Little Dickie

It was a clear day when we left East Anglia and headed for Japan. My step- father, a Wing Commander in the USAF stationed in England, had recieved orders to report to Misawa AFB in just thirty days.

That gave us just four weeks to visit London, Paris, Rome and Athens, so we hit the road for the grand tour. Dad drove us in the little Ford Anglia to Colchester where we toured the Roman ruins of Maiden Castle. We made a quick sale of the wheeled conveyance and caught a fast train to London.

We toured the Tower of London viewing the Crown Jewels, then the Royal Palace, Parliament, Big Ben, St. Paul's Cathedral, Hyde Park, Piccadilly Circus and the British Museum, the three of us boarded the ferry at Southhampton and passed over to the port of Calais, France.

After touring the Louvre, the Eifel Tower, and almost the entire Left Bank, including the apartment where Lautrec had lived, we boarded a train and settled in for a short trip to Rome.

There we viewed the Parthenon and the Roman Coliseum and then we proceeded by boat to Athens to view the Acropolis and to visit Plato's Academy. At some point we caught a flight to Tokyo.

At Misawa AFB, I was enrolled for my first year of middle schooling. In a class writing assignment, I stood in front of the clsss and read out my report. I had written a short little essay and entitled it, "What I did Last Summer". I think I got an 'A' on it but I'm not sure.

At any rate, the other kids in the class were not too impressed, as I recall. I guess all the rest of the 'military-brats' had experienced quite a summer for themselves!