A NEW PROMOTION AND THE FAMILY GOES TO EUROPE

KLM's Hartford office was brand new, and located in the also brand new, Statler Hilton hotel. KLM had spared no expense in creating the office. Plate glass windows looked out over the park and the Governor's mansion, which at that time was occupied by Governor Ribicoff. The back of the office opened into the hotel lobby The Managers office was glass enclosed and the ticket office staff sat at four desks, I shared the Managers office. Jan Van Eckeren, the DSM had a large desk and a smaller version for me. This was fine, as most of my time was spent outside the office. Just as with Eastern, I covered Western Massachusetts and most of Connecticut. I was familiar with all the travel agents and most of the large commercial accounts. In effect, I was pretty much calling on the same accounts as I did with Eastern, but with a different hat.

1960 soon became 1961 and with the New Year, came a change I had not expected. The Company announced that they were promoting me to District Sales Manager of the Hartford District. I felt very sad for Jan as I thought he was doing well. I was doubly surprised when he asked the Company if he could stay in Hartford as my Sales Representative. That was fine with KLM, if I agreed? Which I did, Jan was a good man and we always got along well. About this time KLM suggested that I hire an additional salesman to cover freight sales. After interviewing a number of people, I decided on John Lenahan, John worked out of the New York office but lived in lower Connecticut and wanted to be working closer to home. So now I had two Sales Reps and three ticket agents, one of whom also acted as my secretary.

In the summer of 1961 I decided that I would like to take the family on vacation in Europe. We would all fly to Amsterdam, spend a few days there and then fly on to Rome, for two days, and then on to Greece, where we would have a couple days in Athens. We would then fly to the Greek Island of Rhodes, where we would spend the remaining days of our vacation. In the summer of 1961, Kathy was nine, Karen was seven and Kirby was six.

In Amsterdam, we stayed at the Krasnipolsky Hotel; it's a great, old world hotel. The dining room had large baskets of ferns hanging from the ceiling that gave it a garden effect. It was in the center of downtown, and sat on Freedom Square with its large cenotaph in the center, dedicated to the Dutch dock workers, who went on strike against the German occupation. The Germans rounded them up and shot them all in that square during WW2. Also on the Square, is the big Dutch Department Store that they called the Beehive? I remember it well, Kirby got up early one day and decided he would go visit the store. When I went to get him for breakfast he was nowhere to be found. A front desk clerk remembered him going out the door and heading toward the store. I rushed to the store and found him in the executive offices where they were giving him Dutch chocolate, and trying to find out who he was. On another day, we went out to Amstelveen and visited the famous tulip fields and flower gardens that the Dutch are so famous for. After two days of visiting Amsterdam's beautiful city, we were off to Rome.

There are so many things to see, the two days in Rome Italy was just a snapshot in time. But, we did get to see St. Peters, a bit of Vatican City and threw our coins into Trevi Fountain. We had dinner in an historic outdoor restaurant, as I was paying the bill on the way out; I noticed an item on the bill for a napkin. When I questioned it, they told me Kirby had stolen a napkin from the table. When I assured them my son was not a thief, the owner returned with me to the table, we found the napkin under the table where it had slipped from Kirby's lap. Amid profound apologies, they deducted the cost of the napkin. As the many times I traveled to Rome, I never dined there again.

I thought it would be educational to take the kids to see the Catacombs, just outside Rome on the Apian Way, where in times past they buried the persecuted Christians, this was in the second to fifth century. Kathy decided she didn't want to get out of the bus. I can't blame her; it was just passageways under the ground with body sized holes on both sides where the bodies had lain; of course nothing was left of the bodies. I found it interesting, but can understand that it wouldn't be for a little girl.

Flying into Athens I had high hopes that we would all enjoy our visit to Greece. I have a good Greek friend in Springfield Massachusetts, when he found out that I was planning a trip to Greece, he gave me such a wonderful description of the Greek Island of Rhodes, where he was born and many of his family live, that I had to plan time there. I had the phone number of his family and promised to visit with them. But first, there was the beautiful city of Athens where I had planned a two day stay. We visited the Acropolis, visited two museums and had dinner in a rooftop restaurant where you view the magnificent sight of the Acropolis all lit up with lights. They tell a story of a young Greek man who, when Athens fell to the Nazi's, wrapped himself in the Greek flag and jumped to his death from the Acropolis. There was so much history to see in Athens, We enjoyed every minute of it, but the kids wanted to get on to Rhodes. The following morning we flew off to a new adventure.

Arriving on Rhodes, we checked into our hotel, where the children couldn't wait to put on their swim suits and head for the pool. The hotel was a large sprawling structure sitting on several acres overlooking the Adriatic Sea. We found the hotel to be full of German tourists. Rhodes was an inexpensive place to visit. They had a saying in Europe, "find out where the Germans go to vacation, as they know where to find the best prices". This was certainly correct in 1961, as we found out.

I was able to contact the family of my Greek friend and we were all invited to their farm for the afternoon. We had a great time; they had a large farm where they grew olives and large orchards of fig trees. One of the highlights of our trip was to ride donkeys down into a valley where we picked and ate some figs. Karen especially liked the donkeys. The following day we visited the ancient City of Rhodes, where the giant figure of The "Colossus of Rhodes" once stood. The homes on the island are all brilliant white and narrow winding streets are lined with little shops. Small tables sit in shady parks interspersed between the shops and open air restaurants, where you can rest and enjoy a cool drink or a dark coffee. We enjoyed our time on Rhodes, it's a lovely Island and I was very happy that we had the opportunity to visit there. The Children enjoyed Rhodes because they could go swimming and ride donkeys down the hill to pick figs. But, all good things come to an end and it was soon time to leave our travels and return home.

When we reached Athens, on the way home, the KLM flight to Amsterdam, where we would change flights back to New York was full. Since we were all travelling on passes, we would have to wait overnight in Athens to see if we could get on the next flight. All the big hotels were full-up. Fortunately, we were able to find a small pension that had a room available where the Children could sleep. We spent the night on two chairs in the lobby. And, lucky us, we were able to get the last five seats on the next day's flight. Flying on passes can be an iffy thing at times. But then all life is iffy isn't it?

As my children read this blog, I hope they will remember that first trip to Europe that we were able to take together, and forgive me for mentioning the funny incidents that occur when you travel with your children, I guess as a father, I wanted my children to not only enjoy the vacation, but to also learn about this vast globe that we call the earth and the many varied people who live on it. I recall that as a child I couldn't wait to travel the world, fortunately, as you will see as this blog continues, I was able to do so, and even today, would give almost anything to be able to travel more.

 

GETTING TO KNOW THE INTERNATIONAL MARKET

One would think that airlines, other than their routes, would be run in pretty much the same way. Not so in KLM's case. This company took great interest in their employees. KLM spared no dollars when it came to investing in training and supporting their people, which is what I found out as time went on.

Just a little background: KLM is the oldest commercial airline in the world, still operating under its original name. It was founded by Albert Plessman in1919 and commenced operation officially out of Amsterdam, on May 17, 1920.

During World War Two, Holland was occupied by the Germans. However, they had kept aircraft in Curacao, as they had service between Amsterdam and the Dutch Islands. They tried to operate some routes in neutral countries. In December 1941, KLM had a DC-3 destroyed on the ground by Japanese fighter planes in Sumatra, Dutch East Indies All passengers and crew members perished. They had another DC-3 shot down after it left Lisbon, on June 1^st 1943, by eight German fighter planes. The thirteen passengers and four crew members were killed. I didn't mean to give you so much history, other than to emphasize the difficulty it was to carry on during the war. Many of the KLM Dutch employees, who had lived through the war in Holland, had stories about their undercover activities that would make heart stopping movies.

Jan Van Eckeren, my local manager in Hartford, was a very nice guy. We spent many days together on the road, when I introduced him to the travel agents and commercial accounts in our sales area. The inside sales staff were very helpful in getting me acquainted with some of the company regulations.

I had joined KLM on February 15, 1960. Time seemed to pass very fast and at the end of September, KLM informed me that I was to attend a twelve day sales course in the Netherlands. The course would be from October 24 to November 5. in The Hague, Holland.

Participants would be housed at the American Hotel in Scheveningen which is the Dutch vacation beach area near The Hague. There would be fourteen sales trainee participants from all over the world. This particular class had members from Teheran, Glasgow, Cologne, Sidney, Rotterdam, Cairo, Buenos Aires, Calgary, Valparaiso, Beverly Hills, Detroit, Schiphol, Tegucigalpa and myself, from Hartford. I still have all the class material in my files. I could write a dozen pages on what I learned from my classmates, the Dutch instructors, and more.

One of the amazing experiences of this training course was my introduction to Europe. When KLM found out that this was my first trip to Europe, they invited me to visit some other cities and countries after the class was over. Of course I accepted the opportunity. After classes, on Nov. 5^th I was driven to Schiphol Airport to board my KLM flight to Rome, for a three night stay. On the 8^th, it was Switzerland, Zurich for one night, on the 9^th, I was in Davos, on the 10^th, in Kitzbuhel, and then on to Austria and Vienna. The highlight of the trip was the final two days in London. My mother and father were born in England, so I had always wanted to visit their homeland.

This was my real introduction to KLM and just the beginning of my future travel in the years ahead. It was certainly a change from Eastern; I was now convinced my job change was right.