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.
DAVY JONES* By Feff McWilliams
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