My Picadilly weekend...
Mar. 7th, 2008 10:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
susandennisAnd these travel thoughts have now brought me to remembering probably my most memorable trip ever. The time I went to London for the weekend to get an abortion because they weren't legal here yet.
I was a kid alone on a very adult mission. My parents bought my ticket and paid for the procedure and even offered to send Mom with me but I felt way too guilty about how supportive they were being to bring on any more shame.
So off I went. They had made arrangements through the ob/gyn in New York for me to go to a clinic in London - near Picadilly Circus - that was set up specifically to cater to American women. The birth control pill was available but not easy to get (if you were not married) and Roe v. Wade was close to opening up our world but not there yet. So there was a fair amount of American abortion traffic.
My memory has actually lost many of the details but somehow I got hooked up with a girl my own age who's procedure was scheduled for the same time as mine. We had rather much of a very odd adventure out of the whole thing. We saw some sights. We got lost and figure out how to find ourselves again. We walked all over London and had a really nice weekend.
I remember it was night and we were starving and neither of us had a whole lot of cash but also neither of us could figure out what cash we had - the whole pound to dollar thing was lost on us. We walked by places with menus but had no way to understand it that delicious sounding dish would cost a month's rent. Finally we noodled that Chinese food was always cheap so we rooted out a Chinese restaurant, matched the numbers on the outside menu with the cash in our purses and dove in. It was really a wonderful meal. I still have no clue how much it cost.
I got home late at night. My brother and sister were there but asleep and had no clue what I had been up to. I went into my parents' room and they welcomed me home and invited to me sit on their bed and tell them about the trip. They were so kind and cool and nice about it all. To this day, I'm astounded at how supportive they were.
And I remember my Dad, after I had told them all about everything, saying how glad he was that I had managed to make such a fun adventure out of such a thing. He said "But, now you're like the preacher who gets a hole in one on Sunday morning." And, indeed, it was years and years before I ever told anyone. I'm pretty sure my brother and sister still don't know.
What a different time it was... And, for sure, at least here, Chinese food ain't cheap!
I was a kid alone on a very adult mission. My parents bought my ticket and paid for the procedure and even offered to send Mom with me but I felt way too guilty about how supportive they were being to bring on any more shame.
So off I went. They had made arrangements through the ob/gyn in New York for me to go to a clinic in London - near Picadilly Circus - that was set up specifically to cater to American women. The birth control pill was available but not easy to get (if you were not married) and Roe v. Wade was close to opening up our world but not there yet. So there was a fair amount of American abortion traffic.
My memory has actually lost many of the details but somehow I got hooked up with a girl my own age who's procedure was scheduled for the same time as mine. We had rather much of a very odd adventure out of the whole thing. We saw some sights. We got lost and figure out how to find ourselves again. We walked all over London and had a really nice weekend.
I remember it was night and we were starving and neither of us had a whole lot of cash but also neither of us could figure out what cash we had - the whole pound to dollar thing was lost on us. We walked by places with menus but had no way to understand it that delicious sounding dish would cost a month's rent. Finally we noodled that Chinese food was always cheap so we rooted out a Chinese restaurant, matched the numbers on the outside menu with the cash in our purses and dove in. It was really a wonderful meal. I still have no clue how much it cost.
I got home late at night. My brother and sister were there but asleep and had no clue what I had been up to. I went into my parents' room and they welcomed me home and invited to me sit on their bed and tell them about the trip. They were so kind and cool and nice about it all. To this day, I'm astounded at how supportive they were.
And I remember my Dad, after I had told them all about everything, saying how glad he was that I had managed to make such a fun adventure out of such a thing. He said "But, now you're like the preacher who gets a hole in one on Sunday morning." And, indeed, it was years and years before I ever told anyone. I'm pretty sure my brother and sister still don't know.
What a different time it was... And, for sure, at least here, Chinese food ain't cheap!
