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Chapter 31: Post-Retirement Trips

Our son Richard had paid virtually all of his college and living
expenses while he obtained a Bachelor’s, Master’s, and then a J.D. at
the University of California – Berkeley. For the years until he went to
law school his room was a converted garage behind an apartment build-
ing owned by Grant and Laurine. My Mother had an apartment there
and she allowed him to use her stove, refrigerator and shower. In law
school he had shared an apartment with other law students.

In the summer following his high school graduation Richard had
taken a bus to Spokane, found living quarters and worked shifts at the
Kaiser aluminum plant there. This was rugged work, since the tempera-
ture near the aluminum pots was up to 145 degrees. He saved his money
and did the same thing the following summer. In subsequent years he
reported Cal sports for the Associated Press, worked in the Cal library,
in a machine shop and worked nights at a halfway house for Federal
prisoners in Oakland. During law school he worked part-time for the
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were very proud of his independence and hard work. It had also been
very helpful to us since we had girls in college at that time. Jean and I
felt we should show him some special recognition of our appreciation.
We proposed to pay for a trip to China for him and he was delighted.

In September 1988, I joined him in a group tour of China that
lasted a month (as in other post-retirement trips I took, Jean did not
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then took the train to Hangzhou. Our tour group amounted to about
30 people. We received such preferential treatment in boarding trains
that it was almost embarrassing. The huge lake in Hangzhou with its
islands is a favorite of Chinese artists. We then took an all day trip in
a barge-like vessel on the Grand Canal. The Canal was dug by hand
hundreds of years ago and is an amazing feat. From the boat, we had an
unsurpassed view of farms, villages, factories, etc. slowly passing by all

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