Cornucopia: My Mom in the Foreign Legion

My Mom in the Foreign Legion
One is a series of vignettes about my mom
By Kate Chamberlin

During the early days of living in Riverwoods, Deerfield, Ill., Ed and Barb Zimmer, Doug and Connie Quirk, and my parents, Paul and Grace Holmberg hit it off and became fast friends. Their two daughters and I also became best buds.
One of the things our parents liked to do was go out to eat once a month. They called themselves “The Foreign Legion”. One couple would be the host and plan a dinner with a theme in mind, usually it would be a nationality. The cost would be split among the couples.
For example, one time they went to a Japanese restaurant in the Greater Chicago area. It was the host couple’s responsibility to make reservations at the restaurant, order the meal from first bite to last tidbit of dessert. Request the various wines and other beverages to sip on during the dinner and dessert, and otherwise come up with an authentic as possible Japanese experience. The ambiance in the restaurant included the low tables with cushions to sit on, waitresses in kimonos and fancy obis, low lights and savory food emanations. The host couple might embellish the evening by providing ethnic outfits, music, adornments, or other touches for the full treatment.
They ate their way around the world without even leaving the greater Chicago area.
If an extra couple or two were joining the Foreign Legion on a temporary adventure and needed a baby-sitter, my friends and I could get the job. Since, one friend didn’t like to baby-sit and the other one preferred to sit for one neighbor, I usually had the opportunity to make some money…$.50 an hour, going up to $1.00 after midnight.
In due time, a new dentist came to town with his wife and three daughters. I’m a bit fuzzy about who or how they all met, but, Dr. Iggelson (I’m not sure how to accurately spell his name, so that is how it sounded.) and his wife were invited to join the Foreign Legion. I was the designated baby-sitter, which was tricky. The family was from Iceland. While the parents and the 10-year old spoke English, the two younger girls only spoke Icelandic. An interesting predicament I didn’t know about before I arrived at their home
Eventually, the Icelandic couple took a turn to host an ethnic night. Unfortunately, just prior to that, my family moved to Marlboro, PA. The Icelandic family prepared an authentic Icelandic feast for the remaining Foreign Legionnaires. I don’t know all the details, however, a box arrived at our new home with a note.
They’d missed my parents and wanted them to know that they thought of them by sharing the enclosed present.
As Mom opened the box flaps a rather ripe odor emanated into our noses. The smell became stronger and stronger as she peeled away the newspaper, then, plastic wrap closer to the ‘thing’.
Apparently, one of the delicacies the Foreign Legion enjoyed was a whole roast goat, something like we’d have a pig roast. They had mailed the skull to Mom and Dad!
Mom nailed the gruesome, reeking item to a fence post that separated our way back yard from the farmer’s field, far away from our house. The birds soon picked it clean. Mom said it gave the ‘back 40’ a touch of character.
After a few years, Dad was transferred to Newburgh, NY and we went with him. As far as I know, the skull was still nailed to the fence post adding character to the neighborhood.