The Durant news. (Durant, Miss.) 1882-1985, 1949-11-17

Enroute to Honolulu
November z, 1949
Three weeks ago today exactly
! was setting peacefully at my
desk in the office Of The Lexing-
ton Advertiser with nothing on
my mind but getting out that
weeks papers. The telephone
rang. 1t was Mrs. Alberta Castel-
lanos of the Roosevelt Travel
service in New Orleans saying she
had secured space for me on the
round the world cruise of the S.
S. Monroe sailing from San Fran
cisco on Friday, November A at
noon. This gave me two weeks
and four days to get my clothes
together for three months travel,
make all my travel plans, getting
visas, etc, taking the required
shots and doing the thousand and
one other things you have to do
when leaving home for that
length OF time.
Today I've been on the high
seas for three days and am over
5000 miles away from Mississip-
pi--and I've just drawn my first
free breath.
doubt seriously that anyone,
anywhere ever started out. for a
trip around the world with as
little preparation as l made. |
simply packed practically every
thing / owned and came. Since |
felt that should stay in the office
as late as possible the only way
could plan to travel to the west
coast to get my ship was by plane
and anyway I can't make my
self stay on train for two nights
and three days when can cover
the same distance in a little less
than ten hours by flying :. nine
hours and II minutes to be exact.
It's still hard to realize that one
can leave Jackson at 1859 in the
afternoon and be in San Francisco
at 1905 San Francisco time the
same night (but l2.05 our time).
Taking Delta at Jackson for Dali
las one transfers there to Ameri-
can Air Lines which has a DEG
flight going nonstop to San
Francisco. In these big airliners
you don't even know you're aloft.
They ride very smoothly and have
all the comforts of home--an ideal
way to travel--even though las.
week was one Of the worst weeks
for accidents in aviation history.
/ wasn't worried about an ac-
cident when | got on the plane
just hoping the last typhoid para
typhoid shot / had taken the day
before wouldn't make me sick.
1t had said on the bottle that the
second or third shot was likely
to make the patient sick--but it
didn't. Besides three of these
shots / had to take smallpox
vaccination. A new requirement
is that a visitor must have been
vaccinated for smallpox within
six months of arrival in Manila.
Other shots such as typhus,
plague, tetanus, yellow fever,
cholera, are not now required and
officials of the American Presi-
dent Lines, owners of the S. S.
Monroe. advise against taking
these immunizations unless one is
going to live in these foreign
countries for some time. They
particularly advise cruise passen-
gers not to take the shots as we
will be taking most of our meals
on the ship even in foreign ports.
Arriving at the Sir Francis
Drake hotel in the Golden Gate
city late Wednesday night my
first call early Thursday morning
was to the office of the American
President Lines to inquire wheth-
er or not my three bags and taxi
steamer trunk I had sent on ahead
by Railway Express had arrived
or not. They had not | immedia-
tely had visions of standing on
Pier As and seeing the Monroe
sail without me--for | certainly
couldn't stay gone three months
with the one bag I had brought
with me on the plane.
I spent an anxious two hours
from the time I first called and
had just about reconciled myself
to not going at all when the phone
rang and the apis nice Mr.. Col
bert informed me my bags were
just arriving. They had left Du-
rant on October q. / say mice"
advisedly for his friendly voice
over the telephone assured me
everything was going to be o. K.
and not to worry at all now about
the 1872 pounds of bags-to let him
do the worrying and when
asked him what time l should
start worrying he said mot before
five o'clock this afternoon any
way" He said baggage frequent
ly failed to show up until HOO