All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.
-- Martin Buber
Groggy from our redeye flight across the Atlantic, we collected our luggage and found our hired transport – four classic London cabs (for 17 people). Our gregarious driver introduced himself as Sir Roger DeCoverley, clad in a morning suit complete with top hat, tails, and striped pants. It seemed weird for a cab driver, but, hey, we were in merry old England now, so . . . whatever!
Five years later in graduate school I learned that Sir Roger de Coverley was a fictional character in early 18th century British literature (in Addison and Steele’s The Spectator, 1711). So our driver was actually in character. How naïve we were – rubes from the Colonies! – but it was all in good fun, and he was delightful, with running commentary all the way into town.
We arrived at our first lodgings, the German YMCA Youth Hostel near Paddington Station -- now called the Kensington Gardens Hostel and still owned by the German YMCA organization. The exterior hasn't changed much in 60 years.
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| 1966 |
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| 2026 |
As we disembarked from our cabs, we heard a commotion a few yards down the narrow street and saw a Porsche engulfed in flames. Yikes! We never learned what caused the fire, but it was quickly extinguished somehow. Welcome to London.
We ate lunch somewhere nearby, and everyone agreed we should all take a nap and reassemble later in the afternoon. I don’t know about others, but I was running on adrenaline and too excited to sleep. I don’t remember where or what we ate for dinner, but we took the Tube from Paddington in to Picadilly Circus and gawked at the lights.
A Word (or more) About Our Group
The total number of travelers from Oklahoma on this trip was 17, but once in Europe we traveled as two separate groups: one group of 9 (ours), one group of 8 (the other), including a husband-and-wife couple leading each group and chaperoning hormone-infused teenagers.
Our group leaders – Tom and Kay – were from Oklahoma City. Tom was an oral surgeon, Kay a housewife. They had three children. (I don’t know who took care of the kids while we were on this trip.)
Our group had three girls and four boys. I think we were all rising high school seniors. The girls were Judy (from McAlester), Susan (from Ada), and Annie (from . . . I don’t remember; maybe Ponca City or Enid). The boys were me and my friend Bill (from Lawton) and Hank and Chris (from Chickasha). In the photo below, from left to right . . .
Front Row: Chris, Judy, Annie, Susan, Hank
Back Row: Tom, me, Bill
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It’s worth noting that our trip was not part of a tour with a commercial tour operator. The trip was organized under the auspices of the Oklahoma Methodist Campers Association – a department of the United Methodist Church in Oklahoma that managed all of the Church’s overnight camps in the state — and the Association took care of all the travel, lodging, and transportation arrangements for our trip. (Perhaps it’s obvious from the foregoing, but all of us – students and chaperones/sponsors – were Methodists.)
Beyond the logistics, however, we travelers met as a group twice before the trip, beginning in February, to plan out every day of the trip between arriving and departing from London. Arthur Frommer’s Europe on $5 a Day was our bible, but in the months before our trip we each did our own research and developed our own “must see” or “must do” lists, which we then presented and discussed in our group meetings. Out of those discussions came a consensus itinerary that we submitted to the Campers Association, which then arranged the logistics.
In London we moved around the city on foot via the Tube, and for the rest of the trip in England and on the Continent we traveled in a Morris mini-van with right-hand drive – challenging for the driver (Tom) in both territories!
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| L to R: Chris, Judy, Hank, Annie, Susan, Tom |
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