Taste of July

 It's a hot 2020 summer 7th of July day. It happens to be the same day in 1954 when my family and I arrived at my future US home. 

   My parents had been pushed around from the Ukraine to Germany,  DP's as they were known and finally ended up in France after the war. Now it was my turn to leave a country and find a new home. I felt no pain because I had just turned five and had no idea what was in my parents mind. 

   I don't remember too much but one thing sticks in my mind as we were boarding the train I saw my cousin of 9 with tears in his eyes and he began to cry but I on the other hand had no idea what all of this meant so all I could say to him was, "Please don't cry or we'll never see each other again".

 

  I don't remember leaving the station in Southern France it was like magically being transported and ending up on a Parisian toilet bowl that I had never seen before. Our home which were barracks used to imprison German officers during the war and now were used as homes for coal miner families, which my father was. Our four room home had a master bathroom with an elegant toilet with

sloping triangular concrete walls leading to a magical hole that made things disappear. It was made especially for squatters.The good thing was that it was not in the forest. I guess this is why I was so impressed with this kingly throne in Paris.

   A day and night in Pairs is all we had, on to Belgium is where we had to be. That's were our Sabrina Airline flight was going take off and take us directly to a place that I would call home. 

Nineteen hours latter our four propped Sabrina touched down in a land called New York. I don't remember any part of the flight but I do know it was not the end of the road.I didn't see the Statue of Liberty but I did follow her from the country I was born in and now I was going to leave her and board a train to Chicago to start a new life. 

I don't remember any sounds of clatter of the tracks but I do remember the crusty crackle of a freshly made sandwich filled with the best tasting ham I ever had. The taste and fragrance lasts to this day. LIFE has been special from the first bite on the train that July 7th and will last to all the July 7th to come.