne found steadier work later on, with a moving company working with NATO-SHAPE families, and then, with Clark Equipment Company.  Finally, she was successful obtaining a position at St. John's English-Speaking School as a biology teacher where she taught for the remainder of our stay.

NEXT: OUR MOVE TO LASNE, ST. JOHN'S AND, AT LONG LAST, CLINICAL WORK.