Postcards

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Taxco, Mexico

Excerpt from my book Expat Alien. This would have been in the mid to late 1960’s:

Taxco was a small tourist city built on the side of a mountain. Besides having a few interesting churches, it was mainly known for its silver and had shop after shop of silver jewelry. We would go there for a weekend and walk the steep, narrow streets. The hotel we stayed in had a back patio where cockfights took place after dark. The cocks screamed in anger and pain as they killed each other or maybe it was just the crowd I heard screaming. I thought the whole thing was disgusting but lots of people enjoyed it, including my brother.

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Vaasa, Finland

Vaasa Church

April, 1996

Hi

We have been having a great time here with Liz. They still have lots of snow but it has been beautiful weather. Went to see Braveheart tonight – it was great!

Love

Here is a photo I took of the neighborhood where we stayed.

And a few others around town.

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Bangkok, Thailand

Giant Guardians at the Wat Arun (Temple of Dawa), Bangkok, Thailand

February, 1970

Dear

Greetings to you on my birthday. We are at airport waiting for plane to Singapore. I have found Bangkok and the people to be great as I expected. See you next month.

Love

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Lugano, Switzerland

Lugano-Paradiso. Monte Bre

May 1973

Dear

This is the view from our balcony! Very resort-like! Warm.. flowers everywhere. We went to the top of San Salvatore this morn. on a cog railroad…the view was lovely. Have just finished eating lunch and are waiting to take a boat trip on the lake. Bill has dental app. so he is not going. Kathy and Jane are not going either. Yesterday we left Zurich at 7 am and the ride through the Alps was fantastic! Just unbelievable!! We got here about 10 am and went to Kathy’s school, she showed us around…then came back to hotel with us. We took a walk along the lake after lunch and rested in aft. The hotel has a nice pool. It is so nice to be with people who can help us with language problems, ordering food, etc. So far the kids are getting along fine. Steve even said he was glad he came!

Love

The view from the school in Lugano.

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Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles County General Hospital, 1950’s

The County Hospital, costing 13 million dollars, is one of the largest and best equipped in the world. There are 123 buildings on 56 acres of ground. An average 4 thousand patients are treated daily.

(This particular building was finished in 1933, and was converted to office space. A new $1 billion dollar building opened in 2008.)

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Treasure Island, Fiji

Treasure Island, Fiji

April, 1981

I did not get a chance to visit this island this trip but it is the one I visited by sailing ship in 1970.

Fiji is very nice! I would like to come back and spend a holiday here.

Love

16 km south west of Lautoka, Treasure Island is casual elegance in lush, tropical surroundings. Ultra-modern Fijian accommodation with private beach and lagoon view.

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Notre Dame, Paris

Notre-Dame et le Jardin de l’Archeveche. “Vu du ciel par Alain Perceval”

Den Haag, January, 1983

Isn’t this a good photo? So much nice detail. Our guests left yesterday and we have been sleeping mostly since. I think they had a good time and got a bit “educated”. We hope you had a good trip to California and that you are back with a new lease on life. We missed you on our trip.

Love

(The roof was destroyed by fire in 2019. Restoration is due to begin soon.)

Here I am in front of Notre Dame in 1999.