Gordon Barlow

Well done, winston! I have always believed that the smallpox and cholera injections were for life - although I knew the Yellow Fever one had to be renewed. I've now read on the web that smallpox and cholera were pretty much eliminated in the years after 1963, which would have been why countries didn't require proof of inoculation any more. In my travels (to 70 countries over the years, some of them a bit dodgy healthwise) I was never once pulled up for not having the jabs - and I guess I just presumed the original inoculations were in force! We live and learn. Thanks for the update!

winston_1

In 1970 I had to show proof of jabs at the Iranian embassy before they would issue me a visa. On return to the UK everyone had to show their yellow books but they were not closely inspected.

Bipat

Have been reading this thread with interest for some time, as it reminded me of the arduous, lengthy journeys taken decades ago through Europe and India by bus and train, with two, then three small children.
The cholera epidemic in Italy 1973, we were travelling from UK to Greece by train for a holiday. At the Italian border in the early hours all were asked to get off the train and get cholera vaccination, (or go home, if refused the vaccination, I presume!) Of course we had already had cholera vaccine previously for India, so only OH had to temporarily get off ------'Indian' passport the usual hassle', self and sleeping children could remain in our bunks.

Only a few years ago saw the redundant 'cholera beds' being removed for scrap from our Indian town hospital, I realised then that they were metal and sloped to the centre where there was a hole---presumably a bucket placed under.

uk_grenada

Well it seem the covid panic has passed properly now. has the US has unofficially relaxed its stance - sometimes - on covid! Most unamerican and really highly unamerican for the airport gestapo.

On arrival at miami last week i expected to have to prove i was vaccinated, and be fingerprinted, photographed etc as is their wont usually. I think the 2.5 hour queue to get through immigration might have been a factor, but apart from a cursory glance at my passport, i was waved in.

They have also decided that wearing shoes through security is ok, and taking ones laptop etc out of the bag is not required - or at least they said 'today we arent doing that.'

Gordon Barlow

As I've mentioned before (#10 above, I think), it's a small world sometimes. Here's a story from 1963. As I stepped off the bus from Southampton, in Earl's Court on my first visit overseas, Graham was walking down the street and greeted me: "Hello Pablo!" (my nickname from school, which was the last time I'd seen him - eight years previous.) We hung around a bit in London that winter, then went our separate ways.

A year later, Linda and I were dragged out of a shop in Esfahan, Iran, to meet some other travel-bums, in another shop down the street, and there was Graham again. "Hello Pablo!" He had set out to hitch his way back to Australia, and met up with a Japanese fellow in Spain who was headed for Singapore on his way home. We all chatted away, much to the amusement of the Iranian audience, then took off again - we were headed south, they east. He ended up back in Brisbane as partner of the same accountancy firm as my brother, and we made contact again in 1985. Now we chat on the phone every few weeks, and reminisce about The Good Old Days. Next time, I must ask him what happened with the girlfriend he had during the winter of '63. If he remembers...

morpeth

Often with the ease of transportation and communication the world seems smaller, however it seems in some respects bac in the 60s and 70s at least for the young such travels as you refer to more common. I went to school in Perth for a while and visiting Bali at least once popular and on to London. Some did it backpacking through Asia and Europe through countries today few would venture to do so. Not uncommonly in London in the 70s I would run across in Earl's Court fellows I had gone to school with. In the 90s I ran across a fellow in Spain running a small hotel and discovered in conversation we had gone to the same school at same time years before. I don't see many people seeking to hitch any more.

Gordon Barlow

Linda and I shifted around quite a lot in our first eleven years of marriage, before we settled here in Cayman, and we rarely kept souvenirs from earlier days. Plenty of photos, of course, but not much else. One of the few things I have from earlier times is a print of a famous Picasso drawing of Don Quixote and his chum. That has hung on the wall above my bed everywhere I've lived, since I bought it for a pound at a bookshop in Copenhagen in 1964 when I was passing through. I'd actually seen it there the year before, but had been too poor (or stingy) to shell out what was at the time a day's budget.

It's very appropriate for me; I seem to have been tilting at windmills most of my life, one way or another. So has my son for much of his life, so I hope he will continue the reverence when I'm gone.

So. Any other BE members willing to betray their secret souvenirs, on this thread? Anonymity is guaranteed, remember! Go for it!

Gordon Barlow

We bought this house in 1997, and some of the things in it today were brought from the flat we'd moved out of. One of those things was a framed photo of a turtle - underwater, head-on - which our son had taken as a newly qualified scuba diver aged 13. It's on the wall above my recliner. In another room is another photo of his, from inside a sunken ship looking up the funnel through a school of silver fish. Both are great souvenirs from "back in the day". I guess we all have things like that, right?

morpeth

In 1967 my father took me to Egypt and we have the standard picture of being on two camels in front of the pyramids- and I have a picture of my father and a friend on two camels in the same location taken in 1947 - I have them framed side by side.

I had no idea my father spoke Arabic, we arrived at airport and jumped in a taxi and all of a sudden my father started speaking Arabic to the taxi driver, quite a surprise.

Gordon Barlow

Well, first: what a great memorial of your visit 55 years ago and to have the two photos side by side! You're very lucky to have that. And second: how come your father came to speak Arabic? Was he there during the War? I'm guessing yes. I have a photo somewhere of two of my uncles, marked "Palestine 1941" - snow on the ground, and they were sitting beside their horses (Australian Light Infantry I think). I was in Palestine in 1965 - bumming around the region with my female companion - so it's possible we walked where the two soldiers had sat; but I'll never know. I don't think either of them spoke Arabic, though.

morpeth

I had uncles and great-uncles who were in the British and Australian armed forces in the Middle East but my father was in Eritrea. It was after the war ended he moved to Egypt, then afterwards with his work spent in Arabia and Lebanon.

uk_grenada

Camels... I never knew till about 20 years ago that a camel could be pretty lol.

I lived in iran for years and saw hundreds of the obstinate noisy smelly bitey beasts, but 20 years ago i was staying in a hotel in Dubai, the Burj al arab. Anyway i walked out onto their deck and round a corner was this pretty camel sitting on the ground, waiting to take people on the short journey to the beach at the sister wave hotel. Its handler said she was chosen for her beauty, and then was brushed and washed daily. Big eyes, long eyelashes, beautiful coat, and very friendly/docile.

Gordon Barlow

I'm interested to know what your father was doing in Eritrea. That was before you were born, is that right? I've never run across anyone who worked there. Fascinating! Also, what was he doing in Egypt, Arabia and Lebanon?

I was in Egypt for a week or so during my Middle East adventure with the Australian girl whom I later married, and in Lebanon on the way there and the way back - but never long enough to learn anything about life there.

Gordon Barlow

When I were a lad, aye... No, it's no use: I can't do Yorkshire! So... When I was a boy, we weren't allowed to say "damn" in our homes or anybody else's home. In a famous 1939 film, Clark Gable had said "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn", and it was considered shocking. But it did open the censorship gates a little bit, though not much. Our Grandmas could say, and did say, "I don't give a fig!" That wasn't considered bad, even though it was and is merely a variant of what our BE forums call "the F-word". We also weren't allowed to say hell, and even heck ("What the heck...?") was marginal for us kids.

It's interesting how times change language. None of us wants to give our moddies the vapours, poor dears; but it would be interesting for us to swap tales of forbidden words and phrases from "back in the day". With asterisks where warranted, of course! They allow ****, and even *****, although I suspect ****** would test their tolerance.

I remember a song from the movie "Anything Goes", which is relevant here. Does anybody else remember it?
In olden days a glimpse of stocking was looked on as something shocking;
Now, heaven knows: anything goes!
Good authors too, who once knew better words, now only use four-letter words
Writing prose. Anything goes!

morpeth

He was constructing military facilities, yes before I was born. He said Eritrea was quite enjoyable- all Italian men were interned, which left several thousand Italian women free. After the war he visited Cairo, and through a contact became Aramco's representative in Egypt. Through that and later work he spent time in Lebanon- known until the civil war in the 1970s as the Paris of the Middle East. Sadly the combination of Palestinian refugees, and Islamic groups have destroyed Lebanon compared to what it was. Many people there for example have had their bank accounts frozen for months, while getting electricity can be a daily challenge there.

I have all of my fathers' passports , which are all full with immigration stamps from all over the world. Those with actual stamps affixed as some countries used to do , have a decent philatelic value.