THE FORREST GUMP ADVENTURES OF AN ORDINARY HOUSEWIFE

We were all grouped at different tables with 6 other people: There was a couple from California who made their fortunes in Truck Stops. Beside them sat Jim and his wife representing American Express International. Across from us were two gentlemen by the names of John Browning and George Banning. They obviously knew each other, and were good friends. In striking up a conversation, I learned that George owned all of the Wendy’s Franchises in Florida north of Orlando, and John was the largest Beef supplier to Wendy’s. George and John had been friends for quite a few years, and knew Studibert and Frank from Presidential fund-raisers and arranged fishing trips for President Bush. Other assorted folk included Florida real estate devlopers, news reporters, Adelphi Cable, writers, etc.

Fred and I were the only low-life’s in the bunch (excluding the Cable guy) – and no one knew that the only reason we were there was because Studibert wanted us there (and we had free air travel, and hotel discounts through the airlines). Fred led all of these elite businessmen and press people to believe that he was somehow representing Delta Airlines. This played right into the charade that Studibert had concocted to make people think he, too was more important than he really was (I believed he was)!

Lunch included a briefing from the Department of Commerce, and The State Department. We were all there for one purpose – to explore the emerging and untapped marketplace that was Eastern Europe. We were driven by the almighty dollar, but also paid the almighty dollar to go and learn, and to see what we could offer in the way of stabilizing these new free markets, and thereby making the world safe for democracy.

Fred and I flew over to Berlin on Fred’s non-revenue airline passes. It’s always risky, because all too often the flights are too full and we just simply don’t get on. This was the case on this very important day. Fred had me take a flight separately from the rest of the trade mission because the flight with the trade mission was full. The plan was to go through Atlanta, catch the flight to Frankfurt, and meet up with everyone before going on to Berlin.

This was very intimidating for me, but I had no choice. Fred was going to stay and get on the flight with the rest of the group (my hero). I was not happy with this decision because he would be traveling with everyone, and I would be alone, and could only hope to meet up with the group in Frankfurt.