European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 7, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                A Quot i 1 a is a v it i k m a a a a it Ltd Ltd it a up. A a a is amp of 1a a it a a a -. A a a a ,. A a a it in a a f1p�, Jolly a. Sienda says the Village of thira on Santorini Island is  my favorite place. A amps file. A a 1 pm v a v a vol a mute Muti. Xv&1 Aam a t Cynthia Neil Learned about Quot Grace under pressure Quot in Bastogne. A amps file continued from Page 3 i can t drive or walk to my favorite place preparation is involved before getting there. I climb into my jumpsuit. I strap myself into my Rig the Chest strap holds my altimeter which i set to 12,000 feet next the goggles the helmet. Clouds Are moving in fast and i must reach Altitude before they close in and the target is obscured. As if by wishing an opening appears a the runway and target in sight. I jump out. I m there a two Miles above Ipswich England and speeding to the Earth at 120 Mph. Gentle England All curvy roads and Green and yellow Fields soft. I will get Only a minute in this fantastic world of free fall then a few More once my canopy opens. The Clouds have closed in again but i am in Bright sunlight above them. They Rise to meet me soft White and shining. I pull my ripcord and descend through the misty silence. On other Days i be become part of the Sunset have looked Down on the dewy grass glistening in the morning and listened to the Lark rising up from the Fields As if to Welcome me. It s never the same but it s always wonderful. A Nancy Johnston Raf Ben Waters England a a if we stayed in Germany we could save a Fortune on ferry tickets. We could eat far better in France. The Sun in Spain would Shine More than one Day in three. Yet this summer like every other in my 19 years with Dodds will find us in Ireland. Why it is Europe s decompression chamber. You can do nothing without a guilty conscience. You la go fora pint and spend hours before a turf fire with locals playing fiddles and accordions reciting poetry singing unpolished renditions of songs and telling tales from an astonishingly Rich Oral tradition. Be sure you have a tune or a Story in your head when your turn comes. It s a land obsessed by the past rooted to the Earth haunted by ruined castles and melancholy overgrown graveyards. Villages and towns can be scruffy not restored to death like so Many elsewhere. Likewise the people Are unaffected and Friendly with a turn of phrase which transforms a miserable drizzle into a Quot grand soft  Little wonder this Small Green Isle has produced Yeats Joyce Beckett Swift. Yes Well be there. Maybe this year Well get around to kissing the Blarney Stone but i doubt it. A John Pinschmidt Stuttgart West Germany the Snow capped mountains reflected in the rippled surface of crystalline water. As i stood at Stream s Edge my mind grasped images from the past. This could be the frying pan River of Central Colorado or even the Yakima which cascades from the Washington mountains. Cold clean Rushing water is always Home for me and i was Quot at Home Quot on the Weissen Traun River just South of Chi Emsee in Bavaria. Small mayflies cruised the currents like miniature sailboats. Many met their demise not from crashing on rocks but to porn rising hungry Rainbow Trout. Yes the Rainbow Trout had been transplanted from America to Germany in years past. It fit Well in its new environment and grew healthy and robust. The imitation mayfly with hidden Hook alighted on the Stream searching for an elusive prey. With a shocking suddenness the Trout rocketed upwards and inhaled the offering. A five minute Battle ensued interspersed with Long pulling runs and splashy jumps by the fish. Exhausted the Beautiful two Pounder came to hand. A transplanted american Soldier smiling at a transplanted american fish. Only one of them however was thinking that Quot it does t get much better than  a Berris d. Samples Giessen West Germany below the first Hills of the Beaujolais the Soane River coils lazily in its heavy morning mists. Fleurie the nearest town drifts amid a sea of Blued wooden Staves. Five different years i wandered Back to shoulder a hundredweight of grapes and climb the Hills. The 20th Century was such a far off notion. We ate in a Manger and slept in its wooden trough when the 4 stripes Magazine june 7, 1990