by Anura Guruge
on July 4, 2023

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Click images to ENLARGE. From ‘Google Maps’.

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True story. I kid you NOT.

I have, over the years, got a LOT of mileage from this story. In those days (& for the next 7 years) nearly all of my SEMINAR work was in Europe — 85% in the U.K. Since it was billed that I now lived in the U.S. I would always start of my U.K. seminars with this story. They loved it.

I am 100% sure that this happens even today, even MORE SO. I am convinced that less & less Americans know & appreciate their history.

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In the ‘title’ I say ‘THIS TIME AROUND‘.

Yes, this is my SECOND stay in the U.S., NOT counting all the trips I made to the U.S. between these two stays.

I came to the U.S. on September 4, 1967 as a 14-year old.

We lived in Buffalo, NY.

That stay, though it was not meant to be, lasted less than a year.

We left, for Paris, late in the Summer of 1968. My father had got a job with UNESCO. I can’t remember when we left. It was before September, because I started school in Paris then.

We most likely were here for July 4, 1968, BUT I don’t remember it. Plus, as a 15-year old I did NOT used to get slightly tipsy women sidling up to me. SMILE.

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In 1975, working for IBM, I started visiting the U.S. on business. I think I was here for multiple 4ths, BUT those all, obviously, were unmemorable.