In advance of our November get-together this year, there are a few significant dates to remember for this, our 50th Anniversary year since we first arrived in Firenze. (I looked it up, and apparently the 50th anniversary of anything is considered the “golden anniversary” – so I’ll refer to this as our golden anniversary).
For those of you for whom August 28th is a significant date (like Blair Body, whose birthday is on August 28), ask yourself, “Where was I on August 28, 1976?” If that poses too big a date and memory stretch for you – let me help you. You were in a hotel near Los Angeles International Airport, meeting your future Gruppo classmates for the first time, and about to embark on a year-long trip that would be one of the most memorable of your life. Does this ring a bell?
I interviewed Blair for this article (I do have a B.A. in Journalism, and I always wanted to say that) and he told me he’s sure we left Los Angeles for Paris on August 28, 1976 because he remembers thinking something along the lines of, “Here I am turning 21, the day when I can drink legally in the United States, and I’m leaving.” (Sorry if this isn’t an exact quote, Blair, but it contains the essence).
Blair even remembers that we were all loaded onto a DC-10 jet on a charter flight (remember those?). I have a poignant memory of the plane taxiing out to the runway for takeoff. I was looking out the window for my last view of my beloved Los Angeles and feeling nostalgic already. Then, I saw my brother and Dad, who were standing next to a chain-link fence and waving at the plane furiously! It’s a memory that still kind of chokes me up when I think of it because I can relive it perfectly in my mind. (Those of you who are coming to Firenze in November will get to meet this same brother of mine in the flesh!)
I don’t have many memories of the flight except for one – the pilot happened to mention that we were flying over Ireland on our way to Paris. My parents were from Ireland, and I had never yet been to the “Old Sod” as my Dad used to call it, so I remember my ears perking up when the pilot said this.
Blair and I can remember arriving in Paris on August 29, 1976. But we are unsure about the precise airport where we landed. We are both clear that it wasn’t Charles De Gaulle Airport (CDG), so we would welcome input from all of you as to what you remember about our arrival in France. I think we landed at Orly Airport. Blair thinks it’s possible we landed at Paris-Le Bourget Airport, which closed to commercial traffic in 1977, but it might still have been in existence in 1976, allowing charter flights to land.
My memory at this point is that it was at this Parisian airport where we first met Dr. Peruzzi in the flesh! We were all loaded onto a bus. For some reason I have this memory of Manuel and Norma sitting together, and I think I remember Manuel either taking pictures or actually making a film of our first few minutes in Paris. (Manuel, is this correct? If so, does this film still exist?)
It was a gray day, and I was feeling sleepy as the bus wound its way through Paris. We arrived at a hotel somewhere on the outskirts of Paris, or so it seemed to me. Luckily, Blair, the architect, has a more precise memory. He recalls that we all checked into a hotel which he describes like this, “a Paris hotel disguised as a future IKEA showroom (the Hotel Ibis).”
I think my roommate in Paris was Kathy Huckabay. And I remember that my first thought after grabbing something to eat was that I needed to sleep. Which I did. For like the whole night. Imagine my surprise when I awoke the next day to find that some of you had spent your first night in Paris staying wide awake and cavorting under the Eiffel Tower and otherwise getting to know the place! If you did something memorable on that first night in Paris, let us know what you remember.
What happened on August 30, 1976? That will be the subject of my next article.
What do you remember?
Were you there that first night in Paris? Share your memories and join the conversation in our Il Gruppo ’76 Facebook group.