Nice World

We didn’t know it when we went to live in France, but the community in which we moved (La Celle St. Cloud) was in an economic crunch. The American agency, the name of which I forget, SHAAF or SHAPE – one of those “Supreme Headquarters...”sort of outfits, had recently moved out. The economic consequences had been unpleasant for the natives and they blamed the Americans (probably with good reason). Anyway, there were enough Americans in the neighborhood for a social life. The kids went to the American School of Paris so they got to know other kids.. Our French neighbors could act snobbish and stand-off-ish and we concluded that was just “them”. Until the day our youngest daughter was running home from the school bus stop Her glasses flew off and hid themselves in the underbrush. Now, she was really cute at that age (still is) and her tears soon drew a small group of the French, suddenly helpful, searching for her glasses. Turned out that her Mother was the one to find the glasses, but we learned something that day about the basics of humans, no matter the nationality.