bermuda, greenland

I am probably the only person who cares about this stuff, but I have to write it down somewhere.

When my grandfather Jerry married my grandmother Peg in 1941, it wasn't in a big church wedding. Jerry was just passing through Virginia when he met her, and they eloped after knowing each other for two weeks.

According to family lore, my great grandfather Sam was pissed. But he couldn't do anything -- he was in Bermuda. Yes, Bermuda. I always thought I made that part up because it sounds exotic, but I recently found out it was true: Samuel J. Petrone of Huntington Station, NY, really arrived in New York from Hamilton, Bermuda on Dec. 19, 1941. It's a true story.

But that's not everything. The same site -- Ancestry.com -- showed that he arrived almost exactly two years later on Dec. 30, 1943, in Boston, Massachusetts. His departure point? Bluie West 1, Greenland. I know what you're thinking - where the hell is that? I had to look it up too. It's the old US Army name for Narsarsuaq Airport at the southern tip of Greenland, which was constructed in 1942 -- probably in part by my great grandfather.

Is there a travel gene? I am not sure if I believe in such things. I did read a book recently where the author said that if you want to understand families then you have to look at them over several generations. Either way, one (good) thing can be said of us Petrones -- we get around. I haven't been to Bermuda or Greenland yet. I do hope to get there some day.