I joined ITDF for $1

Somewhere between Honolulu and Tokyo flying at 35,000 feet I became only the third member of the International Tap Dancers Federation.

I was enroute to Vietnam and had the lucky or unlucky seat next to a guy by the name of Tom Chapman.

After a brief exchange I told him I was on my way to Vietnam, and that followed with his telling me how wrong the war was. This was Feb. 7, 1969.

Then he told me his plan to end all wars. That’s where the ITDF came in.

He further explained that I could join for only a dollar, which I gave to him.

Tom then went on to say the ITDF’s plan was to get all the world leaders to meet on the bank of the Yangtze River in China to tap dance together.  

He suggested I look up Peter Turvey, who worked for the Hong Kong Standard newspaper, the other member of the group. He then wrote an introduction for me on the back of his ticket jacket. Turvey was the advertising manager of the Standard at the time.

Well, world peace has eluded us, and apparently the logistics of getting everyone on the banks of the Yangtze proved too difficult.

On another occasion, while reading the Seattle Times, I saw that a Russian boat was at the dock in Seattle and that people could tour the ship.

Before boarding, we had to register with a U.S. naval official who I guess was afraid that we were going to take off when the ship sailed.

We took the tour that included tea and biscuits in the galley.

We asked if the sailors could leave the ship, and we were told they could for a short period.

It was like checking out a book at the library, and we had four Russian sailors at hand.

We drove them to our home in Bothell, fed them and exchanged an awkward visit. Only one of the sailors could speak English, and limited, at that.

But they did take great interest in our collection of music albums. After some discussions, the four were delighted in receiving an album to take back to the ship with them.

We checked them back at the ship and they wanted us to come aboard again. This time there was hot, fresh bread in the galley and their own special brand of tea sweetened by a lot of sugar.

It was rewarding at the time to think that somewhere in Russia there were four sailors listening to some American music and recounting that they had jumped ship in an American port, if for only four hours.