BUT FIRST

ONE of the things that bothers me is when a program starts the announcer says.. But first.. and then enters some other comment before what they had said was going to be the feature story. Sixty Minutes does this and so does Perspectives.

It is like me saying that I am going to tell my story of entering Guatemala with Mike and then saying but "First I want to tell you about the Colts winning the Super Bowl.

Obvioulsy as you read through my Blog you will see that it is not sequestial. My mind doesn't work that way I guess.

Mom found in one of her scrapbooks some early writings of our family which are priceless. But First..

Blogging is kind of fun but I have a lot to learn.

But first.. the Colts won the 41st Super Bowl.

moving south

Of all of the Central American countries, I always felt that Guatemala was unique. It was the first one that I had landed in when we were going to work in Central America and I still remember the soldiers with their guns standing guard at the airport. It is a colorful country and the people seemed to be a mixture of Indian and Spanish heritage. Mike and I still had to go through there to get to Salvador.
I was going to put a map here but I didn't do a very good job making one.

The roads were not bad but we never knew what to expect. We got stopped a few times and once by some "firemen" who were collecting money. Since we weren't fluent in the language most people gave up on us pretty fast and we headed to Guatemala City. We stayed in a hotel whose n name I didn't think I would ever forget, but obviously I have. It was something like the American Hotel. The Wait staff was very attentive and their clothing was very distinctive. The Hotel was very close to the Mercado which was a fun place to roam.. like a big Flea Market at the fairgrounds in Albuquerque. At that time we hadn't learned the fine art of bargaining and I'm not sure we ever did.

I stayed at that hotel a number of times. Once when I was making an official visit to see a school with special education children, I went to the Odecca Office to present my credentials.
They asked if I wanted a back up. I was naive but understood what this meant. Someone riding shotgun as we said in the West. I deferred. I didn't want anyone to think I was important.

There are many protocols that one has to attend to if one doesn't want to be perceived as an
"Ugly America". Lot to learn.
and we headed out to Salvadore

Swimming

I took the day off today and went swimming. when I got out I took my BP. 116 over 68. not bad for an old man. but I've got to take us on to Guatemala. Guatemala is one of my favorite of the Central american countries.. The first time I landed there by air a number of years earlier there were a number of soldiers with machine guns.
Welcome to CA!!!!

World trip Itinerary

A Synopsis of the Kroth/Burns Itinerary 1948-50

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This is a itinerary of our trip around the world. a number of these
place names have changed over time

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Sep 28, 1948	Departed Winfield, Kansas
Sep 30, 1948	At San Pedro, California
Nov 16,1948	Sailed to San Francisco, California
Dec 7, 1948	At Manila, Philippine Islands
Dec.14,1948	At Cebu Island, Philippine Islands
Late Dec, 1948	At Tandjong Oeban, Bintang Island
Jan 2, 1949	At Sydney, Australia
Jan 9, 1949	At Melbourne-, Australia
Mid Jan, 1949	Uncharted mine field near New Guinea
Jan 21, 1949	At Sorong, Now Guinea
Jan 30, 1949	At Palembang, Sumatra
Feb 1, 1949	At Oeban
Feb 14,1949	Sydney, Australia
May 21, 1949	Left Sydney for Brisbane, Australia; Singa pore; Palembang and Oeban
Jul 18,1949	Yokohama and Tokyo, Japan; Singapore; Oeban; Singapore and Bombay, India
Jul 30,1949	Palembang and Oeban
Aug 5, 1949	Ceylon, (now Sri Lanka)
Aug, 1949	Singapore (dry dock)
Sep 14,1949	Showa,Japan
Oct 10, 1949	Melbourne, Australia
Dec 2, 1949	Singapore; Fiji Islands; Palembang; Oeban; Singapore; Karachi, Pakistan; Bombay, India; and Abadan, Iran
Dec 7, 1949	Karachi
Jan 23, 1950	Durban, South Africa and Ras-at-Tanura, Saudi, Arabia
Feb 20,1950	At Melbourne
c. Mar 10, 1950	Oeban
Mar18,1950	Bombay, India
Mar 30, 1950	Aden, Yemen and Massawa, Eritrea (Ethiopia)
c. Apr 23, 1950	Through the Suez Canal; Port Said, Egypt; Mediterranean Sea; Atlantic Ocean; Boston, Mass., USA, and New York City, NY, USA
c. Apr 30, 1950	Arrived in Winfield, Kansas, USA

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Itinerary

Sep 28, 1948	Departed Winfield, Kansas.
Sep 30, 1948	At San Pedro, California. Waited out a long strike by longshoremen.
Nov 16, 1948	Sailed aboard T/2 Mosbay, a Norwegian tanker, for San Francisco enroute to the Philippines
Dec 7, 1948	At Manila, Philippines for a six day stay.
Dec 14, 1948	At Cebu Island, P.I. for 2 days.
Late Dec,1948	At Tandjong Oeban, Bintang Island.
Jan 2, 1949	At Sydney, Australia.
Jan 9, 1949	At Melbourne, Australia.
Mid Jan, 1949	Traversed uncharted mine field near New Guinea.
Jan 21, 1949	At Sorong, New Guinea.
Jan 30, 1949	At Palembang, Sumatra.
Feb 1, 1949	At Oeban.
Feb 14, 1949	Signed off Mosbay in Sydney, Australia.
May 6, 1949	Still in Sydney. Ted gets married.
May 21, 1949	Signed on the Mosbay. Left Sydney.
(Next 3 weeks)	Travelled to Brisbane, Australia, Singapore, Palembang & Oeban.
Jun 12, 1949	Sailed past Luzon Island, Philippines, enroute to Japan.
Jul 18, 1949	At Bombay, India after docking in Yoko hama and Tokyo,Japan, and Singapore, Oeban, and Singapore.
Jul 30, 1949	In Oeban after leaving Palembang.
Aug 5, 1949	In Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) for a couple of days then headed for Singapore.
Aug, 1949	In Singapore for a two week dry dock.
Sep 9, 1949	Off the coast of Okinawa headed for Japan. (Rog, was this where we got hit by the typhoon?)
Sep 14, 1949	In Showa, Japan.
Sep 21, 1949	Still in Japan.
Oct 5, 1949	Eastbound off the coast of Fremantle, Australia.
Oct 10, 1949	In Melbourne, Aust. (Roger's birthday today - mine tomorrow!)
Oct 29, 1949	At sea enroute to Singapore.
Dec 2, 1949	After Singapore we went to the Fiji Islands,then to Palembang; Oeban; Sing apore; Karachi; Bombay and Abadan,Iran.
Dec 7, 1949	In Karachi, Pakistan.
Dec 31, 1949	Enroute to Durban, South Africa.
Jan 1, 1950	Southbound between Madagascar and the east coast of Africa.
Jan 23, 1950	After Durban we went north to the Persian Gulf and stopped at Ras-at-Tanura, Saudi Arabia.
Feb 15, 1950	After leaving Ras-at-Tanura, we plied the Indian Ocean sailing southeast to the southern coast of Australia on our way to Melbourne.
Feb 20, 1950	In Melbourne. Leave shortly for Singapore.
Mar 14, 1950	After Oeban we sailed west into the Indian Ocean on our way to Bombay.
Mar 18, 1950	In Bombay. Signed off the Mosbay and signed on the SS Exchange, an American freighter (American Export Line).
Mar 30, 1950	In Massawa, Eritrea (Ethiopia)on the Red Sea after stopping in Aden, Yemen
c.Apr 23,1950	In New York City after travelling through the Suez Canal.Stopped in Port Said, Egypt, then into the Mediterranean, past Gibralter, across the Atlantic to Boston, Mass., USA!!
Apr 23, 1950	Left NYC by bus. About a week later, arrived in Winfield, Kansas.

Que Paso, amigo

If you could find a map and look at Vera Cruz Mexico and then visualize a road that goes across Mexico to just north of Guatemala , you will be with us on our Odyssey . El Cid and El Nino, as we picked our way. My wife sometimes suggests that I have a Risk Gene in my DNA.
As I remember it it was a dark and stormy night and the wind and rain really kicked up as we went our way. Sometime in the night we spotted a Convenience Store/gas station and pulled in for a cuppa coffee and a rest. Conversation was very limited. but I think we filled up with gas and checked our map. I was doing the driving and we got back in and headed for the border.

The sun finally started to come up behind us and we traveled down a nice highway. It was probably an extension of the Pan American Highway. Both Mike and I remember coming up on a bunch of vultures feasting on the carcass of a large animal. It could have been a cow or a horse.
They didn't look like they had finished but we needed to go on through or around them. I was glad we weren't in a convertible, so we rolled up the windows and I laid on the horn. Someplace we have a picture of the event. The birds were reluctant to give up their place at the table but eventually we got through and proceeded to the customs check point. We didn't high five each other (because that does come into our competitive culture for another twenty five years).

As we approached the Custom Barracks I got out my papers attesting the the fact that I was hired by Odeca the Organization of Central American states. I didn't know whether they would be impressed or not.

Central america

Programs between KU and Costa Rica gave me opportunities to travel down into Costa Rica and sometimes I was able to take Jane and various of our four chilren. . The first time I went down the team from KU drove around the country and visited many programs and schools. we were able to exchange ideas and some of the educators were to come to Lawrence Kansas and visit some of our programs.

AS I got more familiar with the cultures I got asked to to down and present and another time to visit special Education programs through out the Central American countries.

One of the most memorable times was when I decided to drive down to San Salvador and take my oldest son Mike with me. By the Way my Spanish was not as good as my Norwegian and that is not to say much. We went down into Mexico and over to the Eastern Coast to Vera Cruz.

WE spent some time in Vera Cruz which was interesting. Mike may have some memories that I don't have but I'll let him comment. I'll have to chunk this so we can get some of the adventures in as we go along.

lots of ways to travel

I was asked to recall our marriage, here goes.

June 4, 1951 (late in the afternoon)

It was a long time go that Doris Jane Majors and Roger Lee Kroth got married. Since that time I have been a Best Man, an usher, gave away a couple of daughters, and thus have seen a number of weddings.
We had thought about and discussed this event for some time. I had been in the Navy and then in the Norwegian Merchant Marines, Jane had been a teacher in a small rural town in Kansas.
I had been a student at the University of Iowa and was on the tennis team. The G.I. Bill was a way of living, and I had things planned out so that when the spring semester finished, we could get married between semester and summer school. Time was something that controlled us and not the other way around. There were little things that we didn’t plan on. Some states require a blood test and a wait of three days. We decided to go to Arkansas because they didn’t have that requirement.
Obviously we were old enough to make our own decisions. I suppose our parents had plans that we ran over as we made our plans. I guess we more or less just told them what we were going to do. We packed our bags and got dressed up and said goodbye to our parents in Winfield Kansas. And we headed out to Arkansas.
As the day wore on we talked and looked at the maps and realized we were going to have to find a Justice of the Peace or we would be living in “sin”. We looked for big towns and country courthouses and finally found one in Huntsville, Arkansas in Madison County.
We went into the courthouse and told some one our plight and a judge was rounded up. He lined up a witness, and there was a sheep there who didn’t qualify as a witness. I think it was the judge’s wife who made it legal and the judge got the papers together and it was one of the shortest ceremonies ever.

He read from his book and then said. “I now pronounce you man and wife. Kiss the bride. Ten dollars please” and we did those things in that order and went out with our piece of paper ready to check into any motel.
Our honeymoon was driving around Arkansas and Missouri, which is beautiful in the spring. Eventually on our way to Iowa City we ended up in Peoria and went to a tennis tournament and watched Tony Trabert play.
There are weddings and there are weddings, and we’ve seen many in our years. I’ve learned a number of things in our 55 years together. We lucked out on some things. For instance, I probably should have made a list of things to accomplish. I didn’t have a note to make sure we had a place to live in Iowa city. But we had a trailer in the Married Housing unit. That was nice but to our dismay we found we had a communal shower and bathroom for all of the trailers in the area. We learned a lot in the following years. Fortunately we had a pretty common layer of core values.
We saw a sign in Arkansas ,”Seldom Seen” Arkansas. And we left that and traveled together for over 55 years… Of course, not alone… we picked up some children along the road less traveled. Sometime I would like to go that way again.

musings on travel

As I look through some of my web page I see that so much of the lives of me and my family have been impinged by movement across the country or into foreign countries. At one time I kept track of how many different states I had presented in (over half) and Canada and Costa Rico.

I have to smile to myself when I think of my dad being born in Indian territory in Oklahoma where his dad had taken the family before he was born. There was a time in our history when we could travel fairly easily around the country and the world. For instance, when
Dave Burns and I decided to go around the world we showed up willing to work on a Norwegian tanker and the Captain wanted to see our passports. Neither one of us had one. they weren't required when we were in the US Navy. When we didn't have one he said "You at least have a Birth certificate to get back into the states. We quickly called home and got them sent to us. I still have mine and it is only a little worst for wear.
It's hard to imagine going around the world now days that way.
We can't even go to Canada or Mexico and now it seems like the administration wants to put up a fence between the US and Mexico. You can imagine what I think of that.