SENSE OF ADVENTURE

F.C.Nash & Co 250 E. Colorado Blvd, Pasadena, California.

Nash's was a small chain of department stores operating in Southern California for forty years until the flagship store in Pasadena burned to the ground in 1976.  The building was a total loss that soon led to the financial collapse of the total enterprise.

  

During the 1950's my mother managed the bookstore at Nash's in Pasadena which resulted in my growing up surrounded by lots of books.  At the time I considered looking at photos as less work than reading.  Consequently, I was especially drawn to books with pictures - the more the better.  Nearly all of the photos were black and white.  Color photographs became common in works published in the 1930's.  However, if the book dealt with people or events prior to that, there were few if any color photos to draw on. 

The books with the most impactful photographs had me going back to them repeatedly.  Kon Tiki by Thor Heyerdahl had 80 pictures taken on the voyage that were so intriguing I actually ended up reading the book.  Between the text and the photos, I credit this book with my life-long dedication to remaining on dry land. 

The books my mother chose to have at home were a reflection of her upbringing, interests and hobbies.  Her Basque father, Alfonso Cordoba, immigrated from Cordoba, Spain to the USA shortly after 1900.  He was a political idealist (read socialist/communist) who worked as a barber on Main Street in downtown Los Angeles; formed pro-union parades; published a local pinko weekly; and was among a handful of men detained for a week by the police as likely possibles for attempting to blow up the L.A.Times building.   My mother ate only nuts, vegetables and fruit until the age of 27; had siblings named Universe, Sol, Progress, Florile and Love; dabbled in levitating tables, telling outrageous whoppers with a poker face; and occasionally checked out vacant properties with a poltergeist group.

Needless to say, my mother's choice of books ranged far and wide including a ragged little thing about Islamic Mysticism and Sufism.  Unfortunately, not only has the book vanished long ago but I know neither the title or author.  The black and white photos were nothing short of spell binding.  The pictures all looked like they were taken in the previous century in remote backwater villages; were poorly lit and slightly out of focus around the edges.  It was a catalogue of malnourished, scantily-clad men with hair down to their waist, reclining on a bed of nails, floating in mid-air and walking on water.  I never tired of looking at those pictures.

Another favorite was I Married Adventure by Osa Johnson.  It had a faux-zebra skin cover and was the top selling non-fiction book in the USA in 1940.  Osa and her husband Martin, traveled to what were exotic parts of the globe at that time, capturing in books, travelogues and films, the first glimpses of remote cultures and wildlife for most Americans.  In many cases the Johnsons also provided the initial glimpses of people from the outside world to the inhabitants of the far off places they visited.  

From the 1920s to the mid-thirties, the Johnsons were a vicarious source of adventure for the American public.    

This was long before television, Marlin Perkins and the Discovery channel.  Their expeditions took in the South Seas, Borneo and Africa in their two Sikorsky amphibious planes covered in giraffe and zebra patterns.  They were a national sensation earning a cover on The New Yorker and the first married couple to ever be placed on a Wheaties box.  

Martin was quite the adventurer from an early age, making his first cross-ocean trip as a stowaway on a ship to Europe when still a teenager circa 1900.  

Before Martin met and married Osa in 1910, he got wind of Jack London's plan to circumnavigate the globe with his wife Charmian and a small crew in a 45-foot ketch built to London's own design, dubbed The Snark.  Martin wrote to Jack and ended up signing on as cook.  The maiden voyage was a harrowing experience as both the hull and the fuel tank leaked badly.  They immediately ran into heavy weather that battered them for days, and except for London, traumatized everyone on board.  Martin was on the verge of losing his grip and shared with London his inability to handle the fear.  London responded by pointing out, "Nonsense Martin, we're within 2 miles of land."  When Martin asked where this land might be, London answered, "Straight down, Martin, straight down."

In hindsight, many of the books that I found fascinating dealt with adventures taken on during the first half of the twentieth century - Hiram Bingham stumbling onto Machu Picchu; Roald Amundsen reaching the South Pole; Ernest Shackleton attempting to cross the Antarctic continent; Charles Linberg and Amelia Earhart solo flights across the Atlantic; Hillary and Tenzing topping Everest; Heyerdahl rafting to Polynesia and later to Easter Island.  

The books I liked when I was growing up couldn't be written today.  We now know everything, we've done everything and we've been everywhere.  Everywhere that is except space. Which brings me to the recent all-women Blue Origin space crew.  Evidently the blue designer jumpsuits were custom fitted by means of a 3D scan.  They come with a cinched waist and an optional slightly flared leg.  Each of the women underwent an ominous-sounding procedure called a "blowout" prior to the launch.  I saw some photos of their boarding the flight and to my surprize, not a single pith helmet.