What were our parents thinking?

I have a 16 year old. And a 15 year old. And I can't imagine anything that would possess me to send the two of them off, alone, on an airplane for an extended summer vacation in Europe.

But that's exactly what my parents, and my best friend's parents did 27 years ago.

Of course, times were different. We didn't worry about terrorist attacks, or getting stuck with a full body pat down. But were things that different?

Kym and I had been planning this vacation for almost two years (of course this is all calling up a lot of long-term memory, so there could be variations from the truth in this account). Our original plan was to make this trip between our freshman and sophomore years of high school, but my family was going to be finishing up the building of our home that summer, and moving into it, and I wanted to be a part of it (not that I did a whole lot of the building work, I'll admit). So, WE decided to wait until the following summer. What, may I ask, was all of this WE business? We were barely teens when we made these decisions!

And our parents agreed to the plan. I do believe I had to contribute a large portion of my babysitting money to the venture but that's beside the point. What on earth were our parents thinking? Don't get me wrong, I am thrilled that I had this opportunity, especially since it's one of a very few adventurous things I've attempted in my life. I'm thrilled that our parents trusted us. And I'm thrilled that we lived in a safer time when parents would even consider this. But it still makes me drop my jaw to think back on the fact that I actually got on an airplane, at the age of 15, for four weeks of travel in The Netherlands and Switzerland, including a train ride through Germany in the middle of the night.

Remember, we had no cell phones, email, Facebook, or Skype to keep in contact. I think we called home once a week and we did write plenty of postcards, most of which made their way to the states after our arrival back home.

So on June 20th of 1985, our parents saw us off on China Airlines to our first destination, Amsterdam, Holland. I don't remember much from that first flight except that we were shocked to receive American food and silverware for our in-flight China Airlines meal and that we spent the time cross-stitching and listening to the flight's musical selections which always seemed to be playing Lionel Richie.

I should explain that Kym's family did have connections in each of these locations. Her mom had spent a year in Holland through an exchange program. So our first hosts were Annie and Kees, the couple that Kym's mother had stayed with for that year. Next came the train ride through Germany and a week in Switzerland with Sabine and her family. Sabine had worked for Kym's family when Kym's twin sisters were young. Then Sabine drove us to another part of Switzerland to spend the week with Mia at the camp where she worked.

Mia had also stayed with Kym's family during those early twin years. And finally, back to The Netherlands (I don't remember how we got back there) where we spent most of the time with Oma and Opa, Kees' parents.

Even though I have no idea what came over our parents, I am so thankful that they took leave of their senses long enough to allow the trip. It was the trip of a lifetime which bonded a friendship still in tact today. And even though we almost didn't make it home (a story for another day), we did indeed see our parents once again on July 19th.

You know, Kym, I'm feeling a four week vacation to Holland and Switzerland in our future. We'll skip the hats this time, though. What do you think?