Day 001: The journey begins
36yearsago.com
Vienna 1971—A Student Journal
A year of music, study, travel, sightseeing &
friends.
Day 1 —
The journey begins
03-August-1971
(Tue.)
TRANSCRIPT
Pan Am, Flight 72, 6:00, 747
Received the royal treatment. Made things easier.
Guitar checked “special handling.”
Met by the Pan Am photographer. Besides taking
pictures, he’s pretty good at sending 40 lbs. of
books down the chute. I used the “international
traveler’s pose” for his complementary photograph.
Also was met on the plane by another gentleman. He
was surprised
not to see my guitar. All a
very pleasant experience.
When I said goodbye to Dennis, he cried. Made me feel
sad.
REFLECTIONS
I'm
22. I’m 22 and
a recent graduate with a B.A. degree in Music
Education from Montclair State College in New Jersey.
I was going to be a teacher, a music teacher.
Moving on.
First flight. I’m about to take my first flight. I’m about to go abroad for a one-year fellowship to study. I’m excited and getting special treatment (thanks to Rotary, most likely). You can tell I’m naïve. Why in the world would I be bringing a box of books that weighed 40 lbs?
TRANSCRIPT
The Flight
$2.40 to see “David & Lisa.” $1.00 for scotch and water. Great flight so far. Plane very big…kept very busy…didn’t notice the plane was moving. …”Fasten your seat belt, you idiot.” Next time I’ll pay more attention to the emergency instructions.
• 5:51 — “
• 5:52 — “ … Homesick already.
• Seat over the wings…they move?
• About to take off…made Sign of the Cross.
• Planes take off every 3 minutes. They might as well race. One landed in between, yet.
Before I knew it, it was all over. Unbelievable plane. Unbelievable power. On the way up it turned. It felt like it was standing still—about to fall…maybe it was my stomach.
• On the way up.
• Scenery beautiful.
• Keep getting higher—more beautiful.
• Clouds both low and high.
• Flight info: 6 hrs. 30 min. to Frankfurt.
• Captain H.
• 33,000–37,000 ft.
• Going north along coast – Newfoundland —
Amsterdam — Germany.
On ground, the clouds were dark and ominous. From up
here, beautiful, white, and fluffy… It just goes to
show you, “There are always two sides to every
story.”
• This is the way to learn geography.
• Nothing seems dangerous from up here…I wonder why
the newspapers say different. (I think that I’ll save
the following space for another philosophical
comment.)
[ ]
• Boston.
• Scotch is here…with nuts.
• Up in the clouds…I’ve been taking pictures all
along.
• What’s this…another airliner somewhat below us?
Unbelievable. Pretty soon it’ll be bumper to bumper.
• Disappointing…No good sunset…sun behind clouds.
• Dinner - very good.
• Night already.
• The only thing wrong so far is that the
“Theater-in-the-Air” doesn’t work.
• Stewardesses are extremely efficient…must be
foreigners.
• Spoke to soon…Theater-in-the-Air works — classical,
stories, Rock, WPAT, Jazz, Language…
• A spot of rough weather…what happened to my sense
of security.
• Met a very nice girl—Californian. Pleasant
conversation. She was probably tired of a whole
planeload of soldiers trying to pick her up.
• Daybreak—slow and revealing.
• Arrival in Frankfurt, Germany.
• Short stay.
• Frankfurt to Vienna. 1 hr.
• Beautiful countryside.
• Too tired to write…slept. ZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzz
REFLECTIONS
First
Flight. 36 years
later, my first flight seems a bit funny. I was
obviously writing these impressions down as my
experience unfolded. Gee, I even had a bit of a sense
of humor. I’m not exactly certain where that came
from, maybe from my best friend, Lenny.
The spirit of youth. I remember, and it’s still true, that teens and young adults have great spirit and ideals. Our youth want to solve the problems of the world—bring about world peace, and such. I’m happy that spirit is still part of young generations. After all, they are the ones who will change things, once they assume the positions of power and become the future voices of people in democracies. Change things for the better, please. For your fellow man, and our Earth. Keep that spirit for as long as you can.
Joy of discovery. To finish up this first, day’s remembrances, I’ll point out a couple of things. First, there’s the joy of discovery. The first time you experience things, you are amazed. That the plane’s wings move. The sudden stillness of motion as the plane banks. The first time you talk to a nice girl (from California, yet) on your first plane flight. (Suddenly I'm the world traveler, cosmopolitan, and very international.) The first time you see clouds up close. Your first sunrise at 37,000 feet. If you’re young or old, try to keep that joy of discovery. As you get older, “life” will tend to drag-you-down with its problems, challenges, and struggles. We all have them. That’s life. We can all learn to better focus on the positive things of life, the beauty of the world, the beauty of all types of people. Ok, easier said than done, but doable. Focus, John.
Rediscovering this journal reminds me of my first joys of discovery.
It's never too late..too early. Second, my new slogan.
“It’s never too late to start. It’s never too early to start.”
It's never too late to start. As an older bloke (oldster), during the last few years I have been invigorated by writing and planning a number of web ventures. This web idea, 36yearsago.com, is just one of many. It feels great to write, think, plan, and execute these new web ventures. All without almost no money. I feel like I’m a budding entrepreneur. At my age, no less. Will the buds take root? Will they become beautiful bouquets or, dare I say it, as grand and tall as the mighty sequoias? Doesn’t matter, it’s fun to try.
It's never too early to start—never give up. As a younger dude, both in 1971 as a student and in short periods throughout my life, I have also had ideas, creative periods, business ideas, career paths that didn’t work, and a ton of music that no one has ever heard. Why didn’t anything happen? Well, some things happened. Did I not have the “talent to bubble to the top?” Or did nobody just discover me. Probably both. However, I did try a few things. In retrospect, I wish I had pursued some of my ideas a bit further—a là “don’t give up.” These won’t be the topic of this blog, but the point is, if you are young, don’t be afraid to start. Try out things. Work on dreams. Be responsible, work, and pay bills. However, if you want to write a song, novel, TV or movie script, write it. As Nike says, “Just do it.”
If you're older, "It's never too late to start."
If you're young, "It's never too early to start."
Keep a journal. Third, for interesting periods of your life, keep a journal.
This blog is based on this one-year-plus journal from 1971. It was the only year in my life that I kept a journal. If I hadn't kept it, or if I lost the small collection of books that comprise it, those memories would have been lost, leaving me with only a "summary"—"It was a great year in Vienna."
Today, I'm glad I kept that journal.
Write. Keep a journal. Start a blog. Save your memories.
John
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