March 17, 1999

A visit from the Managing Director

My grandmother, who married my grandfather 101 years ago soon after her arrival from the Azores at the age of 19, lived in the United States the rest of her life.

In those last 73 years she never again talked to her parents, or the extended family she'd left behind. Because her parents were illiterate, and because her own knowledge of reading and writing came from her children after school, correspondence to and from her parents had to be handled by third parties. I would hate that.

In 1898 the world was a big place indeed. It took months of time and tremendous courage to emigrate to another country. Even correspondence was complicated and very slow. Yet tens of thousands of Azoreans did it, and Italians, and Irish. Today Europeans and Americans are not only literate, English is the universal language. (Don't tell that to a Frenchman.) The world is as small as you want to make it.

When our daughter Joan got married in Mainz about a year and a half ago, Lydia and I took advantage of the opportunity and visited Germany. I particularly wanted to show Lydia and Joan, and my son Martin, the city of Nuremberg. I'd been stationed nearby, 44 years ago, and I wanted to see the changes in the old walled city.

I also wanted to sleep just one more time in the hotel that had been part of the medieval wall. It turned out that old hotel was gone, not surprising after almost half a century. The old city had been almost completely restored, and except for a few jarring additions like McDonald's and Burger King, it looked almost as it had before World War II bombing. Next to the site of the hotel in the wall that I remembered was the Victoria. Its exterior was in keeping with the old city, but inside it was a very comfortable modern hotel. Best of all, the view was very close to what I remembered. I offered my Visa, and signed two slips of paper for the two rooms.

A week after we were home a letter arrived from the Hotel Victoria, signed by the managing director. She apologized. It seems the desk clerk was inexperienced, and I had signed, not for two rooms, but the original and carbon for one room, and nothing for the other. We were home, 10,000 kilometers from Nuremberg. We had enjoyed the rooms, and the breakfast that went with them, but it was over. What could the hotel do about it if I chose to ignore their request for payment? Sue in small claims court? Send a collection agency after me? Neither seemed cost-effective.

On the other hand, the rooms were comfortable, the hotel staff courteous and helpful, the service more than satisfactory. I thought it over and sent them a check.

The small world part of the story? Two weeks later, I came home to find a small package on my front porch attached to the distinctive blue envelope of the Hotel Victoria. The package was a German baked goodie. The envelope held a thank you note personally delivered to my porch by the managing director. She had dropped off both while visiting a friend in Pacifica. Small world? Indeed!

In March, 1975 Paul Azevedo began writing "The Reactor" for the Pacifica Tribune. In the 24 years and thousands of columns since, he has expressed multiple opinions on many diverse topics he thinks he knows something about. If you have opinions you wish to express to him, his e-mail address is reactor@wenet.net.