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Show Family Weekly February 22, 1970 Vacations the Most of Your Holiday Time Other special tours are arranged for enthusibridge players, asts, and women interested in g courses. If you crave something more exciting, yet not outlandishly expensive, take your cue from the Rawley Petersons. With their two young boys, they went on "safari," not to darkest Africa but on one of the hundreds of new organized by the travel industry a trek through the rain forests of a Caribbean island, hunting wild goats, pigs, and colorful birds with cameras. Become absorbed in a new interest. Good planning combines looking e ahead on a basis and seizing unexpected opportunities. Consider, for example, the interesting pursuit of Pennsylvania physician Maurice Seltzer. One day, hiking across an abandoned coalfield, he paused to crack open a piece of limestone waste. "With great wonder," he relates, "I beheld a fern fossil that had been buried in mud for 300 million years, all its harmonious details etched in yellow pigment." That chance moment of curiosity so stimulated his interest that he began to read books on minerals and the earth sciences. His wife, too, became intrigued, and they began planning vacation trips where they could find unusual geological formations. Over the years, their rovings have ranged from the Delaware Water Gap to the Rockies. Many other people agree that history can be one of the most useful to a vacation. Texans Marion and Frank Davidson learned that the state highway department had charted and tested 10 "Travel Trails" from border to border. Last summer, the Davidsons, with their weight-reducin- mini-safar- is sites the Emerson home, Walden Pond, the House of Seven Gables, and others. Three college students from Washington, D.C., visited ghost towns of the West. Plan vacation pursuits that yov. can continue all year. We have a neighbor who used to complain regularly that evenings were "so boring" because her husband was frequently out of town on business. Last year, there was a remarkable change: she took up oil painting and was soon doing well enough to exhibit. "It all started," she explains, "be- - can find bells, old and new, almost anywhere in the world, along with local fans who willingly act as guides and hosts; and antique car or airplane buffs who welcome one another like brothers. On one visit to Old Sturbridge Village, Mass. a living example of rural New England during that almost forgotten period right after the American Revolution we met a man and wife who were gourmets of long standing, but whose interest in foods had begun to jade somewhat. After half a dozen trips to the Vil- - self-defens- long-rang- door-opene- 10- - rs and sons, took a vaca- tion trip along "Independence Trail," visiting places like the San Jacinto battleground and San Luis Pass (renowned for its rugged stagecoach run). "For the first time we had a point of view," says Marion. "Everything we saw and did related to it." The experience was so stimulating that they now plan to cover all the rest of the recommended Travel Trails. I talked with others who had made such vacations into hJitory. A family from Ohio had been enthralled by a tour of Massachusetts historic sorbed in new interests during vacations that they have actually changed careers. Jerry Wood of Annapolis, Md., an executive in the toy business, had always wanted to try his hand at sailing. Several years ago, he bought an old boat and began fixing it up. When a man on the beach asked where he could rent a sailboat for the day, Jerry offered his. That was the beginning of a part-tim- e rental service that gradually made it possible for the Woods to acquire a small fleet. '"As the rental business grew," Jerry told me, "I started giving sailing lessons mostto protect our inly in vestments from misuse." Now Jerry devotes the major part of his time to boats and has created "Sailing Vacations" and "Sailing Weekends" for novices to learn while having fun. Use vacations to help others. A working widow in a New York suburb spends half of her vacation time taking underprivileged city children on trips to country fairs, farms, and other places she would never have gone to alone. "It takes me out of my shell," she says. "I stay active and relaxed instead of sitting on a porch and straining mentally to relive the fun I used to have before my husband died and my daughters moved away." You do net have to be alone, of course, to benefit from this kind of dervacation. Dr. John Slaughter, matologist ir Evansville, Ind., and his wife, both keen on Central America, founded eight years ago a remarkable organization, Holidays for Humanity. It arranges for physicians, dentists, nurses, and technicians to spend vacations ministering to regions in Central America all on a voluntary basis, at their own expense. Today the successful program includes South America as well as a number of Caribbean islands. Creative vacations whichever best suit your own needs have many rewards. They infuse something into living that becomes a continuing source of refreshment lor? after the vacation itself has ended. As author and educator Sebastian de Grazia, who has mide an exhaustive study of man and his free time, has written, "Work may make a man or rich. It may even ennoble him. Leisure perfects him. In this lies its future." o Old Sturbridge Village, Mass., is one of many historical sites in UJS.; it 3 '1tf7'r -- t in- spired one gourmet couple to experiment in Early American cooking. e t cause of our marvelous vacation. Pete thought we ought to do something for a change instead of spending three weeks either lying on the beach or fretting indoors because the weather wasn't sunny enough for lying on the beach. So we signed up for an art course at Cape Cod. I fun. never knew art could And, of course, you don't have to put your enjoyment in mothballs once the vacation is over." Millions upon millions of Americans belong to associations which give them a common bond with strangers and thus can serve as the key to rewaiding vacation planning. Recently, for example, I heard about the International Kitefliers Association, whose members transcend language barriers in exchanging visits; about bell enthusiasts who be-suc- lage, their entire outlook was renewed and refreshed as they began a study of Early American cooking. Thousands have found new hobbies at the kitchen range or added extra dimensions to old ones. Consider vacations that can help mold careers. A teacher I met regularly devoted part of his vacations to help his three sons and one daughter look into career possibilities. Once they devoted two summer weeks to a broad sweep of transportation facilities (a field in which his son had expressed interest) railroad terminals, airports, shipping offices. On another occasion, they went to a dozen state capitals, ai well as to Washington, D.C., for a close-u- p look at life in government and politics. I'm astonished to learn how many people have become so deeply ab back-count- ry stoop-shoulder- ed Family Weekly, Febmary 22, 1970 7 |