Cuba Canceled

[susandennis]

When I was 10, my parents planned this magical vacation for us - Florida for Christmas. There was no Disney on the east coast then, but there was Cuba. So Daddy's plan was we'd drive to Miami and then fly to Cuba and spend our Christmas there. We were so excited.

We word out the C volume of World Book Encyclopedia (the pre-internet's internet). We'd never been on a plane before. Daddy was in marketing and we were not a vacation type family so this was a BFD and he started talking up the trip around the 4th of July. And we were psyched.

A few days before the trip, Daddy called a family meeting to announce that Cuba was out. He explained that the government was in trouble and it looked like a bad guy named Castro was going to start a war there and it wasn't safe for us to go. (Or at least that's how my 10 year old brain processed it.) We were crushed.

But, Daddy pulled some fast strings and Cuba got replaced by St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands AND, most importantly, the plane trip was back on the table. We had a grand time. And forgave Castro long ago. But, today's events brought back the memories.

A big part of that trip was the plane. It was Eastern Airlines. There was no first class - it was all one class. We wore our Sunday School clothes. I think the trip was about 45 minutes but we got to meet the pilot and the stewardesses gave us wings and we each got a whole Coke (in a bottle).

I had a WHOLE lotta show and tell fodder that January.

Comments

[gfrancie.livejournal.com]

That must have been amazing and wild.
Funny how things are changing. I don't think my Mom imagined things changing like this in her life time.

[susandennis]

It is incredible and amazing to think about now. I am often just blown over by all the things I've seen in my own little lifetime. And I am so grateful. I cannot imagine a better span of 65 years than I have had.

[mhaithaca.livejournal.com]

I know I got to see the cockpit a couple of times as a kid, and I've still got my Eastern wings (and my KLM wings, and Pan Am wings) somewhere! And there were people smoking in the back of the plane.

I'm hoping I can get my finances back in gear soon enough that I can visit Cuba in an early wave. If I wait more than a couple of years, the tourist trade will have taken over and it won't be worth it.

[susandennis]

I was thinking about that the other day - smoking on the plane. I remember the HUGE outcry when they moved the smokers to a special section in the back. These were white people in the South and not predisposed to sit in the back of fucking anything thankyouverymuch. Wild.

And what fun it would be for you to go to Cuba and report back all the details. Please.