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Caryl
P. Haskins, who cofounded the former Haskins Laboratories at the College, died
October 8 in Westport, Conn., He was ninety-three.
A
native of Schenectady, he received degrees from Yale and Harvard and began his
career with the General Electric Co. By the mid-1930s, however, he was doing
independent research on radiation's effects on living material, using research
space made available at Union and MIT (he also taught at both institutions). A
biophysicist who wrote several scientific books and hundreds of papers, he was
president of the Carnegie Institution of Washington from 1956 to 1971. Haskins
Laboratories, which now studies the biological bases of speech, hearing, and
language, is now based in New Haven. Conn.
Shirley
Hotaling Holmes, an administrative assistant in the Admissions Office for
forty-four years before retiring in 1992, died October 17 at her home in
Schenectady. She was seventy- one. She joined the Admissions Office after
graduating from high school and worked with a number of deans of admissions.
Her husband, Donald, who died in 1976, had been the College's bursar.
Jim
Taylor '66, a car aficionado whose collection ranges from a Model A Ford to a
Maserati, got a taste of long-distance rallying in 2000, when he and another
driver took a Mark Donahue Camaro from New York City to San Francisco in the
Cannonball Classic.
So,
when he spotted an ad in a British magazine about the Inca Trail rally, it
caught his eye as a great way to see South America and have some fun. He and a
longtime colleague, Herb Boger, outfitted a 2002 Chevrolet Avalanche and headed
for Rio.
Taylor
DID see South America – 15,000 miles of it over 55 days – and he DID have some
fun, but on the whole the trip proved more grueling than he thought it was
going to be (see the accompanying diary). A week after he returned, sitting in
the home offices of his company in Gloversville, N.Y., he admitted to still
being tired.
And yet
he also talked about taking part in a similar event again, perhaps setting one
up in New Zealand.
Taylor's
fascination with cars goes way back. “My father was a collector, and I still
have the 1931 Cadillac Phaeton that he had. I drove a Model A Ford when I was
in high school and then, when I was a sophomore at Union, one of my friend's
fathers bought him a new Austin Healy. I lusted after that car and bought my
first one twelve years later.”
Today,
Taylor's collection numbers more than two dozen and he is on the board of a
group that is organizing a car museum in Saratoga County.
Taylor
is chairman of the Taylor Made Group, one of the boating industry's largest and
most diversified manufacturers and suppliers and now a leader in architectural,
camping hardware, and tempered safety glass markets as well. The company has
offices and factories around the world, and Taylor has traveled extensively as
part of his business. Now, he says, he would like to take the time to really
see those places that all too often were merely backgrounds to business trips.
In addition to some residual soreness, the
Inca rally left Taylor with lots of memories.
One, he
says happily, is that it loosened his writer's block. “I've had writer's block
all my life,” he says. “The hardest thing in college was freshman English and
the papers I had to write. But I thought it would be an interesting challenge
on the rally to keep a journal, so we set up our own website. I really looked
forward to it every night, and if we couldn't set up a connection with my
laptop, we could always find a cybercafe where we could make the connection for
a dollar an hour.”
The
information age – and paved roads – are bringing changes to the continent's
standard of living, but Taylor says there is much to be done. The question,
though, is what to do. “I think we should be extremely sensitive to the idea
that we don't make decisions for other people, but that we do something that
would enable them to make their own decisions. I think that's something anyone
who wants to help has to keep in mind.”
Why
not?
On
October 6, about 100 classic cars and modern four-by-four vehicles set out from
Rio de Janeiro on one of the world's great motoring adventures – the Inca
Trail.
The
event was organized by a group called HERO (Historic Endurance Rallying
Organization), a car club based in Great Britain that has been running similar
kinds of challenging road rallies since 1998. Among the competitors was Taylor,
who, with Boger, decided to pilot a
2002 Chevrolet Avalanche through some of the roughest terrain in the world.
The
event was not designed as a race, but as a long-distance touring event that
tested the reliability of vehicles and the stamina, initiative, and
resourcefulness of crews over 15,300 miles and eight weeks. Taylor and Boger
drove one of about fifty modern adventure vehicles. The other fifty or so cars
were classics, ranging from a 1929 Chrysler Model 75 to a 1964 Mercedes Benz
300SE to a 1974 Ford Escort RS2000. Although the majority of the participants
were from Great Britain, there was a smattering of American, Canadian, Dutch,
Italian, Irish, and New Zealand competitors.
HERO
was upfront about the risks: “This event is potentially hazardous,” said
promotional material. “It passes through areas and uses roads which may be
hazardous.” The group sent participants pages of advice (Golden Rule Number
One: Keep it simple, stupid) as well as a detailed route outline and timetable.
Still, as we shall see, what was written in advance and what occurred on the
road did not always coincide.
The
following includes information from the rally organizers (printed in boldface) and excerpts from Taylor's diary.
10/4/01
We have
arrived in Rio and got our truck out of customs this afternoon. The only thing
that was stolen was our fire extinguisher. Some people lost a lot of things
including tools, clothing etc. We leave Sat. morning on the first leg.
10/8/01
Prerally:
Through hilly green farming country with frequent wide views to lunch at the
picturesque village of Tiradentes…
We have
gone thru very varied topography during the last two days. It seems at times
that we are in other places than here: Ireland, Rockies, Adirondacks, Hawaii,
the plains. Really wild and different. We did a 20-mile, four-wheel drive
adventure today thru the mud, as it rained all day. One of the rally trucks got
stuck and is still there tonite. They are going to get a tractor to pull it out
in the morning.
10/9/01
Prerally:
An easy day mostly on fast roads…
Today
was a long day. We started at about 7 AM and arrived at our hotel at 9 PM. We
stopped to help a Bentley that was having starter problems. Next we did a
gravel section and came upon a British Rover that had slid off the road into a
tree and punctured the radiator. We ended up towing him thru very rough terrain
for over 20 miles. We broke two tow ropes and our winch cable in the process.
We also heard one Camel Trophy Land Rover turned over. But no one was hurt and
the truck is O.K. By the time we were done with the tow job it was one o'clock
and we still had 500 miles to drive.
10/10/01
Prerally:
A shorter run to get to one of the world's greatest waterfalls…
We
started early and arrived at Ecuasu Falls about 2 PM. Words cannot describe the
beauty. It is almost as high as Niagara but several times as wide. Because of a
lot of rain, the amount of water flowing over the falls is almost eight times
normal. There are dead animals and all kind of runoff coming down the river
from the large farms upriver. They actually pulled a dead man out yesterday. He'd
been missing for sixteen days.
10/11/01
We
arrived in Argentina this morning after spending about an hour getting thru
customs and border control. Drove about 375 miles mainly thru flat plains and
swamp lands. It looked a lot like driving thru alligator alley in Fla. I forgot
to mention the wildlife in the park yesterday. There are jaguars, pumas, deer,
and iguanas, among other things. We were told that poachers killed 35 jags in
the park last year. The pelts are worth about 30,000 dollars apiece.
10/16/01
We
entered Bolivia. A beautiful place. The people actually till the fields on the
sides of the mountains. Think the Rocky Mountains with tilled fields on the
slopes. As there is little pollution here, the skies are unimaginably blue and
the clouds white-white. La Paz, the highest capital city in the world, lies in
a bowl surrounded by mountains. It is a fairly modern city with a McDonald's
and a Domino's pizza. Tomorrow we head to Lake Titicaca and a ferry crossing
and then a frontier crossing into Peru. We heard that people behind us today
got caught in a political rally in one of the villages and four trucks had to
crash thru a barrier, sustaining some damage from thrown rocks.
10/18/01
Prerally:
A day off to explore this ancient capital of the Incas, rich not only in their
amazing buildings of irregular close-fitting stone blocks, but also in Spanish
colonial architecture…
Up at
4:45 AM to take a 10 min bus ride to catch the train to Machu Picchu, an almost
4 hour ride. It is truly a mystical place. It is situated on a saddle between
two mountains. No one knows why or when it was abandoned. M.P. was rediscovered
by an American scientist from Yale on July 24, 1911. He was allowed over the
next several years to clear away the growth and take a lot of artifacts and old
bones back to the U.S. He promised to fund a museum in Peru and return the
artifacts. According to our guide, the Peruvians are still waiting.
I'm
sure you all remember from junior high world history as I did (ha, ha) that the
Incas reigned during the 15th century, conquering many tribes along the west
coast of So Am. At one time it was estimated that they ruled over 15 million
people. They were fantastic engineers, using irrigation and many building
techniques that we might use today. Please note they had no written language or
complicated mathematics. We saw rock walls using rocks weighing up to 20 tons
or more. The rocks are all odd shaped but fitted together with no mortar so
tight that I don't believe you could get a knife into the cracks. Smallpox and
other European sicknesses wiped out much of the Inca population and some of the
conquered tribes joined with the Spanish to help destroy the Incas and their
culture.
10/20/01
Prerally:
This day and the next are the toughest of the event, taking you on amazing
gravel mountain roads through some truly stunning landscapes…
We
drove over 14 hrs today to go 400 miles. Up and down we were as high as 14,000
ft and as low as 7,000 ft. The temp went as high as 101¡ F and as low as 48¡ F.
Whenever we changed elevation the temp changed. We went 21?2 hrs or 21?2
mountains without brakes, almost. We had to keep shifting down to control our
speed. We finally found a garage where we could get under the truck and bled
the brakes and they were OK after that.
10/21/01
You
have probably seen pictures of the local women sporting bowler hats. It seemed
odd to us so we asked what the story behind it was. Sometime in the 1800s a guy
imported from Italy a bunch of bowler hats with the intention of selling them
to the men of the area. Well, they were a complete flop with the men. So he
decided to try to sell them to the women. It was a big success and became high
fashion. A local industry sprang up to produce the hats, and they are still the
fashion of the local women. Every woman aspires to have one imported from
Italy.
10/23/01
Prerally:
Rest day, Lima, A chance to explore
this great city, or to work on your car…
Well,
here we are in the Chevy garage in Lima having new back brakes put on, oil in
the transfer case, new fuel filter and a general tightening up of everything
that we shook loose during the last several days of rough roads. Yesterday we
came down from almost 16,000 ft. to sea level in about 75 miles. One of the
women said that the next few days driving the Pan-American hwy were really
boring. We said great.
10/26/01
We hit
the road about 7 this morning and traveled down the west coast of Peru about
450 miles. It is mostly desert and dunes and rock and dirt mountains with very
little water other than the sea. There were parts where the road had given way
and slid into the sea. A lot of trucks and buses as well, so it kept us on our
toes.
Tomorrow
we are up at 4 to drive up to 15,500 ft to try to view the condors rising on
the morning thermals. We are in Arequipa tonite, which is a very nice city and
good size. We received another great welcome in the town square. This city was
near the center of the recent earthquake, and we will be presenting the mayor
with a check for over $14,000 raised from the members of the group for the
earthquake relief fund.
10/27/01
It is
unbelievable how dry this area of the world is. We were out getting some water
for tomorrow when we ran into another crew whose car had a dead battery, so we
followed them by taxi to their truck and got them going so they could limp into
the hotel. Tomorrow we do a 500-mile run south mainly on paved roads so it
should be an easy day. Every time we say that, something happens to make it
into a long day.
10/28/01
Prerally:
A long day's run on fast asphalt roads
through the stunning Atacama Desert – the driest place on earth….
Today
we travelled about 450 miles south to Calama, Chile. Again we are astounded by
the west coast of this part of So. America. It is basically all desert.
Extremely dry. The main industry seems to be mining. We passed several areas
that are set up to load the ore ships. The cities we passed thru are quite
modern with a lot of new housing. We were told by the customs agent when we
entered Chile yesterday that there was no corruption in Chile and don't try to
bribe a policeman or you could go to jail.
We are
all concerned about our fuel supply tomorrow as it is a long way between gas
stations. We have actually filled our water containers with gas. Our front
upper lights have come loose. We are becoming a rolling billboard for duck
tape. These roads have been a challenge for all the cars and trucks. So far
ours is holding up with minor glitches. It will be a wonder to behold if it is
still all together by the end of the rally.
10/29/01
Prerally:
The final sections include a steep
gravel climb up an endless succession
hairpins…
Coming
down out of the mountains we again saw some great scenery. The roads, even if
gravel, are 1000 times better than in Peru and Bolivia, so that we are able to
make decent time on them and actually enjoy the views more as we are not so
intent on driving. Most of the roads are two lane so less worry about getting
forced off the road and down a mountainside. We have a very loud air horn
installed on the truck with a foot switch on the passenger side. It is the
navigator's job to blow the horn as we approach blind curves. It has given us a
sense of security. We do blast the hell out of it.
10/31/01
We
started the drive yesterday thru some of the best views we've seen yet. Some of
it looked the Badlands in So. Dak. Some looked like the painted desert. And
everything in between. We then headed off over a high plateau of rangeland and
actually saw working gauchos with lariats and the whole deal. Just like the old
west.
For
some reason the cattle like the roads at nite. We think maybe the roads hold
more of the heat. Herb was doing a great job driving while we both were on the
lookout for the cows, horses, mules, goats, sheep, etc. I was working the air
horn. We didn't hit any but came close to sending a cow over the moon. We head
back into Chile tomorrow and actually a day off on Fri. Time to get some more
work done on the truck.
11/2/01
Prerally:
Rest day, Marbella. A day to relax at this superb Pacific holiday complex…
Well,
our day off has been spent trying to isolate an electrical problem. It is
almost 5:00 and have not found the problem yet. They have been very
accommodating considering the fact that their service facilities are very busy.
This trip has given a new meaning to shake rattle and roll. Thanks to duck tape
we are still here and in one piece, so to speak.
Yesterday
as we headed toward the border to Chile an interesting optical illusion
happened. For about 20 miles or so we followed a river that looked like it was
flowing up hill. The way the stratified rock was layered and tilted created
this feeling. All the locals tell us that it gets much more beautiful as we go
south. We have seen some amazingly beautiful scenery already so it must just be
a different kind of beautiful. It is unbelievable to us that Chile and Bolivia
and Peru can be so close together geographically yet be so far apart
economically.
I hear
that we are missing some exciting World Series games. As for me, I gave up on
baseball when the Dodgers moved from Brooklyn.
11/3/01
Up at
4:30 and on the road, in the dark, by 5:15. We joined the Pan American Hwy
after about 60 miles and continued on that for almost 500 miles. Most of it was
like driving from Albany to Buffalo on the NY State Thruway. Really exciting.
11/4/01
Prerally:
A wonderful day's drive, much of it on good gravel roads, past great volcanoes
through the superb lake districts…
We
experienced two flat tires today. One we were able to get fixed right away. The
other will have to wait until tomorrow morning as we couldn't find a place open
to do it on Sunday. One of the other crews took an all paved route today and
came across a farmer out in the middle
of nowhere with a car museum. 65 cars, 40 some of which were old Studebakers.
To each his own.
11/5/01
Two
roads diverged in a yellow wood, and I, I took the one less travelled by.
Apologies to Robert Frost. Well, that seems to be John Brown's Philosophy of
Rallies. The less travelled road the better. My skiing friend Eric is known for
choosing the hardest, nastiest conditions to ski in, which has helped to
improve my skiing tremendously. John Brown has gone the same way with driving.
I'm not sure I'm a better driver for it. But I do know that I am damned tired
most of the time.
11/6/01
Prerally:…wonderful rally country!…
Another
great day in the wilderness. We took off early this AM and again drove thru
snow capped peaks and alpine lakes. Later in the day we came down to sea level
and drove along the side of a fiord for several miles, then back up in the
mountains for several miles. Unbelievable. The streams, lakes and rivers are
almost aquamarine in color. Not sure what causes that. Could it be copper in
the water?
11/08/01
We are
staying in El Calefate tonite, a tourist town near the glacier we will go see
tomorrow. We had a couple of more flat tires today and it is doubtful that we
will find new tires here. WE NOW HAVE PATCHES ON OUR PATCHES.
We are
just a few days from the tip and then we start making our dash for Rio to bring
it all to a close. A number of people have dropped out due to mech problems or
accidents and some have just gone off on their own finding the pace too trying.
We are not only a towing service, but Herb is hanging out a shingle as Herb's
body shop. He is presently pulling out the front end of a 4×4 that hit a llama
today going 85 mph. The llama was apparently OK as it ran off. Yesterday Herb
used our winch to pull the front out on a Ford Shelby that had been hit by an
ambulance.
11/09/01
Deep in
the heart of Patagonia? Could that be a song?
This
morning we were up at 6:45 and headed out to the glacier. About 50 miles away.
We walked along the front of it watching pieces fall off into the water. It
sounds almost like a gun shot when a large piece goes. There was a sign
indicating that 32 people died from flying ice between 1968 and 1988.
There
are at least 5 accidents we heard about yesterday. Everyone is very
resourceful. It is amazing to me how they are able to get these cars and trucks
back into operating condition and back on the road. The accidents are caused
mainly by the fact that the roads have a lot of loose gravel. It is like
driving in slush in the wintertime at home.
11/10/01
Prerally:
On gravel roads back into Chile and the amazing peaks and pinnacles of Torres
del Plaine…
We just
arrived in Puerto Natales, Chile, having crossed the frontier from Argentina
this AM. Tomorrow we cross back into
Arg. after crossing the Strait of Magellan by ferry boat.
I never
thought I would be able to say that the scenery could get more beautiful, but
today was truly the best yet. We were among relatively new mountains surrounded
by lakes. The mountains were covered with snow on the tops with a number of
glaciers visible. The water in the lakes again was incredibly blue and green in
color. And the wind whipped across the water at such speeds that it picked up
the water from the surface and turned it into wind-whipped mist. Clouds came
and went around the mountaintops as condors soared above on the thermals.
11/11/01
We are
in Rio grande Tierra del Feugo, Argentina. Tomorrow we will be the furthest
south that we get, just about 10 degrees north of the Antarctic Circle and only
about 650 miles from Antarctica itself. Unbelievable, just two weeks ago we
were at 11 degrees south, almost to the equator. I tried to imagine what
Magellan must have been thinking when he passed thru here in 1520. I don't
think that the area has changed much. Makes our adventure seem pretty tame.
Gas
goes upwards of $4 per gallon, so when we fill our 31 gal tank every 300 miles
or so it gets costly. We have to carry a fair amount of cash with us because we
never know whether a station will take a credit card or not. Even when they say
they will they seem to figure out a way to get the cash. We stopped early on at
a large Esso or Shell that displayed a Visa sign, asked if they took Visa, was
assured that they did, filled the tank, and then were told that it was too
early and the office wasn't open yet so we had the choice of waiting for an
hour or paying cash.
11/12/01
One of
the hotels gave us a gift package the other nite. It contained a lighter. Herb
suggested that maybe we should torch the car for the insurance and go home. I'm
not sure whether he was kidding or not.
11/13/01
Prerally:
A run down to the extremity of the road…
For the
last several days each town or city we have stayed in has claimed to be at the
end of the world. But today I think we really reached the end of the world at
54 degrees 54 minutes south. The only thing between us and Antarctica was a lot
of cold water.
It
feels good to be headed north and to the end of the rally, not the world.
11/14/01
A lot
of trees look like the letter F from the constant blowing of high winds. As we
have to stop along the road to relieve ourselves once in a while it has given a
whole new understanding of the old saying about “pissing into the wind.”
Our
electrical system continues to act weird. I actually think we have picked up a
ghost somewhere along the way. If you had seen some of the forests we have been
thru lately you may buy into that theory.
The
co-driver of the Ferrari had his second blackout in as many weeks, so I hear he
is on his way back home to the UK to get checked out. Some say it is due to the
driving of the 1st driver, who is a very nice guy, but said to be a very
aggressive driver.
11/15/01
Another
600 miles without a flat. Unfortunately, our cruise control doesn't work, so
one of us has to stay awake while we are going along at close to 100 mph. We
are so used to driving at these speeds now I'm not sure we'll have our license
long when we return home.
11/16/01
Prerally:
The Punta Tombo nature preserve, where you will witness the amazing spectacle
of half a million penguins…
Question
of the day: Where's the poop? 1?2 million penguins. All sizes and shapes,
babies included. What we didn't see is any bird poop. Can't figure out where it
all goes! But it was a lot of fun. We did learn that penguins are dying at an
alarming rate. There are 17 different kinds, all in the southern hemisphere.
The prediction is that at least 1?4 of them will be wiped out over the next
thirty years. The main culprit appears to be oil dumped into the sea by ships.
The penguins get the oil on them, and it takes away the thermal protection that
they have naturally. They go on shore hoping to find warmth and starve to
death.
11/17/01
Late in
the 19th century a group from Wales settled this area in an attempt to preserve
the Welsh language and customs that they thought were going to be absorbed by
mainstream England. While the people are wildly proud to be Argentinian they
have actually been given grants by the British gov't. to import teachers to
teach Welsh to the kids. In fact, it has become so cool that a lot of the kids
that have no Welsh heritage are learning it as well.
11/18/01
Prerally:
A tour of the peninsula for the other abundant marine wildlife, including
elephant seals, penguins, and (if we are lucky) killer whales…
What
did we do on our day off? Since we had no car problems, for a change, we
decided to drive over 200 miles on mostly gravel roads. Are we sick or what? We
stopped in several places to whale watch and view elephant seals. There were
hundreds of them just sunning themselves and sleeping on the beach and rocks.
The climb back up from the beach really showed us how out of shape we have
become from riding in the truck for 6 weeks.
The sun
is shining and as we get closer to the equator the days are getting shorter.
The thing that has really struck us overall is how arid a large portion of
South America is. It is easy to understand why more people didn't settle here
over the past centuries.
I was
trying to think today what was the most moving thing I've seen on this
trip so far. I don't remember if I
mentioned it earlier, but one evening as we were working our way down off a
high plateau at sunset we came upon a gaucho sitting on his horse with his very
young baby on his lap watching the sun set.
I wish I had a picture of it but I remember thinking that I shouldn't ruin his moment.
11/21/01
Prerally:
An easy main road run into Argentina's
capital…
We had
dinner with a young lawyer who is a friend of the Finnish exchange student that
we had in Johnstown 10 or 12 years ago. Marcelo took us to the best steak
restaurant in B.A. He and his young pregnant wife and young son were living in
New Jersey, and he was working for a law firm in NYC when Sept. 11. occurred.
Shortly after he packed them up and returned to B.A. where he is working for a
law firm. He said that he was really struck by how, in the wake of the
disaster, all Americans pulled together to support one another and those in
need. He felt that it wouldn't happen anywhere else in the world. He said that
the USA has always been there for the rest of the world, including Argentina,
and felt that it was time that the rest of the world supported the USA. We have
received a lot of concern for the events of Sept 11 from a lot of local people
all during the trip.
11/22/01
Prerally:
Free day, Buenos Aires. Your chance to
shop in this sophisticated cosmopolitan city…
Happy
Thanksgiving to everyone. Not much news today. We weren't able to find any
turkey. Did a cocktail party at the British embassy that was kind of fun. Up
early tomorrow morning to take a ferry boat to Uruguay. Two more border
crossings, then we are home free.
11/24/01
Uruguay
is a beautiful country of about 3 million people, with about a 98 percent
literacy rate. They started free education at the college level 120 years ago.
We stopped midday at what had been billed as a car museum. What it really was,
was a guy's workshop where he restored cars and built knockoff pre-war
Mercedes. There were about 25 to 30 cars in all including some old model A's, a
Studebaker, and a '57 Chevy. The local car club put on a party for us and the
British ambassador made an appearance. That's two ambassadors in a row.
11/25/01
Yesterday
when we were in the mountains we came across a herd of cattle being driven
along the road by a couple of guachos. One of the classics was ahead of us
trying to clear the way. A lot of the cattle took off down the road in front of
us and wouldn't get out of the way for probably about a mile before they
finally ran out of steam. I don't know whether all cows are stupid, but these
sure seemed so. The guy in the classic was on a timed part of the rally so he
lost quite a bit of time. He asked us today if we would vouch for his cattle
problem.
11/26/01
Prerally:
A chance to relax and wind down in this beautiful oceanside setting…
Five
trashed tires, fifteen flats, and another partridge in a pear tree. We believe
that we have the flat tire record for the rally. We should have bought stock in
Goodyear before we left. This morning all our lites started flashing on and off
for several minutes after we shut them off. Our gremlin at work. I hope it
stays in Brazil. Other than the electrical gremlin the truck has done pretty
well, considering what we have taken it thru.
11/27/01
2 more
days to go. We actually made it thru a gravel section today without a flat
tire. Actually it is probably because it was mostly mud and pretty slippery. It
was a fun drive though. We did the balance of the day on asphalt, and had a
nice ferry ride along the way. Our hotel on the mountain was so bad that for
the 1st time Herb and I decided to find another and moved into town. It was
really hot and humid, and some little bugs started chewing up my legs. That had
happened earlier and it took over two weeks to heal, so we said we're out of
here. We don't start til after nine tomorrow morning. Trouble is we wake up at
5 or 6 anyway. So we have to be patient. Not easy for me. We are both pretty
tired and I think ready to get home.
11/28/01
Well I
almost ended up in jail today, but ended up getting a ticket for disobeying a
woman instead. We were driving up the
highway minding our own business, when
as we approached a police post a young woman officer jumped out into the road
blowing her whistle and waved us to the side. I couldn't make head nor tails of
what she wanted (they speak Portuguese in Brazil). I gave her my passport and
she shook her head no and pointed across the highway to the police station.
Mary Ellen from the Shelby followed me in with some of their documentation. She
started to try to explain to the police officer that there were 100 of us
coming thru and how and why was she going to stop them all. Just then 3
four-x-fours came up the hwy, so the officer ran out toward the road blowing
her whistle. They ignored her as did several other cars. Mary Ellen said maybe
we should just pick up our papers and go. That sounded good to me so I took my
stuff and walked out past the officer and left. Mary Ellen told me later that
the woman actually took her revolver out and cocked it as I drove off.
We went
50 km down the road where they had set up a roadblock. They waved me in and I
gave them my passport at which point they ordered me into the station in no
uncertain terms. They told me to sit down and shut up. At this point I began to
think that I was really in some trouble. The only thing I could pick up was the
word criminal. At that point three of my friends came in with literature on the
rally and a copy of a letter from the minister of tourism asking the police to
be cooperative with us. The police finally came around and were joking about
it. They called the woman officer and the people outside could hear her
screaming thru the phone. After a lot of negotiation it was decided that I
would have to return to the 1st station and face her.
Anyhow
we got back to our friendly woman police officer. She was some kind of pissed.
The two guys tried to calm her down and she wasn't having any of it. At this
point I thought it was possible that I was going to jail. The lady officer wouldn't
even read the letter from the ministry. She just kept writing down info from my
documents and talking a blue streak to the two guys. Meanwhile I got down on
bended knee to plead with her but she still wasn't having any. She handed me my
ticket and I realized that I wasn't going to jail. I shook both the policemen's
hands and took hers in my hand with a big smile and kissed it. At this point
she turned bright red and started to giggle, so I said and indicated for her to
wait a minute. I went out to the truck and got one of our Taylor Made baseball
caps for her.
When we
saw our customer we had him interpret the ticket for us. It basically was for
disobeying a police officer. He also told us to disregard it as they won't be
able to trace it. I hope he's right. Herb said that if I got shot he was going
to throw me in the back of the truck and ship me home by boat.
11/29/01
Prerally:
A final day along one of the world's
most beautiful coastal highways…
Well we
made it! We are tired but glad that we did it. Today we drove about 350 miles
along the coastline of Brazil. I have never seen as many beautiful beaches and
little seaside villages anywhere else. Tomorrow morning we take the truck to
the dock first thing and barring no problems we will have the rest of the day
free.
We have
really mixed e motions about it being over. Earlier this week we couldn't wait.
Then today reality set in and in a way we are kind of sad to see the end. It
was surely something that neither of us had ever expected to do and a real opportunity
to expand ourselves. Herb was a great companion and I can't thank him enough
for agreeing to do this with me.
12/01/01
Prerally:
We plan a wonderful evening out for you – a prizegiving party on the Sugar
Loaf itself, encircled by the brilliant
lights of one of the world's most
beautiful and glamorous cities…
Last
night we had our final dinner up on Sugar Loaf. We were awarded gold medals,
along with the others. I think that everyone who completed this is a winner. It
was pretty tough at times. We agree that this has given us a real appreciation
for some of the things that we take for granted where we live. We have seen
poverty that we couldn't have imagined; we have also seen wonderful and
beautiful sites and met beautiful people throughout the journey. Thanks to
everyone, and keep in touch.
Readers
who want the full flavor of Jim Taylor's
epic journey, complete with color photos, can visit his website at www.eteamz.com/sites/jimtaylor/
(The
following appeared in the New Bedford
[Mass.] Standard-Times on Nov. 1, 2001.
Marsha McCabe is an award-winning columnist for the newspaper whose extensive
Union connections include her husband,
Robert ' 57; his brother, Howard McCabe
' 56; and her brothers, Donald Lawton ' 58, Harry Lawton ' 50,
and Bruce Lawton ' 60).
“Life
is what happens while you ' re making plans,” so the saying goes. Since
9/11/01, we don ' t know how to live our lives – we have no plan – but life
keeps happening anyway.
The
government tells us to live in a state of “heightened alert,” which means we
must be always watchful, or even suspicious, of what is going on around us. It '
s not much fun, like living on the edge
of a cliff.
Meanwhile,
life happened, as it will, this past weekend while I was making plans. We went
to Schenectady, N.Y., to visit my mother and even the ride was amazing. I have
never been enamored of U.S. highways but my mind was so filled with desolate,
godforsaken images of Afghanistan, of dust, dirt and rock, where nothing grows
and little has been built that our highways and bridges, our waterways and
cities, looked like miracles to me.
Even “sprawl,”
which I hate in ordinary times, seemed hopeful. At least, there ' s energy here
and in time, I felt, we ' d learn to do things better. But for the moment,
flaws and all, our landscape seemed wondrous to me. Is this what it means to be
on “heightened alert?” To simply notice what is around you with fresh eyes and
overwhelming gratefulness?
After
visiting with my mother, we – my husband, my brother, and I – slipped out to
take a walk on the Union College campus, one of the best and most beautiful
colleges in the country (and perhaps most famous for starring in the movie, The
Way We Were, with Robert Redford and Barbra Streisand).
Autumn
had turned the campus into a blaze of yellows and hot reds, and as we walked
along, we recalled what a big part this college had played in our lives. Both
men went to college here, and my husband and I were married in the chapel. We
slowly made our way to the old library, now the Nott Memorial, a magnificent
circular building and centerpiece of the campus. Passing through these doors is
like entering old Europe, a place that speaks.
Though
we ' d hoped to see an art show on the second floor Mandeville Gallery, today
the exhibition featured William H. Seward and I thought, oh, yuck, a memoriam
to an old dead white man. The name Seward made me think of “Seward ' s Folly,”
then “Alaska,” and then nothing.
As we
began poring over the memorabilia in
the circular gallery, we became entranced. A graduate of Union College, William
H. Seward was governor of New York, a U.S. Senator, and Secretary of State under Abe Lincoln.
Reading through letters and diaries,
looking at photos, a world opened up, and we found ourselves back there in the
1860s, with this extraordinary man, a leader of the anti-slavery movement and a
pioneer of prison reform (greatly influenced by his wife, Frances).
I had
forgotten that Lincoln ' s assassination was part of a conspiracy and the other
intended victim was Mr. Seward himself. John Wilkes Booth ' s co-conspirator,
Lewis Powell, attacked William Seward in his bedroom and succeeded in stabbing,
but not killing, him and his son, Fred. The fierce-looking knife was displayed
in the exhibition.
The
show, brilliantly curated by Rachel Seligman, gallery director, did exactly
what an exhibition like this should do. It opened our minds to another time,
another place, and made us want to know more. So enthusiastic was I, I
decided I would write to David
McCullough, author of John Adams, and ask him to please do his next book on
William H. Seward.
Later,
back at Mother ' s, as I was reading
the brochures I ' d picked up at the exhibition, a quote describing the Nott
Memorial leaped out at me: “There ' s nothing like it anywhere else in the
world” – David McCullough, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian.
Now,
how about that?
On the
way back to Dartmouth, I began thinking about all the small miracles around us,
beginning with our college campuses, these fine places of learning, so full of
the past and future. Yet, they are not miracles at all but institutions created
by men and women who believed in the human spirit and the power of learning.
And they believed in the future.
I hope
someday we will see a university, many universities, grow out of the ruins of
Afghanistan and they will transform the people and give them hope. As for me, I
hope I can stay in a state of heightened alert indefinitely. I might even call it
a plan.
Re: The
decision to eliminate the Civil Engineering Department.
I have
spent the last thirty-one years as professor and chair of the Civil Engineering
Technology Department at the Springfield (Mass.) Technical Community College,
and while our program and the mission of the college are different from those of Union, recruitment,
graduate placement and success, and the evolving nature of engineering
education are common themes critical for each of us.
Sound
engineering is based on a mastery of the fundamentals, not a smorgasbord of
perceived and unproven “dotcoms” of new technology. While I applaud Union's
strategic initiative for the new millennium, I feel it is flawed for several
reasons. First is the unrecognized expense of developing a Converging
Technologies curriculum in an undergraduate, small college environment. It is
well documented that this type of education belongs at the graduate level.
Second is the fear that future engineering graduates will lack the fundamentals
under the proposed new curriculum. Removing one leg of the proven tripod of
civil-mechanical-electrical engineering will significantly weaken the two
remaining engineering programs, and the synergy and economies of scale of
grouping all three majors in common-core courses will be lost.
Engineering
in the twenty-first century is not an individual undertaking. It is partnering
and team building with researchers, economists, sociologists, attorneys, city
planners, environmentalists, and a whole host of other specialists all
committed to making this world of ours a better place in which to live. Civil
engineers are an essential first link in many of these current and largest
undertakings.
An
engineering conference at Smith College
last spring focused on two intersecting concerns: the critical shortage of
engineers and computer engineers in industry and the scarcity of women in
engineering. There are roughly 350,000 unfilled engineering jobs nationwide. It's
also noteworthy that Union's CE Department enjoys the highest number of women
in all of the engineering programs.
This past November, Mount Holyoke College announced that it was developing a
consortium with UMass to offer engineering degrees. One would have to ask, why
would one of the Seven Sisters decide to go into engineering if they didn't
realize the importance of engineering
to our country's future?
I fear
that the College has taken the wrong fork in the road to maintain academic
excellence.
Lee
Tuthill '65, PE
Wilbraham,
Mass.
Springtime
in Vienna
I read
with interest, and a bit of nostalgia, the articles in the Fall issue regarding
terms abroad. My “Fruehling in Wien” experiences in 1971 were the highlight of
my time at Union. I've returned to Europe many times since then and always
contrast the experiences (usually unfavorably) with those of the spring term in
Vienna.
In my
view, the College did it just right,
with a minimal amount of academics, and considerable emphasis on the local
history and lifestyle, culture, and travel. My friend and roommate, Dave D'Aprix
'73, and I stayed with a local family and were forced to speak German
regularly. There were numerous trips, chaperoned by Professor Anton Warde and
his wife, to the Burgenland in eastern Austria, Prague and Budapest (during the
Cold War), and Salzburg. We were encouraged to
travel independently as well, and did, to Monte Carlo for the Grand
Prix, Innsbruck to ski, and Munich, among other destinations.
We were
also encouraged to attend local
cultural activities, which abounded in Vienna. We were given a $25 voucher,
redeemable at the various theaters and concert halls. This seems like a modest
sum, but, as I recall, a “Stehplatz” in the rear of the State Opera House cost
about $4 and wonderful string quartets playing Strauss cost less than $1. We
also found time to relax in the infamous Cafe d'Schwarze Spanier near St.
Stephen's with Bob Noelsch '73, Steve Manus '72, Mike Rubach '72, and others.
I have
a business trip planned to Vienna in 2003 and look forward to reliving many of
my old experiences.
Davis
R. Heussler '73
East
Aurora, N.Y. 14052
Though
the Israel kibbutz program officially began in 1973, it actually started on an
informal basis two years earlier. During the 1971 winter term I and two other
members of the Class of 1972, Aaron Feingold and Roger Friedman, obtained
permission to pursue self-designed independent study projects on a kibbutz. We
made our own travel arrangements and obtained placement on a kibbutz in the Jordan Valley through the
headquarters of one of the kibbutz
movements in Tel Aviv.
My
project involved maintaining a journal of my experiences and studying the
political structure and operations of the kibbutz under the supervision of
Byron Nichols (professor of political science). Aaron also maintained a journal
and assembled a photographic essay under the supervision of the late Arnie
Bittleman (professor of art). I don't recall Roger's project, though he
ultimately chose to move to Israel after graduation, where he lived for a
number of years.
Speaking
for myself, and I'm sure Aaron and Roger concur, our time in Israel was an
unforgettable and irreplaceable experience, and we are grateful to Union for
trusting us to do this on our own. I'm certain that our success influenced the
decision to create a formal Israel kibbutz program just two years later.
Robert
N. Michaelson '72
New
York City
Seeing
the picture of Professor Bill Thomas at Mont St. Michel, long-lost memories
burgeoned. That picture captures the essence of my memories of Prof. Thomas – trench
coat, scarf, and a sidelong glance to make sure nothing too calamitous was
going on behind him.
Just
last week my ten-year-old daughter went exploring and found a pack of old
letters from that era. I read one of the letters I wrote to my parents and
remembered how I met Prof. Thomas and the Union group in Paris. I had worked
during the summer on the estate of Mme Pierre Mend`es France, picking peaches
and apricots with a group of Tunisian migrant workers. When I got off the train
in Rennes and met my host family, they thought I was an Arab because I was
short, dark, and spoke decent French – with an Arab accent.
I
really enjoyed the article. It's true, the term abroad program is a
life-changing event for some participants. I've been back to Europe a few times
since; three years ago I took my older daughter (age twelve at the time) on a
month-long bicycle trip near Avignon, where I had worked picking fruit.
Steve
Buchsbaum '75
Belgrade,
Maine
We
welcome letters. Send them to: Office of Communications, Union College, Schenectday,
N.Y. 12308 or blankmap@union.edu.
