What was she thinking?

I've often wondered what made Mother do this.  It wasn't that she was taking a year in Europe to travel and run rampant across the Continent.  She went over there to teach school on base.  From what I understand, there was a program for teachers to go to military bases in a number of parts of the world to teach.  (I will get more details about this and post them at another time.)  So was it the travel bug?  Or did she want to get away from home?  Was she tired of living under her parents' rules?  Was she afraid Amelia Ann was going to knock her down or run her over?  Or did she have "a calling"?  Hopefully these are questions I'll get answers to over time. 

I must have inherited my love of travel from my mother.  Even though later in her life, she didn’t like to go long distances or fly, which limited where she could go, she did have the travel bug and I did too.

Although, as I think about it more, I wonder if it wasn’t so much a travel bug she had as it was the desire to sightsee.  To experience whatever was out there.  When I read the diary, she certainly traveled to many places, but what she talks about more than anything is what she saw and what she experienced.  She talks about struggling to make herself understood and to get to the places she wanted to go.  She tells stories about the places where she stayed, both luxurious and bargain basement.  She recites the facts of the places she went to and tells little stories about things that enchanted her.  And there are the funny things, like the “little man” that fussed at her about the slippers in the mosque and her poopy camel.

She went on an army ship when she went to Germany.  And flew home on a cargo plane.  Not the plush accommodations or means of travel that I would choose.  But maybe back in those days and considering the fact that she was going to Germany to teach school on an Army base, those ways of getting there and back were the norm.  But I think it was because of that that she didn’t really have the desire to fly and so when she traveled it was typically by car.

I like to travel and I’ve been to Europe, to the Caribbean, to Canada, on a couple cruises, and all over the US for work travel and to visit friends.  But I’m envious that she spent a year in Germany.  With no other friends, although she made friends there, and traveled all over Europe and even to Africa and the Middle East.

My first really big trip was to Europe with my best friend.  Mother and Daddy were both excited about my going over there.  I didn’t get to see Straubing, although I realize now I was not that far away, but I did see some of the same places she did.  She mentions Berteschgaden and Garmisch, both of which I saw on that first trip.  And I did see Paris. 

I’ve had a chance to visit Corsica and Italy.  Mother didn’t go to Corsica but she did go to Florence and Venice.  I found myself crying when I realized she and I had done some of the same things in Italy and had some of the same experiences.  She also went to Madrid, which I did as well, and visited that art gallery, the Prado.  LOL

I always thought of Mother as not being very worldly and yet she traveled to places she had only read about.  Spent time with people who didn’t speak the same language she did.  Stayed in less than nice hotels as well as some that would be considered top of the line.  She experienced a lot of new things that she probably had never imagined she would.  She was in the Holy Land at Christmas and the Vatican at Easter.  Her year in Europe fulfilled a dream for her.  And now that I take in the experience she had, I’m finding that I’m envious.

My brother and his family live in France and, in many ways, they are doing what Mother did.  They are traveling all over Europe.  They’re making friends and learning what it’s like to live with people who don’t speak your language, eat your food, or do the kinds of things you’re used to.  But they can still have the connections to the US that Mother didn’t have.  There’s internet and the ability to have your home phone in Georgia ring in France, and the Slingbox that allows them to watch US TV.  Mother didn’t have those conveniences.  So it makes what she did seem more fearless and brave.

When I think back to the years I was growing up, what I remember more than most things was all the places we went to.  No matter where we went, Mother found all the historical sites and all the interesting places for us to go.

In North Carolina, we, of course, went to the beach for at least a week most summers.  Wrightsville Beach.  We saw the USS North Carolina but for the most part we played in the sand, rode our bikes to Newell’s and ate silver dollar pancakes at The Landis.  We also went to the mountains and visited places like Montreat and Cherokee, back in the days before casinos, and Tweetsie Railroad.  One of the funny stories of our childhood was our trip to Tweetsie.  In those days, a local celebrity named Fred Kirby hosted “The Little Rascals” show on Charlotte television.  He dressed up like a cowboy and my youngest brother George was fascinated by Fred Kirby.  So more than the rest of us, he was beside himself with excitement when we visited Tweetsie, where Fred Kirby also hung out.  George was a little boy then, maybe 3, so when he actually met Fred Kirby and Fred said “hi, George”, George, probably predictably, burst into tears and turned away.  I can remember my mother saying that Fred Kirby was a little surprised and shocked by George’s reaction.  We also visited places like Ghost Town at Maggie Valley and Grandfather Mountain, where they had the Highland Games.  I took Scottish dancing for a couple years when I was in junior high and loved to see the dancers at the Highland Games.

When we moved to New Jersey, I think Mother hit the mother lode of sightseeing opportunities.  We took several trips into NYC to see things like the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty.  We rode the Staten Island Ferry and drove the streets of NYC looking at Christmas lights.  We went to Rockefeller Center to see the Christmas tree.  But there were so many other places to see, many of them Revolutionary War sights.  We went to Morristown in New Jersey and to Valley Forge.  My grandmother went with us on that trip and marveled over and over that we were there on Washington’s actual birthday.  We went to Atlantic City and walked on the boardwalk and bought salt water taffy.  We drove to Philadelphia and saw the Liberty Bell and where the Declaration of Independence was signed.  We went to Gettysburg and Hershey, where we saw how they made chocolate.  We went to an Amish fair, where Mother developed her love of hex signs and where we lost Paul for a while.  He had stopped to look at something and didn’t notice us walk off.  Of course, we didn’t notice either for a bit!

We drove upstate in New York and went to West Point.  We drove to Mystic, Connecticut before Mystic Pizza was famous.  My mother’s sister, Amelia Ann, and her family lived in Boston, so we took in all the local sites we could see there.  The USS Constitution, Fanueil Hall, Paul Revere’s house, Sturbridge Village.  And when we went to see my father’s brother, Don, and his family near Baltimore, we took a day trip to Washington, DC and saw the Capitol, Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument and Arlington National Cemetery.  We drove by the White House, but didn't go in for some reason.

One year when we were driving home from Michigan we went by way of Montreal and went to “Man and His World”, which was what was left after the World’s Fair.  Unfortunately Mother had broken her ankle while we were in Michigan, so she missed all of that.  But the highlight of the trip was, again, George.  I was taking French in school and took great pleasure in teaching my brothers the one “bad thing” I’d learned to say – “firmé la bouche”, or “shut up”.  So we were eating breakfast at the hotel one morning and two of the waitresses were arguing.  George stood up on a chair and yelled out “firmé la bouche!  firmé la bouche!”  Fortunately they didn’t understand him, but it was funny all the same.

We went to Destin, FL for the weekend once, the only time we went to the beach anywhere besides Wrightsville.  I remember being disappointed that it was overcast, but Mother, ever the Pollyanna, said "but you can get burned out in the overcast", like that was a good thing.  If I ever develop skin cancer, I'll have her to thank for my poor sun habits.

I remember when we moved to Atlanta from New Jersey, my father told us that he would take us to Disney World.  How exciting!  And how disappointing, once we got here to find out that there was a Six Flags outside Atlanta, so they took us there instead.

I love to travel and she did as well, although I think for the most part our definitions of travel would be different.