MOM'S THREE WISHES SAGA 6:

ANECDOTES

1. My friend, Steve Dykstra, who won the first prize, almost lost it! He was getting ready to go to Connecticut for Christmas, when the phone rang telling him he had won the trip for two to Hawaii. "Sure I have," he said sarcastically. When asked who he planned to take with him, he replied, "My dog" and hung up! On the way to the train station, he suddenly remembered that I had asked him if I could use his name in the contest – though dimly, as I had asked him at his annual Winter Solstice Party, when he was already three sheets to the wind. At Union Station, he called the magazine and said, "I understand that you just had the contest drawing."

"You must be Steve Dykstra, because he's the only one we've called," they answered. He had to confess. I wouldn't believe he waited two weeks though to tell me. I have given up on first prize.

2. For Jack's prize money, I put cash in a card underneath the Christmas tree. Since He knew nothing about the contest, he was so shocked and thrilled that he gave me a hug and a kiss, which surprised everyone with his delightful spontaneity.

3. My two poorest friends won the contest: Jack is an unemployed actor and Steve was on unemployment for four months. So, no taxes were due!

 ---Luck up on luck!

4. One of the contest pictures was of a hand, holding a cigar. I was virtually sure it was the hand from Winston Churchill's statue in front of the British Embassy. But in driving by to verify, someone had placed a branch of holly in his hand, hiding the cigar

 ---an honorarium or an obfuscation?

(I produced the manuscript on a "Mag-Reader" machine—pre PC.

Assembly of the book was quite an ordeal—requiring the assistance of Liza!)

MOM'S THREE WISHES SAGA 5:

THAT LAST NIGHT

On our last night, we were having dinner on the lanai of the Royal Hawaiian, enjoying the view. 

Mom was having her Hawaii-discovered, and now favorite drink—a piña colada. She leaned over and said, "I have another wish to add to my list: I want to come back to Hawaii."

POSTSCRIPT

Of over 6,000 entries, only 526 located all 15 places correctly. From these were drawn first and second prizes. Two of my 52 entries won both prizes! Odds of that happening are one in a hundred.


  ---TRULY AMAZING!

Next, Anecdotes.

MOM'S THREE WISHES SAGA 4:

IN HAWAII


Mom, Ed and I, Don Voth, had a magical time in Hawaii—delightful! We will always remember February 1981. I gave my mom a fresh lei every morning. 

I have never been very intrigued with Hawaii, but truly enjoyed it. 

In Honolulu, we had a delightful hotel right on Waikiki Beach. A highlight was having lunch at the famous pink, Royal Hawaiian Hotel.

Maui was exotically beautiful—green, lush and dramatic. 

Our stunning hotel was open-air with peacocks roaming and meandering pools of water.

I hiked with Mom to the far side of the island so she could wade in the South Pacific Ocean. She was thrilled! Now, she had been in the South Pacific. She was exhausted by the time we got back to the hotel.

One night we felt a slight earthquake. It awakened us from our sleep. We celebrated the next day by having breakfast on our balcony

  ---a first for my Mom.

Next, OUR LAST NIGHT.

MOM'S THREE WISHES SAGA 3:

FIFTY-TWO ENTRIES were hand-delivered on the final day. Then I tried to forget about it.

On the day of the drawing, Ed and I were at his parents home in southern Virginia, because it was Christmas Eve. Ed's sister came running into the kitchen, jumping up and down saying, "Jack just won a trip to Hawaii!" ( Jack is Ed's brother and one of the 52 contestants.) Ed's mother also started jumping up and down.

I turned to Ed and asked, "Did you tell everyone about the contest?" The negative reply brought an immediate regrouping. I thought, "Gee, I wish we could have won first prize instead", but that was getting greedy!

I called Mom who got very excited. And since we won second prize (only a single trip), she offered to pay my way!—Merry Christmas!

Two weeks went by before a friend, Steve Dykstra, called and said, "Hey, I forgot to tell you, I won the first prize in that Hawaiian contest!"

 ---THAT MEANT THREE COULD GO!

MOM'S THREE WISHES SAGA 2:

We verified all known locations, even finding the actual words in one of the shots on the inside of the Jefferson Memorial.

A house, fronted with water, had us stumped until Ed and I traversed the entire Chesapeake and Ohio Canal and identified it as a lock house! 

Every day we each would have assignments, looking for this or that. (I rather enjoyed the driving as I had just gotten an old Jag and loved motoring along—adding about 500 miles to its overused odometer.) 

When I told Mom what I was up to, she was delighted saying, "I've had three wishes all my life: One was to have nice children and I got that. Another to live in a house no one else had ever lived in, I got that and I always wanted to go to Hawaii". I redoubled my efforts.


Only one submittal was allowed per name, so I called the magazine to ask if I could use the names of friends but take the trip myself. Their reply that the winners could do whatever they wanted to do. So when I was getting close (only two left to identify), I begin to ask friends if I could use their names on the entry blanks. I told them that if they won, I would give them $100 and pay any taxes. Many agreed. Some said no, that they would enter themselves. But after seeing how difficult the contest was, they allowed me to use their names.

With only three days to go, Ed and I still had to Identify the fence post. I had already pegged the style to Mid-19th Century, so the probability was that it was either in Georgetown or Alexandria. We crisscrossed every street, no fence post. We searched old locations (our antebellum jail, an old cemetery and several Potomac plantations). While going on an errand, I excitedly discovered it on the campus of Gallaudet College, our 1866 school for the deaf!

Wow! Now I had all 15!

MOM'S THREE WISHES SAGA:

"I want to go to Hawaii". I guess I've heard that a dozen times from Mom while growing up in Oklahoma. I think her generation of Americans is infatuated with the South Seas part of our world. So when I saw an Hawaiian vacation contest in my local city magazine  (The Washingtonian, December 1980), I thought I'd like to try to win a trip for her.

Well, it was right up my alley since I'm a Washingtonianphile and an architect and the contest required identifying 15 pictures of locations in and around Washington, D. C. A few were easy, such as a corner of Dulles International Airport. Others were very difficult, like part of a statue or a fencepost! Of the 15 pictures, I definitely new five, had a pretty good idea of four more but didn't know the other six. First prize was an all expense paid trip for two including hotels to Oahu and Maui plus $500; second prize was a trip for one and $250.

Having only two weeks before the deadline, I began a systematic search, carrying with me at all times the pictures of as yet unidentified places. I got my roommate, Ed Crowley, to help in the search.