Gateway European Tour (W-703) July 3-17, 1967

The year 1967 was a very good year. It was the year, I decided to embark upon a
European travel tour. It was my first trip beyond the contintental USA. I was a
32 year old, single professional woman.

I was eager to spread my wings and go beyond my comfort zone. I always had
the travel bug. My father's employee pass with the St. Louis Southwestern
Railway had allowed me as a dependent to travel throughout the United States
while growing up.

This trip was a catalyst to a lot of self-learning-self-knowledge. I would be
travelling solo and would meet my tour group in London.

I chose Gateway Tours by the Richard Lewis Travel Agency. I would be
visiting places of interest in England, Holland, Germany, Austria, Italy,
Switzerland, and France.

When my two closet girlfriends learned of my intent to travel solo, I had to
withstand their criticism.

This was a time when few African-Americans went on such tours. Of the 38
Gateway tour members, there were three African-Americans, a couple and
solo me.

Raised in the Jim Crow South, I had never shared a room with a white person.
My assigned roommate was Irene George, a married, devout catholic from
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A fantastic woman. We developed a friendship
that transcended race. Irene and I remained friends until her death in 1999
from a brain tumor.

When a colleague learned I would be visiting Rome, she arranged for a
nun-friend in Rome to arrange a personal audience with the Pope. It
turned out that my travel tour was to depart Rome for Florence the day
prior to my scheduled audience with the Pope. Not wanting to forego
this opportunity of a lifetime, I decided to stay over in Rome and fly to
Florence the next day to rejoin the tour group.

Because I dared to be flexible, rearrange my schedule in a foreign
country I did not speak the language, I kept my appointment with
destiny, an audience with Pope Paul VI.

Pope Paul VI served as Pope of the Catholic Church from 1963 until
his death in 1978. Being blessed by Pope Paul VI was a spiritual gift
I will always treasure.

Michaelangelo's David (masterpiece Renaissance sculpture) at
Florence and Lido de Paris topless, glamorous cabaret show were
culture shocks but the beginning of a new attitude about the nude
human body.

This trip reinforced that I was allright, vibrantly alive in a circle of
fellow travellers, no longer strangers. I was clothed by my faith and
belief in the goodness of others and I was not disappointed, but
rewarded. A childhood dream was fulfilled, and an opportunity to
experience new relations with different people.