The Trip Begins

It was July 5, 1973. The day our trip to Europe began. There was 16 people in our tour group. Mr. Vivian was the tour leader. He was my speech and drama teacher from Anderson College, which is where the tour originated. Back in the Spring, he announced that he was going to lead a tour to Europe and the Middle East. It seemed like a perfect thing to do. After all, my friends Sandra and Talula wanted to go. We were all very close. My parents thought it was a good idea, since their big motto was "travel broadens one". They also recognized the need to be with friends. And, I felt a special closeness to Sandra. There were two other girls in the group--Judy and Sha. Judy was my age, and Sha was still in high school. The others in the group were school teachers or retired women. I was the only guy in the group, besides Mr. Vivian. We met up at Greenville Airport. Sandra's boyfriend Jim brought her. It was not pleasant. My parents brought me. We had a group photo; said our goodbyes; and boarded the plane. I had flown before, but others hadn't. Three weeks later, we would all be veteran flyers. The first flight was a short one from Greenville to Charlotte. After a brief layover, we flew from Charlotte to New York, landing at JFK. I had never been in an airport that big before. I saw a man selling pencils in the terminal. We had about three hours before we were to board the plane to London. Of course, everyone split up. When the time came to board around 7pm, Sandra and Talula were not there. Mr. Vivian was panicking. I found them, and we ran to the plane. It wouldn't be the last time. We flew via Pan Am toward London. They gave us flight bags as a bonus. We got the music headphones. The music was David Bowie's "Space Oddity", which was very appropriate. "Ground control to Major Tom, Ground control to Major Tom, Countdown engines on...May God's love be with you." Also on the music was New York City's "I'm Doing Fine Now". They did some good programming. The plane lifted off. It got dark in a hurry, as we headed toward England. We could see the lights of Boston off in the distance. They soon served dinner on the plane. I had Roast Duck with Orange Sauce. I had never had plane food that good. After dinner, they announced that they would show a movie. It was getting kind of late, at least based on our body time, but I wanted to watch the movie. Others tried to sleep. The movie was "The Thief Who Came to Dinner" with Ryan O'Neal. I tried to watch it, but with the exhaustion, it seemed a little boring. I'm sure it was good. The day ended somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean, trying to sleep. I have never been able to sleep on a plane, train or bus. This time was no different. The new day coming would be the start of a real adventure. I asked Sandra if she thought this was a dream or real. She said it was real. It seemed like a dream.