Introduction and Flight to Manila

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While working at Signetics in 1982 co-worker “Adelfa” told me that her younger sister had just graduated from nursing school in the Philippines. She showed me some photos, encouraged me to write to her, and told me if I wanted to phone I could use the phone at her house (because back then overseas calls were expensive, around $1 or $2 per minute – adjust for inflation that’s around $4 per minute.)

Aurelia is in the gray shirt, near the top right, in this Philippine General Hospital photo:

After several months exchanging letters and some phone conversations, I decided to fly to Manila and get married. Because I was under age 25 I needed to bring a permission letter from my father, under Philippine law.

I didn't have a home computer back then, and there was no Internet. So I would write a draft then re-write a nicer final version - slow process.

I flew a Pan Am 747 to stop-over in Tokyo, and then connected to Manila. During the descent for the midnight arrival I recall a feeling of panic and nausea “what have I done.”

After midnight I collected my bags and headed out to main terminal. A cheesy version of “This land is your land” was playing in the terminal. Someone from the family was supposed to meet me, but I kept looking as the place cleared out - and I phoned their home number but no answer. After about an hour I had no choice but to choose a taxi and ask to be taken to a hotel.

As I was getting in the cab some guys grabbed my bags and put them in the trunk. One guy blocked my entrance to the cab “tip please sir” so I gave him a dollar. Then another scarier guy blocked me, squinting his eyes, “tip please – I want five dollars.” Since there were more guys approaching I pushed past them into the cab, concerned that he cab might drive off with my bags.

A bit nervous at one AM I made conversation with the cab driver, and had my first experience of the “Jesus” decorations in the cars. I told him the story and he offered to try to phone and stopped at a pay phone. This time Aurelia’s father answered and told him to take me the “Dutch Inn” Hotel on Roxas (now called “Miramar”) across from the U.S. Embassy. He did, and shortly after Aurelia and her father arrived, meeting for the first time. We agreed upon a time they would meet me in the morning. The room was comfortable, up several stories, and with windows opened I liked the warm tropical air.

It wasn't this fancy when it was the "Dutch Inn." But I recall it has a bar with a piano, which I stopped and played one time.