jd_gardens

In 1959 I led a group of six adults (diverse backgrounds: Montana, California, New York City, etc.) on a month long AYH (American Youth Hostels) tour of Central Europe. I tacked on an extra two weeks to travel on my own at the end of the group tour.  A young woman in my group was meeting a friend in Frankfurt, so the 3 of us decided to travel onward together.

On the final night at the Frankfurt hostel, we struck up a conversation which initiated the most unusual travel experience of my life.  A fellow hosteller claimed it was possible to hitch a free ride on a Rhine River barge.  “Just go to the harbor master’s office in Frankfurt and inquire.”

Deciding we had nothing to lose, by mid-morning we arrived at the gate, each lugging a bedroll and a single backpack.  We were given permission to walk along the quay and ask each captain if we could hitch a ride toward Amsterdam. After several turndowns, one captain said “yes”.  It was unbelievable this was happening.

We spoke no German and he, his Frau, and their nine-year-old son spoke no English.  Somehow we managed to agree we could ride with them, but we only had one hour before they would get underway.  Meanwhile, we must buy food supplies (anything not requiring cooking or refrigeration – cold cuts, breads, oranges) and return no later than 1 o’clock.  A mad scramble, but we made it.

Then we sat! Hour after creeping hour! It turned out that our barge had no engine, and their tugboat didn’t arrive that afternoon as expected. We didn’t get underway, hitched up to the tug, until dawn the next morning.

We lived and slept up in the small pilot house, sitting and laying on the wood floor, wrapped around the various pieces of equipment.  The captain and family had a compact, but larger cabin directly below, and the two-man crew had a tiny cabin of their own at the far-off rear of the long coal-filled barge.  There also was a small bathroom (sink and toilet) below our cabin, which was shared by all.

In most places, the riverbanks were filled with shrubbery, so we weren’t gazing into people’s backyards. This meant that during the daytime there was little to do except wave to other barges and boats and observe life on board: laundry drying on lines, perhaps a moped or bike on board for land excursions, children, and pets (dogs, cats, caged birds), potted plants, maybe a grille.

One afternoon the Frau invited us into their cabin for a bowl of homemade hot soup.  This was a rare and wonderful treat after unending dry sandwiches. Mostly using sign language and drawing pictures, we learned the family had an apartment in one of the river towns. There the Frau and son lived during the winter months while he went to school.  They also had an older daughter who was married to an American and lived in Georgia (perhaps the reason they said “yes” to taking us aboard in the first place).  In total, we spent three days going from Frankfurt to Bonn and learned the rhythms of river barging.  They anchored grouped together in a wider section of the river every night and moved on early each morning.

Evenings were a social time.  Barge families met and greeted old friends.  A small grocery boat wove in and out, pulling alongside to sell fresh food items like fruit, vegetables, milk, bread, and soda.  The young crew members went rowing off with their buddies.

All told it was a truly unique and memorable travel experience.

Carol moved from Florida to The Woodlands to be close to her family. She stays in touch with friends every week using zoom, Skype, email, and FaceTime. Carol enjoys The Woodlands relaxed lifestyle and treasures her time walking on The Woodlands trails and working in her garden plot which rewards her generously every year. She appreciates The Woodlands library which supplements her regularly scheduled trips to the local library. This fall, Carol is participating in the Senior Olympics in Rummikub with other residents.

Brigitte and Ulrich have been married 10 years and moved to The Woodlands from Oakton.  Ulrich was born in Bulgaria and grew up in the German part of Switzerland.  Brigitte was born in Switzerland and had a career as a schoolteacher, then social worker working with the blind.  They met at a party in St. Gallen when Ulrich, a widower, was visiting his brother.

Ulrich worked for a company that made and installed printing presses for newspapers. He speaks Bulgarian, Swiss, German, Spanish, Russian and Italian. As an outgoing and energetic young man, he was the installing/engineering supervisor for newspaper printing presses in many countries. From installing printing presses in Moscow for Pravda to Buenos Aires, and instructing the operators how to use them, he traveled the globe. The company eventually installed him as a Manager in the USA branch.

Ulrich and his wife moved into Oakton in 1978 and established themselves in the community.  Buying out the company, he successfully built a new printing supply company. Talking to him, I’d never thought about printing presses having used lead plates for printing in different languages, especially before offset plates were used and are still used for newspaper printing. Did you ever think about how Armstrong linoleum patterns are made? Ulrich’s company had the contracts for printing press color controls with many companies until he retired.

Brigitte still has a rental flat in Switzerland, where she lived and worked close to the family. Ulrich and Brigette had a favorite apartment in sunny Spain where they could see the beach and the mountains from the balcony, and they have cruised the world twice, both eastward and westward.  The two of them speak German when together. Brigitte speaks with her sister weekly and other friends in Switzerland.  Comfortable with computers, texts, and email, she rarely uses her excellent English. She orders our current best sellers in German.

Now that their Oakton house is sold, they have time to think about their new lifestyle at The Woodlands.  They wanted a neighborhood feel that was similar to their single-family home neighborhood in Oakland. They particularly liked that their apartment, which has beautiful park-like views from every window, and activities and eating area are together in one building. When they are not participating in activities with their friendly neighbors at The Woodlands, Brigitte and Ulrich enjoy the sunshine and beach at their condo In Pompano Beach, Florida in addition to trips home to Switzerland.

Maureen was born in County Offaly in the Irish midlands 93 years ago.  Her parents were teachers, but her mother had to give up her school when her baby Ford had been put up on blocks in the garage and she couldn’t get tires for her bicycle, due to the war.  A family escaping Germany lived in their area, and the English wife gave violin lessons to Maureen and her brother, and then taught her when they were able to get a piano.

Education was important and in 1944 she went to boarding school for three years at Mount Sackville Convent by Phoenix Park in Dublin. It is still a vibrant school today, founded by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Cluny, the nuns with the big white hats.  Maureen was the leading soprano in the operas and was noticed by the local opera people. However, when her mother became very ill, she had to run the household until her parents passed.

After the war, in the fifties, there was little opportunity for single women to make a living wage. Maureen went to ‘jolly’ London and worked as a bank clerk, where the books had to be balanced by hand every day. Renting a typewriter, she taught herself to type and used her mother’s old textbook to learn Gregg shorthand.  A school friend working in NYC invited Maureen to come stay with her, and she arrived in 1963. Maureen remembered her father telling her brother that the oil industry was the place to work and make money.

Several jobs in the big city gave her enough skill to one day confidently walk into Mobil Oil HQ on 42^nd Street and apply for a job. Maureen was hired immediately as a legal secretary typing contracts.  Reading a flyer circulated only to men, she learned they intended to train employees to be computer programmers.  Three years later, she studied the books, passed the qualifying test and started her climb up that ladder.

At NYU she was certified by the Data Processing & Systems Analysis Institute in 1977, became a Registered Professional Nurse at USNY, received a Bachelor of Sciences Degree in Nursing (cum laude) at Hunter College in 1979 and an MBA at Fordham in 1983; all while enjoying life from her apartment with her own piano in Stuyvesant Heights.  Maureen had joined the tax department and moved with HQs to Fairfax.  Arriving at the airport, she picked up a Ford Taurus, and started a new life that included playing Irish tunes on the fiddle every Saturday with The Breakfast Club in Alexandria. She never lost that Irish lilt in speaking.  After 21 years Maureen retired from Mobil as a Tax Accountant.

Renewing her friendship with a doctor in Towson, MD, her first boyfriend in that Irish high school, they traveled back to Ireland many times. From her townhouse condo near the Government Center, Maureen often walked the grounds of The Woodlands and knew this was where she wanted to be when the time came not to be on her own.

Her plans are that one day she will join her parents and sister in that Irish cemetery.  Meanwhile, she enjoys the Great Courses classes, breaks out in song whenever she can, and digs in her brain for the answers to the questions along Memory Boulevard on Wednesdays. Starting a career in the early days of women’s liberation, Maureen always has been a woman of great independence and determination to succeed on her own. Well done!

I am sure many classmates have either “brushed” history or “made” history.  In my case, I had an early “brush” that was quite interesting—I was present at the meeting of President Eisenhower and Nikita Khrushchev in September 1959, when Khrushchev became the first Soviet leader to visit the United States.

After graduating from the United States Naval Academy, I entered the Air Force in the Technical Intelligence career field. This was during the white heat of the arms race with the Soviets, and just before the Bay of Pigs adventure. The Air Force was, understandably, very interested in Soviet technology, especially their development of fighters, bombers, and missiles. The launch of Sputnik I on October 4, 1957, only sharpened this interest and definitely caught our attention!

So, when Nikita Khrushchev, as the First Secretary of the Communist Party, agreed to make a visit to the United States, we set in motion a broad and detailed intelligence-gathering plan. Several of us went “undercover” as aircraft maintenance technicians working at Idlewild Airport (now J.F. Kennedy).  Khrushchev arrived in a new and giant (first time out of the Soviet Union) Tupolev TU-114 turboprop-driven aircraft. He was accompanied by several TU-104 twin-engine jets. We wanted to get as close to these airplanes as possible to record engine stages for subsequent analysis, assess their communications equipment, examine the construction, and overall assess the level of technology. We did a close-up look at the airplanes, and I even worked my way into the belly of one of the TU-104s.

When Khrushchev landed, I was in a follow-me vehicle at the tail of the airplane. I had a front-row seat to watch him deplane and be embraced by President Eisenhower. Since the plane screened off from this event from the terminal, the press was not present. I have never seen a photo of this greeting, but I suspect a White House photographer must have been present. However, there was no picture in the newspapers. Oh, had I thought to have had a camera!

Concurrent with Khrushchev’s visit, the Soviets sent a Sputnik II satellite to New York to show it off in a trade show. So, during the next few days, we conveniently “borrowed” Sputnik II to make a close-up examination of its construction and technology.

From my standpoint, very early in my career, it was a real and successful, cloak and dagger operation that yielded much valuable information on Soviet military technology.  However, the Khrushchev visit is probably more notably remembered by his visit to an Iowa farm, and his not being permitted to visit Disneyland in Los Angeles. Sorry!