…Around The World in 80 Days 1980
As you may recall from the opening three parts of this odyssey, my sisters Fame and Seven had come with me through a little hell and a lotta high water (composed mostly of frozen ice crystals known as snow) to arrive in LA where I was to board the SS Universe for my Semester at Sea voyage.
You can catch up on the adventure here (Part 1), here (Part 2), and here (Part 3).
February 2, 1980—embarkation day—had finally arrived, and I’d lived to tell about it. Seven’s fellow enlistee in the Air Force, Garrett, featured in last week’s installment, drove Seven’s car, ferrying us from her mother’s house (where we recovered from the misadventures of the night before) to Pier 195 at Long Beach where my ship was supposed to be docked. Only it wasn’t.
Perhaps my ship, as they say, hadn’t come in.
After all we’d already been through since leaving Pennsyltucky, somehow it came as little surprise.
But some tooling about eventually led us to the ship—docked at another berth for some reason I can no longer recall and didn’t record in my journal—and all was right with the world again.
Seven, Fame, and Garrett helped me board with all my baggage, depositing me in the inside room (A348) assigned to me: a remarkably snug space, considering it was intended for four students.
Approximately 9’ wide by 14’ in length, it consisted of two sets of bunks divided by a space I estimated to be three feet wide. There was a desk, a dresser, four lockers, and a wee bathroom. I drew a rough sketch in my journal:
Being a fan of top bunks, I chose the one afore, stowed my belongings, and we returned above decks for our farewells. They were short, sweet, and unemotional, coming as we did from a rather stoic upbringing.
“Well, goodbye,” said Seven. “Don’t fall overboard or anything stupid. Hope to see you again someday.”
That someday turned out not to be till five years later. In the meantime she’d been stationed first in Italy, then Germany, gotten married (I missed the wedding because, being a theatre major, I was in a play at the time), had two children, and returned stateside. And she only returned the U.S. because her husband had gotten leukemia, was given a medical discharge, and needed to go to Seattle for a bone marrow transplant.
The trio drove away, leaving me to my adventure on the world’s smallest registered ocean liner, stripped of all luxury and converted into a college campus.
I later learned a few of their details. After Seven dropped Fame off at the LA airport for her flight back to finish her final semester at Seton Hill College, she spent the night at San Luis Obispo with Vara, a friend of yet another of our sister’s. Garrett did not want to return to Monterey without her troublesome husband in tow, but Seven staunchly refused to return to the scene of the crime from the night before to pick him up. Garrett opted to stay behind in LA and wound up AWOL, come Monday.
But at the time I knew nothing of all that. All I knew was I would be spending the next three months of my life sailing around the world; I could hardly wrap my mind around it, even though there I was, standing on the deck of that ship.
The First Five People You Meet on a Heavenly Adventure
The first person I met was one I hit it off with from the start, one of my roomies, Lucy.
Lucille Shepherd was from Phoenix and planning to be an aerospace engineer. We hit it off from the get go. For one thing, we had lots in common. Both of us were from a family of nine kids, each of us having four brothers and four sisters.
She happily hopped up on the other upper bunk across from me, immediately at home in our cubbyhole cabin; she said it was just like her bedroom back home that she shared with her sisters. She was accustomed to a top bunk.
A year and a half later Fame and I would visit her in Phoenix and see for ourselves that indeed Lucy’s bedroom was nearly identical to our cabin! Not only that, her brothers’ room was a dugout beneath a trap door under the kitchen table. They had to climb down a ladder into what looked to me like a secret bomb shelter when bedtime rolled around. The Shepard home was astonishingly small for a family of eleven, yet they’d literally carved out space for everyone.
I met Dawn Tetrault, our other roomie, next.
Dawn, a local Orange County girl, was a dark-haired fashionista who showed up with three steamer trunks (we were each allowed one) and a suitcase. Our entire cabin was smaller than her closet back home, and I think she brought pretty much every piece of clothing she ever owned.
Luckily, no forth roomie turned out to have been assigned to A348, and Dawn was able to claim the spare lower bunk across from her as her personal closet. That bunk spent the next three months suffocating under her possessions. Later I’d learn she hadn’t packed in vain. Dawn must’ve changed clothing at least four times a day. Every time I ran into her she’d be in a different outfit.
But she also brought along an entire grocery bag filled with candy, so all bets were off how long she’d continue to fit in the wardrobe she’d brought along.
Next, we all met our Dean of Students, John Tymitz, who I proceeded to ardently crush on for the entire voyage. As work-study students who’d all come to Semester as Sea on scholarship, we were all there in advance of the 500 other students set to arrive the next afternoon. Part of our duties was to help process everyone else onboard, so we had meetings to attend and assignments to receive.
Lucy, Dawn, and I were all assigned to work in the library, which turned out to be wonderful, but I’ll tell you all about why that was in a future installment. We met another fellow work-study student assigned to the library, as well: Diane Casey from Connecticut, who attended U.C. there.
Those were my first five, but they were quickly followed by many more, some of whom I’d get to know well over the ensuing months, some of whom I wouldn’t.
I met Robert Porter from Texas, and in my journal I also mention meeting Kim, Jane, Becky, Mike, and Mark—all fellow work-study students—but no last names recorded.
A break for lunch introduced us to the galley, or dinning hall, a place I would spend many hours while onboard. The galley was a large space afore ship ringed with portholes, offering a partially panoramic if pinhole vista of the surrounding seascape. The tables had rims, and once we were out to sea I would quickly learn why. Bright pink chairs added color, and blue-cushioned seats lining the walls added more.
The staff and crew of the Universe were Taiwanese, many with whom I would also engender friendships. The food they prepared was better than I was accustomed to back at Seton Hill, and it was fare I learned to enjoy with chopsticks.
After lunch we were put to work at our various stations. Those of us assigned to the library rolled up our sleeves to straighten the books and clean the shelves and the room. There I met another prof, the theatre prof, Charles Wilcox. Wilcox had a big blond mustache and blond hair he kept in a multi-rubber-banded pony tail that reached past his waistline.
He said the last thing he expected to find was a theatre major among the Semester at Sea students, so he was delighted, declared we were going to put on a production, and told me I was a shoe-in for a part.
Soon after that I received another bit of delightful news: my BEOG (Pell) Grant, which I hadn’t initially gotten, came through. Thing was, my semester was already paid for, so that meant the $500 would be given to me—in cash!
This meant I now had a small fund for my around-the-world adventure. Up till then, I was going to pretty much restricted to walking around the various port cities in each country where the Universe docked. Adventures further afield (not to mention any purchases) were going to have been strictly limited, based on what little I had in traveling money up till then.
Semester at Sea offered many in-port trips, but none were included in the tuition. Now it looked like I might be able to take advantage of a few, and perhaps even adventure out on my own here and there, beyond the ports of call.
The next bit of news I received was confirmation of my class schedule: Sex Roles & Society, a woman’s studies course; Literature of the Sea, an English course, Theatres of Asia, a theatre-studies class for my major; and The Psychology of Adjustment, a psych course I chose thinking I’d likely get some very practical use of it.
My courses were scheduled at 1:00, 2:00, 4:00, and 6:00, and were all daily one-hour courses while at sea. School would be out during in-port times, when the practical learning of exploring other cultures first-hand was the expected undertaking of every student. My work-study scholarship required I work four hours a day, so I scheduled my library duties for 8-12 daily. I noted in my journal that dinner was served from 6:00 to 7:30, so by the time I’d get to the galley, I’d have about those last 20 minutes to dine each day after my six-o’clock class.
The schedule suited me fine, except that I wanted to add a fifth course. I was used to 18 credits a semester, so twelve seemed ridiculously light; I at least wanted fifteen, the max allowed. But it required special dispensation. I would have to convince the Dean I was capable.
After work duties and meetings that first day we were given free time to explore the ship at large. I was delighted to discover it had a theatre. Lucy, who would be staying overnight with an Aunt who lived locally, left, and Dawn and I organized the cabin till 7:00 when we went to dinner. Afterwards we explored the ship some more, then climbed to the Sun Deck to take in the multi-colored twinkling lights of L.A.
On the way back we met Linda from Chicago, a student at the Univ. of Colorado at Boulder (out of which the Semester at Sea Program was being run); she’d locked herself out of her U-deck cabin, so I went with her to track down Dr. Tymitz (of course). He was out and instead we met Paul, the journalism and photography prof of whom Dawn would become a devoted student.
Paul was just setting up—for the next day’s influx of students—his slideshow featuring highlights of the voyage that had just wrapped up before ours, and Linda and I were treated to a preview. What an enticing insight it was into some of the magic we were about to experience, ourselves!
I record Paul in my journal as a very “impressive” and “dynamic” individual.
Near the end of that first day’s long journal entry I describe the ship’s offerings a bit more: a weight room with three exercise bikes, a snack bar, a candy and soda machine on the Promenade Deck, a basketball court, a volleyball court, several lounges with comfy chairs for studying, and a pool that would be filled with sea water one we left port. I mention the compass on the Sun Deck, musing how Fame must just then have been somewhere overhead, leaving for Pennsylvania, experiencing her first flight.
I mention how our cabin was on the lowest deck not designated to crew, right on the waterline. Below it stood the Sea Deck, and above it was the Main Deck with the galley, the purser’s desk, and more cabins. Above the Main Deck was the Upper Deck (U-Deck), consisting of all cabins, and then came the Promenade Deck with its outer enclosure encircling the ship. The Promenade Deck also housed classrooms, the weight room, the snack bar, offices, and some lounges. There was another deck I couldn’t recall, and on top the Sun Deck.
I close my journal entry for that long, exhilarating day with three observations. I lament our cabin not having a porthole, declare my weary but excited state, and mention my plan to practice guitar then go to bed.
____________________________
Thank you for sharing a little of your Monday morning with me!
Join me again in two weeks for Part 5 when we hoist anchor and set sail.
Meanwhile, next week we’ll take a wee intermission to visit Walton’s Mountain where I’ll be staying with none other than—you guesses it!—my sisters Seven-of-Nine and Fame-in-the-Offing. Yes, that’s right, the whole tail-end of the tornado back together again! We’ll be joined by a dear friend who’s really more of an adopted sister, and explore what Schyler, VA has to offer.
Meanwhile, meanwhile, don’t forget to share my substack, especially the post about the giveaways I’m currently running. So easy to enter and so much to win! You can also follow my FB page, Twitter account, or Instagram posts to keep abreast of new related to Shay the Brave.
Mark you calendars for a few places you can find me:
March 21st Talk Radio Interview with Marquis Lupton of WITF Radio’s The Spark: livestream at noon from the WITF website or tune in to 89.5 FM if you’re in the southcentral PA listening area.
April 27th Winchester Book Gallery, Winchester, VA: author appearance & book signing along with fellow author, Magdalene Dietschka
Sept. 21st York County (PA) Library Book Fair