The Midnight Sun
The door slammed and in walked Dad after a long day at work that began before I woke up. His customary "hello honey" and Mom's "hi sweetheart" would echoe through the house. The smell of dinner was running through the house and I remember it being chicken. That smell stays with you forever and to this day I make the same recipe and the memories always tug at me.
I was in the family room and it was a sunken room that was always a different temperature so you knew it was a garage in its former life. My feet were up on the modern slate and chrome table and the "tube" was on. Dad opened the door and stood at the stairs and asked where Mom was and he skipped down the stairs and plopped right down next to me.
Mom came down the steps and Dad said he had a surprise. Dad was working at the Defense Department and we never went on long vacations so this was a surprise. It turned out that Dad's new boss enjoyed having his staff's family tag along for some of the international trips and Dad was bring good news about a fun couple of weeks abroad for a NATO Conference. At the time I had no idea what that meant, but all I knew is we were headed somewhere cool.
Norway is a place that I had to look for on the globe and when I found it I got a shiver as I read about it in my Encyclopedia Brittanica which was my Google search at the time. (I religiously read my EB every-night before bed) It was full of snow capped mountains and everything winter-olympics about it and being a lover of warm weather it was a shocker.
We rolled through the gates at Andrews Air Force Base and we cruised through a gate right onto the tarmac where the Boeing the big 707 was waiting for us. It was a light blue bottom that wrapped the nose of the airplane and it read United States of America across the top. I had seen a plane like this on TV and I found out that it had been JFK's Air Force One.
Standing on the tarmac it was really loud and windy and you could not hear anything and you had to rely on hand signals for direction. Looking around an gazing at this awesome plane with United States of America was incredible. I caught a hand gesture pointing to the mobile stairs and we all started scaling the 30 steps to board. At the top of the stairs I looked back and it was so neat seeing all the people looking at us. As we entered the plane a steward with a blue vest with a DoD insignia on it guided us to our seats and explained all the amenities on board.
We all took our seats and when the Secretary of Defense boarded the aircraft he stood where everyone could see him and he announced how happy he was to have us on-board for the NATO Trip and how important it was for all of us to represent he United States in a very diplomatic way. It was a way to tell grownups to be good. The main cabin door closed and the Captain came over the intercom and asked all of us to relax and enjoy the flight with explicit instructions for Tommy Schlesinger and myself to come up to the cockpit after the Captain gave the signal. This where a simple flight turned into a story I would tell for the rest of my years.
I had a window seat and watched as we barreled down the runway and a rush of adrenalin came over me and before I knew it we were airborne an cruising to Norway. 10 minutes later the Captain came over the intercom and told Tommy and myself to come forward. We walked through a conference room and there was the door to the cockpit. It was open and we were escorted in and you could see all the dials and lights and then the world as it is see from a plane at 30,000 feet. You are looking ahead and I had never seen the world above the clouds like this before. The Captain turned and asked if we would like to stay a while and watch them fly the plane and I was hooked. After about 2 hours I went to the bathroom and when I re-entered a couple of Air Force F-4 Phantoms appeared as escorts as we flew over Greenland. It was the coolest thing I had ever seen or experienced and I will never forget it.
While in flight I learned a lot about Norway and we were fling into a Northern City called Boda. We came in low over the water and the boulders on the rocky shoreline raced by as we got close to the runway. It was light out, but almost mid-night. The midnight sun they called it. Being North of the Arctic Circle in the Summer the sun is visible 24 hours a day so this was going to really be weird.
The first couple of days was filled with dignitary and diplomatic stuff. There were not that many kids on the trip so that helped Tommy and I get into a little trouble. Tommy's little Sister Clara was with us also and she had more sense than us, but she also took part in some of the fun.
Our second stop was in the city of Bergen and were put up in a high rise building reserved for the students of the local university. We were part of a military delegation and the Norwegian soldiers were everywhere guarding us and this is where Tommy and I thought it would be funny to drop two handfulls of pennies down the the 17 story staircase. At the bottom of the staircase were 5 fully armed Norwegian Commandos guarding the entrance to the main lobby. Clara hid at the bottom of the staircase 17 floors below and Tommy and I each had a handful of pennies above. I remember looking at Tommy and then the go ahead signal. We opened our hands and the pennies began to fall through the 3 foot stairwell and when the fist penny hit 40 more followed and it sounded like a machine gun of money and it echoed through the vertical hallway. Al I remember is running down the hallway and slipping in the room out of breath. Tommy and I began to laugh and then the shit hot the fan. Evidently the soldiers did not like our little prank and this is where we got into trouble the first time. I remember we were asked to go to Secretary Schlesingers room for a talking to. After getting the lecture of a lifetime Tommy and I had our own Secret Service agent assigned to us...and this is where the fun really began.
More to follow...
I was in the family room and it was a sunken room that was always a different temperature so you knew it was a garage in its former life. My feet were up on the modern slate and chrome table and the "tube" was on. Dad opened the door and stood at the stairs and asked where Mom was and he skipped down the stairs and plopped right down next to me.
Mom came down the steps and Dad said he had a surprise. Dad was working at the Defense Department and we never went on long vacations so this was a surprise. It turned out that Dad's new boss enjoyed having his staff's family tag along for some of the international trips and Dad was bring good news about a fun couple of weeks abroad for a NATO Conference. At the time I had no idea what that meant, but all I knew is we were headed somewhere cool.
Norway is a place that I had to look for on the globe and when I found it I got a shiver as I read about it in my Encyclopedia Brittanica which was my Google search at the time. (I religiously read my EB every-night before bed) It was full of snow capped mountains and everything winter-olympics about it and being a lover of warm weather it was a shocker.
We rolled through the gates at Andrews Air Force Base and we cruised through a gate right onto the tarmac where the Boeing the big 707 was waiting for us. It was a light blue bottom that wrapped the nose of the airplane and it read United States of America across the top. I had seen a plane like this on TV and I found out that it had been JFK's Air Force One.
Standing on the tarmac it was really loud and windy and you could not hear anything and you had to rely on hand signals for direction. Looking around an gazing at this awesome plane with United States of America was incredible. I caught a hand gesture pointing to the mobile stairs and we all started scaling the 30 steps to board. At the top of the stairs I looked back and it was so neat seeing all the people looking at us. As we entered the plane a steward with a blue vest with a DoD insignia on it guided us to our seats and explained all the amenities on board.
We all took our seats and when the Secretary of Defense boarded the aircraft he stood where everyone could see him and he announced how happy he was to have us on-board for the NATO Trip and how important it was for all of us to represent he United States in a very diplomatic way. It was a way to tell grownups to be good. The main cabin door closed and the Captain came over the intercom and asked all of us to relax and enjoy the flight with explicit instructions for Tommy Schlesinger and myself to come up to the cockpit after the Captain gave the signal. This where a simple flight turned into a story I would tell for the rest of my years.
I had a window seat and watched as we barreled down the runway and a rush of adrenalin came over me and before I knew it we were airborne an cruising to Norway. 10 minutes later the Captain came over the intercom and told Tommy and myself to come forward. We walked through a conference room and there was the door to the cockpit. It was open and we were escorted in and you could see all the dials and lights and then the world as it is see from a plane at 30,000 feet. You are looking ahead and I had never seen the world above the clouds like this before. The Captain turned and asked if we would like to stay a while and watch them fly the plane and I was hooked. After about 2 hours I went to the bathroom and when I re-entered a couple of Air Force F-4 Phantoms appeared as escorts as we flew over Greenland. It was the coolest thing I had ever seen or experienced and I will never forget it.
While in flight I learned a lot about Norway and we were fling into a Northern City called Boda. We came in low over the water and the boulders on the rocky shoreline raced by as we got close to the runway. It was light out, but almost mid-night. The midnight sun they called it. Being North of the Arctic Circle in the Summer the sun is visible 24 hours a day so this was going to really be weird.
The first couple of days was filled with dignitary and diplomatic stuff. There were not that many kids on the trip so that helped Tommy and I get into a little trouble. Tommy's little Sister Clara was with us also and she had more sense than us, but she also took part in some of the fun.
Our second stop was in the city of Bergen and were put up in a high rise building reserved for the students of the local university. We were part of a military delegation and the Norwegian soldiers were everywhere guarding us and this is where Tommy and I thought it would be funny to drop two handfulls of pennies down the the 17 story staircase. At the bottom of the staircase were 5 fully armed Norwegian Commandos guarding the entrance to the main lobby. Clara hid at the bottom of the staircase 17 floors below and Tommy and I each had a handful of pennies above. I remember looking at Tommy and then the go ahead signal. We opened our hands and the pennies began to fall through the 3 foot stairwell and when the fist penny hit 40 more followed and it sounded like a machine gun of money and it echoed through the vertical hallway. Al I remember is running down the hallway and slipping in the room out of breath. Tommy and I began to laugh and then the shit hot the fan. Evidently the soldiers did not like our little prank and this is where we got into trouble the first time. I remember we were asked to go to Secretary Schlesingers room for a talking to. After getting the lecture of a lifetime Tommy and I had our own Secret Service agent assigned to us...and this is where the fun really began.
More to follow...
posted by Unknown at 5:25 AM
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