2001
I arrived in India in 1955. My Dad had gone to India 6 months earlier and my Mom got tired of waiting so took us there. We didn't even have a home! My Dad worked for Caltex Oil Company and they were building an oil refinery in Visakhapatnam. (I practiced spelling that for months before I left the US) I arrived in India in April and was taken to Kodai almost right away. At that point I didn't know what had happened to me. I was in seventh grade and stayed there until I graduated with my Junior year off (I was back in the States with my grandmother).
What do I remember about Kodai? I have a collection of very diverse memories. I remember:
- Auntie Putz and Ichthial (not sure if I am spelling that correctly). She rubbed it on my bad knees.
- The boys' panty raid of Kennedy
- Camping at Berijum
- Papa Phelps pretending he was a bear at Pumbari
- Listening to the top 10 on the short wave radio Lebanon at 4 or 5 in the morning at the Adams'
- Going out on the lake in punts and pulling up water lilies
- Going out for hamburgers at the place on the other side of the Bund. They had rosewater ice cream.
- and many many more memories.
That is what Kodai is - a collection of wonderful memories.
I then went on to meet my husband to be on the 4th day at Whittier College. We were married 7 years later. We have two wonderful (I would not have said that 8 years ago) kids who have gone out into the world with a great deal of success. I was an art history professor for 17 years and then I was introduced to computers and I have been teaching computers ever since.
