This is a recent exchange I had with my dad on our family Discord site. When I finished, it kind of looked like an interview and it talks about when I very first became untethered to the US and then became the skint expat that I am now. I thought it was interesting, so I’d share it. Here it is:
8 May 2024
Greg, how the heck are you? You’d have every reason to believe I’d fallen in a hole (to use an expression your grandfather Frank used). I think a father is supposed to stay in communication with his kids; I’m clearly a slacker. That out of the way, I have ulterior motives for writing. You might have heard I’m writing a memoir, for want of a better expression; it surely is not an autobiography. But there are a few things I’d like to mention that need clarification only you can provide. To wit: (Questions in the text below)
There’s more to say, but I’ll do it another time. Ma and I are doing fine. She just passed a milestone in April; she’s 90, and, with me, still plugging along. Gotta go. Love ya, Greg.
11 May 2024
Hey Pop, sorry for taking so long to get back to you. I’ve been busy with work. But to answer your questions, in order, the best I can:
To wit: what year was it that you came north to live with us for a while, and for how long? I seem to recall you got a job at a Portland printing firm.
I don’t remember the printing firm, other than very vaguely. It may sound strange, but I only remember one afternoon having lunch in a park in Portland and in that, I have only the vaguest memory that I MIGHT HAVE BEEN working there, probably at a printing firm. I do remember applying for a job and getting turned down because I refused to take a urine test for drugs. It struck me as intrusive and you and I had a minor row about it. The year I clearly remember coming to live with you and Ma on Hallinan St. right before going to Mexico to do my teaching course, but at that time, I got a job doing odd jobs at a Lake Oswego apartment complex. That would have been late 1995-96. I wouldn’t remember the year except that I did the teaching course starting in September of 1996, and everything from then on is pretty much crystal clear to me. Maybe before I got the apartment job, I had a temp job in Portland in a printing firm, that seems possible. And I remember occasionally going with some of the guys from work in the evenings to the Gemini Bar or something like that because it was right across the street from the apt. complex. I did indeed often go into Portland by bus, I remember that pretty clearly. And now that I mention that, it seems that I did that regularly enough that perhaps I DID work in Portland for a while. Was that a different time? Did I live with you guys in some period before the ’95-96 time? That is unclear to me. I was pretty untethered in those days.
Do you recall the weekend we drove to the Gorge and sold our Favorite Oregon Scenes note cards? And we pitched a tent in the town of Cascade Locks?
I remember that trip fairly clearly. I remember that the clutch on the orange VW bus broke, and we couldn’t get it fixed, but the mechanic said that on that model, you could actually shift gears without a clutch – it would be difficult (it was) and dangerous (it was undoubtedly that as well), but it could be done, and you did it.
In what year did you board a plane at LAX to New Zealand? I seem to recall that was during a Christmas/New Year holidays. And my folks were there, too. We visited the Spruce Goose and the Queen Mary during our visit. Does any of this ring a bell?
All of that rings a bell. The year was 1991, the date was 24 December, and I remember it clearly because of a few things. For one, it was my first time abroad, not counting a few short trips across the border into Mexico. For another, it was such a strange place to get to. To me at the time, it was like a parallel universe. Everyone spoke English but it was a really strange dialect, not British at all (that would at least have been familiar with all the BBC shows I used to watch on PBS). They drove on the other side of the street and on the other side of the car (naturally), and the biggest thing was that the Soviet Union had somehow magically disappeared from the planet while I was in the air. I landed the day after Christmas, which was still a holiday called Boxing Day (nothing to do with the sport, as it turned out), but in the middle of the summer. I knew to expect that, but it was still strange. None of that last part will likely make it in your book as you weren’t there, but I thought you might find it interesting.
Are you keeping your head above water there in Georgia? Is there tension in the air because of what’s happening in the Ukraine? I checked out your website and it’s really quite impressive.
So far everything is fine in Georgia. Ukraine is keeping Russia busy at the moment but we’re all on edge being right next door to the most stupidly agro country on the planet. Stupidly because Putin can’t afford this war. He couldn’t even before the sanctions. He doesn’t care one whit about his people, but the ones still there still support him, mindlessly. It’s very much parallel to the support Trump still gets in the US even in light of his lies and crimes. Go figure. I figured out mercifully late in life that the vast majority of people on the planet are bone-stupid. That crosses all borders, ages, and cultures. Now I am in constant existential fear. I’ve been looking for a plan B, hoping to immigrate, maybe to South America. I’d ideally like to go to Paraguay, because it’s small, landlocked, unassuming, has virtually no tourist industry, no one knows anything about it, and it’s safe and boring. I’d give a limb to live in a safe, boring place. Unfortunately, I can’t find a country that will accept limbs; they all want money or at least proof of making more money than I make, so we’ll see what happens. I’m fine here, as long as Russia doesn’t decide to invade again. Anyway, thanks about the website. It’s making me more money than it costs me, so that’s the goal. I’m trying to figure out a way to monetize the blog, seeing as how I have it set up already, but I’m at a bit of a loss there, Maybe I’ll find a course on Skillshare, to which I have a subscription. We’ll see. Paraguay wants to see passive income. If I can show passive income, I could get a retirement visa, so that’s why I want to do that. OK, I best go. I’m running out of characters here and I’m done anyway. Talk to you later. Love to you and Ma! Greg
P.S. One more thing: Do you mind if I post this exchange on my blog? No one reads it, but I still think it’s interesting and maybe a travel blog might make some money. I picked the name The Skint Expat with that idea in the back of my mind. Let me know if that would be OK.
13 May 2024
“…you’re more than welcome to post the conversations…”
So here you are.
