Home again!
I returned home from Italy late last night.
So what’s on tap for today? Unpacking, laundry, grocery store, blog. Staying inside most of the day is made easier by the fact that the “real feel” weather report is that although it’s “only” in the high 80s at the moment, the “real feel” is 100 humid degrees (that’s once I readjusted the settings, because my computer still seems to want to give me the temps in Centigrade).
My nonstop flight from Rome to Boston on Alitalia was smooth and completely on time, as my flight out to Italy had been. And they even served food, some sort of thing they called lasagna but which consisted mostly of noodles, but was pretty tasty. They also gave us a snack that looked promisingly like it might be an apple turnover. But it turned out to be the worst imitation of a calzone I’ve ever bitten into, made of a WonderBreaddish sealed wrapper surrounding a dollop of tomato sauce that tasted like ketchup.
I can’t complain too much about a flight that gets me (and my luggage) there on time and in one piece, which is by far the most important thing. But the seats had the least leg-and-arm-room of any plane I’ve been on in my life. And I’m a small person; I have no idea how bigger people do it. With the person in front of me reclining somewhat, getting out of my seat to walk around or visit the bathroom was nearly impossible without formidable gymnastics—and I was on the aisle.
Another peculiarity was that towards the back of the plane, in the middle section (the one with four seats across), there was a curtained enclosure that was roughly rectangular in shape. Thick beige curtains hung on all four sides so that it could not be seen into, and I kept forgetting to ask what it was when the harried flight attendents came briefly by. Speculation included a dead body in a coffin, but apparently they get transported in the cargo hold, so it’s a mystery to me. Any pilots out there who might know?
I’ll say more about my Italy sojourn later. For now, though, I’ll just state that I’m very happy to be home. It reminds me of one of those lightish poems they made us memorize in grade school, like this one which has stuck with me like some sort of patriotic glue. Looking up the full version of the poem at that link, I realize that our teacher spared us by leaving out the last two verses. So I’ll just copy the ones I know, and note that this poem would never, never ever, be assigned to memorize today in a New York City public school:
“AMERICA FOR ME”
‘TIS fine to see the Old World, and travel up and down
Among the famous palaces and cities of renown,
To admire the crumbly castles and the statues of the kings,—
But now I think I’ve had enough of antiquated things.So it’s home again, and home again, America for me!
My heart is turning home again, and there I long to be,
In the land of youth and freedom beyond the ocean bars,
Where the air is full of sunlight and the flag is full of stars!Oh, London is a man’s town, there’s power in the air;
And Paris is a woman’s town, with flowers in her hair;
And it’s sweet to dream in Venice, and it’s great to study Rome;
But when it comes to living there is no place like home…Oh, it’s home again, and home again, America for me!
I want a ship that’s westward bound to plough the rolling sea,
To the bléssed Land of Room Enough beyond the ocean bars,
Where the air is full of sunlight and the flag is full of stars
And that’s pretty much the way I felt on returning home. Italy was lovely, the people welcoming, the terrain beautiful, the art and architecture glorious, but it seemed expansive and relaxing to get back home.
[NOTE: By the way, looking up the author of that piece of verse, I see that Henry Van Dyke—who was also a Presbyterian minister and Princeton professor of English literature—was rather prolific as a writer of popular poetry and some stories. He also penned the lyrics to Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy”: “Joyful joyful we adore thee.”]
Sleeping quarters for cabin crew. On Delta, they are tucked in just ahead of premium economy, window side.
When my husband and his family went to Europe back around ’59 he said he felt the same way after a while. They went by ship and he said the sight of the Statue of Liberty as they returned to NY harbor made the hair on his neck stand up. He would have been about 17 yo at the time.
I always wanted to stay longer but, for most of my travel life, I was working and could not be away that long.
Now, it is usually health. My wife has emphysema and long plane flights usually end with hr sick. I tell her to wear a mask but she won’t.
My motto is, getting old is a bitch but there is a worse alternative.
Glad you are safely home, Neo. Thanks for all the posts while you were away.
Welcome home.
I flew a fair bit on United in the ’70’s. If Marquis de Sade had been reincarnated as an orthopedist/airline seat designer, then he might have designed those seats. They had negative lumbar support and pushed the shoulder blades forward as might be appropriate for some hunchback.
_______
When I pull into my driveway after a longer car trip with my wife, I often spout,
“Home again home again, jiggity jig
Good Eeeevening J. F.”
It’s a line from the bleak futurist sci-fi film “Blade Runner.” Upon returning home, a genetic engineer is greeted by his genetically engineered pets. I wonder if the screenwriters, Hampton Fancher & David Peoples, had that same poem stuck in their heads.
Welcome back.
But you are quite wrong about Henry Van Dyke.
Beethoven died in 1827; Van Dyke was a Princeton professor beginning in 1899.
“Ode to Joy” as incorporated by Beethoven into his 9th Symphony was written by Schiller in 1785, revised in 1803. “Freude, schoene Gotterfuncken, etc.”
Beethoven conducted the premiere of that very great work, though he was stone-deaf at that point in life, due to lead poisoning (Lead was a component of pewter then, and his favorite wine “glass” for decades was a pewter item). The orchestra finished playing though he kept on conducting, hearing his music only in his mind, at a different tempo than at the rehearsals.
Cicero:
About “Ode to Joy” and those lyrics—I was citing the Wiki page to which I linked, the one on Van Dyke. Here’s the quote:
Van Dyke’s lyrics, in English, are very different from Schiller’s, although both are about joy. Here are Schiller’s. And here are Van Dyke’s.
TommyJay:
I believe that this was what they had stuck in their heads.
My mother used to recite it when I was a child, when we would arrive back to our house after an outing.
“There’s no place like home..”
.. did you remember to bring back the ruby slippers?
I could call to mind, ‘To market, to market,’ then my memory failed. Thanks for the rest.
Glad you are home. Get a good night’s rest, and don’t turn on the TV for a while so you can extend your vacation. This whole week will be McCain with a dose of anti-Trump. Listen to some music or go out and listen to some birds.
Traveling is always interesting and a nice change of pace, coming home for me is a feeling of comfort because that is where my life is. Good to hear you had a safe and on time return.
welcommen
on another note, this day in history
An American B-29 Superfortress, carrying a load of humanitarian aid to Allied prisoners of war in Korea, is intercepted by Soviet Yak-9 fighters. The supposed allies attack the bomber, forcing 1st Lt. Joseph Queen’s crew to bail out before the plane crashes. The air crew are rescued, and the incident marks one of the first international confrontations between the soon-to-be Cold War rivals.
American Airlines tried equipping their planes with more comfortable seats ten or fifteen years ago and abandoned the idea quickly. Too many people shop for airline tickets on price alone. That ruins it for those of us who would pay a ten percent premium for better comfort.
I know the seats are tight when removing the magazine from the seat pocket provides noticeable relief.
I still say “home again, home again, jiggly-jig” when turning in my driveway after a trip, no matter how long or short.
Matthew M:
I don’t know about that. JetBlue is quite popular, and one of their selling points is their roomy seats. I often fly JetBlue, in part for that reason.
Neo:
“He also penned the lyrics to Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” is what you wrote. Since you are a person of precision, I bring the “THE” to your attention. Mere grammar!
Neo,
Welcome home!
“Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee” is my favorite hymn.
While the words just might be somewhat over-the-top for
non-Christians, the music by Beethoven is sublime.
Cicero:
Obviously I mean the English lyrics. We are speaking English here, Van Dyke is a writer of English, and even the words “Ode to Joy” are English.
Actually, to be technical, it was Schiller who had penned the words that were later used in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, a part of which uses choral singing based on an already-existent poem by Schiller entitled “An die Freude.” So if you really want to be precise about it, it was Beethoven who wrote the music as part of his Ninth Symphony, which used Schiller’s already-existing poem “An die Freude,” not the other way around.
And it was indeed Van Dyke who later wrote the words to the already-existing Ninth Symphony of Beethoven, penning the song we English speakers know as “Ode to Joy.”
Some company has come up with a way to make seats even more miserable on planes. People don’t actually sit so much as rest their butt on a little shelf and the whole thing is kind of tilted back. A bit like the boards actresses in the glamorous dresses rested on between takes. So far, no one’s bought it to redo their interiors. Yet. I gotta figure that will drive up the incidence of deep vein thrombosis exponentially.
This called to mind a funny thing that happened on a flight when I was a young man. This was in the days when flight attendants were without exception all young ladies and good looking. I was in an aisle seat and enjoying watching a beautiful lady attendant as she moved down the aisle toward me, offering drinks. I noticed that her blouse seemed to be opened at least one extra button at the top, and that she certainly filled it out quite nicely.
At last she bent forward to place a drink on my tray and I could not help but surreptitiously glance down into her blouse, and saw something hilarious. In the vee at the top center of her bra she had attached a small piece of bandage tape so that it stood up prominently but was not visible from outside. On the tape in red block letters she had printed “HI THERE!”!! Now even without her little sign it was obvious that she enjoyed flirting, so with a big smile I immediately said “Well, hi there yourself!”
She gave me a wink and a big smile, reached into the drinks trolley again, and gave me two extra shot bottles of Johnny Walker! She obviously admired bravado!
Speaking of patriotic songs:. America the Beautiful is another song not likely to be taught or sung, particularly the second verse
I always have an aisle seat. At 5’10”, a center or window seat is agony for me. Once I flew home from Mumbai to New York non-stop with an enormously fat Puerto Rican woman in a center seat next to me. She spent the flight, when awake, telling me how awful Norteamericanos are (and I am an obviously Anglo-Saxon norteamericana), and then fell asleep on my shoulder.