Hitchhiking Europe, August 1962-June 1963.
18 years young at the Leaning Tower of Pisa, Italy with my high school buddy, Mike Friedman (to my right) and Cecil Guess, from Huston, Texas (to my left) in November 1962. We were on our way to Barcelona, Spain.
We had just spent three weeks in Rome where we had the opportunity to be an Italian movie called the "Forbidden Cities." We were in a scene playing teenagers dancing in a New York City Bomb Shelter. That's where we met Cecil Guess, from Dallas, Texas. The next thing we knew we were on our way to Barcelona, Spain.
Barcelona was a Sea Port and a wild place, to say the least, and so was I. Barcelona and I made a perfect fit! Strange, but true! In fact, Barcelona deserves a big chapter!
Mike and I worked all summer after graduating from High School, saved our money and then hitch-hiked from the edge of Walla Walla to New York. It took 20 rides, 4.5 days until we arrived at the Staten Island Ferry at about 6 AM in the morning!
Mike needed to come back after six months, but I stayed until early June 1963. I got a cheap flight on Icelandic Airlines from London to Glasgow, Scotland, then Rejivic, Iceland, on to Gander New Foundland, and finally, Newark NJ. I arrived Newark at 6 AM and walked out of Airport and started hitch-hiking.
I was so homesick that I never stopped to rest. I did catch some winks, in the cars I rode in. Four days later, I walked down the little road to our house on Mill Creek Road, just outside Walla Walla. My father was outside our house doing some yard work. It was almost like he knew that I was coming at that moment. We shook hands! No hugs in those days.
The next day at 6 AM, I started working a 12-hour shift at the Birds Eye Frozen Food Plant. We were processing peas, seven days a week, 12 hours a day, for five weeks.
There is a book on this journey that I am writing, slowly, but surely.
