Since I’m into nostalgia, I have another memory that also took place in Europe. This memory, unlike my Romanian memories, took place a long long time ago.  Hmm, I see how these memories share a common thread.

I’m not positive, but I believe this memory took place in Germany. Just as I am not sure what country I was in, I don’t remember the name or specific identity of the person this recollection is about.

I am not sure whether he was the British Colonel I had met or the American Internal Revenue agent. I don’t remember what this person looked like. I don’t remember how we met. Whoever it was,  we had just met the day I was leaving.  Besides all my blur,  I have one very precise clear memory, and this is what I want to tell you about.  This memory also concerns a good bye.

These were the days when gentlemen wore hats, the kind of hats with brims. Men would tip their hats to you in greeting or goodbye. It was a very gentlemanly thing. You must have seen this gesture in movies.  To me, it was like they were tipping their hearts.

As I remember, I was going away on a train, but it could have been a plane or possibly a boat. I’ll say it was a train.

This is what I remember so clearly.

This figure whom I can’t really remember stood there with his hat over his heart. That’s all the memory is. My train was pulling away, and he was standing there with his hat over his heart. That’s it. That’s the memory. He just stood there with his hat over his heart. There he was with his hat firmly over his heart until I couldn’t see him any longer. I was leaving while he stayed in that one place with his hat over his heart.

Although forty years have passed, in my mind, he is standing there still.

If I could remember what country and the place where we parted, I would go back to the exact spot, and I would look for him and find him still standing there with his hat over his heart.