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It would be my first of seven talks in California that I would give on The Cold War and my recently published book, “The Repatriate: Love Basketball and the KGB”. Our first stop was Mission Hills, a serene senior citizens community that has a notable museum, the Ararat Eskijian, on its spacious and plush site. After [...] I did not anticipate, nor was I prepared to immediately answer, the question. Over the years the memory of the events had been relegated to the farthest corners of my mind. It would take time to recall the story. And one thing a speaker doesn’t have when facing a group is time. I had been on [...] I was hungry. My stomach craved, demanded food or it would definitely rebel. And there were no rest rooms or toilet facilities on the court adjacent to the building where I was assigned to teach. I had had my stove-toasted, sawdust-filled, black bread early in the morning before I raced to my coaching job at the [...] I was sitting alone in one of the pews of our church, in Spruce, Michigan, thumbing through the Bible, pausing to read from Isaiah. I was in a rare, melancholy mood, built up over the weeks by staging several ‘book talks’. I sought my escape in this sanctum, instead of joining most of the members [...] His father was a well-established merchant whose store for years served the Armenian and Arab community in Cairo, Egypt. He had children whom he wanted to bring up as Armenian so when the Soviets offered him an opportunity in 1946 to repatriate to Armenia, this merchant, according to his son, did not hesitate. “My father sold [...] There are so many stories that I have come upon during the research for my book, but the following ‘love story’ must be considered among the best. Christine K. was sixteen when she fell in love and later married Ara. Both had left their native land, America, and had repatriated to the Soviet Union in [...] During one of my many visits to Moscow I had met and befriended a Michigan State University language professor who, after listening to my story, asked whether he could be of any assistance to me. I asked if possible, would he contact my parents and tell them that I am in good health and in [...] In March, 1983, speaking to the members of the National Association of Evangelists in Orlando, Florida, President Reagan labeled the Soviet Union “The Evil Empire.” I sincerely believe that the president maligned a nation of freedom-loving people. Furthermore, it is one of my deepest beliefs that there are no ‘evil empires’. The People who make up a [...] He was born in Germany at the height of Hitler’s power. I was born in Detroit the year before the Great Depression. After World War II, he chose America and attended the University of Michigan, becoming a prominent architect. After World War II, I chose the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and became a teacher who earned prominence [...] |
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The Little Girl with Brown Eyes
There was a flush of questions that immediately dominated my thoughts as I listened to the woman’s voice on the other end of the telephone.
“This is the Shirley Temple look-alike, you wrote about in your book,” the voice said. It was a voice I had not heard for more than a half of a century. [...]