"Every passenger who sailed on the United States during her seventeen years of service has a memory of their trip, a story to tell.  Here's mine.  My five day Atlantic crossing on the United States changed my very concepts of time and freedom.  It's true.  You see, my parents were firm believers in doing things by the clock.  There was a time that a person rose from bed, and a time that you must be in bed at night.   Dinner was served punctually at six; if you weren't at the table, you didn't eat.   But once on-board the United States, all that changed.  For some reason, my parents decided to set me and my two brothers free.  Perhaps they thought there was no way we'd get into trouble, unless we fell overboard.  So all of our normal routines went out the window, or the porthole, so to speak.    As the great liner pushed across the Atlantic, we ran and played tag on the promenade deck.  We went to the movie theatre twice a day.  You could eat whenever you were hungry, and it seemed that the smiling stewards could make any culinary wish come true.   If you wanted a brunch of banana pancakes and seven slices of extra crispy bacon in your cabin at ten a.m., all you had to do was ask.  You just picked up the phone, made your request, and it would be delivered shortly by a smiling man in a white jacket...  

One night, I awoke and listened to the soft hum of the darkened ship.  Certain that my brothers were asleep, I slid out of bed and tip-toed out and into the long hallway lined with closed cabin doors.  Everyone was asleep.  Everyone - except for me and my ship.  I found my way up the stairs and passages to the sports deck.  And there in the darkness, standing in my blue pajamas, I looked up and watched the fiery spray of stars pass over the giant funnels, and felt, for the first time in my life, truly free.   Filled with an inner sense of both calm and excitement, I went back into the ship and found my way down to the swimming pool.  It was officially closed, of course, but I pushed on the door and it opened to my touch.  And there was the pool before me, now dimly lit and empty of people.  What a fantastic sight!  The water in the pool appeared to be a glowing, shimmering, liquid green emerald.  The vibrations from the engines animated the surface of the water, making the deep green rectangle pulse with life, as if some magical spirit had caused it to come alive...."