Chronicle of the Thomas Family Traveling in Europe July – Aug 1961 This is a diary in the form of a letter written by my mother Terry Thomas. It describes a family camping trip in Europe in 1961. My father, Lawrence J. Thomas, was stationed at Sembach Air Force base. Our trip originated there, and went through France and Italy. My sisters Kathy Thomas and Laurie Bates as well as myself were on the trip. This is a transcript of the letter. Joseph C. Thomas

17 July 1961 4:00am Monday morning Sembach Air Base Dearest Family – I hope to keep this as a running account of our trip. We are starting out dressed for the Riviera and we are freezing. Our sweaters are in the trunk which can’t be opened as it’s like Fibber McGee’s closet. I’m sure we didn’t forget anything as we have everything with us. In a couple of hours we will cross the French border. I’ll try to keep telling you the names of the cities and towns as you may want to trace our route on a map Jimmie [my cousin Jim Nelson]. More later.
5:30am We are on the way to Metz, France. We just crossed over the border. All the men are wearing berets. 6:40am We just left Metz toward Nancy. The country side is beautiful. 8:45am We’ve passed thru Nancy and Neufchacteau. Stopped for gas. I’ve never seen so many cows as I have here. 10:00am We are passing thru Langres. The whole village or town is enclosed in a wall.
Please excuse writing. This country is curvy. This whole area has walls and fortresses. The contrast of a modern apt. house is very interesting. It is 3:05pm We have come 410 miles and Larry is ready to stop. It has rained off and on all day and I just hope it stops long enough for us to set up camp. Lyon was a beautiful sight to see. We entered from a hill and I was amazed to see all the tall new apt. houses. Lyon is famous for its silk weaving.
	We plan to camp at St. Rambert which will be soon so I won’t write more until to-morrow. The sidewalk cafes look so interesting. I know Larry will have a bottle of French wine with his supper. We just passed a stateside looking motel. Sometimes I hardly realize I’m in Europe. 18 July 9am Good Morning – We pulled in camp. Set it up and I got supper. Larry (helped a little) and I drank a bottle of French wine and we sacked out. Boy were we ever tired.
It took a while for Laurie, Kathy and I to get up courage to use the john as it is what is called a Napoleon. You have to stand up for every thing and also hit the hole. Sounds rough and it is, but they are all over Italy and France so we must get used to them. The sun is out but it is quite cool. I hope it warms up. We are heading for Valence and Aix-En-Pu (pronounced A-on-Poo) 124 miles and then to Marseilles and the blue Mediterran (spelling). We have  a loaf of French bread almost 3 feet long. 12:20pm We passed thru Avignon right at lunch time and you’ve never seen so many bicycles in all your life. They were coming from all directions. There are more cyclists in France than Germany and there are plenty there believe me.
It’s a riot to see the French with their loaf of bread strapped to their bike, or sticking out of the shopping bag or under their arm. Funny! It’s a beautiful sunny day just perfect for driving not too hot. The scenery is unbelievably beautiful. The high hills with castles outlined against the sky are works of art. It’s so amazing to think that we, imagine, we are traveling thru France seeing some of the things we’ve heard and read about. One thing I have learned over here is that when I go back home am going to see more of my own country.
I have been trying to get Larry to stop at a patisserie so I can get some French pastry. Hope he does soon. La Ciotal Wed 19 July 8:30pm Here I am – we passed thru Marseilles yesterday – Wow! What a city. It is the second largest city in France (Paris is first which I’m sure you know). The traffic was so heavy that I rode with my heart in my mouth. It was a double strain for Larry as we weren’t sure of the route. One thing tho about France (that Germany doesn’t do) the routes are clearly marked. We finally got out and went up a high mountain and down the other side to La Ciotal where we spent last night and tonight.
This day we spent on La Plage. (The beach in French) This is no ordinary beach, folks. This beach is on the blue Meditteranean (sp). The beach consists of all rocks but the children were delighted. I sunned all morning while Joe and Laurie splashed and played. Larry and Kathy walked and sunned. After lunch and a siesta (I read) we all went back. We had a ball looking for shells and once Kathy let out a yell and we ran over and a baby octopus had touched her foot. [I remember this! JCT] A French man turned its head inside out to de-ink it and then we all looked at it. Larry went around turning over rocks and came up with two odd looking sea creatures. They looked like cobs after the corn has been eaten off only they were reddish brown 6 inches long. The man showed us that if you put a heavy rock on them they become flat and very long then when the rock is removed they go back in shape. Odd.
Joey got stung on the toe by a bee on the beach. Laurie has worn two of her five bikinis already. This camp is very large. I am sitting here looking at the Med while I write. Larry has already started on his fourth bottle of French wine. Vin Rouge is read and Vin Blanche is white. He likes both. Larry also tried a quart of French beer. It isn’t as good as Deutch beer, it’s more like our American beer. I like Deutch beer better.
I forgot to say the Med is icy cold. I hope it warms up when we go farther south. I’m getting used to these Napoleon johns. I’m beginning to think they are better because there is no place to harbor germs. It would be pretty hard to read the morning paper on one tho – ha! We have to put Clorox in all our drinking water to purify it. Larry hasn’t shaved since we left Sembach. He’s growing a beard. It’s getting soft now. He says it’s past the picking stage.
For the last 120 miles the distributor on the car has been squeaking. We hoping it’s nothing but we’ll have it checked when we get to Leghorn (Livorno). Tonight after supper the girl in the camp next to us was shaking something and in the process she shook her wedding ring off her finger and down a small gulley. We all pitched in to look for it. We searched thru the dry weeds and grass for about a half hour and we had all given up and I was just standing there looking and something winked at me and I reached down and picked up the ring. Her ring matched her husbands. She is German or I should say they are. She came over a while ago with some candy.
We break camp tomorrow morning and head for Monaco. I hope (big joke) that we see Princess Grace. Good night. 12:05 noon Bonjour – We have been on the road 3 hours and have come 83 miles. Hard miles Larry says – curves, mountains and resort towns. We love our U.S. but have come to the conclusion that it doesn’t have everything.
This Reveria is really something. I can’t begin to describe the breathtakingly beautiful scenery. There are palm trees and flowers everywhere, the sky is so blue and the clouds look like they are painted on. The sea is two and sometimes three shades of blue-green. It’s as tho each facet of nature is trying to outdo the other by attempting to be more beautiful. The overall picture is stupendous. We have come thru the out skirts of Toulon and we are traveling on the Med road toward Cannes and Nice. This is the land of the bikini.
Man, these crazy drivers. You’d have to see to believe the way these people go disregarding every other car. There is no road courtesy here in Europe. Sat 22 July 1961 8:30am Hi – We have been stationary for 2 days, and got up at 5am to cross the border into Italy. We hit the border just right, not may people so it didn’t take long. We left Ventimiglia and are in San Remo. We looked for a camp Thurs. after noon and the ones near the beach were all full so we finally found one. It was new opened up only 2 days. The grounds were lousy tho.
We ended up in what had once been a bean patch. We were disheartened at first but then decided things would look better in the morning which they did. Yesterday we got up and after breakfast I did the washing and then we went to Monaco. I was mad because Princess Grace didn’t invite us in for tea. There was no flag flying so they probably weren’t there. The palace wasn’t as pretty as I thought it would be but the country itself is just darling. It sits on a hill side. We took scads of pictures of the changing of the palace guards. They all dress in white uniforms quite impressive.
Monaco is really a tourist trap. All kinds of souvenir shops and all junk and all expensive. After leaving Monaco we went to the beach for the rest of the day. The water (Med) was warm and the beach consisted of all small pebbles instead of sand. The kids had a ball tho. The ice cream man came around and you would flip at the price. I did. 1 Franc (about 20 cents) for one teeny ice cream on a stick. I am being very tight with our money trying to impress Larry (which I am) so that when I hit Pisa and Florence I can go mad with the marble and straw hats and bags.
All the cars in Italy have air horns, they start blowing them a mile back and are still blowing them after they’ve passed. Larry is sell tho, he doesn’t care. He says let ‘em go. We are on vacation and in no hurry. I forgot to tell you, Thursday coming up the Riviera the roads were so bad and curvy and full of traffic that we only went 155 miles in 7 hours of driving. From now on Larry says we start looking for a camp at 2pm no matter how many miles we’ve come. Hey Mom and Dad [my father’s mother, Jesse Thomas, and father, Joseph Thomas], you never thought that those gum balls you sent the kids would travel across France and Italy did you?
Jimmy, have you gotten out the map yet to see where we are going? I sure wish we had all of you with us. Three times a day we feed our bodies but all day we feed our souls. The scenery is beautiful. Flowers every where and the mother-in-law tongues grow 5 feet tall and there are many along the road. Oh yes, at our last camp we picked (or I should say the kids did) oranges for breakfast. Larry says I forgot to tell you of all the bikinis he saw at the beach. He likes those.
Traveling thru France we’ve seen seven or eight Rolls Royce’s. Larry says to tell you that there is a shocking absence of guard rails on these high sheer cliff roads. Rapallo, Italy Sunday 2pm BUT there was on good rail and I’ll tell you why. Yesterday we had passed thru Rapallo and were going up the mountain to Chaivari when Larry was making one of the many sharp turns. Suddenly the steering rod broke and it was impossible to make the turn and the car crashed into an iron guard rail. [I remember this!] It broke the grille vent, the fender, and cut the tire.
If it hadn’t been for that rail we’d have gone over. The kids were asleep. Poor Larry, he was so shook, all he thought of in that split second was the kids. All this took place in a driving rain. We stood out there for an hour directing traffic around the curve. An Italian man who spoke some English stopped to ask if we needed help. This man is a most wonderful person. He spent 2 years in Portsmouth N.H. during the war and said he likes Americans. Any way, he went back to town and got the tow truck, then came back to where we were.
He took me and the children in his car while Larry went on the tow truck. They towed us to a camp site where we are now. We don’t know how long we’ll have to sit here. It’s a nice spot but we would have been pulling into Pisa now. It’s going to cost about $23 for the towing of our car. We don’t know how much the repairs on the car will be. The mechanic is going to Genova to-morrow to see if he can get the parts needed to repair our car. If now Larry isn’t sure what we’ll do. One thing sure this letter won’t get mailed until we hit an Army base so please keep this in mind when you read this letter.
We are all alright. The kids are outside now having a ball. Joey found a pair of snails that he and Laurie are playing with. We just had a slight rain storm but I had gotten most of my wash dry. It’s amazing what a good nights sleep can do. Yesterday we were pretty upset but we finally decided that what will be will be and no amount of worry will change things. If the car repairs amount to too much money we’ll go back home wiser and grateful to God that he spared our lives and most important the lives of our children.
Mom, remember that St. Christopher medal for the car that you bought us in Milwaukee. That medal has watched over us all these years. I honestly believe that. Yesterday when we pulled in here and English man came over with hot coffee and cookies for all of us and a shot of whiskey for Lair which he needed badly. He and his wife were very nice to us. He helped put our tent up and two fellows from Holland also helped. These campers seem to stick to-gether. One thing sure if we don’t see the rest of Italy we will have had a good rest. I haven’t made any paragraphs to this letter because I wanted to save on paper. This missive will be bulky enough.
Friday Noon As you can see it’s been a few days since I’ve written. We have been pretty blue but have tried to make the best of this sad situation. We keep reminding each other of our good fortune in being alive and this helps. We have been kept busy lying in the sun, reading (I’m fresh out), puttering around camp. Monday night after finding out the parts needed were impossible to get in Italy (after spending $50 on towing and phone calls to Genova and Milan) we went in town and called our best friend (and I do mean friend) Jerry Rosebrugh, to bring parts from Ger.
We were supposed to meet them sometime next week in another part of Italy. They weren’t leaving until next Monday. Well last night we went back into Rapallo to call him to see if he was able to get the parts and a mutual friend answered the phone with the message that he and family had left Sembach at 6am yesterday morning with the parts on their way here. They should get here sometime to-morrow. This means that Jerry had to change his leave to an earlier date, had to ask for a special early exam in the United States history course he was taking which didn’t end until Fri. (to-day) Also he had only 2 days to run like crazy and get the part which are hard to get, pack the car which is a large job in itself, go to the bank and change money, etc.
This is friendship is it not? When Larry called Mon. nite and said “I’m in trouble” Jerry answered with “what do you need and what can I do for you?” We are hoping to be on the road by Tues. at the outside. We brought plenty of can food to be replaced at the Livorno Army Commissary which was our next stop. We still have plenty of meals but have run out of coffee (still have some instant) and powdered cream. This we surely can live without, so you see we are fine. Too our frame of mind has improved 100%.
I haven’t shed tears yet thru all this but feel sure I shall when I see Dolly as I feel them welling up whenever I think of them pulling in here. We are having a wonderful rest here. It’s fun but of course it would be more fun if we knew we could leave if we wanted to. We bought a butane stove before we left so cooking is easy. We eat quantities of salad as tomatoes and lettuce are cheap. Well this is it for now. Have to go and get Larry another bottle of Chianti. A 2 litre (about 2 ¼ qts) bottle with the straw cover costs 48 cents. More later. Mon. 3 July 815am We are off again. We just passed the place where the accident occurred and I feel slightly better now. I’m so nervous I feel ill but I’m trying not to let Larry know as I imagine he too is a little nervous too.
We are climbing thru the mountains now and every curve to me is torture. After we get to La Spenia we were told the roads flatten out. I hope so. Right now I want to go home after we get to Livorno and have the car all rechecked over. I expect I’ll feel better we spent 9 nights at camping Rappal and believe me it got tiresome after a while. More later. Wed Aug 2 We are off now to Pisa. We are not going to Rome and Naples. We are all find and having a swell time.
Larry had the car all checked over and it is fine. Gotta mail this. All our love to all of you. Larry, Terry, and Kids