Going Home

The day had come that we had been looking forward to and dreading at the same time. The tour was over, and we were flying home. We had been to England, Italy, Israel, West Germany, East Germany, Switzerland, France, and Spain. All in 21 days. We had experienced a lot of stuff. We had fun and fear. There had been laughter and tears. We had even learned some things about the history of other places, as well as learning about ourselves. Now, it was time to go back to our home lives. Sandra and Talula never liked to be photographed without makeup, so I made a point to take a few pictures of them that morning, before boarding the bus to take us to the airport. They didn't appreciate it, but we were all in an up mood. It was a time of anticipation. "Tie A Yellow Ribbon" was our song. We got to the airport and boarded the 747 for the flight home. One of the ladies on our tour had her sword letter opener confiscated. She protested, saying that she had no desire to hijack a plane with a letter opener, but they took it away and didn't give it back. Never once did they ask me about my pen knife, which could have done more harm than her letter opener. We took off and realized what a special adventure we had. There were smiles and tears. And exhaustion. The plane landed briefly in Lisbon Portugal. We asked the flight attendant how long we were going to be there, and could we go into the airport, and she said we probably shouldn't, so I went out on the tarmac, just to say I was on Portuguese soil. Once again, we took off for home. The plane was packed with people. The movie shown in our section was the comedy "Ten from Your Show of Shows" with Sid Caesar. It was very funny. If you haven't seen it, you should. I could also see the musical "1776" from my seat in the next section. The 8-hour flight was pretty long. I tried to pass the time the best I could. Some people slept. Others played cards. I had written a song in Jerusalem called "Save the World for the Children". I wrote it from our experiences with the children in Nazareth that fought over the fruit, as well as the kids outside the Jerusalem museum. I worked on the music for the song on the plane. As a side note, Pope John Paul II blessed that song many years later for me. We got to New York and got our connection to Charlotte and then to Greenville. It was pretty late into the night, and jet lag had set in. The people in our tour were collapsing in their seats on the plane. Mr. Vivian told me after we landed that Talula, Sandra and I were using each other shoulders as pillows, and we looked as we were connecting as friends, as we didn't want our friendship to end. He had no idea how true that was. When we got back to Greenville, my parents were there to pick me up. Jim was there to get Sandra. We said goodbye and left. When I got home, Mother had tied a yellow ribbon around our oak tree. I saw Sandra one more time about a month later to exchange some pictures at her house. I saw Talula a few more times, and we keep in touch to this day. I have lost track of Judy and Sha. I think they are both married. Some of our tour members have died. Mr. Vivian died several years ago. Sandra and Jim are still married. I am still single. I am glad I went to Europe with these people. I would like to go back at some point and see some things again. I think I would appreciate them more. I got three hours college credit for going. I had to write a paper upon returning. I wrote one on the people we met along the way, but the professor wanted a paper on the history, so I had to write one on the places I went to, which I wasn't really sure about some of them and had to go to the library to see those places again. Much of it was a blur. So, I got the college credit, but beyond that, I got a chance to experience life, love, fear, being needed, and thankfulness of being an American. It was quite an experience. Three weeks.