Nearly a year later, we stepped through the threshold into the Forbidden City. One minute, it was a vast square with hundreds of bicycles, rickshaws, cars and walkers, the looming banner portrait of Chairman Mao presiding over one of the most iconic scenes in the world – and the next minute, Joy and I were talking in a quiet garden of concrete walks and statues.
We were in China with the Singing Angels. Their 1983 summer tour included Beijing, Nanjing, Shanghai in China and Tokyo in Japan. We were breaking the ice in the centuries old home of Japanese emperors, now deserted and left as a tourist site.
The trip was no-doubt exciting, one of the high-points of my life. But the promise of a new romance upped the ante even more.
The most memorable events of the journey were not the performances in front of appreciative Chinese crowds, the tours of schools with fantastic child performers showing off for the state or the site-seeing in Taoist and Buddhist temples and the Tokyo Disneyland, but bonding with Joy and the other Angels and a couple of new Chinese and Japanese friends. Visiting a middle-of-the-night trip to a Tokyo disco after sneaking out of our hotel with Joy and three of her friends; slow-dancing with Joy to bad American-pop; taking a drunken midnight swim in the hotel pool when we got back – definitely one of my all-time best memories.
We survived our misbehaving and the boredom of rehearsals and adults and their rules. And when we got back to the United States, to Cleveland, Joy and Tom (who had missed out on the trip), Joy’s brother and some other friends drove to Edgewater Park for a day of swimming in the then-polluted Lake Erie.
And some time during that day, Joy and I snuck off into the high grasses on the hill leading down to the beach. We picked grass and talked, and then shared our first kiss.
Saturday, August 11, 2012
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2 comments:
Hi,
My name is Kim James. I was ad first soprano in the Singing Angels and on that trip to China and Japan. It was such a wonderful experience. I missed out on the nightclub, but remember going out to KFC often. I was only 13 and I hated the food.
I've been looking for information about the trip. I"m getting no response from the Singing Angels. I'm wondering if you have anything: old records, newspaper articles, or the documentary that was shot. I would greatly appreciate anything that you could pass along. There are a couple of videos on Youtube. It's been so great reliving the trip and the years I spent with the Angels.
I hope that you are well. I live in Los Angeles, but I get to Cleveland about once a year. Thank you so much for your help. Cheers. Kim
Hi Kim,
I am not on Google+ so I can only respond to your comment here. Yes, it was an awesome trip. Did you know Freddie Selvaggio and Tom Inck? They were good friends -- I thought I recalled a Kim who went to Mexico as well with those two. I do not have any info on the trip. We videotaped the documentary, but I no longer have that, it was so long ago. Hope you are doing well, Marc.
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