Account of an unlikely return.

• Author: Mattox, Henry
• Position: Travel narrative

Editor's Note The editor of this journal recently had the opportunity to visit the Azores for the first time since his assignment there a half century ago as a very junior Vice Consul. He recounts here his reminiscence-filled search for old haunts and his satisfaction at being able to participate in Ponta Delgada's commemoration of the humanitarian relief provided by the United States to the victims of the islands' volcanic eruptions in 1957-58.--Pub.

-SBack in the summer of 1960, I finished my second Foreign Service assignment, vice consul at Ponta Delgada on Sao Miguel Island in the Azores. My young family and I departed for the next stop on a career path that led to five more postings abroad, plus a Washington assignment. There followed post-retirement travels and other adventures. The Azores, stranded as they are in the mid-Atlantic, from then on figured not at all in my plans, nor evidently very often in the intentions of others. Nearly everyone transiting the North Atlantic flew over or sailed by the nine islands with, I dare say, scarcely a thought or a glance. Only rarely did the archipelago figure in the news. And why should not that be the case--small, remote, and relatively insignificant in the grand scheme of things as the Azores might be considered?

One never entirely forgets the days of youth, however, especially those times that proved markedly pleasant and interesting or conversely, unpleasant but instructive. This old retiree, who managed a considerable amount of world travel one way or another as the decades passed, never totally lost sight of that particular Foreign Service tour, a brief period of my life that I came to view as taking place in the dim mists of the past. My thoughts nonetheless returned occasionally to that brief chapter in my life, from the end of 1958 to the early summer of 1960, even though increasingly long ago and far away. Would I ever see those isles again? It seemed most unlikely.

-Ah, but then recently came the chance to return, as the reader might have been led to expect from the foregoing comments. Following up on a cruise ship lecturing opportunity that happened along late last year, I applied for a voyage from Florida through part of the Caribbean and thence to Europe-via Ponta Delgada. (For some few years, it seems, certain of the modern-day cruise liners have included that stop in their semi-annual re-positioning treks across the Atlantic.) Upon being accepted for the cruise, with my wife, I...