Tales From The Travels

By the time I was 14 fist fighting had become a real problem for me. I had always gotten in my fair share of them, but it really escalated when I was 13 and 14. I was the shortest and skinniest kid in my grade and this made me a mark. Being smart and opinionated didn’t help any, either. The problem became magnified by the fact that I was pretty good at it and would usually beat the hell out of the other kids. Even the ones that did manage to beat me took such a whupping that they weren’t interested in trying for seconds. This gave me a reputation like a fast gunfighter in a western movie. Everyone wanted to fight me. I had kids I didn’t even know show up after school to challenge me. If I tried to walk away they would follow me and attack me from behind. There was a period where I was getting into a fight almost every day. I would look at the clock at the end of the day and wonder who the dumb bastard of the day was going to be. Have no doubt about it, I did not live in fear. I didn’t want to fight them, but when I was forced to fight I did everything I could do kick the crap out of them. There were no rules and no mercy.

But, I really did not want to fight all of these kids and got tired of daily displays of testosterone. I finally hit on the idea that if I didn’t fight back, there wouldn’t be a motive for them to search me out. I kept hearing things like, ‘I hear you’re pretty tough. I bet I can take you.’ Well, I decided that if I didn’t fight back and let them beat me up, then I wouldn’t have this reputation anymore and they would leave me alone. Well, then I got a reputation as an easy mark and the daily fights continued.

But then something happened that really changed my life. I was to learn later, it also saved it.

Flour, the company my father worked for, paid for us to take a big vacation every two years. After we had been in Taiwan for two years we were able to take a vacation back to the States. While in Texas we went to Six Flags (the original, in Arlington) and I wasn’t allowed to ride several rides because I was too short. I was almost fourteen years old and I was too short! This seems to have been the wake-up call for my parents because when we got back to Taiwan they took me to see a doctor. He checked me out, took a bunch of blood (with these HUGE syringes) and came back with the determination that I had a hyperactive thyroid gland. This is a condition known as Grave’s disease and causes the body’s metabolism to go crazy. I was doing some research on it years later and found out that a condition as bad as mine would cause me to become more and more disabled. I would have been crippled by the time I was 30 and dead by my mid-30s. Fortunately, once diagnosed it can be treated very easily with medication.

The doctor gave me these pills to take. They were very small but tasted just awful. But, I knew there was something wrong with me and was very faithful about taking them. I developed a system where I placed the pill on my cupped hand, opened my mouth as much as I could and popped the pill to back of my throat so I wouldn’t taste it. Every now and then I would miss and would practically gag on the taste. The effect was spectacular. During the fall of 1971 I was out growing my clothes almost as fast as I could get them. I would wear a set of clothes once or twice and then they wouldn’t fit anymore. I started taking the pills just before my birthday at the end of August and the doctor took me off just before Christmas, a period of four months. During that time I had grown eight inches! That comes out to about a half of an inch per week.

The treatment didn’t really cure the disease and I still suffer effects. My voice gets deep and gravely sounding, especially when I’m tired. I can’t sit still for more than a few minutes before developing a great deal of discomfort. Although I finally grew to six feet tall, I probably did not achieve my full height, based on the growth of my brothers and sisters. And, until recent years, I have always been lightweight. Even now, my body fat is very low.

There was another side effect that I didn’t mind at all. I was still very skinny, but I was no longer the shortest kid around. As a result, the daily fist fights came to an end. A benefit of that period though, is that I have always felt comfortable with my ability to take care of myself, if needed. I very definitely don’t want to fight and have gone to great lengths to avoid one, but I can if I have to. You just never know when you’re going to meet some dumb bastard.

Typhoons weren’t the only new natural phenomenon waiting for us in Taiwan. Taiwan also has earthquakes. Taiwan is in the Ring of Fire, a big ring all the way around the Pacific Ocean that contains most of the world’s most seismically active regions. The western region where we were is a big uplift zone where tectonic forces are lifting the ground up and building mountains. There are lots of volcanoes in the region, but none in Taiwan, though it does have hot springs. Thousands of earthquakes are registered every year, most of which are so small and deep they can only be detected with instruments. Most of the ones that are big enough to be felt are so small they can be mistaken for a truck passing by. Big ones were very rare.

Since the area was so seismically active it was a popular topic in classes. Obviously, they were good fodder for the science classes, but history classes would discuss the effects massive ones had on history, and social studies could discuss their effects on society. When you live with them all the time, you adjust everything with them in mind. You think about rock slides and broken dams. Bridges and buildings are built to withstand them. They are a consideration even in fire codes. San Francisco was only moderately damaged by the great 1906 earthquake. It was the fire that followed and the fact that the fire fighting system had been destroyed by the earthquake that caused most of the damage.

I thought this was really cool and plunged into the topic, learning about as much as I could about it. We got an assignment to make a seismometer for class one year. The other kids brought in things like pencils standing on end or hanging from a string. All very functional and they satisfied the assignment, which was to detect that an earthquake had occurred. Mine was this big brick suspended by springs with a stylus touching a piece of paper taped to a clock face. I could not only see that an earthquake had occurred, but I could see how big it was and what time it had happened. I didn’t get any more points than anyone else, but I had a lot more fun.

We felt several earthquakes over the years and they were interesting. You could feel the ground shaking and things would sway. Everyone would pause in what they were doing and watch. Then it would pass and life would return to normal. Then, in the spring of 1972, we had some whoppers. I don’t remember exactly how big they were, but I recall they were in the high 6 or low 7 range on the Richter scale. These were very significant events.

The first big one occurred while we were at school. At first, we just hesitated during class, but then, as it became obvious this was a big one, we all rushed outside, as did the people in other classes. Taipei is a tropical climate, so the school had this open mall type construction. The sidewalks were covered to protect against the rain, but they were open onto a large central grassy area. As we rushed out onto the sidewalks I could see the ground undulating in waves that traveled across the open area and made it difficult to stand. There was also a loud rumbling noise. You really can hear an earthquake. In the center of the open area was this little park area that was reserved for the seniors. It had a moat around it with water in it and was called Senior Island. The water in the moat started sloshing and made waves so large that it sloshed out of the moat. The whole thing lasted about a minute and gave plenty of time to observe what was going on.

Then, it was over. There really wasn’t a tapering off like with a storm. It was just over. We looked around and there wasn’t any damage, so we went back into the classroom. Of course, classes were disrupted and they were just getting all of us kids to settle down when a second one struck a couple of hours later. This one was smaller and must have been an aftershock. Still, it was easily the second largest earthquake I had experienced while we were there. It was pretty hopeless to get the kids to focus after that and classes were basically toast for the rest of the day.

Then, there was yet another major after shock that evening. This time I was at the movie theater with some friends when it started. It was eerie the way the movie just kept playing while the building was shaking and people were screaming, all with this rumbling sound going on. This one didn’t last very long, maybe 20 or 30 seconds, and it was over, just like that. I was talking to some people and they said they found themselves outside without even knowing how they got there. The shaking started and their instincts kicked in to just get out of the structure.

Surprisingly enough, there was very little damage done by the quakes and only one person was killed when they got trapped in a rock slide.

There were some natural phenomena in Taiwan that we had never experienced before, one of which was typhoons. Typhoon is the word for hurricanes that occur in the western Pacific (also known as cyclones in the Indian Ocean and southern Pacific Ocean). These really are tremendous events and I would experience seven of them during our four years there. We were actually hit by eight, two every fall, but we were out of the country when one of them hit.

We got our first taste of these monster storms while we were still in the hotel, waiting for our household goods to arrive from the U.S. Some kids get snow days, we got typhoon days. The alert would go out a couple of weeks in advance that a typhoon was developing out in the open Pacific Ocean. There were several ‘typhoon conditions’ that would be broadcast, starting with typhoon condition 4 and escalating to typhoon condition 1. We would all become adept at tracking the storms on charts as they approached, waiting to see if they would follow a path that would bring them close enough to affect us.

Once it reached a point where storm conditions were imminent things would really change. Normal daily business would be suspended and everyone was engaged in the business of preparing for the storm. The local people all grew up with these storms and it was a routine for them. They knew exactly what to do and were prepared. We were new, but we had to hotel staff to take care of us. School would be canceled throughout the city and everyone would get ready to hunker down. By the time the first winds began the streets were mostly empty.

The construction in Taiwan was done with natural disasters in mind and most buildings and homes were made of reinforced concrete and were as sturdy as bunkers. They may suffer damage, but they were not likely to collapse, even under the most severe conditions. Our house was built like this. It was very large, but built like a fortress. We were very safe from the storms. The storms always came from the same direction, so one side of the house had small windows and small, tight doors. The other side had large windows, doors with no weather stripping, and balconies facing down the valley and looking out over the city. We could sit on the balcony and watch the storm raging. Occasionally, we would see a large blue flash as an electrical transformer exploded and then part of the city would go dark. Being way out in the mountains, we would lose power early and not get it back until long after the storm. We learned that it was just part of life in Taiwan and we adjusted to it.

Of course, typhoons and hurricanes bring in heavy rains and wind. If you’re on the coast the wind will push the ocean ahead of it, piling it up into a big storm surge. This bulge of water can be many tens of feet taller than the normal sea level and has the power to destroy almost anything in its path. The stories of the damage done by storm surges are long and impressive. One of the most incredible is the damage done to the city of Galveston during the hurricane that struck on September 8-9, 1900. The death toll will never be know for sure, but is estimated in the 7000-8000 range, making it the worst natural disaster in U.S. history. There is an excellent book about this storm, A Weekend in September, which written in the 1957 when there were still many survivors around to tell their story. There were many amazing stories in the book, but one in particular I remember was of these people in a second story apartment. As the storm surge destroyed parts of the apartment, they would crowd into fewer and fewer rooms. Finally, they were all crowded into just one small room, the only room remaining, with the storm surge pounding on the outside walls of the room. They survived the storm to find out the entire apartment complex had been destroyed and they were in the only room still remaining. Even the rooms under their apartment had been destroyed and debris had been lodged under their room and was the only thing supporting it.

Taipei didn’t have to worry about storm surges and we certainly didn’t need to worry, way up in the mountains, but this was a concern to the coastal regions of the island. What we were most concerned about was flying debris and mudslides. The wind would pick up objects and hurl them at tremendous velocity and with the ability to pierce or impale. And, the mountains in Taiwan are made of a clay-stone mixture, not solid rock, so the vast amounts of rain would loosen it up and cause landslides. These were deadly even to those inside the concrete houses.

We became old hands at this game and would enjoy the excitement of them. In the fall of 1972 we were hit by the biggest storm of our four year stay. This was a real storm and it hit us dead one with all of its fury. The wind was so loud that it was difficult to talk over it. We sat on the second story balcony and watched the storm from relative safety. Since we were up in the mountains we experienced much stronger wind than the people down in the city and it was really howling. The wind and rain in these storms is not constant, but comes in waves. The waves had reached this tremendous crescendo when it got much quieter. My mother made a comment about how quiet it would get between the waves when we realized we were not between waves, but in the eye of the storm.

This is one of those things that if you ever experience it, you’ll never forget it. They’re very much like they are portrayed on TV and in movies. It will suddenly get quiet and there will be no storm at all and we really could see the stars. We marveled at this amazing sight until it passed and we reentered the windy part of the storm. Winds on the lee side of the storms go in the opposite direction, which meant we quickly had hurricane strength winds blowing straight at us. We evacuated into the safety of the house only to learn all of the foresight that went into the house construction was backfiring on us. The wind was now coming from the open side of the house, not the fortified side. We had wind and rain leaking in around the doors and windows all over that side of the house and we were running around all night fighting the storm. But, we survived without much damage.

I’ve since been through a number of hurricanes and typhoons, both at land and at sea. I’ve never grown tired of the excitement of them, but I’m also careful never to get complacent with them. That’s when one will kill you. If you are ever in the path of one, I can’t recommend enough that you take proper precautions. They really can be incredible monsters.

On July 18, 1969, our parents informed us that we would be moving to Taiwan. So, on August 7, we drove out to the brand new Houston Intercontinental Airport and started this big adventure. We flew to Dallas, then Los Angeles before going to Honolulu for a stay. From there, we flew to Tokyo and, finally, Taipei. We lived in Taipei for four years (which included a trip back to the States in the summer of 1971) before leaving in July, 1973. We flew from Taipei to Hong Kong, then Bangkok, Thailand. From there, it was to Delhi, India and a 10-day visit. We flew from Delhi to Amsterdam, with a layover in Beirut, before flying to Dallas, Texas. So, a month before my 16th birthday, I had a new distinction: I was a circumnavigator, someone that had been around the world.

There is actually a Circumnavigator’s Club. The club is not a travel club, but a club of travelers. I went to a club dinner once when we lived in Hawaii and had a good time. The people were telling stories and were having a good time, all of whom seemed to have an attitude of life is good and should be experienced. In other words, my kind of people.

My ex wasn’t big on it, so I never pursued it. But, I’m rethinking it, now. The headquarters is in Manhattan and I’ll be down there next week. Maybe I’ll swing by.

When we lived in Taipei our house was located way out in the mountains. There was a main road going up the mountain, but then there was this turn-off on to a small, one-and-a-half-lane road that led way out along a ridge. It was probably a mile and a half, but it ran kind of parallel to the main road, so it wasn’t that far out. Our house was located at the top of a valley between a couple of ridges. We were so far up the mountain that the valley was pretty small where we were, only a couple of hundred yards wide. But it opened up down the mountain so we had this great view of the city. The international airport was several miles directly in front of us and we could watch the planes coming and going.

The school bus only traveled the main road and we had to find some way to get there from the house. It was a cinch that pop wasn’t going to drive us down the mountain every day. Fortunately, we discovered The Stairs, a pathway of stone stairs and slabs making its way down the ridge to our right to the bottom of the adjacent valley. I remember there were 365 stairs, one for each day of the year. They would come in groups, mostly 4-7 in a group, separated by walkways of stone slabs. At the bottom was another, smaller, flight of stairs that would take us up side of the ridge on the other side to the main road where we could catch the school bus, the city bus, or a taxi. Of course, going the other way would take us home, which was a real chore because our end was much higher than the bottom.

Now, the thing to do with The Stairs was to see how fast you could go down them. My younger sisters never got into it much, but older brother and I could just fly down these things. We would race the Taiwanese kids and there were very few that could keep up with us for even a little while. We would get a full head of steam and run down the slab portions then take these huge flying leaps down the stair portions. It was a real mark of distinction in the community about just how crazy we were. I’m sure if our mother ever saw us going down that mountain it would have been the end of everything. It’s a wonder neither of us ever got hurt.

But, we lived by The Stairs. They were our link to the outside world. Instead of taking an hour to hike up the (very steep!) road, we could take The Stairs and be at the bus stop in 10 minutes. Fortunately, no one ever pointed out to us kids that it was also wonderful exercise. That would’ve spoiled the whole thing.

My father was a petroleum engineer and worked for a company called Flour Corporation. Just before I turned 12, in the summer of 1969, we were transferred to Taipei, Taiwan. Obviously, this was a tremendous change for us and had a profound effect on my upbringing. I loved living in Taiwan and learned much about the Chinese and their way of thinking, which I came to love and admire. I am certainly a westerner, but my philosophies and outlook on life have a strong Chinese flavor to them.

Even in 1969, Taipei was a large city with over a million people. The word taipei in Chinese means northern plain and this describes the physical layout of the city. It is like a big bowl with tall mountains surrounding it. We lived in a large, concrete house way out in the mountains overlooking the city. Although there were times I was frustrated at being so far from my friends and the city, I mostly loved it where we lived. The mountains had all of these trails that the farmers had made over the centuries and you could explore for miles, and I did. I enjoyed the scenery, the mystery of what was around the next bend or over the next hill, the escapism of it all.

The wildlife in the area was interesting. Snakes were in abundance and lethal beyond belief. You are very careful about where you stick body parts in Taiwan. They also had several varieties of large, beautiful spiders (The View from Taiwan: More on those giant spiders….). They were quite intimidating in appearance and, with their legs, could get larger than an adults spread hand. We had all sorts of stories about how deadly they were, but the truth is that they were barely poisonous at all and dangerous only if you had an allergy. Try to convince someone of that when one of them was crawling on them, though.

One day, when I was about 14, I got the bright idea of making a display of them. I carefully and meticulously traipsed over the hills until I had found a nice specimen of each of the four largest, most impressive species and trapped them. Then, I submerged them in alcohol to preserve them. When I was satisfied this had been accomplished I pinned them to a large piece of cardboard. I then took a scalpel and cut out their fangs and mounted them in front each spider. It was a lot of fun and I was very absorbed in this, finishing the whole thing in a single afternoon.

Proud of my accomplishment, I went down in the evening for dinner and time with the family. Later, I went up to my room and found the spiders crawling on the cardboard, vainly trying to free themselves of the pins through their bodies. It gave the impression that they were trying to get to their fangs so they could put them back in. Mortified at what was going on, I carefully got each one and put them back in the alcohol, this time leaving them for the entire night.

The next morning I remounted the spiders in their appropriate spots and went out for the day. When I came back that evening the ants had dismantled the spiders and were carting the pieces away.

And, that’s how my entomological career ended.