1965, AN INTERESTING YEAR CONTINUES

Now it was budget time, and Peter wanted me to not only work with my assigned offices, but also to assist him with the budgets for Miami, Boston, Buffalo and Washington. Budgeting was often a guessing game. The revenue side was based on the history of the previous year with a prediction for the current year. The cost side was always "where can you cut costs" or "why do you anticipate a cost increase". A year or two earlier, KLM had a study done on the "Future of air travel" outside of the regular travel agency sales. One of their predictions was an increase in "Group Travel" from company employee clubs, University "Study groups" especially from language and history student, and also "religious groups" planning to visit the Holy Land. I was very successful in developing business from these sources. For instance, I was able to interest the University of Hartford in starting "French language study tours at the "Institute d'Etudes Francaises, at the University de Poitiers, in Tours, France. My contacts for these groups were Dr. Irving Starr, Dean of Admissions and John Balmer, Professor of Arts. These University of Hartford Study Groups were always sold out and KLM was always the preferred carrier. Even after I left Hartford for New York, I kept up my contacts with the University for over five years. I also developed some religious travel through a Polish lady and her Parish Priest for a yearly visit to Lourdes, France. These were large groups of up to fifty people each. I also developed several "Incentive Groups" for Chrysler Motors and the Auto Owners Insurance Company.

Because of my success in developing group business, Peter Silton and Luke Asjes wanted me to work with the district offices in their development of this business. So, when budget time rolled around, I was expected to encourage the local offices to budget for exploration of group travel. Some of the district offices did very well and I was often asked to accompany them to some local University or meet with a local religious leader. However, some of the managers were hard to convince. Once we got them to do this, it was amazing how much more revenue they were able to generate by getting out and "prospecting".

It was in October of '65 that I had a special surprise for the kids. We took a trip to Jamaica for a week, from Oct 29 to Sept. 4^th. . Both Kirby and Karen have their birthdays in September, so we decided to celebrate them at this beautiful island. Actually it was more for Karen as she was born on Sept. first, and Kirby was born on the 23^rd. . We arranged with the hotel to put on a special party for Karen. They decorated a dinner table with little flowers all around the edge plus lovely flowers in the center. The Hotel Chef baked a wonderful cake; it was truly a masterpiece. We had a wonderful birthday celebration.
I had to cut our visit short, because I received a phone call from Peter that I had to accompany an "agents' study tour" to Scandinavia. The agent who was to escort the tour fell ill and they wanted me to take his place.

As soon as we arrived back home on Saturday, it was time to leave again for New York, where I would be leaving for my tour to Scandinavia, with twenty five travel agents from all over the USA. This familiarization tour was organized by the Scandinavian Travel Agency in New York. The travel agency's manager met me at the Kennedy Airport, gave me $250.00 to cover any expenses not include in the tour. He called the agents together and said "This is Ray Kitchener from KLM, he's going to be your tour escort." That was my introduction to the group. The itinerary was great. We were to spend three nights in Amsterdam, two days in Bergen, Norway, two days in Stalheim, by overnight boat up a beautiful Fjord, two days in Flam, four days in Oslo, four nights in Rattivk, three nights in Stockholm, three days in Copenhagen, then back to Amsterdam for a couple of days, and then back to New York; a 23 day journey. I was a little tired, however I learned a lot about Scandinavia: Norway was impressive, with its beautiful Fiords and waterfalls. We visited the birth place of Grieg, the most famous Norwegian classical music composer (I actually sat at his piano!). Grieg and his wife are buried in Bergen, on the side of a mountain. Every day, that spot on the mountain, gets the final rays of the setting sun. Denmark was beautiful, with its lovely gardens and, of course, the Little Mermaid. Everyone loved Copenhagen; it is such a beautiful city.

The Agency that planned the trip did a great job. Practically everything was included: tour guides, hotels, meals etc. About all I had to do was to be sure everything went well and the agents were happy. I made many friends among the travel agents. Out of the $250.00 the Agency had given me, I gave a farewell dinner at one of Amsterdam's famous Indonesian restaurants. The group presented me with a beautiful crystal decanter that my daughter Kathy still has in her home.

Back in New York, I was ready for a day off, but duty called. Our manager in Buffalo had to go into the hospital and would be out for two weeks. I was asked to" Shuffle off to Buffalo" and cover for him for the two weeks. I often say, "Yes, I know Buffalo, I spent about a year there".That's how long those two weeks felt.

 

Time flies and so did I

When I accepted the Assistant Regional Manager's post, I was sure that it would be demanding. I enjoy working and I enjoy the challenges that sales targets, budgets, and developing a client base brings. Encouraging others to do their best and helping them reach their full potential has always been a personal goal.

The last couple of months in 1964 were a pretty good indication of what would fill my time while I waited for whatever my future would be. I usually left Hartford's Bradley Field on the 7:30 A.M Eastern Air lines flight to Newark N.J. I would then ride the limo into 42^nd street and after that, walked from 42^nd to KLM's offices, at 609 5^th Avenue. This got me there a little before 9: AM. I always planned my week during the previous week, so that when I arrived in New York I already knew what I was going to do. I would check in with Peter to see if he had any special instructions. He knew what my plans were, as I had given him a copy on the previous Friday. If everything was OK with Peter, I would ask Margaret to call the local managers in the cities I planned to visit in order to give them a heads up. Then, off I went to La Guardia, Kennedy or Newark airports. Back in those days, Kennedy was called Idlewild airport.

Depending on my schedule, a typical week would involve a flight to Pittsburgh to spend a couple of days with Gus Mize. We would have a few hours in his office, discussing his area and anything he was currently working on. We would then make some joint calls on a few of his travel agents, or perhaps I'd go with him on some prospecting calls for group business. Often, I would spend time with him going over his sales target. After a couple of days, Gus would drive me to the airport and I would head down to Atlanta to visit with Tom Hut, our Atlanta Manager. After a day or two with Tom, I would fly to Charlotte and spend time with John McAninley, or Johnny Mac, as everybody called him. John was a great salesman; everybody seemed to like him and he was very popular with his travel agents. While I was flying to the next city, I would write notes about my visit, what I had accomplished with the local manager etc., while flying back to New York at the end of the week, I would finish it as a report and give it to Margaret for typing. Eventually, my reports went into Peters file. Flying back to New York was also a good time to set up my agenda for the following week and give it to Peter. This was a typical week; only the cities would change. I used to keep a flight log in which I would list the flight, destination, and the miles flown for the week. It averaged out to be a little over 6,200 miles per month.

Just a note about all these travels: KLM supplied me with annual passes on about a dozen domestic airlines. As I mentioned previously, there was an agreement between the airlines to provide annual passes to other airline executive personnel who needed to travel. It really didn't cost them anything as the passes were on a "space available" basis. If there was a seat available at time of departure you were accommodated; if not, you had to wait for the next flight. Fortunately, I also had an annual pass on New York Airways helicopter service. As often happened, I would get out to Newark airport but the flight I wanted was full. I would jump on the helicopter and go over to Kennedy. If the Kennedy flight was full, I would try LaGuardia, and then perhaps back to Newark. If all failed,
it was the helicopter to the Pan AM building in the city, overnight at the Edison Hotel, and start over the next day. This back and forth between airports was mostly on a Friday night when I was trying to get home for the weekend.

It was sometime in January or February that, for a couple of weeks in a row, the morning flight that I took every Monday out of Bradley Field, was delayed due to weather. The result was that I didn't arrive in the New York office until 9:30 or 10:00 AM. Peter Silton didn't like the fact that I was late getting in. I told him that this was completely out of my control. Silton told me that he didn't care about flight delays; it was my responsibility to be in the office on time. Unfortunately, Silton could be pretty thoughtless at times. In any event, I didn't want to get into a fight with him. I told him if he would approve a Sunday night hotel in New York, I would fly down on Sunday night instead of Monday morning. It meant an extra night away from my family, which was a sacrifice for me and my family. I sure was not willing to give Silton any excuse for complaint. I was hoping KLM would solve my position soon and I wouldn't have to deal with Silton much longer. I could never have believed that this job would drag on for over a year.

In February 1965, I received a call from B. C. Packers, the company that employed my Dad. He had worked for them for more than fifty years. I spoke with the President of the Company, to the effect that they thought it was time for my father to retire. They thought very highly of Dad and believed it would be better if the idea of his retiring came from his family, rather than the Company. Dad was 84 years old and like the man he was, thought that he would be at B. C. Packers until he died. I agreed that it was time for him to retire, and decided to fly up to Vancouver to discuss the sensitive subject with him.

The following week I was in Vancouver. I had rented a car and drove up to the house that the Company provided my Dad. We drove together down to Stanley Park and parked at Prospect Point, a very beautiful location which looks out at the Lions Gate Bridge and Grouse Mountain. I told Dad that it was time to give up the job and come to live with us in Connecticut. After lots of conversation, he agreed that he was getting older and he would like to come and live with us. Then, he wanted me to drive to the cemetery where his parents were buried, I waited in the car while he kneeled by the graves and said his goodbyes. To see my Dad kneeling next to his parents' grave, no doubt telling them that he was going away to live in another country with his son, is a moment in life that I will never forget. I drove him back to his house where we arranged for him to fly down to Hartford in the next week or two. It was about two weeks later that I picked up Dad at Bradley Field and took him to his new home.

LIFE IS LIKE A BOX OF CHOCOLATES, YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT YOURE GOING TO GET UNTIL YOU BITE INTO IT.

Sorry to take a quotation from Forest Gump, but he was right. Life is uncertain and roads in life can take many detours. It seems that since I joined KLM, my progress had been a little rocky and was about to take another detour.

After several months of waiting for the transfer to Miami, I was asked to come into New York for a meeting with Luke Asjes. I was informed that Jack Bussian, the Miami Manager, had refused the transfer to Los Angles. He and the company could not come to an agreement over transfer benefits. I knew Jack pretty well; we had attended many company meetings and had participated in training session and outings together. He was a great guy and I know KLM considered him a valuable employee. The proof of this is that they kept him on as Miami Manager.

So, what was my future at this point? KLM was uncertain as to who was now going where? In my case they decided that I would become "Assistant Regional Manager for the Eastern Region that was comprised of the following areas, Hartford, Syracuse, Pittsburgh, Charlotte and Atlanta. Each office covered the whole state or more. The Eastern Regional Manager was Peter Silton. I would have to work out of the New York office at 609 5^th Ave. Mr. Asjes was very apologetic and told me that this was just a temporary position until they got everything sorted out, and it was still possible that I would be sent to Miami as District Manager. He went on to say, they considered me an excellent manager and despite these problems, I had a good future with the Company. I was happy to learn that.

After the meeting with Luke Asjes, I went to the Regional office to speak with Peter Silton. During the conversation he asked how quickly I could find a place to live and move the family. I referred to my conversation with Luke Asjes that this was just a temporary position and therefore, I had no intention of moving the family to New York. This didn't sit too well with Peter Silton, I suggested that we go back up to Mr. Asjes office and come to some understanding as to exactly what my position entailed. Luke Asjes agreed with me that I would not have to move. I could come to New York on Monday and the company would accommodate me at the Edison Hotel, where KLM had a contract for accommodating crew members. Peter had indicated that he wanted me to undertake the supervision of those stations under the Regional office, and that this was going to require me to visit those stations and assist them with sales. Asjes agreed that as an executive of KLM I would be entitled to "Annual Passes" on domestic airlines. (There was an agreement between airlines to provide "space available" annual passes to management staff that had to travel on airline business.). After everything was agreed to, including expenses etc. I was driving back to Hartford dreading exactly how my wife was going to accept this new news?

Helen took the news pretty well. She didn't like the fact that I would be away from home all week, leaving her with 3 children to take care of, all by herself, and how long this "temporary" position was going to take. She was hoping it would still be Miami.

I had to wait until someone was appointed to take over the Hartford District. In about a week, I was informed that George Emory would be coming from Philadelphia as my replacement. When I closed the ticket office in Hartford I had rented a small two room office downtown on Asylum Ave. One room was my office and the other room was for storage of brochures and other promotional material. When George arrived, I turned over the office keys and turned over the company car. (All salesmen and District Managers were provided with a company car) George Emory was a good person; I had also known him from company events prior to this appointment. He was very competent and I felt good about the Company choice.

It was October, 1994 when I reported to Peter Silton. The Regional office was very large and in addition to Peter, his, soon to be our, secretary had a desk and a desk for me. We were on the fourth floor of the KLM building at 609 5^th Ave. The main floor was a beautiful ticket office staffed with uniformed staff in KLM royal blue. The 5^th floor was the reservations office where the staff sat in front of computers, headsets on, taking flight reservations from all over the USA. The Charter Department was also on this floor where all the charter flights were handled by a staff of six. Both the Reservations Manager and the Charter Sales Manager had private offices here as well. The accounting dept. was also on this floor. The 6^th and 7^th floor was rented by Martinair, another Dutch air carrier. The 8^th floor was rented out to The Netherlands Tourist office. The 9^th floor was our Executive offices and their staffs. The top floor was a large room that was used for company parties, large meetings etc.

Peter was a man of few words. His instructions to me were to visit our assigned districts on a very frequent basis, provide assistance to the local managers, work with them on their annual budgets, review and approve their expense accounts. Join them in visiting their local travel agents and commercial accounts. I was also to do an annual review on each manager, review it with them and submit it to him for their files. As far as he was concerned he would like to see me every Monday morning and a weekly report to him on Friday afternoons. Peter did not like to travel, and as I found out later, the local managers were happy with this.

Little did I know how long I would be in this job and how many other things I was going to be asked to do?

 

 

 

THE CHANGING MARKET

In 1963 the international airline industry was booming. All the big international airlines such as KLM, Swissair, BOAC, Lufthansa, Air France, etc. all operated under Civil Aviation Rules and Regulations. Actually, their rules included all airlines. In regard to the International carriers, they operated under reciprocal agreements between governments. The Netherlands had an open sky's policy which meant that any certificated airline was welcome to land and discharge or board passengers in Amsterdam. Most others bartered landing rights. In other words, if Air France wanted to fly into New York, they would offer the U.S. landing rights in Paris to Pan American Airways, and so on. Once they started flying into the U.S. they came under American Civil Aviation Rules. All air lines operating outside the U.S. also had to conform to I.A.T.A. Rules, which are the "International" rules governing air line operations. One of these rules was that an airline was forbidden to give away its service in order to obtain business. This did not preclude the payment of set commissions to Travel Agents, which were set at 10% of sales.

While all the airlines swore that they observed these rules, none that I know of, did. For instance, a Travel Agent would have a large group that wanted to fly and tour Europe. The agent was free to choose the international airline of his choice. He would contact his Sales Rep. for airline "A" and offer to book his group with them but wanted more commission than the 10%. If airline "A" refused, he would approach airline "B". As an example, he may eventually obtain an additional $25 per head plus a free seat or two for his tour leader. What would happen after the business materialized, an employee (most probably an especially faithful accounting person) would meet with the local manager and Travel Agent and pay him in cash for the business received. Some Travel Agents, especially the ones that had a very high number of ethnic travelers, such as Polish, Jewish, Greek, etc. could make many thousands of dollars under the table. The practice of airlines paying under the table money or free seats became so bad that the airlines Presidents convened a meeting that took place in Dublin, Ireland. They all came to an agreement to stop the illegal practice and pledged to enforce the rules with their world wide offices. This became known as the "Dublin Agreement". I'm writing this background information because of something that happened to me, and is an example to my children of what can happen in life that you don't expect.

As Manger of the Hartford office, the salesmen and I were approached many times by Agents and others for override payments and often complied to obtain the business. After the Dublin agreement I had a staff meeting and advised the salesmen that we could not participate in any more such practices. It was not very much later that I received a phone call from an Agent offering to book a very large group with me but wanted an override commission. I explained the Dublin agreement and offered to book his group however; I could not pay him any more than the standard commission. He said no and hung up. A few days later I received a phone call from my Regional Manager in New York. The Agent had gone over my head and spoken to him. He had agreed to the override. I asked him about the Dublin agreement and he told me that he had special permission to take the group and to go ahead with the booking. It was for a group that would be departing several months later.

The months passed, and the group departed and returned. The Agent called me and wanted to know when he could expect his override commission which was going to be a couple of thousand dollars. I contacted the Regional Manager who told me he would take care of it. A few more weeks passed and no payment. It was just about that time that I received a phone call from Margret, the regional managers' secretary. She would not tell me anything except that I was going to get a call from the new company V.P. and that I should tell him the truth and that this was very important. She would say no more and hung up. A couple of days later I received the phone call from Luke Asjes, the new Dutch head of sales for the U.S. operation. He informed me that a two day meeting was to be held in New York the following Tuesday morning for all management staff in the U.S.A. Since I would be attending the meeting he wanted to see me in his office on Tuesday morning prior to the meeting. Needless to say I was bewildered about what was going on.

Flying down to New York on Monday night, I was at the meeting with Asjes at 8am. Mr. Asjes asked me if I was aware of the Dublin Accords. I said that I was. He produced a company memo that was addressed to me and asked me if I had received the memo. I said that I had never seen it. He asked me to read it. It was a memo from my regional manager, in it he said that I had been warned about the Dublin Accords and that I had deliberately taken a group against his orders and he was holding me personally responsible. I told Luke Asjes that I had never seen the memo and that in fact I had taken the group on the orders of the Regional Manager. He told me that he believed me, that I should proceed out to JFK airport Hotel; attend the meeting that was to start at 11:30 with a luncheon. He cautioned me not to speak with my regional manager. Actually, The Regional Manager was not at the meeting. Although my room phone rang several times, I never answered it. The meeting went on for two days; it was an introduction of Luke Asjes as the new Sales Manager of KLM in the USA and plans for the future of the Company.

At the conclusion of the meeting, I found out what had happened in New York after I had left Luke Asjes office. I learned that his secretary, Margret, had typed up the memo and was instructed to destroy the original and place the copy in my file. He was then going to use this memo to fire me. I don't know why Margret turned that memo over to Luke Asjes. I really didn't know Margret other than to say hello to her when I visited the Regional office. When I found out, I thanked her profusely for saving my job. She would only say that she did not like dishonesty and couldn't work for someone who would do such an underhanded thing. I understand that after I left Mr. Asjes office, he sent for the regional manager and confronted him with the memo. He confessed what he had done and was escorted from the building by security and as a Dutch employee, sent home to Holland. I found out that Luke Asjes was not a man to tolerate lies. Incidentally, the agent got his payment. And there were no more breaking the Dublin Accords.

This is a very long blog but I don't think my children ever knew this event in my life and I don't know what the moral of this event is, perhaps, "if the company has a rule, don't break it, even if your manger tells you to" or perhaps it's "you are a very lucky person if you have a guardian angel you didn't know you had". It may also be a good idea to be friendly to everybody. You never know when you may need a friend. Incidentally, sometime later I received a letter of apology from Holland. He was no longer with KLM and asked for my forgiveness. I never replied.

 

KLM IN HARTFORD

Getting back to work after such a great family vacation in Europe was a very busy time. As I mentioned in the last chapter, I was now the District Sales Manager (DSM) for our Hartford office. I had to make many trips to the home office in New York, for budgeting, planning and meeting the top brass, along with and getting to know my Regional Manager, John Wold and the USA Sales Manager George Lambert, along with meeting the Vice President and General Manager for the USA Mr. D. J. Koeleman. Dealing with my own District was pretty easy as it was much the same area I had covered for Eastern Airlines. The major difference of course was that the revenue sources such as Travel Agents and Commercial Accounts were directed to Europe rather than the USA. I spent a great deal of time getting to know those Agents who had a lot of foreign travel, especially those who had a great deal of ethnic business such as Polish, Dutch, German, and other nationalities.

During my introduction to Mr. Koeleman the Vice President and Chief Executive, we were speaking about my time with Eastern Air Lines in Western Massachusetts. He asked if I was still living in Springfield, which I was. He informed me that as a DSM in Connecticut, I would have to move back to the Hartford area. In his rather thick Dutch accent, he said, our local managers have to live in the same State as their area of management. I was not a very happy camper to have to return home and tell my wife we had to move back to Connecticut. She was not exactly a happy camper either, but we packed up and moved on. This time I found a big English style home in West Hartford. It had a nice stream called Trout Creek that ran through the back yard. My son Kirby loved this as he could go fishing in the creek. Again, it was an old house with three floors, but it had a great location and looked very good. Of course, we painted, papered, repaired and restored. This was now our sixth home.

When we were in Holland on our family vacation I purchased authentic Dutch costumes for both Kathy and Karen. When the Hartford Times newspaper held their annual Travel Show, I got the girls to dress up in their costumes (wooden shoes and all) and distribute brochures in downtown Hartford. They were quite a hit and even ended up with their picture in the paper and a TV interview on a local station.

At this particular show, KLM was featuring my good friend Arthur Frommer, author of "Europe on five dollars a day". I had a great picture of the girls sitting on Arthurs lap and looking over his new book. Arthur Frommer is a great guy. He got the idea for the "Five Dollars A Day Books". While serving in Europe during WW ll. When he returned home he was sure that a guide book showing how inexpensive it was to travel in Europe resulted in a whole series of books on each country such as "Holland on Five Dollars A Day" France on Five Dollars A Day and so on. On one of my trips to Europe I took along his book and found that it was very accurate and I was able to find some very nice accommodations for that price. Of course that was in the good old days of the early fifties and sixties. I suppose today the book would be "Europe on $300 a day ".

I had a very interesting experience when I found that the 6^th World Sport Parachuting Championship Competition was going to be held on August 11^th to September 3^rd in Orange Massachusetts. I contacted the organization and found that participants would be coming from Russia, Poland, Holland, Germany etc. as well as the USA and Canada. I was able to speak with the organizer and talk to him about letting KLM set up a Charter flight out of Europe to bring in the participants. He agreed that it might work out and asked me to prepare a proposal. To make a long story short, we ended up with a Round trip charter flight out of Vienna to Boston. I had picked Vienna since the participants could fly from their home country into Vienna; board the DC-8 jet Charter which would already have the Dutch participants on board. This worked out fine and the organization bought the program. It was very interesting as I flew to Amsterdam and was on hand with the Dutch group in Vienna to welcome the other groups. The interesting part was that the Russians had to be the last to board the charter and insisted that they stand by the cargo door and watch their parachutes loaded and the door locked so no one could touch their chutes. I didn't fly with them to Boston but flew back to Amsterdam and then on to New York, pick up my car and drive home. A few days later I drove up to Orange and watched some of the competition. I was very interested in the Russian group and thought it would be nice to invite them to visit my home and see a little bit of Connecticut. At first they said it was forbidden for them to travel in the USA. I somehow got their leader (probably a KGB man) to agree to a one day trip and that he must go along as interpreter.

I had a good friend at the Travelers Insurance Company in Hartford. Their building had a tower that gave a good view of Hartford. He agreed to host the group for lunch and a visit to their tower. I rented an 8 seater van and picked up the group in Orange for the day trip. Travelers Insurance was a very good host and served a nice luncheon in their commissary. After lunch I drove them around Hartford and ended up at our home. The group came inside and toured the house. They had lots of questions and thought the garbage disposal was something they had never seen. Helen offered coffee and soft drinks and we were soon on our way back to Orange. I felt that I had done my best at international relations.

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.