The best part of the day was going into town and visiting the Post Office.

After receiving her first Post Card from her friend Eleanor while on a vacation in Pittsburgh she was hooked on the romance of traveling.

In grade 7, her Teacher hooked Marjorie up with a Pen Pal as a Geography assignment. She really lucked out. Her Pen Pal, Ingrid, lived in Johannesburg, South Africa. Marjorie couldn’t in her wildest imagination think of a more exotic place to travel to.

She started reading all about Africa. She could draw a perfect map of the Continent. Her copy of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs was dog-eared and dearly in need of rebinding. An issue of National Geographic with an article on the Congo and another on the Akka people, a nomadic pygmy tribe was carefully hidden in her room, as some of the natives were not fully clothed.

Mother may understand, but Father would not.

Marjorie and Ingrid wrote to each other once a month. They exchanged pictures and gifts and they planned the trips that would bring them together; Ingrid to North America and Marjorie to South Africa.

There was a box under Marjorie’s bed filled with brochures, pictures from Ingrid, Travel Schedules, and Maps.

Marjorie was going to South Africa. Some Day!