Dear old dad starting working for Pan American World Airways (remember them?) way back in 1966 and stayed with them until the company folded in 1991.  He switched over to Delta Airlines without missing a day of work and remained there until his retirement in the fall of 2008.  That’s 42 years working for 2 major airlines.

Airlines with international service.

Airlines that included free (stand-by, but still, free!) travel benefits for the employee and his/her family.

Anyone care to guess how many fun and exciting places we went to?

Before you answer that, let me share something he once said to me- “I’ve left the country twice in my life, and both times it wasn’t my choice!”  You guessed it, we never went anywhere.  If you’re wondering, his first trip out of the country where when he was in the Army and served in Vietnam and the second trip was after Pan Am flight 103 was blown up over Lockerbie, Scotland, he was sent as one of Pan Am’s official representatives at the memorial service there.

Sure, there were the family vacations to Florida and California.  Oh yeah, and to visit the elderly aunt in Misery Missouri.  His flight benefits certainly came in handy when I was a competitive BMX racer and wanted to test myself at the national level, so it’s not like we completely failed to take advantage of his flight benefits.

But really, we literally lived an 8 mile drive from Kennedy Airport and could have gone anywhere in the world!!  His choice was to be as un-adventuresome as humanly possible and stay right at home.

I mention all of this because the SOB just returned from 9 days in Europe!

He and his girlfriend have been living together for 20+ yrs.  Her grand-daughter is a sophomore in college and has spent this last academic year studying abroad in Italy, not too far from Rome.  As the end of her study abroad was approaching, she started bugging her mom and grandmother (and my dad) to come visit.  I figured it would be an easy sell, since they’re devout Catholics and she’s in Rome, but apparently she had to practically beg them.  Eventually they relented and decided to visit.  They spent 9 days visiting, first spending some time in Rome, then driving up to Zurich, then on to Paris.  While in Rome they visited the Colosseum, the Parthenon, went to the Sistine Chapel, all of the great historical sights.  Near Zurich they visited the site of the Dachau concentration camp. A relative of the grand-daughters on her fathers side was a member of the 42nd (Rainbow) Division, which liberated the camp in 1945, and she wanted to see it.

While in Paris they visited several of the major historical sights, except the Eiffel Tower, because the line was too long, according to my dad.  I gotta say, listening to my dad attempt to pronounce “Arc de Triomphe” was pretty damn funny!  To top off their visit, they attended Easter Sunday services at Notre Dame de Paris!!!!

So did visiting all of these wonderful historical sights inspire my dad to visit more of the world in his golden years?  I’ll let Veronica share an anecdote from a conversation she had with him after he returned:

Veronica: So I chat with Hubdad and ask about his trip.  He talks about how it was enjoyable and the jet lag wasn’t too bad.  I ask him, “So Hubdad, are you planning another overseas trip now?  Perhaps Carnivale in Rio, or maybe a trip to Australia to see the Great Barrier Reef?  His answer: “Nope, I’ve seen all I need to see.  I’m done.”    This kills me.  If I was working for an international airline I would be taking Hubman and the kids all over the stinkin’ place.  Darling Boy likes the Egyptian Exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art?  Then let’s go to Egypt and see the damn pyramids in person.

Someday, my dear, we’ll go visit some of those places we’ve only dreamed of seeing...