Joe & Albania

Holton Sense of Humor

Sometime in the late 1970s Julie and I along with her parents Mary and Bill Holton were having dinner at the Engine House #5 in German Village, Columbus, OH. We were waiting for our dinner to arrive. I noticed that a group at the next table who were just finishing dinner were really intensely listening to whatever ‘weighty’ topic we were talking about – perhaps I was explaining that I was in the U.S. Naval Security Group working with National Security Agency when I was in the Navy. I thought the behavior at the neighboring table was very rude and annoying.

I sort of gave a quiet signal to my group and began to spin a yarn about  Albania. I purposely picked Albania because it was a little known country and full of mystery for most people. I also figured that very very few people would know enough about it to question what I was saying. I began to talk about their Communist dictator Enver Hoxha pronounced something like “Hosha”. I mentioned that Albania is a very interesting old country dating back to at least 3000BC. It has come under the influence of the Romans, Greeks, Turkish (Ottoman), Italian, German, and Russian, as well as China Maoist influences all while trying to be an independent country. After the collapse of the Axis powers, Albania became a Communist state, the Socialist People's Republic of Albania, which for the most part of its duration was dominated by Enver Hoxha. He died in 1985. I may have tossed in a few intriguing stores about Hoxha.

The interest from the other table of eavesdroppers much to my amusement continued – Mary and Bill just kind of stared at me.  It was early enough in our marriage that they might not have known what was and wasn’t true. Dinner came to our table and the conversation moved on to other more mundane topics. The eavesdropping group next to our table left. I then started to laugh and fully explained what I had done and that I had always been fascinated by Albania and always wanted to visit there –(it is now 2012 and I don’t think I will make it.) As I recall Mary and Bill just sort of continued to stare at me.

THE OUTCOME: The picture is of me just as I opened the birthday present Mary and Bill gave me a month or so later – a book about Enver Hoxha and Albania. I came to appreciate Mary & Bill Holton’s sense of humor! I can’t figure out the expression on my face. I think I was really surprised or not sure what to make of the present.

Later on I had some other interesting interactions with Mary and Bill that involved gazing ball (sun balls yard decorations), flamingos, and pigs and pecan pie. But those are stories for another time.

Joe Todd, August 2012