Monitoring Down my Dad’s Australian Pen Pal from when He was 11
This will probably be a unique type of weblog submit than what I’ve been used to writing. However don’t have any concern! There will probably be tales of journey to comply with this submit—most excitedly ones by the Australian Outback (not the steakhouse) and the North Island of New Zealand, the land of thousands and thousands of sheep and volcanic, gaseous craters.
However this submit is a little more private—it’s the story of how I tracked down my Dad’s Australian pen pal he had when he was simply 11 years outdated.
Ever since I made a decision to review overseas in Australia, my dad saved mentioning how he had a pen pal from Melbourne when he was a child at school in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. They despatched letters to one another for some time once they have been children to find out about what it was wish to dwell within the USA or Australia, however then they finally misplaced contact.
However my dad remembered his title—Austin Beamish. For some unusual purpose, the title caught in my Dad’s head in spite of everything these years. Dad would all the time joke to me and ask if I used to be going to trace him down whereas I used to be there, so I made it my mission to attempt to discover Austin Beamish whereas in Australia.
I began by simply Googling his title. A information article popped up about how a spot known as the Kyabram Soccer Netball Membership gave a lifetime membership award to an Austin Beamish who had moved from Victoria to Queensland. There was an image of him. He appeared about my Dad’s age, so I appeared up the membership and located their Fb web page. I despatched them a message to see if they’d Austin’s contact data, doing my finest to elucidate this odd scenario.
They didn’t reply. Recognizing the absurdity of the entire thing, I gave up. Even when I did get in contact with this Austin Beamish, it was unlikely he was the appropriate Austin Beamish my dad wrote to so a few years in the past.
Then, a few month after I despatched that message, the soccer membership despatched me the contact data of Geoff Beamish, Austin’s brother. I known as him, chatted for a couple of minutes, after which he gave me Austin’s telephone quantity. He wasn’t positive if he had a pen pal named Mark when he was 11, however I figured I might name and see.
So I did. As quickly as I discussed my final title, Austin remembered my dad. He mentioned the title ‘Stodola’ was simply too distinctive to neglect, and he additionally remembered that my dad was from Iowa. I used to be on the telephone with the identical Austin Beamish my dad had written to a number of many years earlier. He advised me he by no means would have anticipated to get such a telephone name on that standard Monday afternoon, and it made each of our days. We talked for about 20 minutes, with plans to get Austin in contact with my Dad as soon as once more.
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