Dick’s Blog
Proud To Be Part Of It All
Feb 5th
I started working at Global Traveler in October 2004, however, I had known Fran for many years before I began at GT. When I started, the A Team was in place – Fran Gallagher, Lisa Matte, Alexandra Young and John Wroblewski. So, I guess I am A Team, part two.
Fran had been talking to me about starting his own magazine from the time the concept was an acorn in his little squirrel-headed dreams. I have been at GT for almost five years now. In that time, I have seen many, many changes and improvements in the magazine, Web site and staff.
When I look at the magazine today, I am staggered by how a small group of extremely dedicated people can produce such an excellent media product. I have to say I am proud to be a part of it all. Here’s to many happy returns!
-Dick Evans, vice president
Glamour Aloft
Oct 4th
Last night I attended Alitalia’s combined 60th-anniversary-of-its-founding and its 50th-anniversary-of-flying-to-the-U.S. gala party at Gotham Hall. GT’s publisher, Fran Gallagher, was the MC for the occasion. Part of the decorations were blown up photos from the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s of celebrities who had flown on Alitalia. They included Sophia Loren and Carlo Ponti, Maria Callas, Gina Lollobrigida, Sean Connery, Marcello Mastroianni, Roger Moore, and several opera singers who I did not recognize until they were pointed out to me. Talk about glamour, elegance and bling! Celebrities today and their handlers haven’t a clue how to pull it off. Today they all look like street urchins. ÂÂ
The photos were taken in the days before the jetway was invented, so the celebrities were standing on the stairs, either about to ascend or just stepping onto the tarmac. The one thing noticeable in all the pictures is that all the other passengers who just happened to be in the photos were as dressed up as the stars were. It was the period when travel, and especially air travel, was a glamorous and elegant experience. Everyone on board was dressed up, including passengers in coach. It was the era before everyone started dressing down. It was also the time before the airlines started cramming as many people into the plane as possible, before the grim-faced TSA people dominated the travel experience and before passengers became just revenue sources. It was when everyone was treated like a first-class passenger, or at least, a valued customer. ÂÂ
On the flip side, it was also a time when far fewer people flew because most of them could not afford it. The same can be said for traveling to Europe via the ocean liners…all very elegant, but the glamour side of the experience was not readily accessible to the masses. ÂÂ
Although it is great that so many people today can travel around the world in whatever attire they choose, it is still a treat to have a look at how it was when transatlantic air travel was relatively new and a special occasion worth putting one’s best foot forward for.ÂÂ
–Dick Evans, Vice President
Airport Food and America
Sep 27th
Living in the exurbs as I do, I sometimes do not fully appreciate how generously proportioned most Americans are. I rarely frequent malls so I rarely see people in large groups unless I’m hanging around an airport.
I am currently sitting in one of the waiting areas in Terminal A at Newark Liberty Airport and I am stunned to see how really f-a-t a large percentage of Americans are. As two of the broadest beamed individuals waddled past me I prayed “Dear God, let them NOT sit next to me!” The people who design seats for trains and buses as well as the airlines think Americans still eat a depression era diet of scant portions. Whose butts do they measure to come up with the average seat space needed for their passengers?
Of course, it shouldn’t be a surprise that Americans are plump when you see the food that is available to travelers at the airport restaurants and fast food stands, as well as the candies, snacks and drinks available at the newsstands. The restaurants push heart-unfriendly fried or fat laden food while the newsstands carry nothing but super-sized snacks.
On this trip I woke up at the screech of doom and left my house with nothing more than a cup of tea. I had a 10:30 flight which I missed because of a major accident on the NJ Turnpike, which is the most direct way from where I live to Newark Airport. I was able to get on a 1:40 flight to Chicago so I had time to kill and figured I’d have a light lunch because I knew there was nothing on board my flight except liquids and the miniscule packet of peanuts with approximately 10 nuts. I try to stay on a healthy low fat diet that avoids red meats and heavy ups on green leafy vegetables. Try finding any food that closely resembles that in an airport. I know that some airports have a few (usually just one) heart friendly food outlets and that others are trying to bring more such establishments into their concourses.
So as the pangs of hunger started increasing I went in search of sustenance. What I found invariably had cheese in it, or was fried, or was super-sized. I finally settled on a tuna mini-sub (3″) at Subway. Their usual sub size is 6″ or 12″! The first question the server asked was “Do you want that with cheese?” Cheese with tuna salad????? What are they thinking? The two large ladies in front of me were getting 6″ turkey subs with extra cheese while the large man (I swear he was pregnant) behind me was getting a 12″ roast beef sub with extra cheese. The amount of body fat surrounding me in that line had to be equal to half a whale in the days when whale blubber lighted the cities of Europe and the US. I have to admit you can eat healthy at Subway, but you have to restrain yourself from adding on the fat, i.e. cheese, if you trying to eat smart when you travel.
-Dick Evans, vice president
Researching One’s Roots
Sep 20th
I just attended an Oktoberfest Dinner at the German Tourist Board office in New York, where part of the presentation was a new promotion campaign targeting the millions of Americans who are of German descent. German immigrants have been coming to America since the founding of Jamestown in 1607.ÂÂ
There is a Web site, GermanOriginality.com, that will be accessible through the Church of the Latter Day Saints’ geneaology site Familysearch.org, the largest repository of family records in the world.
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Bremerhaven and Hamburg are also targeting Americans researching their family history through their recently developed German Emigration Centers. These centers are located in dock areas from which emigrants boarded ships for the U.S.A., Canada, Brazil, Argentina and Australia. ÂÂ
The Bremerhaven center is located in a new purpose-built building in the dock area of Bremerhaven. There you can access the records of the 7 million people who left Germany through Bremerhaven between 1830 and 1974. So a person can find an ancestor’s name on the actual boarding pass lists that are part of the museum’s archives. ÂÂ
Researching one’s ancestors, either in America or overseas, is just another good reason to travel. When you find records of your forebears in foreign lands, it gives you a more meaningful experience of that country. All of a sudden that country’s historic events, which your ancestors lived through, become important to you. We are all the offspring of survivors. There have been horrific events throughout history. How your ancestors survived those trials and tribulations is part of who you are. Somehow our ancestors made it through the 30 Years War, the 100 Years War, the persecution of the Huguenots in France, the persecution of the Catholics in England, the pogroms, the Russian Revolution and its aftermath, and the ultimate test of survival, WWII and the Holocaust. Travel makes it hit home.
– Dick Evans, vice president
