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Travel Topics Civilizations of Many Races Make Trinidad a Tropical Melting Pot By Ralph Villers United Press International PORT -OF-SPAIN, Trinidad | (UPI) Just where do you go tft- get best the flavor of tropi cal Trinidad—this curious blend of Eastern, Western and African civilizations? You might try: Busy Frederick st., with its sidewalk peddlers, signs in Chinese, Indian and English and shops crammed with goods from around the world. A native night club, where the frantic rhythm of the Lim bo makes even a casual visitor want to try going literally un der the bar. A monastery high on a hill, not far from a Hindu tem ple or a Moslem mosque. Plantations choked with cocoa trees and coconut palms. A hotel (the Queen’s Park) that looks as if it could have been a set for a movie about the days when the British col onial rule was still the thing in India. The native market, where, in almost sprawling bedlam and a language reputed to be Eng lish, the natives buy the many fresh fruits and vegetables that their island yields. In fact, you should try them all, because, as pointed out, Trinidad truly is a blend, and each additive makes your visit richer and more rewarding. Probably nowhere in the West, em Hemisphere will you be able to sample so many cultures Retirement Poses Problem for the Well-Traveled Some Retired Take a Trip, Others Drop Anchor NEW YORK (UPI) Bob Smith, who has traveled more than a million miles persuad ing people to enjoy themselves, thinks it’s about time he set tled down to enjoy life himself. But it isn’t so easy. . Unlike many people his age, Smith’s not worried so much by file question of how to retire. His problem is where to retire. “During the last 30-odd years I've served as cruise director aboard Holland-America Line luxury ships, I've been to many places often enough to know that they are nice places to visit—but who wants to live there?” said Smith, whose ath letic build and twinkling blue eyes belie his 61 years. “A lot of people have their re tirement plans all mapped out. Places they want to visit, trips they want tb take. But what am I going to do when I fetire —-go on a cruise?” Smith haa stayed at sea ap proximately seven months a year—more sea duty than most admirals get—keeping recrea tion activities at an interesting, If not feverish, pitch for the travelers accompanying him. These he estimates total at least 200,000—the population of a good size city. Keeping that many people Happy isn’t a job to be taken too lightly. Smith is up at the •rack of dawn and goes to bed after most of his fellow voy agers are snugly tucked away In their staterooms, mapping strategy on how to keep them amused the next day. I It was Smith who devised uch by-now familiar shipboard •games as pillow jousting. The game seems obvious now, but if you think it was easy to per suade the first pair of rather •tout, successful business exec utives to sit astride a pole and start whaling away at each other with overstuffed pillows, just ask Smith. 4, “But there’s something about that situation that appeals "to an awful lot of successful men,” Smith said. “Gives them a chance to get rid of aggression, I guess. After the first blow is landed, sometimes you’d think they were trying to kill each other with those pillows.” Between pillow fights Smith is kept busy supervising the ship’s movie house, solarium, deck games, a golf practice range, bridge tournaments, swimming pools and MC-ing shows for three dance floors. Such energy comes natural to Smith. He wasn’t even get ting paid for it when he first started seeing to it that passen gers had a good time. “That was back in the depres sion,” he recalled. “I had been in construction work in Flori da when it hit and I went to Havana looking for a Job. No luck there either.” It was while he was return ing from Havana aboard ship that the buoyant-spirited Smith figuratively tossed his troubles over the side and determined to have a good time. He did such a good job at it that other depression-hit passengers fell SENTINEL S??™ 6 Saturday, Auguit S, IV6I Hindu, Chinese, Moslem, Span ish, British and a few others. Frederick st probably is the best place to start a tour-on your-own. You can poke for hours into shops lined with everything from carved ivory from India to a machete with a carved wooden handle and a hand-tooled leather case selling for about $3.50. Along the street, too, you can get out of the sun into a plush bar for cooling refreshments, or into a native bar, where they take their rum neat with the aid of a pitcher of ice water. Or you can find exotic Chi nese dishes never heard of in stateside Chinese restaurants. Or, improbability of improbabil ities. walk into a restaurant with a Chinese name and facade and find yourself in an American style soda fountain featuring hamburgers and a business man’s lunch. Only a few blocks off Fred erick st. is Charlotte st. and the native market. Here there’s a chance to stop by a little don key cart in the street to order up green coconut water and hold your breath as the vendor lops off the coconut’s top with a machete and misses his fingers at the same time. You could spend a day at this and still not absorb all the sights, and sounds, and color. The nights are best reserved for a different kind of entertain ment. Trinidad is the home of the into the mood, and by the time j Smith arrived back in Hobo- j ken, N. J., one of the ship’s of-; ficials offered Smith a job as cruise director. Soon he had usually dignified passengers competing to see which couple could, while hold ing hands, lie on their backs and squeeze under a high-jump er’s pole set the closest to the deck. Wives, meanwhile, were urged to enter contests to see which could more quickly iden tify the.bald head of her hus band—sometimes with surpris ing results. From time to time he has, been “loaned” for special 1 PHOTOGRAPHY By BART KINCH United Press Internationa! There are in many homes two ingredients for wonderful sum mertime pictures: children and pets. To avoid the stilted poses that may enthrall parents hut proba bly bore the more objective viewer, try combining them. The equipment needed doesn’t have to be elaborate. A simple box-type camera will produce very satisfactory snapshots with either color or black-and white films. The best pictures of children and pets are those that tell a story. Have the child play with the pet, romping on the lawn 01 at the seashore. Wait for moments when the action is emotionally a: its peak but physically at a near stand- i still. For instance, if a boy were playing ball with his dog, wait' until both boy and dog are close I together, the boy poised to; throw and the dog tensed for| the chase. Then irip the shutter. Be careful not to be too far from your objects. Get lose enough to fill the frame. If vou should get too close and can only capture one or the other on film, take the picture. The result may be far more pleas ing than you believed possible. Children quickly become ab sorbed in what they ire doing and you may capture some won derful facial expressions. Pets, too, display individual traits and attributes while at play and picture possibilities of the pets alone shou'd not be overlooked. The possibilities are almost limitless. A girl playing with her pet kitten. The ise of the ball of yarn may sound trite and overworked, but it still is effective. A child or group of children gazing at an aquarium filled with tropical fish. And so on. If you should have a do" such as a boxer or a basset with a sadfaced expression, non’t hesi tate to utilize props Tear an old magazine to shreds and photograph the sad faced dog looking mournfully at the debris. The rtory-telling quality will come through with I force and vividness. Don't overlook natural p.oos [right in your own back yard. Instead of having daughter steel bands and their oil drum music and calypso. It's not hard to find steel band entertainment on any given night at at least one of the several good hotels and clubs, plus the frantic Lim bo dance, and maybe even a sampling of hectic voodoo danc ing. And for those who want to go native there’s the Miramar Night Club. The guide books recommend tourists take to the balcony, but the more adven turesome sometimes ignore that conservative advice in order to get up closer to the continu ous music and almost continu ous native floor show. For seeing the sights outside the center of the city, best take a taxi with a good driver-guide. It assures seeing the highlight sights that you might not find otherwise. The Trinidad and Tobago Tourist Board or any of the hotels can steer you to friendly, informative drivers. A short drive out of the city can take you through planta tions. cane fields, to a Hindu temple big enough for only three or four people, where an aged priest will explain the significance of the images and designs as you stand in your stocking feet, and then to the 800-foot-high Mount St. Bene dict Abbey, from which there is a view striking toward the south of the lush island. Another drive will take you along narrow, mountainous roads, over “The Saddle,” a cruises, and he survived such incidents as the 1934 sinking of the Morro Castle. (A former life guard, he swam six of the eight miles to shore before be ing picked up.) And in May, 1940, he almost lost his ship. Smith was on an overnight auto trip through the Andes with 55 cruise passengers when news arrived that the Germans had invaded Holland. Smith rushed back with his passen gers to discover that his ship, the Nieuw Amsterdam, had dis appeared. It had been ordered to proceed without delay to New York. With Smith leading the way, the passengers “hitch stare into the cold camera lens, have her pick a colortul flower —a rose, a zinnia, a petunia, anything. Keep your camera poised for action and press the shutter release as the child be comes absorbed in studying the flower, looking at it, sniffing it, smiling at it. Catch her as she runs toward her mother to dis close some new and wonderful discovery. In working with children and pets try to keep your camera On The Farm Front The Agriculture Department | estimates cotton consumption in the United States during the 1961-62 marketing year at 14.5 million bales, slightly less than in 1960-61. Larger mill con sumption is expected, but ex ports probably will be smaller, the department said in a re view of the cotton situation. Mill consumption during the 1961-62 season, beginning today, probably will be about 8.75 mil lion bales compared with the estimated 8.2 million bales this season. Cotton exports in 1961-62 may fall about 850,000 bales below the estimated total cf 6.6 mil lion bales for this year, the de partment said. Early season i estimates indicate production and consumption in the foreign free world in 1961-62 will be at about the 1960-61 levels. Government stocks of cotton j have been declining in recent i months. The government owned 15.2 million bales January 1. This inventory has shrunk to about two million bales. This sharp reduction, in part, re flects acquisitions from govern ment holdings by the trade in anticipation of higher cotton support prices in 1961-62. • • World production of man made fibers was at a record level in 1960. Production was equivalent to about 22.1 million bales of cotton, compared with 20.4 million bales in 1959. This jwas twice the 1950 level. 1 Of the 1960 total, the equiva humped pass, and eventually to the white sand and crystal wat er of Maracas Bay beach. The people of Trinidad don’t particularly brag about their beaches, and you’ll wonder why after seeing this palm-lined crescent of sand more than a mile long. Maracas Bay is the starting point of a just-complet ed multi-million dollar highway to Las Cuevas Bay, that not only opens up new beaches, but is a scenic mixture of moun tains, palms and blue Caribbean water. For those who like to special ize on vacation, there’s fishing, deep sea and inshore, for such catch as snapper, salmon, tar pon and yellow fin tuna. Hunt ers who don’t mind roughing it can go for a range from alliga tor to deer and mongoose. Hotels generally are inexpen sive by American standards and comfortable. Food is good in Trinidad, and it’s hard to get past the breakfast appetizers that generally include water melon, mangoes, fresh pineapple and other tropical fruit. Trinidad also is getting closer to the United States. Trinidad based British West Indian Air ways just joined several other lines in providing jet service from New York in 6 hours. Al though nearly as far from New York as London, special excur sion rates, when available, make Port-of-Spain far less ex pensive to reach. hiked” back aboard two other ships. During Iris busy, globe-trot ting life, Smith somehow has managed to marry, maintain homes at Atlantic City, N. J„ ar.d Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and raise a family that includes grandchildren. (His son, Bob, jr., is following in his father’s footsteps.) But now Smith thinks it’s about time to drop anchor. The question is where. His friends are betting he never will, and even Smith isn’t giving heavy odds. But he does look wistful when he asks: “Where can a fellow like me ever settle down?” on the same level ts the sut ject. Don't shoot down on your subject. For toddlers try lyini on the ground and shooting them almost from ground level You can take acrion shots with a box camera simply by panning with the subject and pressing the shutter release. This will blur the background but usually will “stop the ae tion. The blurred background will add to the illusion of move ment. lent of about 6.3 million bales was produced in the United States. • • • The Foreign Agricultural Service FAS says Canadian vet erinarians believe that hog cholera has been eradicated in Quebec. This was the last cen ter of an outbreak that first appeared in Canada last fall. No infections have been de tected in Canada since June 6. Up to that time, 420 outbreaks had occurred, with 405 of these in Quebec. As a result, 56,969 exposed and infected hogs were slaughtered and destroyed, and the government paid $1,507,000 in compensation. On June 9, restrictions of the movement of swine were removed in Quebec. FAS said Inspection officials axe keeping a close watch for new outbreaks, particularly among garbage-fed hogs. Wood Comeback DETROIT (UPl)—After al most 30 years of neglect, natur al wood is again being used for interior trim in cars. United States Plywood Corp. produced a new veneer lamination for curved surfaces that the auto makers are accepting. One 1961 car has the wood interior trim as standard equipment Ice yachts speeding across frozen lakes on razor-edged run ners have been clocked at as much as 144 miles per hour. 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