STORY SIX

THE FURTHER AMERICANIZATION OF PERSON ONE, PLUS, THE TODDLER,

OR

GROWING UP, DRIVER'S ED AND PLASTIC AMID DAILY CHAOS

The fall semester of '89 started with a bang for the Mrs. She had enrolled in a program which included a computer science course, an intermediate college algebra class, a U.S. History class, and a basic drawing class. From the description it does not sound overwhelming, just busy. For the spouse however, about one third way into the term it turned out quite different. She had two main problems. One was in history, the other was with programming in Pascal 5.5. She knew that in order for her to do justice to her grades, she could not possibly handle both the history and the computer science course simultaneously, especially since her grasp of English, involving idealistic philosophic concepts, was not all that good yet. Her history professor, a younger recent doctoral graduate, wanted his class to know the why and wherefore of the American Revolution. He assigned term papers showing the underlying causes of the Revolution. He wanted an analysis of the various ideals of the main characters and their motives and objectives. That meant studying and comparing George Washington, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson. It would have been a handful for anyone, but especially so for her. She had not even had a chance to study U.S. history in her native country, and of course did not attend High School in the U.S., so that she was lacking that background as well. She finally spoke with the professor, after many nights of burning the midnight oil, and he agreed to let her audit the course instead of taking it for full credit. That was quite a relief to the lady, who now turned her full attention to the other courses. When all was said and done she ended up with all “A's” for the semester, but she had to really work hard in her computer science class.

She was going to school from early morning to late afternoon. Then upon her return home she would be so tired that she needed a little nap before spending some time with the baby and making a quick dinner prior to studying some more. We would end up eating more out than in. Under this kind of strain the quality of our family life was somewhat affected, since I too, was sort of tired late evenings and was not always up to my charming and pleasant usual self. Sometimes, I felt hampered and more or less tied to the house with the baby. This was true especially when the baby was sick or teething and I was up several times at night, with the baby always wanting me to do the holding and walking. Often Mom would be so tired she would just sleep through it all until I told her about it the next day. I think the spouse began to sense something was not quite as correct as it should be and decided to lighten up her schedule considerably in the spring term, by just signing up for three classes, none of which were in the computer science field. In this way she reckoned, she would be able to have more free time for me and the baby and also be able to learn how to prepare American type dishes.

While she was attending her fall semester, the spouse was also somewhat handicapped by not having a home computer, so that she had to go to the computer lab at the college and often wait her turn to access the equipment, including week-ends. After about two months of this, we decided to buy a PC together with a monitor and printer, which did help her somewhat, but not all that much. Were it not for other uses that developed for the equipment and software, it would have been a waste of money. As it turned out however, we both used the unit and sometimes I did more so than she so it was not a waste after all. I am also positive that as the baby grows, he will find many good uses in terms of

educational applications for the computer. The little guy, always a whiz at knocking out anything electronic already had credit twice before for tampering with our TV set. The first time around it cost us a thirty dollar service charge to bring the screen back up. The second time we lucked out by calling the cable TV people to check out our line, for we could not fathom why everything was scrambled. When the technician checked the incoming cable, he found that the signal was in order, and then he started to check out the remote control. He straightened out the set by entering a certain sequence of commands. He taught us how, and the next time the little guy got a hold of the remote and played with it, we were able to get it back to normal again ourselves.

We were not so fortunate however, when, while watching us run the computer, the little guy leaned over and played with the keyboard. Suddenly the monitor went berserk and we could not get anything but wavy dots and dashes. We tried this and that but to no avail. We looked in the manuals but did not come across or recognize the answer. In desperation we called the computer staff at the local shop who thought the monitor might be defective and asked that we bring it in for a check. We did so, but it turned out to be fine when hooked up to the store's equipment. So it was the PC itself. We brought that in the next day and when they hooked it up to their monitor, they also got the same result. They could not figure out the problem either, and sent the unit out to the regional repair center in Denver. Some fourteen days later, we called for the returned unit, now in perfect shape again. Attached was an explanation which indicated that “someone” had instructed the computer to change the color monitor to a black and white one, which of course was completely contradictory and therefore scrambled the system. To give that command we were informed, takes the simultaneous pressing of four keys on the keyboard, each located separately from each other. The little guy had managed to place his hands in the right configuration to do just that, in about two seconds. We were relieved to have our system up again, and quickly placed a children's gate in the hallway

blocking the entrance to the office. Closing the door does not do it because he knows how to open them. He also knows how to unlock them, and how to open all the safety locks on our kitchen and pantry drawers and doors. He learned all of that through careful observation and clever manipulation plus good luck even though he is not quite two years old yet. The same holds true for turning on the stereo, record player and similar equipment, some of which take several buttons and dials to adjust. We are somewhat concerned because he is already watching us very carefully when driving the family car and loves to hold the ignition key.

The little guy had developed a problem in that his eyes were turned in and he looked somewhat cross-eyed. When we took him in the first few times, the doctor repeatedly tested his vision and determined that his eyes were functioning normally but that his eye muscles needed corrective surgery. If that was not taken care of reasonably promptly, one eye could start to deteriorate because all the vision was being done by the other eye. We agreed and the little shaver went in one morning, only to be turned back due to an ear infection causing a rise in his temperature. We waited until it was over, and the next time the operation proceeded as planned. We felt bad for the little guy, but it was necessary. A few months later on, as the surgeon examined the patient, he was pleased with the result, indicating the eyes had essentially straightened out and his vision was good. We hope that is the end of that, but we still have some future visits scheduled to keep checking the progress. Meanwhile though, unbelievably books are the little guy’s favorite toys. He is forever, it seems toting around one book or another and looking it over, asking us to help to identify this or that. Often he pulls adult reading material from our book shelves including some pocket books which he favors and a lot of cookbooks which he enjoys looking through; perhaps he is giving Mom a hint. One of the books that his grandparents sent him from Korea, contains a page where the family is sitting around a low, round table, with the young toddler in the picture, sitting next to his parents. The little guy took in that scene very, very carefully. The next thing we knew, he was climbing up a kitchen table chair and from that time on that was “his” seat, just as in the picture, and goodbye to his high chair.

Originally, I had two small pickup trucks in the driveway of my former house off

Sherwood Park. One, was an older Toyota four by four, in good condition and well

maintained. I got a call from someone who knew the mechanic that worked on the truck and maintained it. He was looking for just such a vehicle and wanted to know if he could buy it. Since I was the only driver, and had another pickup, a Ford Ranger, I decided that I might as well let him have it and sold it. I mention this because at the time the wife was not at all interested in learning how to drive. She said it was too scary for her, and besides she was still struggling with her English. Now, one year later, the story is somewhat different. My wife had become aware that many students drive cars. She also had learned the advantage in being mobile, so that perhaps in the future, when the baby is napping, she can run an errand by herself, or if the baby is sick she can attend school by driving herself. All she needed to do was to learn how to drive. I arranged for her to attend District 51's adult education driver's class for eighty-eight dollars. The instructor told the class to obtain their driver's permit by taking the written exam at the State Motor Vehicle Bureau and then practice as much as possible on their own, that is, with a licensed driver at their side.

My honey had a problem. She tried the pickup but could not handle the pedals, even with the seat moved all the way forward. Also she felt, the truck was too big and clumsy for her. Some of her acquaintances with cars did take her out for a drive from time to time and let her practice. But it was unsatisfactory at best. We went looking at used cars, but due to her petite size, most older models were of the type that she could not either reach the pedals, or if she could reach them, she could hardly see over the hood. We did find one model that was a used car and that fit her. Unfortunately, when we ran it by our mechanic, he found some very good reasons for us not to buy the car. We started to look at new cars. We found out that if the wife was to be comfortable she needed not only all the power and automation available, but she definitely needed an electric power seat as well so she could reach the pedals and see over the hood. Naturally, I was more interested in quality having had a series of American as well as foreign cars over the years. When I finished researching some of the more standard motor and consumer guides, there was little choice, it seemed, but to stick with another Toyota. We looked at the family sedan models and selected a Camry. It fit the Mrs. to a tee, was reasonably fully loaded, even with a sun roof and CD-player and a light sky blue color. Not only that, but it was a slightly pepped up V-6 version and the speedometer ran to 150 miles.

I can't rightly say whether it was the new house that somehow in quick succession brought about a new car and whether it was the new car that somehow inspired the lady to want to have a “new look”, but it all seemed to hang together. She had been wearing jeans and tops that looked acceptable, but were more of the high school variety although in Grand Junction that hardly mattered. It did make a difference to the spouse however, and although she had some nicely tailored dresses that were made for her in her native country, she did not feel that they were always appropriate. She had trouble in locating other apparel mainly because of her petite size in the local shops, even in those that specialized in smaller sizes. I suggested, and perhaps I will rue the day, that she obtain mail order catalogs from various stores that also deal in petite sizes. That was my undoing. Soon, catalog mail was of prime interest to her and she dearly loves browsing through them and asking me whether this blouse, jacket, dress, or skirt would look nice on her. Catalogs started to roll in from big companies like, Spiegel of Chichago, Talbots of Massachusetts and Lord and Taylor of New York. We ordered a few different items for her, some of which were still too large and we had to return, but a number of which fit her rather well, including one black dress in particular, imported from Japan, made in

Korea and sold by an American firm. Sadly for me, the prices seem to match the names of some of these leading apparel chains.

Along with that, my honey seemed not to like her glasses, which she had recently gotten. She went to the ophthalmologist for another exam and found that she really needed slightly stronger lenses. This was also a good time to get new frames to well, more or less, fit her image better. The new frames she selected were made in West Germany and the lenses and extras totaled another one hundred and seventy dollars, but, she was happy with them and can see better. Throughout all of this, and to facilitate orders to distant locations, as well as provide for her own credit history, she was introduced to the use of “plastic”, the ultimate in the Americanization conversion factor. So far she has been careful and not in the least overzealous and l hope that this will continue in her use of the new medium, but time will tell. There are current rumblings about “fixing up the house”, furniture wise and making some room arrangement changes, or something I might call, “nesting in”. Already the lady has set in motion plans for changing, the office, by buying a very nice, long lasting piece of office furniture, ideally suited for holding the computer and printer as well providing working space, together with a secretarial chair that feels comfortable to her. Good office furniture is expensive, and I am hoping that is all we need to get at this time.

Hopefully, dear reader, this STORY has done what so many others have done for you before, namely let you easily fall asleep, without effort, without thought. For this I sincerely thank you. You may have to wait just a wee bit but pretty soon you will, in your hour of need, be able to turn once again, to the next STORY.

© 1990 Herbert Holzbauer

Published @ 1997 edition S.p.N.LAUB