I grew up in Alexandria, VA until I was a freshman in high school and that summer we moved to Cairo, Egypt instead of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; it seems that my dad had two job offers but decided to take the job in Egypt because it was going to be more challenging. Back then, I don't think I gave a damn either way to be quite honest with you.
The Government paid for our trip to Egypt on an Ocean liner... USS Constitution, as I recall... the ship was part of the Holland-America Cruise line... I had my own inside cabin but have no idea on what level it was... All I remember is that once the ship was 3 miles away from the territorial waters of the USA, I was old enough to drink alcohol... and, I did exactly that.
I was in Cairo, attending Cairo American College (CAC) which was their high school and grades K-12 were all in one compound. I graduated in 1966 and there were only 28 people in our graduating class representing 15 or so different countries. During those years in Egypt, there was no racial prejudice or ethnic discrimination at all... it was never part of our thinking. I dated Middle Eastern women, Oriental women, Caucasian Women, African women, and Spanish women... it just did not seem to make any difference at all to me or to them.
HOWEVER, when I returned to the good ole US of A, it was completely different and everywhere I turned there was some sort of racial or ethnic prejudice taking place...
It was easy not to like the country or the State in which I was born...
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