After 40 years , I finally fit.

It was August 1966 when my Navy buddy and I found out we were going to Italy. At the end of our training, we had all filled out a “preference of duty” form. The consensus was that the forms were immediately thrown in the trash. No one ever got the assignment they requested. Dan & I had requested the most obtuse locations. I don’t remember them except for Turkey. Italy was a great surprise.
There were two types of servicemen in Italy. Type 1 avoided all contact with the natives. Then spent most of their free time complaining about the country and its inhabitants. Type 2 servicemen immersed themselves in the country and its culture.
98% were Type 1’s. 2% were type 2’s. Dan and I were Type 2’s.
We did everything possible to fit in. Italian clothes helped. Dan came up with the idea of always carrying a local newspaper. The reality was that I was tall and blond and while there were blond Italians, few were tall. Dan was shorter, but just didn’t look Italian.
It was amusing .Board a train and take a seat in one of the compartments. . Dressed Italian, and pretend to read the Italian news.. I would ignore the curious glances and the discrete whispers. Usually, after a short while, someone would brave a simple question. A simple Si or No was not enough for them to figure out where I was from. When they could stand it no longer, some one would ask, “Tedesco?” (German). “No”, I would answer, “American”. Everyone in the compartment would give a sigh of relief and start practicing their limited English on me. I would usually hear something like this “ I godda brodder in New Yak, ya know him?”,
My Italian got better, but I was never able to fit in. I stayed two years, Dan shipped out before me.
Forty years later it’s a different country. There are hundreds of thousand of immigrants from all over and many are tall and blond. On our last trip, I walked out to the street and almost immediately a car pulled over and asked directions. I thought it was a fluke, but it started happening all the time. Forty years ago I always got stares, today no one even notices me.
One day I drove my mother-in-law to the fish market. The parking lot was jammed packed, so I dropped her off and pulled up and doubled parked. I got out of the car, ready to move if I was in someone’s way. A couple got in there car and I stopped the traffic so that they could pull out of their parking place. They pulled out and then stopped. The women got out and gave me 50 cents and thanked me for watching their car.
After 40 years, I fit in.

©2009