After the 1966 Trip – we went our separate ways…

As young men tend to do. Within a few months we had lost all contact with each other – as young men also tend to do. Careers flourished – families formed. Years passed – old address books lost. We now know that we were each trying to contact the others, and there were some near misses, but we always ‘came up empty’ – for the next 30 years…

1975 John visited to Hong Kong…

to buy camera equipment for his publishing company. During the negotiations he mentioned that 10 years earlier he had travelled with an Australian photographer who later moved to Hong Kong. An hour later the camera shop owner drove him to Peter’s studio, he met his business partner, but Peter had returned to Australia a few weeks earlier!

And in New York later that same year…

and, on a whim, called Fort Henry in Kingston, Ontario, and asked to speak to Keith, or anyone who might remember him. He was given a phone number of a government department “where someone may be able to help you…” He was told that Keith was ‘on a training course’ and would not be available for 2 or 3 days. It was a long shot but he left a phone number of a San Diego hotel. Four days later he was in San Diego and returned to the hotel to find a message from Keith – with a phone number. Which had been written incorrectly by the hotel staff! Worse, the phone number for that mysterious government department had been lost somewhere between New York and San Diego, and – another 20 years passed without success.

Then, when it finally happened…

it was not through internet searches or skilled detective work, just a series of incredible coincidences…

Tokyo – 1993.

JATA (Japan Association of Travel Agents) Congress. Opening Ceremony, reserved seating with 5,000 international delegates in the auditorium. VERY formal, VERY boring. John was browsing the contents of his registration satchel. Nothing to read, just the delegates’ directory and the name leapt off the page…  Keith de Bellefeuille Percy, not a name designed to leap off pages… It HAD to be him. But, how to find him amongst 5,000 delegates? It didn’t take long… John and Keith were seated one chair appart – Keith in the row in front! It was a noisy reunion, caught on Congress cameras, and featured that night on NTV. The reunion lasted the entire week – but it took another 6 years to find the other two…

Late August, 2001.

John was preparing for a trip to England and Europe. Late one night, the computer beeped, an email from David, he had done a Yahoo search, found two John Polsons – and one was not a film star…

Two weeks later John arrived at David’s home in Kent…

at EXACTLY 2:00pm GMT on September 11, 2001 or 9:00am in New York City. The world had changed a lot in 35 years… but it changed a lot more in the following 35 minutes!

For 3 days, our reunion took place in front of the TV – with BBC and CNN broadcasts from NYC. Since then, contact has been continual and we have all visited each other several times.

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Christmas 2005 – Pictures of our individual festivities from the 4 Countries.

The Second Trip…

In June/July 2006 – we met in Ickham, Kent and returned to Le Mans, France – where we reunited with Florence and her family.  And then – to Agen – we hired a boat and spent two weeks cruising through the locks on the Canal du Midi…  You can follow it all here…