 We didn’t go skiing today. Instead we put the chains on Louie, went sledding and had a snowball fight. Sat up until midnight reading letters from home. Decided that our lives are ruled completely by fate. We were in Hindelang, Germany, where were you at the end of 1962?
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 Went to Hindelang for Dede’s birthday dinner. Bought charms for our charm bracelets Gifts in Marks: 13.50 = 3.50 exchange 4/1  From Wauvil to Zurich to Lindau and Hindelang
 Christmas Eve 1962 on the farm in Wauvil Christmas dinner was soup, roast duck with chestnut stuffing, red cooked cabbage and French fried potatoes. It was one of the best Christmas dinners ever. Then we lit the candles on the tree again and Papa Camenzind played his concertina.
Where were you in December 1962?  The family.Louie the car on the left, the real Louie on the right Drove from Bregenz to Winterthur to Zurich. Zurich is a lovely city built on the sides of the hills surrounding the lake. Found the jugendherberge but since it was 1 pm, we couldn’t get in. So we went to a restaurant and called Louie Camenzind. He said he would find a cheap place for us to stay and call us back. He called back and said he had talked to his family and wanted all four of us to come to his home near Wauwil. He met us in Sursee and we followed him to his family’s farm where they havea couple hundred pigs and some milk cows. When we got there we trimmed the Christmas tree with real candles. It began to seem like Christmas eve. There was Louie, his father, his sister Martha and his brother Adolf. We opened our presents, and sang carols. Then Louie’s father played the concertina for us. It was an amazing Christmas eve. About midnight we finally went to bed.
Where were you in December of 1962?  Food: 1 mark 25, 60; room: 32
Got up at 6:30 am after not sleeping because it was so cold. Ate, loaded the car and got started. All three of us inside Louie, the 58 VW Beetle, with our luggage on top. Since the Arlberg was closed because of snow, we had to go to Munchen and then to Lindau. Got to Munchen and while turning a corner, a bus hit us. Smashed Louie’s front fender. The roads were slippery and driving in general was miserable, so cold that the windows froze inside. Our feet were frozen. We drove for 12 hours. Arrived Bregenz at 7 pm and couldn’t find the jungenherberge. Finally found it closed. One of the people who told us it was closed had a guest house. So we took the rooms. Where were you in December of 1962?  In the morning we went directly to the Spanische Reitschule (Spanish riding school) Didn’t get to see them go through the real fancy stuff, but saw them doing the basic stuff. Beautiful animals. Then went to the Kunstlerhaus Museum and Maria Theresien Platz. We decided to go to Vienna's Statsoper. We had to get in line at 4:30 to get standing room only for the 7pm performance. We saw La Traviata by Verdi . What a surprise! It was marvelous .
Food: 4.50, 7, 10, 7, 8 shillings, Spanish Riding School: 2 shillings, Opera tickets – La Traviata: 7 shillings, Room: 16  Leaving Innsbruck. Heading for Vienna
Got up and put the chains on Louis. Actually a young Austrian friend came over at 8 and put them on for us. We headed for Vienna at 10am and it was snowing all the way. We arrived at the Jugenherberg at 6pm. We ate and then unpacked our wet suitcases. Tuesday: 1 sweater 400 shillings = $16 us; Ski socks 32 shillings; jersey 82 shillings; food 5.60, food 7: Food: 10, room 48. Where were you in December of 1962?  Judy and Pat on the Sunadele. The trip begins We had taken passage on a freighter named the Sunadele. The cost of this part of the adventure was $190 U.S. The Sunadele was a Swiss ship! Since Switzerland is a landlocked country, who knew they had ships? On Monday Nov 16th, we left the St Lawrence Seaway heading across the Atlantic for Bristol England.  The crew. What were we thinking? The crew was composed of a captain, chief mate, 3rd mate, chief engineer, 2nd engineer and an ex chief steward who, we were told, had been deported from Montreal for smuggling liquor. What were we thinking? Three young girls on a freighter with a bunch of young sailors and a known smuggler? This was only the first of many risks we would take along the way. We landed safely in Bristol on Sunday the 25th of November and headed to Rotterdam in the Netherlands where we bought a 1958 VW Beetle with the help of one of the crew, Alois Camenzind. We promptly named the car after him and from then on only referred to it as Louie.
By December we had driven Louie from the Netherlands, through Germany and to Innsbruck, Austria. Innsbruck is one of Austria's best known and fanciest winter resorts. I wrote in a letter home that the skiing was great but that the Europeans don’t groom their slopes very well. I wrote that “they don’t have moguls on their slopes, they have sheer drop offs.” From this point on, I will post a diary entry that corresponds to the date 48 years ago. Please take a minute to add where you were then. |
A daily diary of a journey in 1962. Please post comments about where you were then on the Background page.
1962 was pivotal. This is the background:
It was a year colored by the Cuban Missile Crisis, an escalating involvement in Vietnam, the Berlin Wall and the Cold War with Russia, Civil Rights issues, a nascent space program, Nelson Mandela in prison, Betty Friedan's, The Feminist Mystique, the Beatles, Rolling Stones and the death of Marilyn Monroe. Archives
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