12/23/2008 - Bus Memories, 1961
Beginning in 1948 AFS employed buses to tour the US, stopping along the way in communities where students were hosted and acquainted with American culture. A key destination was Washington D.C., where exchange students met with political leaders and toured the nation’s capitol. Featured below is a reminiscence from a former AFS bus chaperon, John Bowles.
“It was the summer of 1961 when I served as a bus chaperon. My partner Debbie had just graduated from Pomona College in Southern California, which is where I continue to reside. Debbie and I picked up all the AFS students who had spent that year in Washington State in Seattle and then headed east. First to Spokane, Washington we were met by the bus coming from Portland – this bus carried all the students who had spent their year in Oregon. The two buses traveled together for the rest of the trip; 5 -6 weeks long.
The highlight of the trip was in Washington D.C. where all of the AFS students met on the concourse between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial. Flags had been posted for all countries represented that year and the kids were reunited with other students from their home countries. All of the kids then came back to the original bus which had brought them and all of the buses then proceeded to the White House where President Kennedy came outside and greeted all of us and shook hands and went into the crowd which was essentially berserk by then.
It was the custom then to allow each bus chaperone to be a luncheon guest with students at their nation’s embassy. I was invited to a luncheon at the embassy of Laos. There were four AFS students in the U. S. that year from Laos, and although none of them were my students we all enjoyed the experience tremendously.
That evening I received a call from one of our students, Ali from Iran. He was very excited because the Iranian kids were invited back for another luncheon at their embassy and they were told to bring their bus chaperones. Of course we attended and Ali showed us off to the Ambassador, Prince Zahedi, as if Debbie and I were his parents. There were about twenty students plus chaperones at that luncheon, and the highlight was when we were all invited to give a message to be broadcast on Radio Tehran. It certainly was a different time.
Our final destination was Amherst College where we were housed in the dorms and from which the kids departed to their home countries. There were other amazing experiences from that summer which I still treasure… “
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