Does it not close, or does it not open?

>>>Bio magazine, jan/mar2020

The late engineer Adilson Seroa da Motta, one of the founders-organizers of our ABES, of whom I had the honor and luck of being a student at the School of Engineering of UFRJ in 1970, was married to Mrs. Mary and had two beautiful daughters (Glória and Regina). For this reason, they were much harassed by the young men, especially at congresses.

I remember this not only because Adilson always deserves to be remembered, but because of a story that happened to them on a vacation trip to Europe in August/September 1974.

It was a group organized by SEAERJ on a “closed charter flight”. They would arrive in Lisbon on a Friday morning and, 45 days later, the “charter flight” would pick everyone up in London. In the interval, each one for himself. A party, almost everyone on the flight knew one another.

Prof. Adilson went with the family to a hotel, but needed to stop by a bank to get some “travel checks” or traveller’s checks, as they were known and as was the safe way to travel at the time (credit cards were incipient and those from Brazil did not work abroad). Mrs. Mary, tired from the trip, asked at the hotel front desk:

_ Do the banks close tomorrow, Saturday?, to which the head porter answered no.

They went to rest and left it to go to the bank the next day.

On Saturday, they took a taxi to the bank’s address. Arriving there, the bank was closed! Mrs. Mary and Prof. Adilson were furious, and the taxi driver:

_ But here the banks do not open on Saturdays nor on Sundays!

_ Thank you very much for the information, why did you not tell us when we left the hotel?

_ You did not ask!

_ All right, it is true, but those people at the hotel front desk will pay for this - said Mrs. Mary.

And arriving at the front desk, she let loose:

_ What an absurdity, deceiving tourists and clients in that way, why did you say that banks do not close on Saturdays?

And the people at the front desk:

_ Well, they do not close because they do not open; they open and close on Friday, on Monday, on Tuesday, on Wednesday and on Thursday. On Saturday and Sunday they neither open nor close!

All said with conviction, with calm, with respect and with exemplary seriousness!

Miguel Fernández y Fernández, engineer, chronicler and columnist, member of the National Academy of Engineering and of the Institute of Engineering # written Jan 2020, 1,970 characters.