I Don't Want To Be Hearing Any Ethiopia!

      The March 1^st quote comes from the afternoon that my parents took us to Crystal Beach. We did not go on the boat from Buffalo across Lake Erie to get to the amusement park – the way Mom and Dad did back when they were dating. Instead, we drove over the Peace Bridge that goes from Buffalo to Canada and then continued by road to Crystal Beach.

     Going back and forth from Buffalo to Canada was not an unusual thing for us. It did not require passports or visas or even birth certificates. The border guards would ask where we were born, what was our purpose in crossing the border, did we have anything to declare as far as purchases, (we never bought anything), and then we were allowed passage into Canada or return passage to the US. We made the occasional trip to Niagara Falls for sightseeing – because the Falls were so close and so awesome. And we had relatives who lived in St. Catherines, Ontario who we visited occasionally. So going to Canada was not something that was at all foreign to us.

     The day we went to Crystal Beach, I was still in grade school, and my best friend from grade school, Diane, came with us. So we must have been quite young because she and I and my two brothers all fit into the back seat of the car. I do not recall much of anything about Crystal Beach itself – the only memory of the trip that has stuck with me to this day is something that happened on the drive home.

     We were approaching the border to get back into the US. Dad turned to us in the back seat and said, “The border guard is going to ask each of you where you were born; you each tell him Buffalo! I don't want to be hearing any Ethiopia coming from the back seat!”

     To me, that was just Dad being Dad, and Ethiopia was silly, exotic and a really fun word to slide off of the tongue. But Diane started giggling! I looked at her as if to say, “we don't encourage him by laughing at his jokes,” but Diane said, “Ethiopia is funny,” and giggled some more.

     Ever since then, Ethiopia comes to mind whenever I hear people talking about traveling out of the country, or coming back into the country. Dad's quirky sense of humor sticks with me forever. “Don't be saying Ethiopia!” I warn the travelers.

     And if real truth be told, my brothers and I were born in Lackawanna.

     And yes, Ethiopia is funny!

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