This is Part 2 of a four-part series about Southminster residents who have lived abroad. Meet Janet Haack who has lived at Southminster for nine years, Pat Baker, a 12-year resident, and Ron Coffman, living here for three years.
British Guiana and Grenada: Janet Haack
After being married for just a year, Southminster resident Janet Haack and her late husband Donald Haack left the U.S. in 1955 to set up a home and small alluvial diamond mining company on the border river in South America between Brazil and British Guiana, now Guyana. They lived outside the U.S. for 26 years, mining, trading, and selling rough diamonds to the industry before founding Donald Haack Diamonds, one of the nation’s pre-eminent and most respected sources for diamond and precious gem jewelry.
“We lived in what my father called, ‘that damn mud hut’ in the interior of the country, 200 miles from Georgetown where our first child was born in a Catholic hospital. Donald was a pilot, so our single-engine plane was essential to life, and provided him an opportunity to provide air service around the interior on small airstrips.” The Haacks lived in British Guiana, now called Guyana, until 1958, then moved to the island of Grenada in 1965. In the years in between, in addition to growing their family, Janet said she “tried to fit her square peg of a husband into a round hole. It didn’t work!”
By the time they moved to Grenada, they had four children, all of whom were schooled there in the British system. “We were all grateful for how that environment impacted their education and view of the world. I had gone to the University of Wisconsin and majored in journalism, so I set up and began writing a small tourist publication—a real challenge to pull off on an island.” They left Grenada in 1979 when their children were finishing what we would call high school, so they could get higher education in the U.S.
“Looking back, I remember the misunderstandings that could occur even between (English) English and (American) English in Guyana. Once I wrote to our agent in Georgetown and asked him to send a roll of aluminum foil. What showed up when my husband met the plane was an entire roll of aluminum!” Transportation was always another challenge, especially after my husband crashed the plane, and our nearest neighbor was a day’s walk away!” Living in Grenada forever changed our view of relations between different races. Our family was in the minority there, and our kids had mostly black and brown friends, with whom they still communicate.”
Japan and Germany: Pat Baker
Southminster resident Pat Baker grew up in a military family, but her biological father had passed away when she was an infant. When she was nine, her mother remarried a man who also served in the military, but Baker lived with relatives instead of her mother until she was 12.
During the Korean War from 1950-52, her stepfather got stationed at Camp McGill in Yokosuka, Japan and she and her mother were allowed to go too. Because troops stationed there were the first line of defense, neighbors on both sides of their home were killed in fighting. Even with so much tragedy, the experience of living in Japan enabled her to experience that diverse world she would never have been exposed to otherwise. “We did not ‘live on the economy’ (meaning off-base), so it was like living in a ‘Little America.’ But as a teenager, my mother really had to corral me. I thought nothing about hopping on a train and going to Tokyo.”
Yokosuka and Mt. Fuji seen from Uraga Channel
She also learned to drive on the other side of the road when she was technically too young to get a license. A friend taught her so she could pass the driving test. She laments that she did not have much interaction with Japanese people because “I didn’t know how to reach out and do that.”
Her stepfather was later stationed in Germany, and she lived there during summers. “In Germany, I was able to take advantage of it all!” She says her experiences living abroad were a challenge for “a little girl from the rural South,” but very enriching in terms of shaping her life.
Zurich, Switzerland: Ron Coffman
Because he worked for IBM, Southminster resident Ron Coffman enjoyed an international career connection. Along with his wife and their son and daughter who were in their early teens, he moved to a small town near Zurich for a two year assignment as manager of the local IBM Patent department. At that time, the developing common market emphasized a need to unify patent activities between countries and other patent departments. “When we were preparing to go over, our kids were totally against it, but they had a great time.” The American International School had students from many nations. My wife faced the most challenges navigating the marketplace because Swiss German is different from High German. Once she figured out how to ask for something we needed, they would reply with a question she didn’t always understand.”
Coffman met with his counterpart patent managers in England, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Sweden and France, providing him insight into national characteristics that to some extent, in 1974, still reflected an earlier time. Coffman recalls, “Outside of work, our small town provided me with a great opportunity to play the trombone in the town band and participate with locals in parades and at festivals. Before we moved, I got a banjo for Christmas, our son got a mandolin and our daughter got a guitar, fostering a love of music that would enhance all our lives. That experience led me to eventually create my own German style oompah band, the Carolina Camaraden, that for over 20 years in my retirement played Octoberfest programs at retirement homes around Charlotte, including Southminster. It is a tradition that continues at Southminster with our brass quintet and bluegrass band.”
Coffman adds, “I would tell anyone who gets an opportunity to live abroad to grab it. I wish our stay had been longer. We really needed three years minimum, so in hindsight, I would have lobbied for more time to get acclimated and enjoy living abroad before needing to move back.”