Travel, young man!  

       “It is probably more fun to look back over my journeys and say what a swell time I had instead of going through it all again – which is probably just what I would do and recommend to all young men – after graduation.”

       Graduation was over!  But long before that time I had made up my mind to travel rather than start right into work, so after a few days at home, I took a stock truck early one morning (from Shelby, Ohio) and returned to Cleveland on the first leg of the journey.

       Texas was to be my first destination – partly because a friend of mine was already there and partly because it seemed just as interesting as any other place I could think of.  Johnny Firmin (’35) gave me a lift as far as Monmouth, where he formerly attended school and from there on I hit the highway for Three Rivers, Texas.

       Old clothes were most comfortable and so I wore them and managed to get a few rides, but none of them very long.  Needless to say, the first day taught me to keep “well-dressed” on the road!

       The days were hot and the suitcase heavy and that was bad when it came to walking through the towns.  A ride from St. Joseph to Kansas City with a former bootlegger and browsing around in a notorious bums hangout was certainly new and to say the least, interesting.  I managed a 150-mile ride to Joplin, Missouri, and from there through Galena, famous for its lead and zinc, and grotesque with its artificial hills of waste rock and slag.  Things were dead there at the time.

       After leaving Galena, I was treated to the sight of a family moving themselves and belongings in an old covered wagon with a donkey as power.  These people don’t collect much in the way of furniture to hinder them when moving.  Successive rides took me to Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Norman, and through “Paul’s Valley” where the farmers raise the same crops as those to the north and south.  A night at Dallas and another at the Sigma Alpha Epsilon house in Austin and finally into San Antonio in the evening….the enclosed lawn of the Alamo looked inviting through the peek holes, but I couldn’t muster my courage enough to climb the stone wall and spend the night there…a night at the Transient Bureau and by the next day I hoped to reach Three Rivers!

       Wide open spaces – and more wide open spaces – yes, I had often read about them, but here they were, blanketed out before me….the road wandered through cactus-covered fields and past a different ranch every ten or fifteen miles.  The sun helmet I had purchased in Austin came in mighty handy on the trips through Texas.

       Chasing lizards in Three Rivers became monotonous after a few days and so I returned to San Antonio and worked in the Transient Bureau for a month.  Then – the “itch” got me again, so I headed to Mexico to see what the Hispanics were like in their homes.  The first stop was at Laredo, where I stayed overnight at the Salvation Army Home.

       The next day I was lucky enough to get a ride with an American couple to Monterey.  I had my birth certificate and went as a member of their party, so the officials did not make me show fifty dollars in order to ensure my safe return to the U.S.A.  That was a good thing, for I had something like $3.00 to my name.

       I soon found that prices for Americans in Mexico were about three times that for the natives and I knew I would have to do some bargaining with my three-dollar capital.  After trying the first hotel I gave up and began trying private homes and eventually found lodging with a native family for $2.00 a week – and spent the rest on food.  Sightseeing trips, Carta Blanca Beer, and a two-hour siesta at noon made a favorable impression!

       At the end of a week, I returned to Laredo and from there went to Corpus Christi hoping to do a little fishing, but instead spent the night walking the streets trying to keep away from the hungry mosquitoes.  That spoiled my desire to visit Corpus so I hit the road for Houston and then the port of Galveston in hopes of making a boat.

       Haunting the docks for a week, I finally got a job as a “work-away” on a sulfur boat headed for New York.  The ship’s cargo from New York was miscellaneous to Huston and Galveston and then on the return trip, it loaded up with sulfur for the Dupont Chemical Plant at Wilmington.  The ship went on to New York and I was “paid off” with a discharge, but no money!

       I spent a month hanging around the docks of New York before I was able to get a job on a Danish freight boat, headed for ports in Spain and Italy.  One interesting experience while in New York was diving for coins off Battery Park.  In good times the fellows who follow the game make from five to six dollars per day – of course, there is always the chance that a cop will beat you up or hit you with a rock – or if that fails you will get caught in boat propellers.  However, I found that my training under “Chuck” Imel was a big asset in the business.

       The Danish freighter made a stop at Chester, Pa., before heading for Spain, so we were able to see the remains of the Morro Castle off Asbury Park.  The ship carried a large number of automobiles in addition to miscellaneous cargo.

       Bad weather was encountered the first week and as a result were several days late in making Bilbao, a port in northern Spain not far from the French border.  Rough weather also meant that I was suffering from pains in the stomach.  The city boasts a Catholic church and a cable way for getting across the river.  We were not allowed to go ashore the first day, because the city was under martial law due to recent communistic uprisings.  After the soldiers had convinced themselves that there were no rebels on board the crew was permitted to dissipate on shore.  The Spaniards take their good old time when it comes to such things as clearing vessels when they come into harbor!

       From Bilbao we travelled through the Straits of Gibraltar and up the coast to Valencia, Barcelona and then east to Genoa, Italy.  There had been recent uprisings in Barcelona where the Reds had tried to stage a coup, but had finally been shelled out of their stronghold.  Buildings in partial ruins and multitudes of armed soldiers patrolling the streets had an exciting effect on any visitor….There were plenty of disheartening sights among the poor and the filth in the Spanish cities stood out in strong contrast to the orderly and clean life of the people of the Italian cities.

       Things were humming in the ports of Genoa, Livorno, and Naples – cruisers and destroyers were constantly maneuvering in and around the harbors.  It was indeed colorful!  We stopped in Naples for only ten hours, but I was able to take an express to Pompeii and walk around the ruins for several hours.  On the return trip we stopped at Valencia, Malaga, Alicante, Ceuta in Spanish Morocco, Selilla, and Lisbon, Portugal.  Olives, corks, and wine formed the larger part of our return cargo.  The bull fighting season was over at the time, but the season for wine drinking and fandango goes on the year round.    

       Well – soon I was back in New York and without a job!  I spent a few days with Charles Reed, ’34, at M.I.T., returned to the Big City and landed a job on another Danish freighter headed this time for the Far East by way of the Panama Canal.  This suited me just fine for at the time it was below zero in New York….the first stop was Savannah where we took on cotton and thawed out the chill in our bones.  We traveled south from there to more warm weather and in a few days entered the Canal.

       We steamed up the coast of Mexico and Southern California to San Pedro where a second-hand Ford Tri-Motor was taken on as deck cargo, bound for Shanghai to be used either as a passenger plane or to fight the Reds.  From Pedro, it was “Westward Ho” for three weeks of stormy weather, good weather and just plain indifferent weather.  At any rate, I saw all of the Pacific at that crossing that I ever care to see!

       The first stop was Yokohama where you can see a city full of people dressed in Kimonos, shuffling around on sandals.  It was all very different from anything I had been accustomed to, but I managed to contain myself and look nonchalant while observing their habits and ways of living.  We stopped in Kobe in Japan before continuing on to Shanghai.  Kobe is noted for its factories, and in my estimation for the long business thoroughfares where autos, bicycles and rickshaws are taboo.

       After seeing the majestic Fujii and the impressive coastline of Japan, I was hardly prepared for the first glimpse of the metropolis of Shanghai built on a mud bank.  It is as flat as a pancake and though I stayed there for several months, I never learned to like it!

       Our cargo was discharged in Shanghai and we then headed south to Hongkong.  From there we took a two weeks’ cruise through the Philippines, loading up rice, coconut oil, and copra, a by-product of the cocoanuts, as well as teak wood and mahogany to be used in building construction in China.  We were in Manila at the time President Roosevelt signed the bill for the fifteen years of trial independence before the people take control of the government.  We then went back to Hongkong and then to Shanghai where after much ado with the captain and consul, I was paid off and stayed in China.

       For the next five months, I worked, played and traveled a good deal along the coast and took a few trips inland to Nanking, the capital and also took a trip to Peiping via the Shanghai express.  Through George Fitch, a secretary at the Foreign Y.M.C.A., I managed to locate Alex Buchman, ’33, who at the time was working for the China Press.  This was very fortunate, for at the time I was trying to get my citizen’s passport and it was necessary to have someone identify you.  Alex has learned to “parley” in Japanese and Chinese and that is something – for you must use your hands as well as your tongue.

       I took a trip to Hangchow and Nanking and for three months worked as a draftsman with an American engineering firm until the “depression” came along and relieved me of a job.  Then I spent a month taking in the sights of the historic city of Peiping.  As in all Chinese cities, you must first get inside the city gate before you can tell what the place is like, but after you have seen one, you have seen them all as far as the living conditions of the common people are concerned.  Peiping, however, excels in the number and beauty of her temples and shrines.  I managed to make a few dollars selling some pictures that I sketched and along with the money I had saved while working, I was “well off”, so I decided to head for home by way of the Suez Canal.

       Accordingly, I booked a passage on a Chinese passenger boat to Hongkong and after a two weeks’ stay in the city built on a hill, I made connections with a Norwegian rice boat headed for Bangkok, Siam.  When we reached Siam the skipper received a charter to go on to the west coast of India, so I talked him into taking me along with him.  He wasn’t so enthusiastic about it because he was afraid I might become a liability on his hands.  But I finally persuaded him that I could take care of myself and so he took me along.  Coming out of the river at Bangkok our load of rice was too much and we stuck on the mud shoal and had to have some of our cargo removed before the tide would float us out.  I took a small boat and paddled ashore to go for a swim, but just as I was about to dive in I noticed half a dozen brown shapes swimming around.  On closer inspection they turned out to be sharks, so I just stayed on the rocky shore and sunned myself.

       In Singapore a wind and rainstorm came up while we were at anchor and almost tore us from our moorings, but just as suddenly it went away and the sun came out as hot as ever.  From Singapore we journeyed around the north of Sumatra and west across the foot of the Bengal Sea to Colombo in Ceylon.  It so happened that the rice was shipped to Cochin on the west of the tip of India.  I left the ship there and took a bus to Allepy, where they grow the cashew nuts.  I tried to sleep through an all night ride on a train to Tuticorin where I was able to take a ferry boat to Colombo.  I had hoped to be able to make a job on a boat in Colombo headed for France or the U.S.A.  There was considerable difficulty in getting ashore in Ceylon, because I did not have the required amount of money on my person for passage to Europe or back to China.  That put me in a fix and I was helpless until the American Consul came to my aid and permitted me to come ashore.  This was on condition that I take the first job that presented itself on a boat going to France or the U.S.

       There was a wait of a week until the first American liner put into port and lucky for me there was a job open on deck, so I packed my gear and headed for the skyline of New York.

       On the way home, stops were made at Bombay, Suez, Port Said, where we saw an Italian transport headed for Ethiopia (I’m seeing circles, stars and “perty” Chinese dolls by this time), then to Alexandria and eventually Naples, Genoa, Marseilles, and HOME.  However, we didn’t get home right away because due to rough weather, it was necessary to put into Halifax for a replenishing of oil and water.  Coming across the Atlantic the boat dove into a huge wave and the jar was so sudden it threw one of the sailors out of his bunk on to the deck and then when the tail or stern dropped, the spray came in the port and soused him.  Needless to say, we had a good laugh at that!

       And now that I am home again it is probably more fun to look back over my journeys and say what a swell time I had instead of going through it all again – which is probably just what I would do and recommend to all young men – after graduation!