HANGING OUT IN AMSTERDAM...Where is Gretchen?

                     


                                                                              




Last evening Hilda______and I had dinner on the roof top of the Hilton Double Tree Hotel in Amsterdam.
 Under different circumstances it would have been so wonderful...beautiful view of Amsterdam and wonderful food. But Hilda and I focused on our plans to find her missing daughter, Gretchen. 



Only three days ago Hilda_, a lovely lady in her fifties, and I were sitting in my kitchen having coffee.   Often people. who had heard I have unlimited money that can ONLY be used for travel, came to Ben and me for help. Now I am a widow and don't have my sweet Ben's input as to what I should do. I didn't  even know Hilda, myself: she belongs to a church where some of my former Humes High School classmates go; and they recommended us to each other.

Hilda was crying. Would I take her to Amsterdam? She needed to find her daughter who had disappeared from a church youth group's four day trip to the Netherlands. Their main goal was to visit Haarlem, the hometown of Corrie ten Boom.  

After the plane landed in Amsterdam, the young people  had the afternoon free to look around before boarding the bus to go to the real destination. 

Hilda explained, "It is Gretchen's dream to become a writer. She wants to experience as much of life as possible." She said that  foolishly  Gretchen and her boyfriend, Mark,  left the group looking for excitement. They happened on the red light district of Amsterdam  

They went into a coffee shop where people were smoking pot; 
they seemed so very happy that Gretchen was enticed to do the same. They gave her some free weed and offered it to Mark who refused. She had never been anywhere before where there was even alcohol, much less pot and had never even smoked a cigarette. Quickly she was feeling quite wonderful. 

 So they saw little of Amsterdam. They did NOT see 
Dam Square 
Royal Palace, 
nor Skinny Bridge 
nor the oldest house in Amsterdam  nor any other sights their friends were seeing.

The afternoon passed right there in the coffee shop.  Gretchen seemed alright, even HAPPY, but it was almost time to board the bus to Haarlem. Mark could not persuade  her to leave..she pushed him away, saying "Leave me alone, Mark!!"

..He went to the group leader for help; they both came to the cafe; but nobody admitted to having seen her. Hard to believe because Gretchen has red hair and bright blue eyes and a delightful laugh, that could never go unnoticed. So distraught and panicked, the leader  and  Mark contacted the American embassy and boarded the bus for Haarlem. They were on a tight schedule and would fly home in two days.

Straight away, the embassy contacted Hilda and Gretchen's stepfather and the Amsterdam police. The church members began praying for this sixteen year old  girl. They feared she might be dead or worse. 

And now Hilda and I  are actually in Amsterdam, in an expensive hotel, (as you know on my pretend trips, I only stay at the BEST);

we had dinner on the roof  having a lovely meal (I also only eat the best on my pretend trips.!) 
In real life I sleep on the Greyhound Bus and eat from Burger King!!


We are planning our strategy. This is my first trip when the best hotel and the best food don't seem to matter one bit!!

In my backpack is a drab blonde wig and nondescript clothing for Gretchen to change into., when we find her.
As I know more, I'll tell you more....
Love, annie with Hilda in Amsterdam
  so far no tulips 
no wooden shoes!!    more IMPORTANT...so far no GRETCHEN.


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HANGING OUT IN AMSTERDAM; SEARCHING REDLIGHT DISTRICT BY NIGHT!

      Hello, to my many stranger friends, whom I have never met. I am pleased that going on 400 people have read this little pretend trip I made to Amsterdam. Wonder how you happened on it as you surfed the internet??? Here goes........annie
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I always thought if I ever got to Amsterdam, it would be with Ben to see the Rembrandt  museum. 
                       


Hilda and I had only been in Amsterdam a few hours when we went upstairs to the roof of our hotel and ate here, as I mentioned yesterday.

As we walked into our hotel room around eight pm, my cell phone rang.

It was my old friend from Humes High School, Larry, retired CIA agent. Ben and I had helped him in a minor way in Poland and he had helped us several times on my trips. 
We had become good friends. 

"Annie, this is Larry. Sorry you couldn't reach me. I have been in South America and only just now returned. What is the problem?" I explained to him about our reason for being in Amsterdam. 

He said he would be in touch with the embassy and could even come over, himself...if..? .I assured him it wasn't necessary. So he said that his son could send an agent or local policeman to our hotel immediately to escort us to the Red Light District, to assure ourselves, Gretchen wasn't  there.

We were glad to hear of the help; neither of us could go to sleep anyway, wondering if Gretchen was in the RLD. Not an agent but an Amsterdam policeman out of uniform arrived:Pieter. We were grateful that he spoke English.

His blonde beauty was wasted on Hilda and me... fac simile
but his understanding  kindness was so appreciated. We arrived in Red Light District around ten pm. Pieter mingled among the crowd showing a picture of Gretchen,
 fac simile
speaking mostly in Dutch, English or French. 
People responded, "Nee, Nee."

We first found the coffee shop where she was last seen by her boyfriend, Mark 
       fac simile  of shop where Gretchen was given the marijuana 
               I left my cell phone number so I could be reached if Gretchen were seen

We learned from Pieter that the mayor has allowed the 220 coffee shops which sell marijuana and Hashish to tourists to continue doing that, but to no one under eighteen. It is now technically illegal, as of this year,  yet tolerated by the government. 

 No one seemed to remember anything about a beautiful teenager with red hair and blue eyes and a captivating laugh.

. Then the panorama of it all floored and sickened Hilda and me.
           

                     

                   There are approximately 300 one room cabins with window rented to prostitutes to use in their work.
           
          Pieter pointed out that from noon to midnight (sometimes as
late as two am,)  girls stand behind windows trying to attract attention of the men walking by. If a man  sees one he likes, he knocks on her door. Then if there is a financial agreement, the curtain is closed for a time.

                 A lot of tourists were simply walking along gaping at what
            they were seeing, while Hilda and I were tearful. There was
             a "hen party" group of middle age women having fun and
             some Japanese businessmen. More than half the clients
             are foreign...tourists, business men. Wonder if they take it off their
                   expense accounts??!!
        
               


 v     
                               Some seemed amused at seeing an old lady like me!!!


 
As you know, I am almost 80 and Hilda is in her mid-fifties...and neither of us had ever seen anything like this before.  but Hilda and I walked along with  Pieter, looking for Gretchen and thankfully didn't see anyone who even resembled her.. Yet we were crying and praying for these girls in the windows who were somebody's daughters and .......and had so little hope for the future. Most girls in the windows were under thirty &  looked as if they were from foreign countries...not sure.

Pieter encouraged us. "Since Gretchen has only been missing a few days, she most likely isn't being held against her will, but hiding or fleeing as best she can. Could she just be embarrassed? The coffee shop where she was last seen has followed the law and not been in any trouble in the past."

Pieter gave us more information. Weed in Amersterdam is legal but not cheap. As of 2012 it is not supposed to be sold in coffee shops. But the shops are well tolerated by the government. Tourists might find the prices very high. Pot in Amsterdam is purer and stronger than in America. He admitted many foreign girls are forced into prostitution. But so far he felt optimistic about Gretchen...no sign of her on the street and he had not heard anything through informers.

We thanked the lovely dutchman  as he left us back at our hotel. 
It was near dawn. 

We would sleep a little and then start out again...confidently praying we would find Gretchen that day.

Hilda and I are tired but hopeful...when we know more, we'll tell you more. Love, annie

so far...no tulips ...no wooden shoes 
...no Gretchen.
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WINTER EVENING by WILLIAM BENJAMIN BREWER (1933-2012)

There ought not be  a sight as sad
As just-set sun in winter.

Glow is weak upon the land
And darkness now indicative futures
Will enter, come, will be,
Will seek her paths like spreading water
Into every minute fissure
To the very cross paths of our garden
Where the sadness grows
And cultivate her glory
Under cover efficacious
Of the deepened darkness.
There she looses legion pollen,
Spores persistent what will thrive
Upon our fertile earth,
And germinate they will and flower,
Nourished by the tenebrae.
        And we with dawn
Will find ourselves once more,
Amidst her flowers.
Blossoms without perfume.

          There ought not be a sight as sad
As just-set sun in winter.

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As you already know, Ben died on Good Friday, April 6, 2012.  I came home from the hospital and feverishly looked for any scrap of paper with a note to us. Instead I eventually found a loose leaf notebook with a treasure of poems he had left for us... never read by anyone else before. I share this one with you 
with love, annie
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I just wrote these remarks on face book and want to add them here.
Winter was Ben's least favorite time of the year and just-set-sun was the time of day he hated. Yet I think this is one of his most beautiful poems. Every time I think of him quietly, privately heart-writing these poems just to leave to his family, I am overwhelmed with love.
Thank you, Ben, you were one of a kind, for sure!!
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One more thing to add: I have published quite a few of Ben's poems and photos of paintings...and I think he would say, "Enough is enough!! Knock it off for awhile." So if you don't see any more poems for a few months...I am letting the poem book have a rest...maybe at a later time. Love, annie in memphis
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Ben around 21. 1956.
A good likeness...so beautiful to me.

Remembering WILLIAM LEROY CALDWELL (1937-2012)

William Leroy Caldwell...My little brother was 75 when he died tonight at 9:30 at a beautiful hospice in Altameda Springs, Florida.

I am the only one living who remembers when he was born.

 Nobody remembers when I was born.

All my childhood memories on Decatur St. are tied in with Leroy and Jerry (the younger little brother now 70.) I have always been just crazy about both of them!

Leroy is the brother who petted the lion at the Memphis Zoo,

 who was in the story about Daddy operating on our chicken, when as a four year old ran in and told Daddy that a "varmit had bit" our chicken

who was in my blog entries annieinmemphis.blogspot.com about Christmases in Memphis, 1939, 1941, 1943, 1944.

who when young was mistaken for Elvis Presley one time in a cafe in East Tennessee by girls who were giggling and pointing to him. The waitress told Leroy and he simply put his finger to his lips as if to say shhhh, then ran like crazy to get away from them.


             
who always said when a kid that he never wanted to get married because he would get an ugly girl...and alas, married one of the most beautiful and best girls in the world. Shirley Ann Murray.
And had a wonderful son, John Paul.

who grew up in Speedway Baptist Church in Memphis and also was in the boy scout troop the church sponsored  &  who also received the blue cape and sword as a Royal Ambassador when 12 years old


who went to Humes High School and who studied at Union University in Jackson, Tennessee

who was in the US Army, stationed in Europe

who was pastor of Waring Rd. Baptist Church. Amazing that he with a few church members and mostly Daddy built that building, themselves. Everything except electrical work; Daddy even did the plumbing.

who one year went from village to village in India preaching to small groups who might gather. A young boy who played the guitar went with him. He also traveled extensively in the Near East.

who some years ago had an early morning Christian TV program and was highly praised by Marguerite Piazza, when a guest on the show.

who had a playful, wonderful sense of humor....and one time when I said I wish we could see each other more often...he said I was with him all the time!!

My husband always said Leroy and I were like twins...not in appearance or the same age even
but still alike in so many ways. If that is true it was a privilege to be his twin.

Shirley said that before Leroy died their son said, "Did you see that?" She did. They saw a bright light zip across the room at the hospice. They believe it was the angel taking him home. 

Love, annie in memphis....God is good all the time...Blessed be the name of the Lord.
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REMEMBERING THE CARDBOARD FIREPLACE

                                     
                                         


December 3, 2012. 

It is quite cold in Memphis this morning; I awoke around 3 am and then plain got up at 4. 

I am thinking of an especially  beautiful time among Christmas memories. 

More than 40 years ago we had a cardboard fireplace we used for Christmas in this very house. 

We put it against the west wall of our dining room. I remember Roy, ben(son), and I would sit on the floor right in front of it and just gaze at the pretend fire. It was made by one light bulb, behind turning wheel of red, yellow, orange, behind a cardboard simulation of fire. We could almost feel its warmth.

 We just sat there and looked at our special fire for a long time usually after supper when it got dark.!!! 

I don't know what happened to that cardboard fireplace; I still have it in my memory...a sweet memory, indeed.!

Just saying...as I remember...love, annie

If you have a memory you want to share, send it and I'll add it to my blog. Meanwhile....be enjoying every single day. God is good. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
                 old7lady9blogger80@google.com
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HANGING OUT IN BETHLEHEM

Dear Friends...out there somewhere....it means a lot that some of you are so far away...even in Russia, South Africa ....and somehow we are making contact.

Loretta is a Humes High friend I haven't mentioned before. We graduated (along with Larry, Beanie, Carmine, and Dorothea) in 1951.

She called me yesterday to relate an experience she had last Christmas Eve...and has been hesitant to share sooner because it sounds so weird.

Anyway, Loretta had a rich husband  who left her more money than all of the rest of us girls have put together!! She has one son, a daughter in-law she is constantly irritated by, and two darling granddaughters. 

It is Loretta's custom to attend Christmas Eve Candlelight service at _____Episcopal Church.  The two girls (6 and 8) went with her last year, and one put her coat over her head during the entire service. 

Loretta was so irritated and said so as they left the church.
                          

On top of that her maid had said she couldn't help at the Christmas Day Open House. She wanted to spend Christmas with her own family.

"Girls, can you beat that? And after all I have done for her...why, I gave her a fortune worth of my old clothes only recently. And then your mother, you would think she would help...but noooo, not her!"

They went out to the Mercedes  and got in...as Loretta scolded Marcy for misbehaving during the service.

Marcy said," Well, when all the choir members started down the aisle with all those candles burning I thought the place would catch on fire...anyway, it all was so boring!!"

It was dark already. They drove along and suddenly the five year old, Sue, started crying that she was hungry and wanted to get a hamburger or something." Marcy turned on the radio very loud. TURN THAT RADIO DOWN!!!!Loretta was totally exasperated!!! 

Then the car started sputtering....then it quit running, as Loretta pulled off to the side of the road.

"I can't even find my cell phone....Do either of you girls have  it?"

Marcy said that she could see a sign...maybe someone here could help.

The old weather beaten sign read --TH--L--HEM...letters were missing. They decided there really was no town here any longer. It was so dark...but they thought they heard something ahead...and being three of them, they decided to get out of the car and look.

Although it was dark they saw some old buildings there.  Maybe a power outage...no electric lights.

                            

 In the moonlight they saw a man walking along with a girl riding on a donkey....Marcy said that the girl looked like she was going to have a baby.

They noticed the couple wore peculiar clothes for today, more like robes... 

Marci said that the man looked like a hippy with long hair and sandals. 

The man walked into a building then returned shaking his head "no."  They seemed to be going further and walked toward a building that looked like a barn.

"What should we do, Granny Loretta? Can we help them?" ventured Sue and Marci almost in unison.

Loretta couldn't bring herself to leave and suggested they wait.
Then suddenly in a distance they heard beautiful singing coming from the heavens and a very bright light which settled on that barn.
                                 

Then they heard a loud voice which seemed to be talking to people out in the field..but the girls and their grandmother could not make out what was being said..
                         

"LOOK!" Marci whispered..."Look at those men coming down the street...should we be afraid?"  These hippy looking men were also in robes. They were in town to see something?  and headed toward the barn.  The bright light seemed to be hovering there. 

"I am the smallest, nobody will even notice me." So Sue ran along the side of the road out of sight and followed the men. Then Marci did the same.

Loretta was frozen...didn't even yell for them to come back...not knowing what to say or do.

In a little while the girls returned. "It was so beautiful, Granny Loretta,  The young girl was holding her new born baby and the men were bowing in front of them. We did too...couldn't help ourselves. We did too!!!"


                     

They went back to the sign...it was gone. Then returned to the dark town...it was gone also.

"What has just happened??? Was that the baby Jesus? Was that Bethlehem?" 

They stood together silently for a moment then started laughing and hugging each other. When they got back to the car, the motor miraculously started up. Marci turned on the radio, up very loud and they all sang  loudly  JOY TO THE WORLD together with a rock sounding group on the air.

Maybe you don't believe Loretta's story. Knowing me, you know I do.
MERRY CHRISTMAS~~!!

*******************************************************feel free to write me at old7lady9blogger80@gmail.com
after all, we ARE friends! Love annie in memphis

LEAF DANCE by WILLIAM BENJAMIN BREWER (1933-2012)

                             

    Catalpa's full of yellow leaf
And of these two,
One beside the other,
Enter into frantic dance
Their heavy-hanging peers
Remain without a quiver
As they view this pas de deux,
Bold and unexpected.

    At length beyond the trunk
Another leaf has heard the tune
From magic harp so far away.
This leaf then starts a copy,
Emulation as best he could
Of those two dancers' step.
But soon as if embarrassed
By ineptitude,
The convert halts
And then hangs down a leafy head.

    In autumnal hills beyond
The mystic music stops
As suddenly as when the dance began
Throughout the leaf community 
Those that neither danced
Nor ever celebrated,
Those that gave as evidences
Of hearing rhythm from afar
By the thousands hung
Content as ever without motion.
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I found this poem written in pen and ink in a loose leaf notebook, which I didn't even know about until after Ben died on Good Friday, 2012.. I love them and am happy to share them with you. with love, annie in memphis
I wish I could have found a photo of leaves dancing, but I know you can imagine them....
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