AUGUST 1970 - JULY 1971 : FOLEY, ALABAMA : Memories of an AFS exchange student

When I was in first year high school at Meriden in Strathfield in 1965 we had an enthusiastic AFS student from America. She impressed me greatly. When I was at Campbell High in Canberra I had the opportunity to apply for this scholarship. Fortunately I was successful and flew to America in August 1970.

122 students were selected from Australia and we collected more students from New Zealand on our flight to San Francisco. A 20 hour flight with 200 students was partytime. In those days you could move freely around the cabin and even chat to the pilot in the cockpit.

Our orientation was at Stanford University, a very impressive campus.





Then we were all distributed around the US.

I was put on a flight to Pensacola, Florida.

My host family was from Foley, Alabama, 45 minutes from Pensacola. The Engels had four girls - Nancy (my age), Patsy, Sherry and Susie. Bob, the father, was a farmer - hogs and corn. His farm adjoined several other farms owned by his brothers.

They were wonderfully supportive and welcomed me into their family, providing me with every experience possible.

 

At this time in US history schools in the southern states had just been integrated, George Wallace a very conservative governor of Alabama, pro-segregation, was in office. Most white families had black maids, just as depicted in the movie, The Help.

Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew were the Presidencial duo in their first term before their respective falls from grace with the Watergate and corruption scandals. 

Foley was a typical southern farming town. 15,000 inhabitants with a lot of community involvement through the local (Foley) School, a range of churches (the Engels attended St Paul’s Lutheran church) and community services groups, like Rotary.

The main meeting point was the bowling alley car park  - very typical small town America. Very TV’s Happy Days era.

Most popular meals

Fried chicken and shrimp and grits

Some surprises

Cars were huge compared to Australian models. Most students had car licences at 16 and drove large Chevrolets or being a farming community, pick up trucks. Colour TV was a complete novelty and the large fast food chains were new to me as well.

Foley High School was the classic American high school. The year was focussed on the baseball and football seasons and the social events surrounding them - Homecoming, for example.

There was total support of the school teams - school marching bands, cheerleaders and booster squads. Several times a year there were parades through the town with much enthusiasm for the preparation of floats. 








There was a stream of social events - homecoming, Christmas dances and the Prom. The theme for the 1971 prom was the Carpenters’ We’ve only just begun.

All functions meticulously planned and orchestrated, as they had been for decades.

St Paul’s Lutheran Church Christmas concert

A small, supportive country school was the perfect place to spend a year. I learnt typing and Spanish .. among other new skills. School was a daily fashion parade  (all hand-made) - unlike our functional school uniforms (and make-up and jewellery punishable by detention) in Australia - there was pressure to keep up with fashion, make up, handbags and coiffed hair.

Formal afternoon teas were the norm for get togethers and community welcomes.

My homeroom teacher, Mrs Fulbright wrote this poem for my farewell.

As part of my responsibility I was required to speak about Australia to community groups, which I did very willingly as I met so many interesting people throughout the year.

During the year there were opportunities to meet with other AFS students from so many different countries.

I also had the opportunity for a short term exchange in Jacksonville Florida with the Bullard family. It was an exciting week attending the large local high school, learning to water ski at their house on a lake and spending a night in Tallahassee at Florida State University in the Kappa Alpha Omega sorority house with the oldest daughter, Clea.

Schoolies week at Gulf Shores, the beautiful coast only 30 minutes away from town.

The Gulf is well-known for its displays of phosphorescence.

At the end of the academic year, all the AFS students from around the US were put in bus groups for a tour through the country.

Our group from the southern states had a fabulous itinerary- Atlanta, Chattanooga, Washington, Cincinnati and Jamestown NY.

Generous hosts, beautiful stately homes, a  work program in Washington, a Burt Bacharach/ Dionne Warwick open air concert, a trip to Niagara Falls and  lots of fun time in each city stay.

A fabulous group of students with so many different backgrounds. A wonderful ending to a very enlightening year - for a very grateful Aussie girl!

But the fun was not over yet! Just before our departure from San Francisco we were billeted with more families. I was lucky to stay with the Macdonnell family in Palo

Alto.

A most interesting year.

M&M

Several Australian students in this year group went on to do law at ANU and became federal and NSW politicians, Nick Minchin and Andrew Tink.

After 50+ years I still have contact with the Engel family and we regularly share news and memories.

M

DECEMBER 1973 - FEBRUARY 1974 : INDIA : Memories of a student

While studying Asian Studies at ANU a friend and I decided to spend our Christmas vacation 1973-4 in India.

I have recreated the trip with the help of the internet and a travel diary. So much has changed in fifty years!

Thai International offered the best flights. Our first stopover was in Singapore. When we fronted up for our connecting flight to New Delhi, we were told that the flight was over-booked and they would put us up at a hotel overnight and fly us the next day. Mark was also off-loaded off the flight - so we met ..and the rest is history!

Singapore. Very exotic for us. We experienced yum cha, spring rolls, food night markets for the first time.

We flew into New Delhi in the middle of the night, sleeping in the small airport until we could catch a taxi in the morning. We found accommodation at a youth hostel in New Delhi’s centre. Delhi. Grand buildings, sprawling gardens, busy, colourful markets.

A train south to Agra. 

Agra was the Mughal capital until the late 17th century 

The Taj Mahal was built by the last Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan as a mausoleum for his wife in 1631. Stunning at any time of the day.

We also visited Akbar’s tomb.

Another train journey, spending time in various stations, to get the right connections to Ujjain.

We arrived in Ujjain with one of our Hindi tutors from ANU. He was friends with a lecturer at Vikram University in Ujjain. Dr and Mrs Johri and daughters, Sruti and Priti, welcomed us into their modest home in the University district.

Ujjain is an ancient city on the Kshipra River and is a pilgrimage site. There is a major temple and extensive ghats along the river for ritual bathing.

There is a large University presence and had a lively commercial centre.

We were treated to delicious home cooking prepared by their cook, Sumayi, and Mrs Johri.

During our time there we were invited to a wedding with the family. A very happy affair with food served for all the community on banana leaves.

Sumayi took a full cooked lunch to the girls’ school every day.

  

Sruti was involved with a traditional dance class and we were invited to an amazing performance. 

We were so grateful to the Johris for all the opportunities they provided for us.

Our next destination was Goa, a very popular meeting point for thousands of travellers for winter. They spent summer in the Himalayas.

We were able to reserve sleepers for the part of the journey.

While passing through Bombay (Mumbai) we had a few hours wait until our connecting train. A local lady invited us to her apartment nearby for tea. I remember her horror when after offering for us to wash our hands, I plunged my hand into her only bucket of water polluting her allotted daily water supply. I quickly learnt about etiquette and realised the value of water in this large crowded city, something I’d always taken for granted.

Goa was party central. Jennine and I joined the thousands of campers in tents along Calangute Beach. Swimming, simple meals, sunsets.



While we were there it was Christmas. I decided to go to the Midnight Service. A packed church at St Alex, a long service, including assistants employed to keep dogs out of the proceedings by goading them with big sticks - it all added to the atmosphere. Very dark and scary walk back to our tent, afterwards. Locals guided me.

In Bangalore we stayed with a missionary family with six children. This was a very happy stay and all the more sweet as the family moved to Canberra in the next few years for the children’s tertiary education.

Joe Mullins, an Englishman, was rector of St John’s Church.

Then we took a long bus trip up winding roads through tea plantations to Ooty in the Nilgri Hills.

A friend in Canberra recommended we stay with her sister. She was headmistress of St Hilda’s, a boarding school in Ooty. We were able to stay as it was school holidays.

We were able to catch a flight from Bangalore to Indore with a student discount. We were relieved that we wouldn’t have to run for seats and get involved in the bunfight as we had on our train and bus journeys.. But when the flight was called everyone started running across the tarmac to grab their seats, we couldn’t believe it.

From Indore we took a bus to Aurangabad to visit the Ajanta and Ellora Caves.

The Ellora Caves are some of the largest carved Hindu temples in the world, dating back to 600 AD.

The Ajanta caves are a series of 30 rock cut cave monuments dating back to the 2nd century BC.

We were very lucky to be part of a tour. From our hostel in Aurangabad we were looking for a public bus to the caves but a tour operator just called us on board and treated us as part of their group.

 From here we headed back to Delhi by train, meeting up with Mark, who had spent time in Srinagar and now was staying with his brother at the Australian High Commission, and then we continued on our journey home via Bangkok and Singapore.

M