[S.D. Kelsey--home movies] Reel 10

Date1958 – 1961

OtherCan notes: "Europe 1958-1961"

Anecdotal Comments & ReflectionsREEL TEN 1958-1961 In 1957 Daddy was told he had been transferred to Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, (SHAPE) Paris, France. The only person he told was his son, Stevie, a freshman at Saint Paul's Preparatory School. We left Virginia in May of 1958 and arrived by the luxury liner USS America on May 22, 1958. I celebrated my 13th birthday that day, Lisa was five and Stevie was 15. The opening shot is of the children ice skating in Paris, Lisa (in red coat and hood and me in coat and scarf) and I are cautious but Stevie is confidant as he learned to skate playing ice hockey at Saint Paul's which is located in Concord, New Hampshire. The time moves to the summer and it is Bastille Day, July 14, 1959; the location Paris, France and it is Stevie's 17th birthday. The celebration takes his breath away and it quickly becomes his favorite day and holiday of the year. He spoke French, we were all to follow suit. The family bought a French home in the Parisian suburb of Le Vesinet and we hired Maria, a Spanish maid who could clean and cook like no one's business. Her fried eggplant was the best. The town had a central market and a beautiful park; Lisa and I are seen here. The French are renown for their parks and pictured is the famous Jardin du Luxemboug located in the center of Paris, just off the Champs Elysee. Nearby is the beautiful Bois de Boulogne where I attended my only prom; it was located in a chateau in the wood. The dinner was held at the Hotel George V. Seen riding the train at the Jardin are myself and Lisa and my best friend, Sylvia Ospina, a fellow boarder at my school, Marymount-sur-Seine-a-Neuilly. She was from Bogota, Columbia. I never saw her after my first year at the school, but Mother said she heard of her many years later and she was an artist living in New York City. In late spring Mother and I are seen in a quaint street in London, England-1959. The whole family and Sylvia went and together we saw the Changing of the Guard. Stevie had returned from the US and is seen playing golf with Mother. Golf was her one and only sport and she just loved it; she got the bug from her father who also enjoyed the game. I tried and never liked it. Next is seen Lisa as a six year old jumping rope at S.H.A.P.E. Village were we moved to from Le Vesinet; why we moved I don't know. S.H.A.P.E. was located in the suburb of Saint-Germaine-en-Laye and was the former home of King Louis XIV and his friend the disposed King of England, James. Lisa was enrolled as a first grader at the S.H.A.P.E. International School and she quickly learned to speak French fluently though she never spoke in French to Americans, only Frenchmen and internationalists. A Parisian plaza is seen with Lisa walking alone, looking just like a French girl with her beret and red pom-pom. Mother follows at a discrete distance. The working house-boats of Paris and the Seine River are seen in the background. Lisa is now seven years old and I am 14 and the scene is at Lourdes, the Catholic holy shrine to the Blessed Virgin Mary, where it is said she appeared and healed the sick. We are seen taking water and placing it into special vials. The grotto is seen with crutches, etc. from healed believers. Mother, who suffered with many ailments, walked through the waters but only got ill as a result. She was not healed. The family, then, went to Spain and we see folk dancing in the streets of the village we stayed in; it was near Barcelona and on the coast and not yet a tourist attraction, though it would become one later. Daddy bought me a blue and white swimming suit in this coastal town and I am seen wearing it here. Stevie is with me. The family later on took a trip to Cannes and Stevie and I rented a paddle boat and paddled out to a Navy destroyer and rammed it repeatedly. Stevie thought it was hilarious but I was terrified. Lisa stayed on shore with Mother and Grandma Fee. Daddy took all of us to a bullfight, which was dreadful and painful to watch. You can see how cruel a sport it is and how unfair to the bull it is. We returned to Paris and Mother took us to her favorite haunt, Marchee Puche-The Flea market. She purchased many treasures there and they were with her for the rest of her life. I have some of them and Lisa had some. The Marchee Puche was an open air market that was the home to antiques from the 1600's on. The prices were a steal and the hunt exhilarating. Mother went as often as she could. The scene switches back to Saint Germaine where Pierre is running alongside the 1958 Chevy pink station wagon. Daddy had taught him to run just ahead of the wagon and that is how he got his exercise. The countryside depicted is now housing. Coming to the end of the reel there is historical footage as it shows the newly elected United States President John F. Kennedy meeting the troops. Daddy was a most important part of this occasion. Mother attended also. Lisa was in school and I was in school as my Home Economics teacher had threatened to fail any of her students who missed class that day. Such misplaced priorities. While JFK was in Paris, with his wife, Jacqueline, there was a formal ball held at Versailles in the room called the Salon du Glacee. Mother and Daddy went and Mother wore a custom made sleeveless, v-neck, satin gown and Daddy wore his Air Force dress uniform. They looked so elegant. It was history in the making. The time, May, 1961. The last of the reel shows Stevie cleaning out his Saint Paul's dormitory room and placing his belongings, an accumulation of four years, in the back of the pink Chevy. He graduated from Saint Paul's Magna Cum Lude and went on to graduate from Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, class of 1965. The Chevy traveled throughout all of Europe with us and the Europeans were very impressed with it.