Rebecca Matlock - Vienna (1958)

Vienna (1958)

The Matlock’s first Foreign Service post was in Vienna, Austria. Here is one of her stories:

We crossed on the S.S. United States back in the days when one could travel first class with one's family, and we enjoyed that very much. And when we got to Le Havre, my husband said, “Now we can send on some of our suitcases and trunks straight to Vienna since we are driving.” So I blithely sent away everything including the suitcases that had the diapers for the twins. This was before the days of disposable diapers anywhere except in the United States. It took the trunks and suitcases at least 6 weeks to arrive in Vienna. So our daily task was to go to drug stores and try to get the paper diapers they sold for invalids. Of course we would buy their whole supply and it would take them another week to get supplied again. That was just my little introduction into the differences that one finds living abroad from living at home...

In Vienna one thing that was difficult to do and I look back on with pleasure - and I feel that it's something that was important. We were expected to make formal calls. And this was not easy to do with three young children in a hotel room - to leave them and go off and call on the wives of the senior men at the Embassy. And the terrible thing was they would return the calls. There was a certain period in the afternoon when the calling could be done.

I remember once using Clorox in the bathtub to wash the clothing for our two two-year olds and our four-year old and then having Mrs. Tapley Bennett, the wife of the Political Counselor, wearing furs with a long string of pearls, open the door. There I was with a strange smell coming out of the bathroom of the hotel room. It was terribly embarrassing.