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TAKE THE SHIP HOME
When the time came to board the ship I had a large crowd of
well-wishers to send me off on my voyage o New York City. I was given a gift of
a box of cheese and some other food items. I actually felt some sadness leaving
so many new friends. When I had left home no one cared but now I was leaving
France, where I came as a stranger, yet people seemed to really love me. It was
an odd feeling to be sent off on a ship by friends who where only strangers days
before. I felt good inside and know that no matter where I was to go in life
that friends would somehow always find me.
When the ship pulled out of port I felt like I was leaving
home and was slightly sad. I found that there were several travelers of college
age on the ship. I was the youngest of the group by a least two or three years.
I made fast friends with a small group of students. There was Jay, a Japanese
kid from Canada. J.C. was a 22 year old going to San Jose State College. Then
there were several other young women from Denmark and the states. There were
more women on the ship then men.
The ship could take about a thousand passengers but we had
only two or three hundred on board. There were no crowds any place on the ship
and all the activities were available. We as a group sat around the bar and
talked and exchanged tales of our travels. I read the cards of the group. We
spent some time talking about some of the odd and strange things that happened
to each of them. Then someone would get the group started on singing some folk
songs during the course of the day. That was how we spent most of the nine days
it took to cross the ocean to New York.
We had a very short stop at Southampton, England. They took
on some passengers and supplies. There was an old Irish gentleman who boarded
there. He had this very old hat on and when we left English waters and headed
for the open seas I saw him crying on the deck. When he was asked why, he said
that his hat blew off his head and his little leprechaun, that had come with him
from Ireland, had gone overboard with the hat. We thought he was nuts but
invited him to join our activities if he wished. He was a strange but kindly old
man BUT he seemed to disappear during the voyage. We never saw him around
anymore, anywhere on that ship, after that conversation.
I met some beautiful women from Denmark and one was a local
television star in that country. She did a children's show on the public
education station there. She looked like a model and all of guys were trying to
get her attention. I gave my address out in case any of them made it to
California. Which later on happened with two of them. We danced every night on
the ship on the way to New York City.
The voyage took over nine days in which we had bad weather
seven of those days. The storms were really bad and they caused the ship to roll
from side to side. They told the passengers not to go out on the decks and stay
inside.
When the ship would roll we could walk on the walls in the
hallway. We left our footprints up high on the walls and it must have made an
interesting sight for the new passengers that boarded the ship in New York.
We also would go out to the back of the ship and time the
waves so that when the ship went way up in the back and down in the front we
would jump up in the air. When we did this the back of the ship would then drop
down about twenty feet below our feet while we were up in the air. It was a ball
and it wasn't until we realized that the ship was also moving forward that we
stopped. We all went up in the air and when we looked down the ship was moving
under us. When we landed we had only about a foot remaining between us and the
end of the deck and the big ocean below.
On a dare during the worse night of the big storm J.C. and
myself after a few drinks climbed up over one hundred feet on the radar tower.
The ship was rocking and rolling to its side. We could look down in the dark and
see the ocean waves smashing the side. The tower would really move back and
forth and we had to hang onto the wet metal ladder. We also had to duck every
time the radar would turn around. It was about as crazy of a thing that I had
ever done but no one calls me chicken. I proved that I was not only braver then
they thought but nuts too ! We finally got down without being caught by the crew
or getting ourselves killed or lost at sea.
The ship cruise back to the states was very enjoyable for me
and the memories of all the people and the fun I had still are fresh in my mind.
I had only one regret and that was that Carol was not there to share the
experience with me. There was nothing more lonely than to have a great view of a
sunset or something and having no one there to share it with you. It steals a
part of the fun and joy.
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