The Water Cooler – If You Could Relive One Year Of Your Life, Which Year Would You Choose And Why?

I can’t just pick one year, but the years from when I was 20 to 24 stands out. At 20 years old I went to live on a kibbutz in Israel, along with 6 friends I knew from a boarding school in Denmark. Before that I had only been to Sweden, Northern Germany and Holland. We took the train from Copenhagen to Venice, beautiful ride through Germany and the Swiss Alps, we boarded a ship in Venice, headed for Haifa, with stops in Athens, Crete and Corfu. Israel was exotic, mysterious, and quite an eye opened for someone like me from a potato farm 30 miles south of Copenhagen, and a little dangerous, we were 1 mile from the Syrian border and the looked down on us with machine guns, but there were a UN peace keeping force, keeping us safe. After 3 months in Israel we returned to Denmark, my 2 girl-friends and I had made friend with 2 girls from Iceland, they wanted us to come to Iceland and work there for a few months, so after few months in Denmark off to Iceland, beautiful county, opposite of Israel in many ways, we worked there for 3 month then took the boat from Reykjavik to Edinburgh and spend the next 5 weeks, hitchhiking through England, France, Luxembourg, Belgium, Germany and back to Denmark. When I returned to Denmark I was very restless and wanted to see more of the world, and also improve my English, I applied for a job as an au pair in Westport Ct. and got the job, I spend the next 2 years in Westport and had a magical time. We partied, dated, it was the late sixties. Again of course I was in wonder of everything, big houses, everyone even guys my age had a car, I date someone that was a model with the Eileen Ford agency in New York, I had at times to pinch myself. My second year in Westport was even more magical, the model I had dated was back from University of Miami and we dated again, but a month or so later I met who I considered the love of my life. We had instant chemistry and had a 2 year passionate tempestuous love affair. It didn’t work out, but he was always there for me, I got over him, but never forgot him. He had a Stingray Corvette, and we would drive down by the beach with the top down, and I remember thinking, this is why I left Denmark, this is what I imagined the US would be like. P.S. For you music lovers, the model I dated was an avid photographer and became very successful as a cinematographer. He was at the famed Doors concert in Miami and took a picture of Jim Morrison with a baby lamb that ended up in a book about The Doors. He also did an album cover of The Doors and were witness at Jim Morrison’s trial in Miami. I’m pleased to say he was on Morrisons side.