Saturday, March 22, 2008

Anniversary, of sorts; Early Easter

Easter is incredibly early this year. In fact, the last time it was this early was in 1913. Easter occurs on the first Sunday after the first full moon following the Vernal Equinox. The Equinox was on the 20th, the full moon on the 21st, and that means tomorrow, the 23rd, is Easter.

But this isn't about Easter, really. It was on Easter Sunday 30 years ago that I returned home after being away for more than two years. Easter that year was March 26, the earliest Easter of my life before this year. I left for my Peace Corps service in early January 1976 and worked in South Korea until December 1977. For the next couple of months I travelled through Asia with a Peace Corps friend, visiting Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. I grew weary of the road and also was running out of money, so in late March I flew back to the U.S. on the cheapest ticket I could find - Bangkok to New York via Warsaw on LOT Polish Airlines. (The trip included an overnight stop in Poland and a tour of Warsaw, which in 1978 seemed like a pretty exciting diversion.) I stayed with friends for a few days in New York, and then headed to Indianapolis and my parents' home on Easter Sunday.

Is it possible it's been 30 years?

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