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Yes, a classic Hollywood line.


But, it is true.


Lately, I've been giving lots of talks on shoreside.


And sometimes, there are people in the audience, out there in the dark & they too have something to say:


A woman all but cried when she spoke of her father emigrating from Poland in 1922, crossing on the Kroonland out of Antwerp and passing through Ellis Island. ... Another man told of being a young GI but being injured toward the end of the War. He was brought home to New York on the hospital ship USS Frances Y Slanger. He told me it had been an Italian ocean liner, but couldn't remember which one. I told him it was the Saturnia. He smiled. ... Another lady was a British war bride, coming to America on the Queen Mary in 1946. Still another lady proudly said she danced one night with Cary Grant. They were in the ballroom on the Leonardo da Vinci. ... And finally, a man told me of one of his proudest moments. He was sailing as a crew member on a slow freighter, the American Reporter of United States Lines, when the super liner United States swept past at an extraordinary 33 knots. He told me how very proud he was of the SS United States, which to him symbolized the power & might & brilliance of America back in the 1950s.