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| Keywords: autobiography biography 1956 1950s travel telegram parents cable italcable rome roma ciampino ephemera boac italy italia July 1956. I was age 12 and sitting alone in the concourse of Rome's Ciampino airport while the flight to Bahrain was being refuelled or something. I was wearing a little paper tag on a piece of string around my neck that read "Unaccompanied Minor". I was completely unsupervised. It wasn't a "transit lounge"; there was little to no security in those days. It was a noisy, busy concourse with lots of the usual announcements. But then I thought I had heard one with my name. Eeek! I got up and went nervously to what looked like an information desk. I told the lady my name and asked if the "Tannoy" had called me. "Si. Polizia.". She took my hand, which was now trembling a bit, to an office in which there were several "polizia" in khaki uniforms. I gazed at them, just on the verge of tears. They laughed kindly and tickled me to cause me to giggle and said, with a nice accent, "There is telegram for you. Do not worry. It is not always bad news." I stared and wondered and then told myself to be brave, - so I opened it. Then I laughed with relief and a policeman looked at it, smiled, and took me back to where I had been sitting waiting for my flight to be called. He came back with a little glass bottle of orange drink for me and then stood among the crowd in line of sight of me until my flight was announced. (The other passengers, including the other children, had been somewhere else waiting. Maybe I should have been with them.) July 1956. I was age 12 and sitting alone in the concourse of Rome's Ciampino airport while the flight to Bahrain was being refuelled or something. I was wearing a little paper tag on a piece of string around my neck that read "Unaccompanied Minor". I was completely unsupervised. It wasn't a "transit lounge"; there was little to no security in those days. It was a noisy, busy concourse with lots of the usual announcements. But then I thought I had heard one with my name. Eeek! I got up and went nervously to what looked like an information desk. I told the lady my name and asked if the "Tannoy" had called me. "Si. Polizia.". She took my hand, which was now trembling a bit, to an office in which there were several "polizia" in khaki uniforms. I gazed at them, just on the verge of tears. They laughed kindly and tickled me to cause me to giggle and said, with a nice accent, "There is telegram for you. Do not worry. It is not always bad news." I stared and wondered and then told myself to be brave, - so I opened it. Then I laughed with relief and a policeman looked at it, smiled, and took me back to where I had been sitting waiting for my flight to be called. He came back with a little glass bottle of orange drink for me and then stood among the crowd in line of sight of me until my flight was announced. (The other passengers, including the other children, had been somewhere else waiting. Maybe I should have been with them.) | ||||
