My Great Aunt - Rita Clark

Ok I am going to add a few posts that are slightly off the regular path of this Blog, but they stay true to the main topic - Japan.  This is the story of my Great Aunt Rita Clark, who is the sister of my Grandfather Samuel Joseph Clark (on my fathers side).  Why a story on Great Aunt Rita?  Well, because she was a very interesting individual, who devoted a huge portion of her life to traveling all over the world.  Her travel exploits cover a massive span starting in the 1920's and going all the way up to the early 1970's.

So why or maybe the better question is "how" would I be able to transfer over to you the details of her various travels?  Well the answer is because she kept a diary of incredible detail of almost all of her adventures.  She called it her "Travelogue".  I asked for and received four of these massive books recently from my parents, who had come into possession of them from my Grandparents who had them after Great Aunt Rita's passing during the 1970's.  There is a fifth book that my parents are still holding onto.  These books are a fascinating look into a world of long ago.  Rita, whose own marriage to her only husband (Hamilton V.B. Riggs) lasted but a brief year or so, was really married to the world.  She was a fearless traveler, who utilized many different methods (air, boat - often freighters!, rail, car, etc.) and often ventured out either in organized tours or even on her own.  She also was an amazing reader, and had a thirst for knowledge about the world that she satisfied via her travels and her book reading.  Today as I look through her journals, I marvel at this woman I can only vaguely remember.

Of her many adventures, Rita did of course make it over to Japan!  The year was 1966 (which was later in her life and one of her last major trips).  It was part of what any ordinary person would call the trip of a lifetime, but for Rita, I suspect it was just another normal adventure.  The trip duration was 67 days, and it was basically an around the world (via air) excursion with a very small group of 16 people organized by "Travel World Tours".  Rita joined this tour on her own.

So I plan to dedicate a number of posts to the Japan portion of this trip, but let me start by showing you a picture of Rita , taken at the American Consulate General in Cape Town, South Africa when she renewed her passport there on March 15th, 1956.  As I said, she was VERY detail oriented!!!

Now, let me show you the scope of her full itinerary on this specific trip.  It started in Los Angeles, where she lived, and made it's way from east to west around the world.  The first international stop as you can see is Japan.

Does that look at little ambitious to you?  It is quite staggering to me.  Once you see the pages on her days in Japan, and then realize that there is this level of detail or more for each stop on the rest of the itinerary, then you will begin to understand the time she put into this Travelogue, and the size and extent of the books that are currently in my possession.  Ideally I would like to share them with others via some on-line method (perhaps a new Blog?), but at the moment I am struggling to find out who would be interested in reading them.  If you are reading this and have any ideas, perhaps you can help me?

So please enjoy the following posts about Rita's adventures, during a time not so long ago when travel was much more romantic than it is today.