The Sound of Music
Julie Andrews - the Alps in the background seemed unreal to me
As a child in New Jersey, lying on the shag carpeting in front of the TV with my sisters, I never associated The Sound of Music with more than pure entertainment. It was an enchanting film about a dark moment in history with wonderful songs. These landscapes seemed unreal to me as a kid, and very distant. They were in a place I would never visit and located in a country that I thought had little to do with me.
Last week I visited Salzburg, the location for the film, and it was glorious. The lakes were shimmering and the Alps were so close you could almost touch them.
In spite of my inclination to explore and travel on my own and eschew organized tours, I decided to go on the official Sound of Music bus tour.
The tour bus was parked right outside my hotel, I took it as a sign.
Our tour guide was a young Austrian/American woman in her twenties. She immediately set the tone for us by playing “Raindrops on Roses” over the bus speakers and she encouraged us to sing along.
“Where is everyone from?” She asked us as the song trailed off.
“The UK?” A bunch of hands went up.
“The USA?” She asked. There were more hands raised.
“Anywhere else?” she asked. One couple replied in unison, “Japan.”
And then all was quiet. I sat with this for a beat until Nicole nudged me gently.
“Austria” I said, and the entire bus let out a collective, “Wow!”
I saw that our tour guide looked genuinely surprised. This was not typical. Austrians generally did not know the movie, and they certainly did not go on the tour. The movie came out in the mid 1960’s and Austria was still too worn out by the war to watch a film about it.
At our first stop we visited the famous glass pagoda where Liesl and Rolph had their kiss in the rain. They moved it to a lovely public park. I briefly chatted with our guide who still appeared stunned that an Austrian was on her tour.
“I was born and raised in the United States,” I told her. “I only moved to Austria a year ago. I’m a citizen through the 58c policy.”
She nodded with understanding. Like many Austrians I’ve encountered, she knew about the law but had never met anyone who was affected by it, and certainly she had not met someone who moved here because of it as I had.
We piled back onto the bus and continued to view the magnificent landscapes that are captured by the film, all the while singing the Rogers and Hammerstein songs that made the movie famous.
When Edelweiss was played, my heart expanded a bit and my eyes began to tear with the words, bless my homeland forever. I was as surprised as anyone. The emotion of the moment brought me to my father, my grandparents and my family members who once called this land their home. I saw tour guide see me with this emotion, it was unmistakable.
Back in Vienna, Nicole and I watched the film in its entirety. We saw all the places we visited on our tour - Mirabell Gardens, the Fortress, the Abby. For me, it was like holding a mirror up to another mirror. I saw the places and heard the songs, they reflected back the beautiful long weekend we just enjoyed, but I also saw my childhood joy, and within that reflection, an image of what it once meant for my family. They were city people, but like everyone in Vienna, they surely knew the countryside. The memories and images bounced back and forth seemingly endlessly.
And what about that young tour guide? Now she fully understands that it is not just about Julie Andrews hitting a high note, or some moment in a distant history. This is a lived history and a recent one. I am proof of that.