I'll tell you what it all means, it's an old gift given to my father Harry Alan Quinn ( and indirectly my mother Nancy Proctor Quinn ) years ago by the Brazilian State Department of the capitol that had just formed there in the center of Brazil way out in the middle then of nowhere that was called Brasilia! Wow, a gift to our father and to our mother. What an honor, what a treat, what a privilege, and I did not know any of this until a month or so ago when my mother and brother Eric gave me this map, saying that I was the one to have it.
I grew up with this map. It was always part of our household and I looked at it and loved it in my own growing-up-with-it-always-being-there sort of way. I guess I took it for granted. Sorry to say that. But I was innocent. I never knew, I never heard the story. Neither my father or my mother told me, or if they did it went in one ear and out my other, really bad , so embarrassing, I know all of this. Oh well, I am here to now rectify all of this on the eve of the next Soccer World Cup that is about to start in Brasil in a couple of day, Thursday, June 12ht, 2014. Just in time, the nick of time, not a minute to lose. I know, I'm dramatic, so shoot me, with blanks of course.
My mother told me the story in her apartment recently with my brother Eric there with us. Sorry to say our other brother Larry was not with us. he would have liked this story, too. he would have been proud, he would have taken a lot of pleasure in this I am sure just as I did. I think that our brother Eric had already heard the story a number of times so I think that he was not as shocked or as surprised as I was. The news of this gift to them from the ' new ' government of Brasil back in 1961 was electrifying. It blew me, still does blow me away!
Our mother Nancy went on to say that she had been approached by one of the srnior officials of the Brazilian government, their State Department, just like ours, a 4-story building she said. The official that she knew and that had worked closely with our father Harry Quinn had approached her once he heard that our father was leaving Brasilia.
Turns out that our father and his work, the kind of no-nonsense, hard-working man that he was was well-respected and that they had enjoyed working with him and wanted to give him and our mother a token of their appreciation. He asked my mother what would her husband / our father like as a parting gift?
I cannot remember everything that our mother said and exactly as she had said it, but I do know the essentials of what she said to me telling me this story recently in front of my brother Eric. At some point she had talked to our father and they had spoken of this and my father said that he would like one of the hanging circular maps that he saw when he entered the building as he had admired it greatly.
So, when she told this official he paused, maybe even gulped and said something like : " But there are only four of them, one on each of the four floors of this building." He said that he would check and see what he could do about this and let them know.
My mother and father did not know what the outcome would be? They had to wait , wonder and see? Anyway, you all already know the outcome, they presented one of these maps to our father and mother and we have enjoyed it, loved it, weathered and aged it with our travels since then around the world that meant it went next back here to Washington D.C., then to Trinidad, then back here, next to Paris, France and then back here and perhaps even to San Leandro, California? I am not sure about that?
I have more questions for our mother but I want to post this now with the pictures that were just taken by our Swedish neighbor Katarina with her phone and sent to my email address : tonythewineguy@gmail.com. I will now include them here for everyone to see.
As I just told Katarina this is pretty special and still what an honor, and on the eve of the World Soccer Cup, and in two years the summer Olympics, wow, this - as it was then - is history, this is a period in time that was then and is now special and I , for one, have not lost sight of that at all.
Enjoy this, please share this with your friends, and let's all make some really big noise for Brasil now as they have earned and deserve it. I loved spending the six years of my life there from 2-8 years-of-age and never tire of hearing of those times from our mother Nancy. Thanks Mom, you are the best. Thanks, too Dad, you are also super : we admire you both.
What a wonderful and colorful and magical and transforming period of our lives we four spent there back in the mid to late fifties and the first years of the 60's.
Ola, obregado para tudos, vais, vais, vais, vais VAIS BRASIL! Anthony ( TONY ) Quinn Monday, June 9th, 2014
