Return to the States

We had been in Belize for two-and-a-half years when Bucher realized that, for business reasons, we had to go back to Florida. We all had mixed feelings about leaving the country, but joined in preparations for departure cheerfully enough.

Ready, Set, Go!

From letter dated December 10, 1956

This move developed very unexpectedly. Bucher was in Miami in August, trying to sew up a boat-building contract that would have set up his British Honduras Industries, Ltd. for 1957. He couldn’t find out anything definite and returned to Belize after two weeks. He went back to Miami about ten days later, both to follow on that contract and to straighten out some trouble he was having with U.S. Customs on the appraisal of his boats. He had been in Miami a couple more weeks when he wrote me to:

1. Pack enough china, linens, kitchen equipment, clothes, and toys to take a house in Miami indefinitely.

2. Pack up the good things that I was leaving so that they could be stored safely in the factory warehouse where they wouldn’t disappear one by one during our absence.

3. Rent the house.

4. Sell the car. (It had bad brakes and bad tires; the body was rusted through here and there. I couldn’t have been gladder!)

5. Find someone to take the two dogs temporarily.

6. Get the children and myself on the plane for Miami four days later.

I went into a minor collapse at the idea, then managed to do practically everything. I packed my precious silver, fine china, and best books for shipment, and arranged to store almost everything else.

The heartache was the dogs; we knew no one in Miami and would not have facilities to keep them. I spoke to our good friend Father Urban Kramer of St. John’s College. He was a large, hearty Midwestern priest who liked the dogs and had joked about dog-napping them. His enthusiastic agreement to take Eagle and Louis made us feel that, at least, we had arranged a happy home for our beloved friends.

I drove the dogs out to St. John’s and, stifling tears, turned them over to Father Kramer. I returned woefully to my car to find a flat tire. Father Kramer saw my look of dismay, hiked up the skirts of his cassock, and set about swiftly and efficiently changing tires for me, to my combined relief and embarrassment.

After a whirlwind of activity I succeeded in getting to Miami with children on schedule.

Our Rental

At the Miami airport, Bucher apologetically told me that he finally had found a garage apartment for us. My heart sank as I remembered my palace in Belize, but I bravely assured him that anything was perfect.

We drove up a lovely, quiet street of comfortable homes with well tended yards, and turned into a driveway. I saw the garage, but there certainly wasn’t an apartment atop it…just a rather large house attached. As it turned out, Bucher had been very lucky finding the house. Some woman in Illinois just had bought it and didn’t want possession till the next summer, so she was delighted to get a rental immediately.

I was still a little baffled as Bucher unlocked the door upon a large living-dining room “paved” with acres of white tile. It was furnished in black furniture with plastic upholstery in the severest modern manner, and with pleasant bamboo-and-glass furniture in the dining area.

If the kitchen, dining area, and living room rather shrieked at us with colors…blue, lime, and red in the kitchen; cocoa, lime, and green in the dining area; and gray-green, green, and red in the living room…at least they belong in a modern house and there is enough neutral in the black furniture and white floor to cut the impact. Besides, personally I prefer strong colors to dull ones.

The kitchen opens through a door and a pass-through from the dining area so that I can either wash dishes or iron and watch television (the TV came with the house). There are large, very new Frigidaire electric stove and refrigerator, a double sink, miles of cupboards, an ample broom closet and pantry. The kitchen is fully tiled…floor, countertops, and the splashboard between countertop and overhanging cupboards.

The living room even has an adobe-brick fireplace, complete with gas logs, which will be heavenly come cool weather. The mantle, equipped with two lushly planted black vases and a black panther stalking between them, has a large to-the-ceiling mirror above it. Black iron room dividers break the area on each side, and have elegant vines twined on them. I only hope I can refrain from killing all the plants that help make the room attractive.

The children’s bedroom is blue with their twin beds upholstered in shrimp-pink plastic. They have an enormous double closet and each has a chest of drawers.

The bathroom is fully tiled in pink and aqua, with the fittings aqua. It is small, but the water is both plentiful and hot, and there is a built-in electric heater. The owner even bought a new and attractive shower curtain for us.

Our bedroom is a sensation. Not that this room isn’t in permissible taste, it just make me feel slightly loud every time I walk in. One wall is gray, with the other three citron yellow. Against the gray wall, the double bed headboard is upholstered in citron plastic. Each of the two black bedside tables has a huge yellow ceramic lamp with even more enormous oblong yellow shade. There is a tall black bureau and a two-chest-and-dressing-table unit, also in black, with yellow vanity bench. There’s a great black-and-yellow occasional chair, a full-length mirror on the door to the walk-in closet, and large unframed mirrors over the dressing table and bureau. The windows along two walls at the corner have venetian blinds and good-looking modern print draperies, with gray cornice boards. P.S.: There’s an air conditioner.

For extras, there is a linen closet, a linen-and-clothes closet in the hall, and a huge extra closet with shelves on two sides off the dining area. There’s a small, furniture-less den with floor-to-ceiling shelves on two sides, which we’re using for a playroom; a garage with basin, toilet, and shower; small concrete back porch; and enormous, lovely, fully fenced yard.