It was the middle of the night when I arrived at the hotel. We were in Japan for a few days, and I took Sally to the hotel in Hakone Park. Then we got an Army plane to Hong Kong, and we stayed at the Peninsula and did some shopping on the Miracle Mile. We spent way too much money. We still had about five weeks to go.
The problem then was how to ship all our stuff home. My club sergeant friend told me that since the Second World War, we have had a destroyer squadron in the harbor. Twice a week, a sailor comes into the back room of a bar in the Wan Kai district. We went with our packages. It was like something out of a Wallace Berry movie in the 1930s. The entire area was a slum. We went in and went upstairs and on a door was a paper sign saying USPO. I went in. The packages were already wrapped. My orders said they were medical books and so he took them. I only had to pay postage from New York to Pelham.
Next stop was Bangkok. We stayed at the Erawan Hotel, which was full of U.S. embassy people getting out of Cambodia. We had a great time and did more shopping, but this time there was no USPO.
Then we took an Army plane to India and we stayed at the Ashoka Hotel in Delhi. We were dying of thirst and saw a sign that said bar. We went in immediately and it was mahogany with red leather chairs. The only problem was they served no liquor.
We had several Cokes. The food was good, but Sally was not wild about the waiters with no shoes. Nor was she pleased to see that the end of the waiter’s white gloves were cut off.
We had a car take us to see the Taj Mahal. We stayed at a famous hotel called The Lauries. It was old hotel that lacked the amenities of newer ones. The overhead fans revolved very slowly, and the bugs were significant. Sally stayed up the entire night using her can of bug spray.
After dinner, we went out on the porch for some fresh air, and someone came by to sell us some snakeskins. No sale.
From there, we moved on to Jaipur and stayed at the Maharaja's palace, which was not a bad hotel. It was great. After dinner, we went for a walk in the gardens. Several of the rooms facing the garden were small boutiques. We did not want to buy anything since we had spent too much money already and we still had a lengthy trip before us.
Despite that, we saw a man dressed in a local costume. Out of his pants he pulled dozens of gems of all kinds, many of them mined in Jaipur. I was tempted to buy some. Considering I had little money, my bargaining power was great for a change. I bought 12 star rubies. I thought they might have been a phony, but I could see the stars. I had thought sapphires were the only ones with stars.
Traveling Blues
We went back to the hotel in Delhi. We could go by military plane, which meant we had to catch the other flight in Dahran. Sally did not like that because Sunday entertainment was stringing people up by their thumbs and then cutting off one or both hands.
We decided to take the plane to Rome. When we checked out, the billing plan was very interesting. It seemed that the bills for our room were from all the previous people who stayed before us, and they found it difficult to get it straightened out.
In my usually calm voice, we got the head man of the hotel out of bed. We got it straighten out and off we went with a stop in Teheran. Usually, they throw in a bus trip of the town since the layover is about 6 hours. This time, we were prohibited from leaving the airport because there was plague in India. It did not matter that we had our shots.
Then we were off to Rome. The Eternal City was festive, particularly at night because they just had played host to the 1960 Olympics. Rome was great and then off to Switzerland, where we made arrangements to buy a car to tour in, and then ship home.
We drove into Germany and had a marvelous time in Bavaria. Then it was on to Heidelberg, then Frankfurt. We went to the Steiff store to get a hobbyhorse like the one I helped pick up on Christmas Eve for Sally's nephew, John McCartney. We had to settle for a teddy bear because the runners for a horse were not within the regulations for shipping.
We then took all of these things to Bremerhaven, where we were able to send them home as "medical books.'' When I was turning in the car for shipment back to the states, the clerk asked me the usual question and I was ready. During this time, a colonel was standing next to me and was having trouble turning in his car. The clerk asked me what unit I was from. I told him it was I Corps. He asked me where it was and I said Korea. I thought the colonel was going to have a fit.
The clerk did not even bat an eye. He asked for my orders and I pointed out where it said I could do this. He said no problem and I handed him the keys and left. The colonel was not pleased. The car did not go home as "medical books.''
We then went to Copenhagen. We were supposed to go to England to see a friend of Sally’s, but we had gone broke. We decided to go home.
Back in New York
When we got back to New York, I decided to change into my uniform in the baggage area. That was so we could stop over at my new post on my way back from the airport. If I signed in before midnight, it was a day of duty and I could save a day of leave.
It was Fort Totten near the Whitestone Bridge. My assignment was a courtesy of my friend back at I Corps. I had about eight months left before I got out, so we stayed at 49 in Pelham. The post was a post full of drunks, particularly my commanding officer. He and I did not get along.
He was going to court-martial me, and I was going to put him up for being drunk on duty. Instead, we took two weeks leave and went out to the air base in New Jersey, where we planned to take the first available plane to anywhere.
The first plane was to Madrid. We called up Grandfather Maust’s secretary. By the time we got to Madrid, she had a bus trip to Andalusia set up for a week. We saw everything, including flamenco dancing and a bullfight.
We flew back and I went to Fort Tilden in Brooklyn, so I could stay out of trouble. We had our first Shetland sheepdog named Boots by that time. Grandfather Maust had grown very attached to him. Before we left, we bought him one. He called him Junior.
The name of that dog caused quite a stir. When Ray would have a board meeting, he would tell them his ideas and say that he and Junior had concurred. Everybody did not know who Junior was, since they knew Ray had only two daughters. No one dared to ask the question. They knew it was not Chuck and he did not tell.
The person who took care of Tommy was a Swiss girl named Edith Kortenhoff, who has remained in touch, especially around Christmas time.
When it came time to leave for my residency, Ray was not happy that I had to do more training. He felt I should go to work. When I got a fellowship, he really thought I was a loser.