Lazy day July 27th 1986

Here is my journal entry for that day: ."We just layed around in the sun today. We ate pizza at our usual place in town. Just Sandy and me. We took a long nap and were very hungry. We had dinner at home today There was a regatta on the lake and we watched it from our garden there. There were about 20 very long row boats. I read a bit after dinner and went to bed. We are going to Venice tomorrow and need our rest. "

Guido Völker -- Hannover, Germany

Guido. What can I say?He was one of the fabulous 5 who went to find Ulf, he was the instigator of the Toga Party ) and he has been a great help with this blog. He and I have keep in contact off and on over the years. It is a bit easier now that I can write German (only a little and very badly.) But that is more than before. He still lives in Hannover and just got married to a very lovely lady named Olga. He travels a lot and has wonderful pictures on his web site. Guido can I post your web site here?
I will and if you don't want it posted then let me know and I will remove it, ok? http://www.voelkerweb.de There you can see the entire wedding photo album. Baci Guido!

july 26th 1986

Sandy and I walked down the steep hill into town to mail some letters. We stopped at cafe Moro again (the place I was able to use the telephone yesterday). Some of the people in the cafe started to talk to us, just curious as to where we were from. When I said I from the USA their eyes lit up (the prices probably went up too). Sandy and I ordered Cokes and sat outside. One of the guys from the pub sat down with us and started talking. His name was Ornato or Armando. Cute! What eyes!!! Anyway, I held my first full length solo Italian conversation. Yea! John DeGregorio our Italian tutor would be proud. We went home and I made some lunch for us. I made spaghetti. Tonight we would got to Darsena again. Vittoria, Enso, Amadeo and Tarchizio would be there. They wanted to take us out on a boat but it never happened. We did go to Amadeo's house that afternoon to swim. I got to ride from the restaurant to his house in his black Porsche Targa. It was like sitting on a lawn mower. So loud! We swam and they threw us in. It ws lots of fun. We all drove to a restaurant that was far into the countryside. It was a place that specialized in chicken. It was very rustic. We had fried chicken, polenta. There were little birds with their heads and everything but I did not eat one. After dinner we drove to Enzo's house. I drove with Tarchizio in his white BMW. He drove like crazy. We found out later that he is a race car driver. It was scary! At Enzo's we had ice cream and sparkling wine (spumanti). They are big flirts but lots of fun.

Sheila Scholtyssek --Germany

The next person in the phone book is Sheila from Hannover, Germany. There were three at the camp from this city. Sheila was the first person to greet us, the 4 girls from St. Louis.

She was very friendly with us and we did keep in touch for a while. About 10 years ago she sent me an annoucement that she was getting married. Unfortunately we lost touch. I am sending a post card to her parents in hopes of finding her again.

Does everyone remember Sheila? She was great! She really took care of us those first days and showed us all around.

Met Maria's friends for the first time

Here is my journal entry from July 25th, 1986 : " Woke up at 7:30 but stayed in bed until 8. took a shower and got back in bed until 9. Another great view of the lake today. Not hazy. I have been having a lot of weird dreams lately about people back home. We are going to Salo' this morning to buy Maria Victoria a Swatch watch, because she finished her studies. I wrote a few letters. In Salo' I didn't buy a thing--oh yes I did, an envelope. sandy bought some pants, maria a swatch watch and me, an envelope. Doesn't matter. We layed in the sun this afternoon and I am getting a good color. It was a late night tonight. We went to dinner at 8 pm. I made spaghetti for lunch. We went to an Italian supermarket today and I bought some snack food since I am always hungry lately. We went to the restaurant of the friends of the Pasotti's then we met some friends of Maria Victoria, all boys. They were very big flirts. After dinner we all drank some sparkling wine. It was 11 and Amadeo wanted us all to go swimming at his house. We didn't go. Maria V said that we would go there another day."

This was the start of lots of visits with Maria's friends. It seems all the female friends were on holiday somewhere and so only the men were around. That was strange. They really flirted with us a lot.

Jocelyne Ageneau (Bru)

Jocelyn Ageneau grew up in Fontenay le Comte in La Vendee area of France (the West coast). Strangely, she and I barely talked to one another during the camp but became friends afterwards.
She did not speak much English, although I know that she knows a lot. She became a teacher and married a policeman. It has been a long time since I wrote to her. I don't know exactly where she is or what she is doing now. I sent her a postcard to her parents' address but have not heard from her yet. I will try some of the other addresses I have for her. Does anyone keep in contact with Jocelyne?
The top picture is from a local newspaper article from Ouest-France. Alain and Jocelyne are from neighboring towns, so they were featured together with the local Lion's Club member.

jumping the gate.

In my journal dated July 24, 1986, I wrote: "Woke up at 10 past 12. Took a hot shower, the first one of my entire stay here. we got dressed and went to town. At lunch at the house. I made some scrambled eggs and bread and cheese..then chocolate. In town we were hungry again so had some ice cream. I am still hungry. I tried to make some phone calls first at a pay phone..no luck, then we found a cafe that has a phone we can use. It worked. I feel much better now. I had lost my sunglasses in the ocean in La Spezia so I bought some new ones. They are so cool. We had to jump the fence back at the house. Sandy took a major scratch to her leg. We will be going out until late tomorrow night so I took a nap back at the house. Layed in the hammock a while. Victoria had an exam today, her last one. We will celebrate tomorrow. Finally there is no haze on the lake and I can get some good pictures."

Here is a picture of the gate and the view.

Carolle Sanchez -- France

Carolle. Sort, dark haired. She did not speak English very well at the camp so I did not get to know her very well. She mainly was with the other French campers. She had a pixie-like appearance. Here are some pictures from her. I received one card from her in 1986 for Christmas and then never heard from her again. Has anyone been in contact with her? Please let me know. Here are some pictures of Carolle.
In the close-up of her face, that is Raija from Finland behind her.

July 23, 1986 Royal Wedding

Here is the entry from my travel journal dated July 23, 1986. "I got up at 10 am! but I never really slept the whole night. I had too much on my mind, thinking of people and future and such. Sandy slept well. We tried to watch the royal wedding of Prince Andrew to Sarah Ferguson but the reception on the TV was too fuzzy. We did not get RAI 3 on the television at this summer home. Maria Victoria is angry about that. We will have to watch parts of it on the news this evening. Oh well, we just wanted to see her dress really. I don't know what is planned for today." that is all I wrote so other than TV I have no idea what we did. TV was something we did a lot at the beginning. Then later the father of the family where we stayed "spoke" to his daughter and told her that we should go out more in the evening and see things. I think it was hard for her. She wanted to be with her friends, who were all on holiday. She had to study over the summer and take an exam. It must have been difficult to always have these 2 other girls in the house. They were always very kind to us but on some days, Sandy and I would just leave the house and do things on our own so she had "free" time too. We were very lucky to have this family. They wanted to take care of us and did take us many places. "borrowed" this picture off Google's pictures. Thanks.

Patricia Cerceau --France

Here are a few pictures of Patricia. She had plans to go to an American University but I don't know if she ever made it to one. Does anyone keep in contact with Patricia? I sent a postcard to her mother's address. It is still a valid addres so I hope to hear from her soon. Let's see..Patricia. Her English was very good. She was not very tall and was always well dressed. She lived not too far from Paris in the town of Yerres (Essone). She would go with Annie and me sometimes when we walked places. She was a very sweet person and I hope she responds to the letter. Anyone have a story about Patricia? Let me know. Post a comment here. Ciao!

UPDATE!

For those of you who have been reading the blog since the beginning, there are some major updates. Guido has provided two great stories. One about his personal experience with the search for Ulf and one about the origin of the toga party. I have also posted a picture he sent. Look for this all in July's archives. Or click on the links below.

toga party link is http://campoitalia.blogspot.com/2006/07/toga-party-by-guido-volkers.html
Search party link is http://campoitalia.blogspot.com/2006/07/behind-scene-story-about-search-for.html
photo of the fab 5 is http://campoitalia.blogspot.com/2006/07/photo-of-fabulous-5-search-party.html

I have gotten more pictures from him and also lots from Nikki (UK) I will updating this as things are sent to me. Keep sending your ideas! ciao. Baci!

Second night with the Host Family on Garda

Here is the entry I have for my journal dated "July 22, 1986. woke up at 9. made breakfast then layed by the pool and read a bit. Sandy and I walked to town. They have lots of shops. Fixed lunch for us. It was simple: a big tomato salad and ice cream for dessert. ha. what a combination. We went to visit some friends of Maria Victoria's. They gave us espresso and told us that this was real coffee not like the kind you find in America. It was really strong but good. We went to Salo to do some shopping. I finally bought a pair of pants so that I had some too. White ones from Benetton. We ate dinner in a place called Caprice Bar & Pizzeria. I got a Pizza Siciliano which was cheese, tomatoes and black olives (with the pits still in them) I had a huge cappucino later. We went home to watch TV. Planet of the Apes and Simon & Simon in Italian of course. "

I can remember when we ordered pizza the first time in Italy. One of the Tommys ordered pepperoni pizza. In the USA pepperoni is a style of spicey sausage, like a salami. Well in Italy if you order a pepperoni pizza, you get pizza with lots of peppers, in the us we call these peppers pepperoncini. Anyway, talk about shock when you get that pizza. We quickly learned to call it Salami pizza. I was of course quite flattered to know that your basic cheese pizza is called Pizza Margherita, named not after me but after the first queen of Italy. alas....! there was also a commercial that played on TV a lot. It went "porta casa Margherita." It means something like "take Margherita home." In this case "margherita" was the name of a washing machine.

Here is a picture of me sitting on the hammock that overlooked the lake. It was really heavenly at that house.

update

Sandra from Canada has sent in an update to her blog. Check out her comments on her page in the archives from February.http://campoitalia.blogspot.com/2006/02/o-canada-sandra-benninger.html

Annie Dozieres

Annie Dozieres-- my first friend at the camp. She is from a mountainous area of France called Varrennes Sur Allier. She did not speak a lot of English but enough for us to communicate. We hiked the woods surrounding the camp many times. She was very athletic and slim. Annie was a quiet, gentle person and I am so glad we became friends. We did write after the camp. the last I heard she had moved to Paris and was working for the government there, but this has been many years now. I have only a few pictures of her and they are not very clear. Does anyone have any info about Annie? Annie, a bientot!

The Journey Continues

After the official camp was over, we all went to home or to host families. No other campo members were near us. Sandra (Canada) and I went to stay at the summer house of the Passotti Family in Toscalano Maderno on Lake Garda. All the entries from here out will be about the next two weeks with the host family. Please send me email or post comments here about your experience right after the camp.
Here's the journal entry I have for Juy 21, 198: "We slept until 3 in the afternoon! From 930 the night before! The mom of the family told us she was so worried. She kept sneaking into our room because she thought we had died. We were both just so tired. We layed by their pool. I finally had time to read some of the books I had brought. So I started in on The Dumbwaiter by Pinter. They were taking us out to dinner so I borrowed a pair of pants from Sandy since I had not brought any long pants with me and it was cool in the evenings. We went to dinner in the next town over. The owners were friends of the family. First we sat by the lake and ate olives in little bowls. Then I had a huge pizza. Did a bit of writing when we got back and went to bed."

I think what helped us sleep so well is that the room had these fantastic shutters that blocked every tiny bit of light. The room was so dark. Sandy and I shared a room. The house was on a high hill above the town. It had an excellent view of the Lake. They had a built-in pool and so we swam there often.

Alain Roumilhac --Photos

this is one of my favorite pictures of Alain. I already published once at the beginning of the blog in January. You can just barely see his grey and yellow boat shoes.

In this first picture from Flag Raising Day, you can see from left to right Sheila (Germany), Angela (USA), Resat (Turkey), Alain (France), Cheryl (USA) and Vicki (USA).




Here is a picture of Alain and me at the animal reserve near Pisa.





And yet another picture of Alain from Flag Raising Day.

This one came to me from Nikki (UK). Thanks Nikki. It was a part of a bigger picture that I will use on another post. It is of Alain and me in Florence.

Alain Roumilhac --France

Alain Roumilhac. He was a bit taller than me, wore his dark blonde hair short and spiky with a little tail and had eyes the color of gold. He was unlike anyone I had ever met. I can remember the crowd on the dance floor at the disco, which made space to watch and admire him dancing to The Cure. The first time I saw him, he was near the door to the "main" enterance to the campo building. I did not know his name or nationality then and we did not speak. Something inside me said that I needed to meet this aloof, confident man who smoked hand-rolled cigarettes. It was my mission over then next few days to be in his presence as much as possible -- table tennis, cards (he laughed and cringed at my French pronounciation of 21), hikes, volleyball. He finally noticed me too. My biggest mistake was to separate at the end of camp. The vision of him through the back window as we drove away haunts me to this day. We corresponded for 18 months after the camp ended until his fatal letter in February 1988. I went into a panic and acted like a huge fool. I am so sorry. Alain - playfull, righteous, sensitive and unique. I lost my heart to you and then I lost you. He sang this song to me one night on the stage at the camp --our song. It can say things much better than I am doing.

"You Are My World"by the Communards (Somerville/Coles)
There is nothing boy that can stop my course;
I will hold you tight never let you go.
Tomorrow's party will never end,
Like a bud in spring our love will
bloom and grow.
Your eyes to me are precious stones
On a face that's made of a solid gold,
When I hold your hand I want to cry
And your loving arms to protect me from the cold .
You are my world . You are my world.
The soul inside now belongs to you.
I'm drowing in a love so deep.
We will overcome those ups and downs,
So happiness is forever ours to keep.
I will follow you to the end of time.
I will be the blood flowing through your veins.
I will ride with you till the end of the line.
You will be my everything; my world.
You are; you are; you are; you are,
Oh boy; you are my world.

Sorry about the delay and the spam

Hi. We've been gone on holiday for the last few weeks and so I have not had time to post anything new. It will take me a few days to get back into the routine. Also, suddenly we had all kinds of comments that were actually spam and spyware. Sorry about that. I have turned on the comment moderation so that no comments will appear unless I say they are ok. That will keep the spammers away. Those comments were just too general to be real. I clicked on a few of them and now ran a syware check. Loaded! google offers a great free spy and add checker called Ad-Aware SE. You might want to install it and run it every night. It is amazing how much is hidden in harmless looking pages. Just go to Google.com and click on the link that says "More" Listed is a link called "pack". In it is some wonderful free software like a virus protector and the spyware killer. Worth your time and disc space. Back to Campo blogging very soon.

The last day together -- breaking up the group

Sunday July 20th, 1986. What a terrible day that was! My journal entry: "I cried all morning. Aernout (Netherlands) and the gang left. I helped Tommy (USA) pack. He was in no shape to do it. We had breakfast. Alain (France) and I opened a bottle of sparkling wine and drank it. it was a Pinot-Chardonnay. We exchanged gifts with people, giving personal items to each other to remember each other. The daughter of my host family arrived. We loaded the car and waited around. We had lunch at the camp but I could not eat. I cried a lot. damn. No more because I will never forget.
We got to the house which was in the town of Toscalano Maderno along Lake Garda. They gave Sandy (Canada) and me dinner. They had guests over but we went to bed by 9:30. We were so exhausted. "

I can remember that day so well. Everyone was either going home or going to a host family. Slowly people were just not there anymore. Leslie had forgotten his good suit so I took it with me and mailed it to him. We were helping each other pack and trying to write in each other's phone books. No one got much sleep the night before. The party went on until we dropped and the next day came too soon. It was so hard to say good-bye.

On that note, I have already gotten several email from you guys. Some are asking about a reunion. I am very happy about that. I would love to help plan one but we need to think seriously about it and find out how many? will spouses/kids be coming too? how long do you want to meet? How close to Bagnone do you want to stay? It is a long way away but if we have some people who want to meet and can do it, then I am willing. Think about it and let me know your ideas.

I will continue to write about the different campo members but from here on the journal entries will be about my stay with the host family. I don't know where everyone went. I know Francesco and Elena took several people home with them. Here is a group shot of everyone while we were in La Spezia. Click to enlarge it.

Hana Suominen --Finland

Hanna. She was a lovely person. She was young and shy but I can remember her. Click on the pictures to enlarge them. I don't have many pictures of the girls from Finland. Here is a good one of Hanna. It was taken at the wildlife reservation near Pisa. She did respond to the book I made for the 10th anniversary. She was then at the Good Morning hotel in Turku.
I will try to find her. Oops! It looks like there is not longer a Good Morning Hotel in Turku. I don't know if they were bought out by another chain?
Also in her last letter to me, she had gotten married. She is now Hanna Kuiko.