Happy St. Patrick's Day.
Do you know, it's really pretty cool, that we've been to many different islands together?
I was thinking the other day that this is about the time of year you, Mom and I went off to Catalina Island to work on "No Secrets". It was my first job on a movie, standing in for one of the kids. It was almost like our own island since it was an off time for tourist. We usually had a grilled cheese and chocolate malt on the dock for breakfast and then walked to work wherever the location was that day. All the families came to visit and it was almost hard to remember that we weren't on vacation but location!
Going back to when I was a kid, when I was about 9, 1972, you did "Day of the Dolphin" and off we all went to the Bahama Islands and there we were on Treasure Key for 3 months in the "winter". Tanya and I went to school at the 3 room schoolhouse where we had to say the Lord's Prayer every morning and on certain days of the week my 3rd-4th-5th grade class of 10 students went off to tennis lessons. We hitchhiked to school hoping for rides on golf carts. On other days we would all go to the Conch Shell that was right on the water.
A few years later, 1976, we spent the summer in the Dominican Republic when you worked on "The Sorcerer". While you were working, our days were spent by the pool or at the beach where the pigs also sunbathed. We had so many nights of strolling down the street singing songs. Dinner with the violin player serenading our table. We all had 4th of July at the Embassy. Every once in a while we got to go to visit the set and we'd get to ride the helicopter into the jungle.
Meanwhile, Mom got a job on "The Deep" and headed off to a different island for a few weeks. At the end of the summer while you headed off to the next location, Mom and us went to meet her new friends on a tug boat and staying on the boat, we stayed near Bimini Island for a few days.
There were so many other places. It really was the best thing ever going on location. We were all together and had so many adventures.
I love you and thank you and Mom for giving us such a colorful, adventurous childhood. How lucky were we?
Love and miss you lots,
Xochi
Hey Xochi, thanks for the great reminder of our past. The best thing was we all shared so many adventures and even more than this. Happy Saint Paddy's to you too. By the way one year Pat was in Savannah for the parade for St. Pats. It is the biggest in America. That was when he was still drinking and he had a fabulous day.
ReplyDeleteBrittany's note to me (Pat's granddaughter, my niece!)
ReplyDeleteHi Xoch,
So looking at the email is cool. I don't hear that many stories of you guys when you were little. I get bits and peices and wonder about the in betweens. I have to sit with mom and get her whole take on growing up and what happened when sometime. Who knows when I will get the chance to do that though.
I read this and I think of the islands I have been to. Although none with my family most with people who felt like family by the end. That is the nature of islands I think. In Bahamas we all lived on that boat together, and Bonaire we all went diving all day together and then cooked dinner together at night. Then in Fiji it seemed we were the only ones on the island and I still talk to a few from each trip. Also I have heard of Bimini it is big for sharks I wanted to go there when I was in the Bahams but the weather was not on our side.
Last year I went to Aruba with friends (thank you to the best aunt ever for making the timeshare true sharing!) and this year going to Barbados also compliments of said aunt. Shannyn is coming again but I will have the last 3 days by myself, I am kind of excited.
Britt
Just saw Britt's note and realize how she is following in your footsteps with her travels. Her parents do a pretty good job too, the islands, Ireland for a wedding, out here to see me every year. I am so glad all the family loves to travel. It's the best. When I was watching a film Benny and Joon yesterday the theme song was I'm gonna be 500 miles and I love that song. But later after I had replayed it I realized how many times I traveled 500 miles or more to get to where Pat was or he traveled to be where I was. I am not sure I fell down at his door, but I know a couple of times I felt like it for instance in Hong Kong when I had traveled for 24 hours and way more than 500 miles. So lucky to have those memories now.
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