1957

One of the highlights of retirement is the daily mail call. Once again the mail has brought a trip brochure from the office of Dartmouth continuing education with photos of destinations in South America or Europe or Asia and the luxury ship that will take you around. You think about it, maybe even say, "Someday we ought to do that." Well, why not? And why not now? It has been suggested that our class motto now should be "Don't put it off!"

As. retirees, we have available time. We have active minds as demonstrated by the lively discussions on the class listserv. We like to travel especially in a Dartmouth context. Class of '57 mini-reunions and the annual '57 homecoming are well attended.

Recreational scholarship is of interest to us. Many of your classmates have participated in Dartmouth travel programs. There is no better recommendation than classmate to classmate.

Jon White writes that in January 2003 he and his wife, Laurie, "transited the Panama Canal on the Crystal Harmony. Wonderful ship, excellent lectures and a number of good port calls in the Caribbean. The cuisine was a lot better than on the Newport News when I was a midshipman in 1956." During the summer of 2002 they took a "Scotland tour with day trips out of Sterling [and were] blessed with a great guide. We were also able to visit Laurie's birthplace in Dundee. The group was composed of 40 Dartmouth-related persons, including two of our daughters."

Dick Welsh reports that he and his wife, Charlotte, are enthusiastic participants. In the past five years they have seen Greece, Turkey, Ireland and Tuscany, taken a Rhine River cruise and have signed up for the Patagonia trip in October. "Our experiences have been uniformly exceptional. The professors have been engaging and very informative. The itineraries have provided interesting travel, helpful insight into local customs and positive educational stimulus. We have had good experiences with the local guides."

Steve Lampl and his wife, Sandy, "experienced a great 11-day Hawaiian trip with professor GaryJohnson and his wife, Sandra, along with 22 fabulous fellow Dartmouth travelers (and, unfortunately, one Princeton couple).The flora and fauna itinerary included visiting the three islands of Kauai, Maui and the big island, Kona, as well as sensational lectures on volcanoes."

Charlie Tseckares tells us that most recendy he and his wife, Lorna, were on the trip to Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia and Hong Kong. "A terrific learning experience, well organized, well run." Earlier, right after 9/11, they "went on the Turkey and Greek islands trip, which started in Athens. The Dartmouth professors chose not to go and were replaced by two expert guides (one Greek and one Turkish), which saved the day." A few years ago Charlie and Lorna went on a trip that "started in Istanbul (still Constantinople to us Greeks), went across the Black Sea and up the Danube to Austria on a Russian river boat."

Sound like fun? The next time one of the Dartmouth continuing ed pamphlets arrives in your mail, go ahead and make the move. Don't put it off!

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