That was probably the Ugliest Sunset I have ever Seen

My mom arrived and King’s Kids got underway keeping me busy. Once again, I was a performing staff member so I was learning new songs. Laura and I still found time to hang out though. One night we were sitting together in the evening on the Promenade Deck. We were holding hands, watching the sun go down. As the sun disappeared below the horizon, we looked at each other and I said, 

                “That was probably the ugliest sunset I have ever seen.” 

She agreed. Everything was a monochromatic gray – the sun, the sky, the water. It is something we still laugh about today.

King’s Kids performed at a few places around Port Antonio but our plan was to travel around the island. We had a bus for the team to travel in and a van for the equipment. I was going to drive the van. And since we needed to keep the equipment secure, I was going to sleep in the van as well.

Laura and I said our good-byes and off we went east to our first location down the coast where, lo and behold, Laura showed up. It was summer so she didn’t have to teach formal preschool classes. She still had to take care of the preschool-age kids while their moms did their various work duties but there were only three girls. They did a lot of chillin’ and she could get free if she wanted.

Laura returned to the ship while King’s Kids went on performing down the east coast of Jamaica, then west into the capital of Kingston. We kept moving west, then cut north across the island, performing in locations all along the way. As we started travelling back east toward Port Antonio, Laura joined us again. This time she got to stay with us until we got back to the ship and came with us to the famous landmark, Dunn's River Falls.

As King’s Kids came to an end, I had to figure out how I was going to get back to London. I’m usually a fairly responsible person but, once again, I found myself living a bit by the seat of my pants. I had a ticket from New York to London but the ship was not sailing back to the US and I had to figure out how to get to New York.

My plan was to get in touch with the guy I had worked with in Florida to see if he could buy me a ticket to Florida that I could pay off by working with him again. Then I would contact my friend, Tommy in New Jersey to try do the same thing to New York. However, my plans were about to drastically change.

When Laura first called her mom after we got together, she had immediately called Laura’s brother, Paul to ask him about me. He had at least reassured her that I wasn’t some nutcase because she wanted to meet me. After Jamaica, Laura was flying to California. So her mom decided to get me a ticket to California as well and she would find something for me to do to pay it off. That was the easy part. Getting the ticket proved to be a little more stressful.

When the ship is in port, an agent is assigned to it to take care of any business. Since we were in a smaller port, the agent for the Anastasis in Jamaica was based in the capitol of Kingston, several hours away. In those days there were no electronic tickets. You had to have the physical ticket made of card stock. When the agent got my ticket, he was supposed to bring it to us on the ship.

As the time grew closer and closer for the ship to leave, there was still no ticket and we were getting nervous. Finally, the day arrived when the ship was leaving. I couldn’t sail but I had no other way of getting out. We decided to just take the last van to Kingston, hoping that the agent would get the ticket by the time we got there. It was nerve wracking but it did come through and off we flew together on our first leg to Miami.

Mom and I with another guy from King's Kids

Laura and I in the middle at Dunn's River Falls


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