Grandpa's Wisdom

I did meet with and shake the hand of Richard Nixon at the Republican National Convention in 1964. We had a short conversation. Nixon was Vice President at the time so technically I did not shake hands with the President although he went on to become President. At the time I was President of the Young Republicans chapter at San Diego State College and received two tickets to the National Convention. My wife and I attended and it was great fun. I even participated in a floor demonstration with a sign.

It was deeply moving visiting the places where Jesus lived and taught and died. Jerusalem was interesting but crowded. I would have liked to have visited Bethlehem, but was told it was not safe so took a pass. I particularly liked the Sea of Galilee and the surrounding area. It was very peaceful, but looking up at the Golan Heights, I realized how precarious that peace was with only the IDF between peace and the destruction of war. I was surprised at the size of the Jordan River, but it does provide for a lot of irrigation. I had taken one of my sons and one of my grandsons with me on the trip. The grandson, whose name is Jordan, took a swim in the Jordan River. He was thrilled.

My last trip out of the Country was a Baltic Cruise with two grandsons. We visited Oslo, Norway; Stockholm, Sweden; Copenhagen, Denmark; Warnemunde, Germany; Tallinn, Estonia; Helsinki, Finland; and St. Petersburg, Russia. It was their first and my third visit to these cities. St. Petersburg is always an adventure as there are so many things to see with historical significance. I had earlier taken three granddaughters on roughly the same trip and it was fascinating to see the differences between what the girls wanted to see and experience vs. what the boys were interested in. Both trips were extraordinary.

Currently, not at all. At 87 I am just not up to it anymore. When I was working internationally, I was traveling most of the time. After I retired, I would travel internationally two or three times a year.

Yes, quite a few times. I will describe the first one in 1978. I was getting used to my new job as Assistant Controller for Wallace International, and after several months, I was sent on an inspection tour of our overseas offices. This was my second trip out of the United States. (The first one was with the Marine Corps by sea to Korea in 1951 and return by plane.) I had almost no idea of what it would be like despite having a brief description by the Corporate Travel Office. The flight from Dallas to New York City was uneventful. The non-stop flight from New York City to Dhahran, Saudi Arabia was way too long, about 16 hours. On subsequent trips, I would fly to Frankfurt and change planes. Going through customs in Dhahran was an interesting experience as they went through my luggage with a fine tooth comb taking nearly everything out and then tossing it back in. Sights, sounds and smells were all unfamiliar. Except for a few non-Saudi women on the plane, they were all dressed like the...

I traveled to Israel to see the places where Jesus lived and died. To visit the places I had read about in the Bible was a truly thrilling experience. Jerusalem, the via Dolorosa, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Sea of Galilee, Nazareth, Capernaum, Mt. Tabor, The Jordan River, etc. I took one of my sons and one of my grandsons with me. We all had a great time. I would have liked to have gone to Bethlehem as well, but we were advised that it was not safe.

My favorite castle to visit has been Edinburgh Castle. I have been there four times, once on the Queen’s Birthday. A couple of hours of great pageantry with one of my favorites, bagpipe bands with the lone piper on the highest turret of the castle. It is a very large fortification with a lot of history. I imagined being either on the offense or defense. I would not like the offense. There is only one practical way to attack given its location on a promontory with nearly vertical sides except for the main entrance facing the Old Town. The one drawback is that it is so big that it takes more than a day to see it all. Museums, cell blocks for French prisoners of war from Napoleon’s time, tales of heroism, St. Margaret’s chapel, etc.