|
Undesignated
|
|
Written by James A. Miller Jr.
|
|
Monday, 29 August 2011 00:00 |
|
Winter of c1969. RDU to NYC, to Rome to Milano. Moscow next.
Boy that looked like a 'group", some in fur caps; all in Winter coats. Aboard I learned I was the only non-Italian Communist Party passenger member aboard. I was a circa age 30, high school GED, once 17-year old Navy vet; now an Eastern Air Lines ramp worker, flying on interline pass.
I wanted to see both Russians as a people, and the Marxist-brand of communism as an economic/social system. Among many things, I loved non-fiction espionage; knowing too, I didn't want to rot in either some US or USSR prison. "Steer clear of troubled waters", said the ex-sailor in me.
When we cleaned Eastern over-night terminators at RDU; coinage found in seat cracks, then tiny four-'smokes' packs of then complimentary cigarettes found on board, and such-like, we called "treasure". I was the only one who treasured and read, abandoned Wall Street Journals, New York Times, Washington Posts, and oddly: the "Can This Marriage Be Saved" column in the Lady's Home Journal.
I stayed at the Hotel Berlin; the once, now once again, Hotel Savoy. Can't recall if before or after me; but Lee Harvey Oswald stayed there too. Same room? Yes, I was "followed" there; as I had been also, leaving the Soviet consulate in Washington, D.C. That was fun, both places.
My last full day there, I went to the "open book" (building looked like an up-ended open book) book store on Kilenin(?) Prospect for a book in English. Oddly I found none. So I switched to inexpensive Soviet art. Too sleepy to continue: met "S".
|
