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Background and Photos

Fit For Fate

        Among Gene's experiences in Greece, he joined the Royal Riding Club and was one of the hosts for the King and Queen of Greece at a party where he had the honor of dancing with a reigning queen.  His neighbor across the street was Andreas Papandreou, who lived there with his American born wife, Margaret, and his four children, roughly matched in ages with Gene's own four children.  The eight children played together constantly, making the two houses one.  Though now it can be thought of as perhaps humorous, there was an embarrassing time when Andreas Papandreou invited Gene's youngest child to accompany his family on a drive to the sea.  Gene's little girl got carsick and threw up, of all places, in Andreas's hat, which he had placed upside down on the front seat.  

        When Gene got ready to leave Greece, Andreas's father, George Papandreou, who was then Prime Minister of Greece, invited him to his countryside villa to take some family photos.  One of these is given in these pages with Gene shown between two prime ministers, for Andreas himself later became prime minister.  Much more recently when Gene and  Ginger revisited Greece, they called on young George Papandreou, one of his children's playmates, and found George quite grown and serving as Foreign Minister of Greece.