What was your first big trip?

It happened in the early 1960s, probably 1965. Certainly I had qualified as a Chartered Accountant and had my first good paying job at a local Department Store, James Beattie Ltd, so I had money enough to pay for it all. I went to America! It seems so ho-hum nowadays, millions of people travel round on planes every day but then it was a great adventure.

Not many people flew. If you wanted to go across the Atlantic then you went by ship; as I did in 1967 when I emigrated. All planes that flew on the Atlantic route had to refuel in Iceland. My trip was put together very carefully using family contacts for the accommodation and therefore that determined the choice of places that I visited.

It started with upper New York state where I stayed with a cousin of my fathers. I recall going up north in in a Greyhound bus. Aimee and Sidney lived in Lake George and my memory of their house was that it was lakeside and had a small boathouse where Sidney kept his boat. I remember an evening trip out on the water trying our hand at fishing, to no avail.

From there it was on to Aimee's son David,a second cousin of mine, who is about 10 years older than me. He and his family lived in Rochester and the big highlight of that visit was trip to see Niagara Falls. From there I flew to Chicago where I was picked up by a niece of my Uncle Dick. Uncle Dick was not only a great uncle on my mother's side but was also my step-grandfather.

I don't have many memories of that segment of the trip except that it was my first experience of suburbia and I was really impressed by the size of the house, the lot and the cars. From there I went on to St. Louis where I stayed with Uncle Dick's sister (the mother of the niece). There the big treat was that I was taken, as a guest, by a friend of my great aunt to my first baseball game at the Cardinal's stadium.

I also remember an outdoor classical music concert that had as a back drop the very new Gateway Arch. I also remember incredible humidity. From there I flew to New York where I had a hotel for a few nights. I did a few low budget items like harbour ferry trips and a trip to to the Empire State Building and the Observation deck.

There may have been other trips too but I suspect that I was short of cash by then as there were strict currency controls in place. Residents of the UK were only allowed to take the dollar equivalent of 50GBP out of the country, this allowance was controlled by stamping your passport. It was a mind altering experience for me and on reflection was probably a major factor in my emigration to Canada two years later. Seventy years on and I still like to travel.

Joel Very cool. I don’t think I knew that.