NOW IT CAN BE TOLD!--Chapter 3: Calais to Copenhagen! DO 2709 3/91
--Story Time with Grandpa!
1. (David: Thank You, Lord, that we can have this story from Grandpa! We really pray that You'll bless & anoint it, Jesus. We pray that we'll be able to keep learning things, Lord, about our Family & what happened in the Early Days. We pray that You'll bless this time & make it real profitable, in Jesus' name, amen.) Amen! Praise the Lord! And Lord help my memory! Remember, this story is 20 years old, so that's a long time ago for me to be remembering so many things!
Calais to Dover!
2. OK! Praise the Lord! Amen! Thank You Lord! Story Time! Adventure Time! "Now it Can Be Told!--The Private Life of our Personal Family!" We ended our last chapter with our exciting arrival in Calais where the man grabbed my bag out of my hand & starting running with it, & I wondered what in the world was going on! He said, "This way to the ferry!" He was a porter who was collecting bags, & I guess the more bags he collected, the more money he made, so he was in a hurry! See, this is even before we bought our ticket to get on the ferry! He just wanted to know what ferry we were going on, & the ferry to Dover was the usual one. So he said, "Dover? Dover?"--And then he ran off with the bag! I didn't know if he was stealing it or whether I'd ever see it again!
3. But when we got on the ferry, oh, my heart rejoiced! There was our big long black bag in the huge pile of luggage on the deck of the ferry, so we relaxed & rested assured that all was well. And as soon as the boat was packed--mostly with hippies--it began to pull out across the English Channel.
4. So we were very tired. We'd just arrived in Europe the evening before & then we'd chased the train at 10 o'clock in order to catch the 10:10 p.m. to Calais, running with this big suitcase in my hand & dear Mama trailing along behind. Then we arrived in Calais in the morning & were trying to rush to catch the ferry. Besides the little nap we'd gotten on the train we hadn't had much sleep, so we were really tired. As I recall, we found two seats, & they're pretty comfy seats on those ferries, they're not just long wooden benches like some ferries we've been on in some places in the World. The trip is several hours long, & we managed to relax & cat-napped a little bit before we began to pull into Dover Harbour.
Arrival in London!
5. And again, there was a big rush to catch the train to London, which is about another 60 or 70 miles from Dover. We found our luggage & we caught the train into London to Victoria Station, & we climbed off the train carrying our heavy bag. And this train station was just full of hippies. I mean, they were lying all over the place, sleeping on the floor, everywhere!
6. We had the address of Mama Sieben's Rooming House, & we called her to ask her if she had any room, & she said yes, she did! So we caught one of those funny-looking big black London taxis & we soon arrived on Mama Sieben's doorstep out in the area of London called Tufnell Park. The funny thing about it is that it's just down the street from a big graveyard, a very old cemetery, where a very famous man is buried. Guess who is buried there?--Did I ever tell you that before?--Karl Marx! (Techi: Karl Marx! Interesting!)
7. He used to live in that same neighbourhood with his wife & children in a tenement, sort of a cheap attic place, & that's where he wrote his famous book, "Das Kapital," that just about changed the World--at least half the World--& for the worse, not the better! We used to walk up there to the cemetery, especially on Sundays when there were a lot of visitors who would come out to see his grave. It's a rather pretty cemetery, Highgate Cemetery, & his grave has a big huge monument on it. It's not a statue of him, it's just a gravestone saying "Karl Marx" & the year of his birth & death, etc. I can't remember anything else that it said on it. They didn't make it very good propaganda! It seemed like they should have put something on there to preach their message. That's what I would have done; in fact, I did! On my Mother's tombstone I put, "She's not here, she is risen!"
8. So anyhow, Mrs. Sieben led us upstairs. (Techi: Where did you get her address?) We got her address from this book, "Europe on $5 a Day." (Techi: Really?) Yes! The latest edition of the same book is now called "Europe on $40 a Day!" Anyway, we phoned her & she had room so she took us upstairs to a little room overlooking the rose garden. And the funny part about it was, as we came into London that day, the most popular song on the radio & everywhere was, "I beg your pardon, I never promised you a rose garden! I beg your pardon!" It was a pretty little song.
9. She led us upstairs to this little room in the back overlooking the rose garden. It was just one room with a double bed & two cots. She said, "Well, you can have this room for now, but I may have to put some roomers in here with you if we get crowded." I said, "That's fine, all right, any time!" And a few days later along came these two young girls--hippies who were travelling around Europe--& she asked us if she could squeeze them into our room. Well, it was a great big room & we had a big double bed in one corner & we didn't need the cots. I felt sorry for the poor girls & I thought, "Why shouldn't we share our room? We're preaching sharing!"
10. One was a great big girl & the other was a little tiny girl who didn't hardly look like she was even in her teens, but she was supposedly 16 or something like that. A lot of those kids came to Europe with their parents' permission & money, & they were travelling all Summer long & some of them all year long, seeking for something, they didn't know what.--To see if they could find the answer to their problems in travel & foreign religions, mostly Asian religions, Indian religions, etc. The hippies in those days were quite ripe & open & hungry for anything that sounded like it might be the answer to their problems.
11. Our approach on our trip was to carry along this big photo album with all of these pictures of our happy hippies in Texas! We'd show it to the people we'd meet & they'd go page to page & look at all of the happy faces & our beautiful ranch in Texas. We couldn't invite them to anything else, so we invited them to come to our Ranch in Texas if they ever got back to the States. A lot of them promised to, & they may have! I don't know, because we never went back to the Ranch again. (Techi: Even when you went back to the U.S.?) No, because the Ranch was in jeopardy at that time especially. Fred was threatening to throw them out.
12. And besides, when we went back to America it was at the risk of our own lives, because the spirit of the whole country had changed & the COG were now "anathema." That means a person or thing that's despised or hated by most people. We were no longer having good publicity, we were getting nothing but bad publicity. They'd had several TV shows against us, so when we returned to Europe the second time, we came back incognito, sort of secretly & under cover, doing our best to hide our identity & stay out of any connection with you-know-who!
13. In fact, we had to even be a little bit secretive on our first European journey because they were starting to have these bad shows about us back in the U.S. So we wouldn't introduce ourselves as the Children of God to people, we'd just say, "Well, we represent a youth work in Texas & we have this ranch. If you ever go that way, stop in & see us!"--And they liked the idea & they liked the pictures. We hardly dared witness too strongly because we were afraid they might identify us. But the message was there as we would tell them about how these hippies all quit smoking & drugs & liquor, etc., & that it had been the Lord Who had delivered them, & that was the only deliverance. So they knew what we believed.
14. And sometimes we were led to go as far as asking them if they were saved. Of course, most of them weren't. I don't think we hardly ever met a Christian that whole trip! But anyway, we witnessed in that way, about as far as we felt we could go under the circumstances.
15. So these girls moved into our bedroom, & as is my custom, I would go over & kiss them each good night, just a friendly little kiss & say a little prayer for them like, "God bless & keep us & give us a good night's sleep."--And they seemed to like it. One of them was even a little tearful, the little one, because she was far away from home & had been away for a while.
16. Anyhow, we were getting along pretty well there, but on this first trip we were just going to stay in London a week or two, just long enough to gather information on the foreign travel possibilities, etc. That's where we bought the Cook's book of travel information about trains--it's mostly about trains, buses & steamships--& we also gathered a lot of brochures, etc.
17. As I recall, we only stayed in London about two or three weeks that time, but while we were there we decided to see the London sights! They had a lot of famous movies playing in London. That's where we first saw "Cromwell" (See ML#65), & that's also where we saw the "Man of..." (Techi: "La Mancha!") Yes, good for you, Techi, about Don Quixote! (Techi: That's the first time you saw that movie?) Well, actually it was later we saw that one when we were living in London again in 1973. That's when we got the poem about "Don Quixote." (See ML#198.) It just came! I think that's the first poem I ever got, & I thought it was a pretty good poem, didn't you? It was really inspired because it just flowed, thank the Lord! That's also where we got "Ivan Ivanovitch" & some of those others!
18. Mama & I used to go downtown for supper & eat in some little cheap restaurant, & then go to a movie. Movies were pretty cheap in London in those days compared to the U.S. In New York they were running $2.50, $3.00, $5.00, etc. (Techi: Did you see "Hair" in London?) Yes, we did. (Techi: On the first trip or the second trip?) I can't remember which it was, I think it was the second trip.
19. Theatre shows in London were even cheaper than movies then! Isn't that something? In New York the movies were cheaper than the theatres, the stage shows. But in London the theatres were the cheapest & the movies were more expensive. (Techi: I wonder why? They probably had to put more in to the movies.) Well, those poor people on the stage put a whole lot into it too. But it was cheaper for some reason, & as I recall, the cheapest seats which we got up in the balcony were 25 pence. Since there are 100 pence to the Pound, & the Pound at that time was worth $2.50, that would have been a little over 60 cents.
20. So anyway, we were determined to see London, & we went all around taking bus rides. Buses were cheap too. I think it was only 10 pence at that time to ride the big double-decker buses where you can sit up top & really see out!
Meals in London!
21. Would you like to hear a little bit about the meals that we ate in London? We were staying on the North side of London in the area where Dick Whittington had his cat & they told him he was going to some day be Lord Mayor of London! I remember that because they have a little monument to his cat on the main street there, a little iron cat.
22. (Techi: Was that a fairy tale?) Well, it was a legend, but there was some truth to it. The cat actually existed & Dick Whittington was told he was going to be Lord Mayor of London! Anyhow, however it happened, it did happen, he did become Lord Mayor. And they've got a monument to that cat on the street near where we lived.
23. We spent most of our days in London writing, & then we'd go out for dinner & a movie at night. Of course, we didn't eat in any swanky places because we didn't have very much money! The money we had was supposed to last us for our whole trip through Europe, that's why we had to be pretty skimpy. Each little neighbourhood in London has its own little main street, & we usually ate at the cheapest place on that little main street, which in this case was a little Irish restaurant for Irish workmen living in London.
24. They had a nice little plate dinner with just the things I loved to eat.--Meat, usually roast beef, potatoes, gravy, a vegetable, bread & butter & tea!--All for only 20 pence, which was the equivalent of 50 U.S. cents in those days when the Pound was worth $2.50. Now it's only worth $1.75. So we had a whole meal for the equivalent of 50 U.S. cents, that was pretty good! And it was a good little dinner! We ate there nearly every night, except one or two nights when we went downtown to see some movie, & then we ate in some other little tiny hole-in-the-wall restaurant!
25. I think that's when we found out that spaghetti is about the cheapest thing you can order in almost any city of Europe. (Techi: Funny!) We found this little Irish restaurant was one of the cheapest places in London, because it was out in a neighbourhood, see, it wasn't downtown. The places downtown are higher-priced, so the cheapest thing you can get downtown is a little plate of spaghetti, but that was enough. Spaghetti bolognese--that means spaghetti & meat sauce. And do you know the name of the cheese you put on spaghetti? (Techi: Parmesan!) Yes, Parmesan cheese in a shaker, like a salt shaker. I'd add a lot more ketchup & then I'd shake it thick with Parmesan cheese, & it had a little meat in the sauce, so it was a pretty full meal. It usually came in a bowl & you added the stuff to it that you wanted, & that was it!
26. In those days I didn't really know how to eat spaghetti, so I just ate it the American way--you take a forkful & try to suck it all in! But I'll tell you later when we talk about Rome about the first guy who taught us to eat spaghetti the way the Italians do!
27. So that was the way we ate & lived in London. We only stayed for a few weeks, as you recall, & then we set out for the Continent. (The main body of Europe is referred to as "the Continent," whereas England is an island.)
Train to Harwich & Ferry to Den Hague!
28. Finally we got all the information that we needed & we had planned our trip! We were going to take the train to Harwich, a port on the Southeastern side of England, again about 50 or 60 miles from London, & catch one of those big ocean-going ferries to Den Hague in Holland.
29. By this time I had gotten a little brown metal suitcase, I don't know whether you ever saw it or not, probably not. Later I used to carry it with me all the time. We would check our big huge black suitcase through, & I'd just carry a little brown suitcase which had our overnight stuff in it for our trip.
30. So we were finally ready! We'd even opened a checking account in London nearby & had received some money from home. Some people were sending us gifts, & even dear Jethro, the Family Treasurer, was sending us money to live on while we were there. We already had our train passes, so our transportation was taken care of except to get to Den Hague, which is where we started our 30-day First Class train trip on our Eurailpasses!
31. We caught a train to Harwich one evening, because the ferry left at night. I remember we could still see the scenery on both sides of the train, & we arrived in Harwich about dark. The train comes right close to the ferry dock, so we just walked across carrying both our suitcases. We checked the black suitcase in & then went into the ferry depot, which is a huge big place!
32. And then we were amazed when we climbed onto the ferry, because it was immense!--And luxurious!--Even for second class passengers. The first class passengers rent staterooms with bunks to sleep in for the night, but for the second class passengers they have these huge big cushioned armchairs. We said, "Boy, we could sleep in those!"--And sure enough, we did!
33. Mama & I got two of those armchairs together & we lay flat out, because we were tired by this time after all of the travelling we had done to get there. You know how it is on the last day, you're packing & there's lots of excitement. (Techi: So you used your EurRail Pass?) No, not yet! I was saving it because I wanted to see the whole of Europe. So we just lay flat out & went to sleep & slept the whole trip! (Techi: They were armchairs?) Yes, padded armchairs, like overstuffed chairs! And it's a four-hour trip across to The Hague. The Dutch call it Den Hague.
Train to Amsterdam!
34. When we got off the big ferry, we went to the train station & caught the train that we were aiming for. The ferry got there very early in the morning; in fact, I think it was still dark. We caught the train & that's where we started using our EurRail Pass, at The Hague! And on my little suitcase, because I was taking it by hand, they had stuck all of these great big signs, "The Hague," big stickers that they plastered right on the sides of your suitcase to get them to their destination.
35. We were headed for Amsterdam & got there some time later that day, & we'd found a cheap pension in the book "Europe on $5 a Day." Do you want to hear all of this? (Kids: Yes!) Are you sure? (Kids: Yes!) Some of it may be boring, but some of it might be interesting!
36. That's where we first learned about the stairs of Amsterdam. In Amsterdam, you know, they have these small houses. They're tall houses. (You can see pictures of them in BOR#2, page 305!) So we phoned this lady, & yes, she had a room. It was a very tiny little room, just big enough for the bed. And we climbed what amounted to a ladder to get to the third floor! (Techi: On the outside of the building?) No, inside, but to save space they just made them very very steep, almost like climbing a ladder, only they had footsteps. We got up there & by that time we were really tired, because we hadn't stopped since we'd left London, although we had taken a nap on the boat. As I recall we went out to eat, but we came back & went to bed early because we were really tired.
37. I was used to hotels in the U.S., & only the cheapest hotels make you check out at noon. Even a second or third class hotel will usually let you stay until 3-5 o'clock, & a very good hotel will let you stay until 6 or 7 the next day. So imagine my astonishment when this lady came around at 9 o'clock--she was kind of a pretty middle-aged lady, I guess she was in her 30's--& literally shook us to wake us up in the morning & told us we had to be out by 11! I think they served us breakfast there, maybe that's why she woke us up so early. She came around at 9 & woke us up for the last call for breakfast.
38. And guess what they served for breakfast? (Techi: A roll & coffee?) They sometimes serve a little tiny glass of juice of some kind, & then you can have coffee or tea & a sweet roll. Now I must admit that in England they serve a real breakfast!--A stack of toast & scrambled or fried eggs. But the bacon in England, oh! It's almost like raw ham! The strips of bacon are about 2 or 3 inches wide & about half an inch thick, so of course they aren't crisp at all. It's like eating raw ham. The bacon is barely cooked. (Techi: At least you get a lot of it though.) And all that fat & everything! Ugh! And besides that, they always put a tomato on your plate! Can you imagine?--For breakfast!
39. You can have almost all the toast you want, but they give you two big slices of bread to start with, with butter & jam. So you usually get a pretty good breakfast in England.--Bacon & eggs & toast with butter & jam & a slice of tomato. Usually it's half a tomato. I didn't care much for the tomato & I always gave mine to Mama. I didn't care much for the bacon either, but I tried to cut off the fat & eat the lean part, although it wasn't really very well cooked. But they serve a real breakfast in England. Of course, later when we had our own place in England we were able to have the kind of breakfast we liked.
40. But when we got to the Continent & got what they called "bed & breakfast," you can imagine our astonishment when they brought us up this little tiny plate with a sweet roll on it & one little pat of butter. You were doing well if you got a little container of jam & coffee. We usually had coffee. (Techi: What else did you eat?) That's all they serve for breakfast! (Techi: But didn't you ever get hungry?) Well, especially if the breakfast was very early, we'd usually have an early lunch.
41. Oh, I forgot to tell you how surprised we were when we found where the mailboxes were in Amsterdam.--They're on the end of every street car, on the outside, hanging on the back of the streetcar! Very clever! That way they collect the mail all the way. You don't have to walk any distance to a mail box because there are street cars going back & forth all the time. Whenever it stops, you run up, or you can even run after it & stick your stuff in it if it isn't going too fast, & they usually don't go too fast. I think we mailed a couple of postcards to the folks back home letting them know we had arrived in Amsterdam.
Amsterdam to Copenhagen!
42. So while we were in Amsterdam I thought, "While we're this far North, maybe we can see Sweden, where my father (Hjalmer) was born!" He was born in a little country village near a castle in Southern Sweden. From Amsterdam, the land route to Sweden is via Germany & Denmark, so we took a train to Copenhagen, which is Denmark's capital.
43. We arrived there in the morning, got off the train, & that's when we discovered the prices of Copenhagen. Whew! It was unbelievable how expensive the meals were! I mean, they were just horrible! Denmark at that time was one of the most expensive places in Europe, & still is! We had heard about it being pretty expensive, but we never dreamed it was that bad. I think spaghetti in Copenhagen was something like $2.00 a plate, whereas in other places of Europe it was usually a Dollar or less a plate. That's how I gauged the prices in a new city--how much a plate of spaghetti was listed for on the menu!
44. Anyhow, I think we ate in the train station, where things are about as cheap as anywhere. We weren't even going to stay overnight because it was unbelievable, the high prices of everything there, including hotel rooms! We priced a couple & that was it! I don't think "Europe on $5 A Day" hardly even listed Copenhagen or Denmark because it was so expensive!--Ha!
45. Since it was quite a while until the next train, we decided to go to a movie. We'd heard movies were quite famous in Denmark, & there was this one that had English subtitles called "The Bouzouki," because that was a favourite instrument in Europe in a lot of places. It's like a mandolin with a round bottom & a pretty long neck. I think the Gypsies probably made it popular in Europe.
46. (Techi: What was the movie about?) It was a comedy/love story about this funny fellow who played the bouzouki. We had heard about Denmark being so uncensored when it came to pornography, but I never dreamed in my whole life of seeing such vile, vulgar things as we saw on the literature stand in the foyer of the movie house! Ugh! We didn't even buy one thing there, it was so horrible! But the movie we saw wasn't one of those kind, it was really cute!
47. So let's retrace our route on the map: We took the train from London to Harwich, & then the big ocean-going ferry to Den Hague in Holland. We landed at Den Hague, took a train to Amsterdam, & then we had to go clear through Holland & up through Germany. Then the train itself took the ferry across the Channel from Germany to Denmark! We just stayed in our coach on the train & slept until the train went clear on up to Copenhagen.
48. (Techi: How many cars did the train have?) There are four rows on the ferry, & they would disconnect the coaches so they'd take about four coaches in each row, 16 coaches. It's a big ferry & it goes up through the Baltic Sea. You know about the Baltic States--Latvia, Lithuania & Estonia--they're right over here. So we crossed the Baltic Sea & went right on up to Copenhagen & got there the next morning.
49. But when we got to Copenhagen & we found out how expensive it was in Denmark--& we heard Sweden was almost as bad--we decided not to go to Sweden after all! Let's see if we can find the name of the little town in Sweden where my Father was born. There it is, Kalmar! Kalmar Castle! Look! Here's where your Great Grandfather was born. And we were this close! (Points to Copenhagen.) We could have just taken a ferry over there & a train to Kalmar. But I thought, "If we do that we'll have to stay overnight in this town, & the prices would be sky-high!" So finally we decided we were just too short on time & money, & too long on trip! We ate dinner, went to a movie & caught the next train out of Copenhagen! Thank God we had our Eurailpass!
50. From Copenhagen we went all the way down here through Germany & Austria, & then to Switzerland & France! (Techi: France is the biggest country in Europe outside of Russia, isn't it? But look how huge Russia is! It's thousands of miles long!)
The U.S.S.R!
51. Well, while you're interested in Russia, let's study it on the map. Here's the USSR, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, & it goes all the way from the Baltics, on & on & on to the Pacific! I think there's a map in here somewhere that shows the whole thing. There you are! (Techi: Goodness! It goes almost halfway around the World!) Yes. Here's Moscow, & it goes all the way from Europe clear over to Vladivostok, right near Japan. (Techi: Boy, that is near Japan, isn't it!)
52. (Techi: So which part is Europe & which is Asia?) This is called the European part of the Soviet Union where most of the big cities are. (Techi: Like Moscow & Leningrad?) Yes, that's all part of the European section of the Soviet Union, see? And then over here is the Asiatic part of the Soviet Union, which extends almost to Japan. (Techi: And this is Siberia?) Yes, that's it!--Very barren & cold. They used to send their exiles there. They sent millions of exiles to Siberia to the coal mines & to build factories & railroads & to pioneer cities out there, & many of them died, froze to death in the cold. One of their favourite torture punishments was to send people naked out into the cold in mid-Winter, so they would of course soon freeze to death. (See No.551:129-132.)
53. So now have you got the picture of the USSR? (Techi: Yes! It has the whole curve of the World in our map.) Of course, it's thousands of miles wide.--6,000 miles wide! Let's see, I'll count the time zones: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 time zones! How about that! In other words, it stretches about half-way around the World! Isn't that something?
Closing & Prayer!
54. Well, that's all we have time for tonight! I'll tell you about our trip to Germany & Austria tomorrow night, Lord willing! (Techi: That was fun! You sure covered a lot in one session!) The wonderful thing was that the Lord kept us & protected us & helped us to find the cheapest places to stay & to eat & the best trips, how to get from one place to another on our Eurailpass, & kept us safely the whole time! Thank You Lord!
55. Would somebody like to pray? (Techi: Amen! Thank You Jesus! Praise You Lord! Amen, Jesus, thank You for this story that we had & for how much Grandpa covered. Thank You for how interesting it is! Please bless & give us a good night's sleep, in Jesus' name, amen!) Amen! PTL! TYJ!
Picture Captions, cards & boxes:
Page 1:
We need to colonise, not scatter!
Page 3:
WE GOT'M!
Thank You, Jesus!
Page 6:
That's OK! You can go!
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QUICK! Let's get on board!
I'm coming!
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Can you squeeze these two girls into your room?
Sure, yes!
Why shouldn't we share? We're preaching sharing!
Thanks!
Thanks!
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Dick Whittington was an English folk hero. The character was based on Richard Whittington (mid-1300's-1423), an English merchant and mayor of London. The real Whittington was born into a prominent family, probably in Gloucestershire. He grew wealthy in London as a cloth merchant and served as Lord Mayor three times. Legends about Whittington appeared after 1600. They portrayed him as a poor country orphan. A kind London merchant hires him to wash pots in his kitchen, where the cook mistreats the boy. To earn money, Dick sends his cat to be sold by the merchant on a trading voyage. Fortunately, the cat is sold for a huge sum to a king of Barbary, who is plagued by mice and rats. Meanwhile, Dick runs away to escape the cook. Outside London, he hears church bells that seem to say "Turn again, Whittington/Lord Mayor of London." He returns, collects his fortune from the sale of the cat, marries the merchant's daughter, and becomes a merchant and mayor!
Supposed portrait of Whittington and his cat, engraving by Renold (Renier) Elstracke, early 17th century.
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Well, the cheapest thing on the menu is spaghetti!
That's what I'll have!
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(Letter from Dad--in very large print--written on the Train from London to Harwich, en route to Holland, 26/9/70:)
Praise the Lord! God bless you all! "Behold with what large letters I write unto you!"--Due to this jostling jalopy!--2nd Class coach to Harwich, the port in England where we catch the boat to Holland--an all-night ride across the Channel! PTL!
Hated to leave London, but must continue our Father's business (if this train doesn't jerk the paper out from under my pen!) Debating whether Copenhagen or Vienna next--let you know soon, D.V. Prefer wherever we don't have to change trains! These bags are beginning to own us instead of us them! Hallelujah anyhow!
Don't bring anything but a toothbrush to Europe!--Too much to carry!--Even after eliminating one bag in London--& can't check'm through as they charge a lot for that here. So we're prisoners of our suitcases!--Ha!--How like most Christians:
Can't enjoy the trip through life 'cause they're so burdened down with things!--God help us!
--Loads of Love, Dad xxxxxxx!
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(Postcard from Dad written 7/10/70 from Amsterdam:)
Dear All--Loving greetings! This is the World-famous "Hippie Square" on the Amsterdam Platz where thousands of hippies gather--and even sleep. Holland is hospitable & good to them--even lenient on drugs. At one club they allow almost anything! Amsterdam is known as hippie haven in Summer, but they are now moving South to Southern Spain, France & Italy for the Winter--and we are following! London & Amsterdam are best, most kids, most free & friendly--& nearly all speak English!--A very important item! This square is much more crowded than this, & there are thousands of bikes everywhere--solving both transportation, pollution & health!--And only a $15 trip from London--12 hours across the North Sea, 2nd class luxury ship! Germans & Swiss very conservative, Austria old & dying. Get teams ready for European invasion in the Spring! The need is great, the door is open & no one's witnessing. Kids hungry! Tape follows.--Love, Dad.
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(Postcard from Dad written 7/10/70 from Amsterdam:)
Dear All!--I love you!--And miss you! The need is unbelievable!--Thousands of kids, no place to go, no one witnessing, sheep with no shepherd, & hungry!--London & Dutch kids very friendly & responsive--thrill with idea!... Get some teams ready for Spring in Europe! Cost of living very low here. Thousands of bikes here--note hundreds along rails of this bridge!--And you have to run fast to mail a card--the mailboxes are on the rear of these streetcars! The boat ride through the canals is interesting, but nothing like the kids! Squares are jammed with hippies! This is the place!
--Loads of love, Dad.
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Soviet Union
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family