July 5, 2011 Rememberance of 1967 in Iceland

Today is my birthday but it brings back a memory that my "Icelandic mother" made for me many years ago.  After I arrived in Iceland, I turned 18 several days later.  It is still difficult to be away from home at that age, although you think you are all grown up.

I remember being tired after those few days, “jet lag” as I would call it.  Iceland is five hours ahead of us.  Mamma heard me mention something about a song that I liked.  She was fluent in German along with her native Icelandic and spoke some broken English. We taught each other. So she had a record that she put on the stereo and turned it up so I would hear it. “Upon the Roof” played and made me feel right at home.  I loved the other songs too.  It was instrumental by Percy Faith and his orchestra.

What can you do, but get up to that?  I got up and went out to the living room to smiling faces.  It was the weekend and both mamma and pabbi were home.  We ate breakfast together.  They were 14 years older than my own parents.  They had three sons. Two were married and their youngest had gone to the states as an exchange student.  He was in Indiana.  He was not the other half of my exchange though. Boy, was he cute?  I had a chance to meet him.  I had an instant crush on him. Unfortunately, I have not had any contact with him in many years.  However, I do have contact with my other “brothers” and their families.  I am friends with the oldest brothers twins.

My Icelandic parents have since passed on but we kept in contact while they were living. (side note :o) ) The rest of the day we took a bus to the harbor and watched the ships come in and out and walked downtown Reykjavik.  The interesting part to me was that they never owned a car.  They always took the bus or walked everywhere they went. I could write a book!  But I better stop for today.  I have a book I want to read, a journal (crafting) I want to make, pictures to print off and other things, but I wanted to write.  I WILL write that book.  I plan to after I retire. Maybe I’ll get part of it written here. Hope you had a great 4th of July! Happy slicing! :o) (The picture at the bottom is in my bedroom of the twins when I was there.)

Comments

  1. It's a nice start to your book! It's interesting that it's music that seemed to spark your memory. Perhaps more will come if you remember the music? And happiest of birthdays to you!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Happy birthday! Isn't it great to have good memories to feast upon!
    Music, like smells, are pretty good triggers. Play some more music and keep on writing. I want to read that book someday.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Happy Birthday! What wonderful memories to hold and treasure. I can only imagine how difficult it must have been to spend such a big birthday away from your friends. It sounds like your family made it special and memorable for you.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I am glad that you have so many memories of your exchange - such a fulfilling opportunity!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Happy Birthday! I hope that you will find the time to write the book. Living in a different culture is an incredible experience.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Just write :) keep writing...don't try to form it now but get it down. Later on you can form it into segments and themes and chronological or chapters but just get it down ;)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thank you for leaving a comment! :)

Popular posts from this blog

June 21, 2011 First Day of Summer

SOLC 2012: 6 of 31 March 6, 2012 Sink or Swim?