The USA Trip Diary – Part 1

How it Happened

This bit by Greg. The Diary is by Trenna

Second Time Overseas

In this series of posts I will be revealing Trenna’s “Trip Diary” from October 1981 to April 1982. It was actually the first of two trips to the USA. The second was with me, 31 years later in 2013.

This 6 month trip to the USA happened well before I knew her.  It sounds like it was a fantastic adventure, and one I’m sure helped her to grow and mature.  

It wasn’t Trenna’s first overseas travel, she had been on a cruise to Singapore, Hong Kong and Manila on The Centaur in 1980 with her friend Jan.

She was 24 years old when she went on this trip to the USA and of course it was a way less global and connected world than today.  Some of that naivety comes through in some of the early diary entries.

I know she would not be comfortable with some of the language she used in the diary. But as I have said before, I don’t want to use this website to re-write history, I really do make a lot of effort to make it as accurate as possible.

That inevitably means that the way Trenna thought and talked at the start of the 1980s (which was no different to other Australians of the era) will be accurately reflected here.

Why Not?

From the stories she told me this is how the trip came about.

In July 1981 Trenna had been working at the Hospital Benefit Fund (HBF) for 5 years and had acquired a group of friends there.

One morning tea in, or maybe it was a lunch time, she was sitting with a group of work mates when one, Toni (who came from an Italian family) said she wanted to go to the USA to meet up with relatives who lived in Brooklyn, and to look around the place.  Apparently, Trenna immediately said she would join her.  

Someone to travel with was exactly what Toni was angling for. Excitement and adventure was exactly what Trenna was looking for.

They immediately started working out how soon they could go, and how much the airfare would be. Within a week they had a firm plan and knew when they would give their 4 weeks notice to HBF.  

However, there were still a few hurdles to overcome.  

The first was that up to this point Trenna spent pretty well all of her disposable income on clothes, or on going out and having a good time (before her expected demise in the next few years!)  Trenna saved nothing.

However, she had a solution – she approached her brother Colin for a loan.  

From what she told me, Colin, who had previously been critical of her profligate ways was at least prepared to consider it, I think because he saw great benefit in young people travelling.

He came back to Trenna and said that he had considered the matter, and had taken into account that whereas the older 3 siblings all got a small inheritance from their parents, Trenna had received none. (That will be the subject of a seperate future post, but basically all her inheritance was spent on her upkeep in care.)

He said he didn’t think that that was fair and had worked out a sum that basically compensated for that.  He gave her about $3,900 with no requirement to pay it back.

Colin’s correspondence shows that he has worked it out that this would equate to about US$4,500. (That was about the last time the US dollar was worth less than the Australian dollar.)

Colin’s Correspondence

To verify my understanding of how the preparations transpired I wrote to Trenna’s brother who now (like then) lives overseas. In 1981 he was finishing a contract in Saudi Arabia.

As it turns out, Trenna was not the only person in the Seckington family who keeps good records.

Colin replied with a host of documents to show what happened.

It being 1981 communications were much more cumbersome, expensive and slow.

The correspondence started with Trenna sending a telegram to Colin. (Young people, if you don’t already know about telegrams, don’t ask, you won’t believe the cumbersome process involved!).

The documents also show that this coincided with Colin falling in love with Jose who he had met overseas and who he married as soon as he could. Trenna and Jose spoke on the phone and Trenna was able to help Colin get some of the documents he needed.

Trenna always remembered Colin’s generosity. Here is the document trail Colin provided. If you are interested you should be able to click on each one and read it.

Oh Yeah, I’ve Got a Dog

There was another issue too.  Trenna at the time lived alone in a rented property in Girrawheen with her beloved dog, Prickles.  Colin, who was returning to Perth from working overseas, also helped here in that he and his new bride moved in when Trenna went away and he agreed to look after Prickles.

In no time at all Trenna and Toni were on their way to the USA.

Planning??

It isn’t apparent from the diaries, because like the rest of the material on this site it wasn’t written with a wider audience in mind, but I think the following is how the itinerary was developed.

They organised to fly to the USA.  

They planned to stay as long as possible (border officials gave them a visa for 6 months and were very suspicious that they were just their to find husbands – NOTHING could be further from the truth in the case of Trenna).  

They arranged through Toni’s relatives to stay in a room in a friend’s brownstone in Brooklyn.

I think Toni, who had met US sailors when they were on leave in Fremantle port had a few guys she wanted to catch up with (Trenna wasn’t very interested in sailors, as you will see.)

And that’s it.  No other plans that I am aware of. 

How it actually transpired is that at each place they went they got suggestions on where to go next, and often they were given a contact who would either accommodate them or at least show them around.

Iterestingly, I have never met Toni.

Farewell Parties

There is one other aspect to the pre-trip story that I haven’t covered yet, and I don’t recall Trenna telling me about them, but it appears that there were at least three parties to say goodbye to Trenna and Toni. I know this from Trenna’s well organised and captioned photo collection.

There are some photos from their last day at work.

Then apparently an HBF going away party.

Also a party for other friends.

Also a farewell from Trenna’s family.

There was the farewell to Prickles.

And finally the farewell at the airport.

Part 2 in this series is where Trenna’s words commence.