Florida January 2014 Part 1 Home from Home

Saturday 4^th January. After 2 year’s preparation the time has finally come for our trip to the International Assembly in San Diego, California.  Before going to San Diego, we were firstly heading for Orlando, Florida, to join the District 6980Home Stay programme 2014. Every year they invite 20 District Governors and their Consorts from around the world to stay at the homes of local Rotarians, and take part in a number of activities, visits and receptions, aimed at generating International understanding and goodwill. We were to spend the week in the Company of DGs from as far afield as New Zealand, Australia, Serbia and Austria.

As we sat in our World Traveller Plus seats on the aircraft, there was a long delay as an extraordinary scene unfolded before us. It seems that one of the seats in Club Class was broken, therefore there was one  passenger too many on the plane. The stewardesses came to our section to ask if anyone would voluntarily get off the plane, and instead catch a later flight to Tampa, where transport back to Orlando would be laid on. There were no takers to start with, and we were threatened that they would select someone to leave the plane if there were no volunteers. Eventually a husband and wife agreed to get off, possibly with an additional financial incentive, and the problem was resolved. However the volunteers had seats in the middle of a row, and the traveller moving from Club Class was insisting on an aisle seat. This time no-one budged, and he had to take the seat given to him. All this caused an hour’s delay, whilst the couple leaving the plane had to get their luggage removed from the hold.

Eventually we were off, and the rest of the flight was uneventful. We duly landed at Orlando just after dark on a surprisingly warm evening, considering the winter weather we had left behind us. Our hosts for the week, Larry and Mary Anne Beasley were to meet us at the airport, and as we came through customs, we saw a lot of Rotary emblems and flags being waved as host families waited for their guests. The first Rotarian we met was waving a Danish flag, because he was meeting a Danish DG from the aircraft, but helped us to find our way to the floor above, where Larry Beasley, with his granddaughter Erika, were waiting for us. Introductions made, we were soon whisked off to Winter Springs, about 30 minutes drive from the airport, where Larry and Mary Anne live, in a rather large bungalow, on what I would describe as a typical American  residential street, large houses set back from the road, with lawns down to the roadside, where the ubiquitous mailbox would be found.

                                                              Larry & Mary Anne's home, with Christmas guards

Mary Anne was waiting outside and I was struck by the very warm greeting we received.  We all trooped inside to meet the rest of the family. It is a second marriage for both of them, and they both have children from a previous marriage. Mary Anne’s elderly mother lives with them, and also her son, Keith, who had been seriously ill with cancer and was currently recovering from surgery. Erika, Keith’s daughter comes to stay from time to time, and was there for the weekend.  The interior of the house comprises a very large kitchen / dining room with an ‘island’ in the middle, a hall, living room and study, then two wings where the bedrooms are found. In one wing is Larry and Mary Anne’s bedroom and Mary Anne’s mother’s room, and in the other wing is Keith’s room, and other guest accommodation. To our embarrassment, we were given Larry and Mary Anne’s own bedroom, whilst they slept in the other wing. Mary Anne insisted it was better for her to do this, as she could care for Keith more easily. Their bedroom was quite huge, with a walk-in wet room attached. We later learned that until a year ago, the house was half its current size, and Larry almost single handedly extended it. I was suitably impressed.

                                                                             The DGE with Larry & Mary Anne

Neither Larry nor Mary Anne are native Floridians. They hail from the Deep South, I think Georgia and South Carolina, and so we found ourselves to be beneficiaries of  some real Southern hospitality. Despite all her cares, with a sick son and very elderly mother to look after, Mary Anne couldn’t do enough for us, and both her and Larry seemed interested only in ensuring we were happy and comfortable. The Southern drawl was particularly noticeable in Mary Anne’s mother, who would say things like ‘How y’all keeping?’ or ‘Y’all have a nice day’.  Dinner that night was straight out of the Deep South. Chicken with cranberries was served with a kind of corn pudding, beans and mashed potato –absolutely delicious.  We slept well that night.

Keith was pretty well house bound during our stay, and only went out once that week. The rest of the time he was in front of the TV in the living room, watching sport, mostly American Football. I often sat with him in the afternoons and evenings, as did Larry, and I became quite knowledgeable about the game. I have never been very interested in American football before, and that was mostly because I didn’t really know what was going on. I am much more interested now I have learnt the intricacies of gaining ground through a succession of ‘downs’, and what constitutes a fair tackle and what is not.

During our time with the Beasleys we got to grips with some typical American breakfast foods, not just pancakes and bacon with maple syrup, which was always available, but grits (a kind of tasteless porridge made from corn husks) and biscuits (which to us looked like scones) served with gravy, which Mary Anne made from beans.

I was fascinated with the neighbourhood, and would have enjoyed spending some more time wandering around the streets, which seemed so familiar after watching numerous American films, with their mailboxes, fire hydrants and large cars. As we arrived just after Christmas, many houses had elaborate external decorations and lights outside their homes. This seemed a little incongruous as we arrived in 80 ᵒ temperatures.  The Beasleys were fairly modest, but their neighbour across the road had really gone to town, with reindeer, elves, snow, and much more. The other interesting thing was how long decorations stayed up. We arrived on Jan 4^th and left on 11^th, well after twelfth night, but nobody had taken their decorations down by that time. Larry said that people were quite relaxed about taking them down and they would often stay up until around mid-January.