Friday, February 19, 2021

A Remarkable Seventy Year Old Photograph

            


 

      Janu Fairservis, who was married to Professor Walter Fairservis and who made immeasurably contributions herself to his work, and well as raising their wonderful family, gave me this picture as a gift. It hung in the Professor's office for years, and I am very grateful to have it now.

       Dad (Lawrence DeWolfe Kelsey, Jr.) stands in the center of the photograph.   This is the group photograph of the Second Fairservis Expedition in Afghanistan, headquartered in Quetta, Pakistan.

It was an amazing expedition from a standpoint of  archaeological and artistic discoveries, logistics, geology, and simply travel over this diverse and unusual land, much of which would not be possible today given the political climate in the world.  These individuals were lucky indeed to have been a part of this challenging expedition.


#WalterFairservisArchaeologicalExpedition, 


(You may click on photograph to enlarge, or as my dear daughter jokingly says, "Click to embiggen")


            

Thursday, December 3, 2020

You Should See The Documentary, "The Jump" and This is Why

              

 

 


 

 

        For those of you who read "Lawrence DeWolfe Kelsey: The Life of the Explorer", you may recall that Lawrence was most upset when in 1970, Simas Kudirka, a Lithuanian radio operator aboard the Russian ship Sovietskaya Litva, jumped ship to the US Coast Guard Vessel, the Vigilant, in an attempt to defect. In a litany of errors, the coast guard had allowed the Russian vessel to board their ship and take Kudirka back, but not before he was beaten into unconsciousness, had a rope placed around his neck, and was literally thrown into a vessel.   Our book's chapter fifty nine discusses Lawrence's journey to aid Kudirka and the other principles, Daiva Kezys, her husband Romas, Grazina Paegle and her husband Dr. Roland Paegle who worked hard to effect Kudirka's eventual release from the final Soviet prison camp in which he eventually was held.  Thanks to these individuals and assistance from some US government members also, Kudirka, his wife and his son and daughter come to the United States to live.

                Giedre Zickyte, the noted Lithuanian documentary filmmaker, has released this year an award winning documentary film on the subject of Kudirka, entitled "The Jump".  The film is a not to be missed version of what happened to Kudirka and why, and how he fared when he and his family came to the United States to live and to work. It's a sensitively done portrait of the Cold War, the situation at the time, and the man, and why he took such an action on that cold day off Martha's Vineyard. It also sensitively ponders some of the things Kudirka learned about freedom during his time here.  I highly recommend the documentary. I have seen it, and you can also, by going to NYC DOC where it is currently playing.  https://www.docnyc.net/   

                 Lawrence would have been pleased at the expert and sensitive treatment the story was given at the hands of Giedre Zickyte.  He would also be pleased that Simas Kudirka is happy and well at about age ninety this year !   I personally was very pleased to see the story sensitively portrayed as I last spoke to Simas Kudirka a couple of years ago when I provided him with a copy of the book on my father. Kudirka remains an intelligent, kind, decent man, and I am delighted that he has retained good health and his positive outlook. 


Additional links:

https://www.docnyc.net/film/the-jump/

 

https://www.facebook.com/thejumpdocumentary/

 

 https://artdocfest.com/en/movie/%C5%A1uolis_2020_85/?fbclid=IwAR08cK2WwI6iN3VhuyLqAvMC9bVxdBH8wklQfypHo3uKMa7qOIY66ZJdq4A

 

 https://www.cineuropa.org/en/video/393424/

 

 

 

Monday, October 19, 2020

The Value of Letters

        

My father, in the nineteen-sixties.


   If you've read my book,  "Lawrence DeWolfe Kelsey: The Life of the Explorer", then you would know that among many other things,  my father qualified at sixteen in a number of skills that enabled him to be a ship's radio officer in the Merchant Marines.  One of these skills was as a radio telegraphist. A cross over skill to this was that in life afterward, he would type faster than almost anyone. He occasionally joked that he could type faster than he could think.  I think this was one of his motivations behind getting me a typewriter when I was six and insisting that a percentage of my writing be done in this manner. The skill of typing very very fast did not come to him easily, nor did it to me. He worked very hard in order to develop the skill of typing at 155 words per minute.  One of the offshoots of this, is that he wrote a lot of very long letters. At first, these letters were written at sea to his father, his mother, and his dear cousin Adela.  Later, they were written to other relatives also, and then to friends he'd made in his travels around the world, or to people who became friends on the ships he had been on. He corresponded for the rest of his life to some of the people who had accompanied him on the Finn Ronne Antarctic Expedition.

           When I was a child, e-mail did not yet exist, and so letter writing was something most people did, whether it was thanking our grandparents for birthday gifts sent, or writing friends we had made on summer vacation. Most people wrote letters, but I was unusual in that I kept many of them, and sometimes cataloged them. 

           When I was a child my father had a job as a prototyper for a large electronics company, and occasionally had to write a letter or some technical writing to describe what he had been doing.  His office actually had a secretary. When something was urgent or when something he needed had a number of errors, he used to send the secretary on an errand in the building, and on her return, he would have the letter or the document typed and complete. This used to amuse her.

            When I was sixteen, my father returned to sea as a Head Ship's Radio Officer in the Merchant Marine. Although our family was a little reticent about this, he was delighted and returned headlong into the career he had first known.  His first voyages were long term international ones. He hadn't been gone very long when the letters started.  My mother wasn't too pleased with the long letters as she struggled to maintain cars in our rural home, take trash cans down the very long driveway, and then collect them again. I remember she mumbled something about not having the time to send six typewritten pages in response to his. I tried to respond, but at sixteen, I had started at college, and my time was taken by a number of courses that were to some degree, over my head. I might not have responded with very long letters but I did read the letters my father sent. In those first few years, I didn't realize what a gift they really were, and I did not save them all.

            As the years passed, and I became a registered nurse, married, moved away and became the mother of small children, I looked forward to my father's letters. After my departure from home, my parents had divorced, and so some of the time my father had spent writing letters to my mother, were now directed toward me. Most of the time I read every word. There were challenges in getting oil out of the Middle East. Sometimes, men died aboard ship, five days from port. Sometimes, in off time, Dad visited the pyramids in Egypt or ancient cities in Italy, and I got long letters telling of these places and these experiences.  Sometime in the nineteen-eighties, I began saving all of my father's letters. 

            Whenever I could I answered them.  Sometimes, I commented on something he'd said, or provided information as to side effects of medications doctors he may have seen in other nations had ordered for him.  Eventually, I had four young children, worked part-time as a nurse, and didn't have much time to respond, although I always read the letters he sent me.

            After his passing in two thousand and eight, I decided to buy heavy duty spiral notebooks and place the letters in acid free clear covers, and organize them sequentially.  I had some from the eighties, a number from the nineties, and after two thousand, they became longer, more organized and more detailed.  As I read through them, I realized that after the year two thousand, he was actually providing me with a guide for living. In each letter there was advice from his experiences.  There was advice for keeping real estate transactions smooth and for getting a survey. There was advice for buying life insurance. There was information on estate planning and on buying stocks. There was information on buying annuities. There was advice on raising children, some of which had changed a lot since I had been a child. I realize that I am very lucky to have been the recipient of a typewritten encyclopedia in letter form about life, his perspectives, and our family health history.  I have no idea as to how I might index such a large body of work.

            About a month after my father died, my youngest son died suddenly and joined him.  One of the few comforts I have is that my son has my father to guide him.

           If you, as a parent or a grandparent wish to give someone a lasting gift, or you wish to seriously impart your ideas in those you love, please consider writing them regular letters. I always appreciated them, but now I know just how priceless they are, as does my precious young grandson.






Sunday, June 14, 2020



                            The United States Merchant Marine Flag

Friday, June 12, 2020

A Birthday for the Merchant Marines

        





   The Merchant Marine is 245 years old today. According to the Association of Merchant Marine Veterans of WWII, they predate the existence of the US Navy and the US Coast Guard. On June 12, 1775, a group of merchant mariners captured a fully armed British Warship named the HMS Margaretta.




Wednesday, May 27, 2020

The Merchant Mariners of World War II Congressional Gold Medal Act of 2020

     



      In March, 2020, President Trump signed the Congressional Gold Medal Act of 2020, which recognizes the invaluable contribution that Merchant Mariners made in World War II.  Since Dad, Lawrence DeWolfe Kelsey, was a merchant mariner, radio operator, from age sixteen onward, he would have been most proud of this.

https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/116/hr5671



         If you wish to buy the book which tells of his experiences, first as a young merchant mariner, and then in the career and life he built as an explorer  afterward, you may go to the link below.


   BUY: Lawrence DeWolfe Kelsey: The Life of the Explorer




Tuesday, December 24, 2019

Merry Christmas




  Wishing the merriest of Christmases to our readers, our friends and to those who were acquainted with Dad.    Have a wonderful 2020.





Saturday, October 27, 2018

Anniversary of a Ten Year Passing



                  Today marks ten years since the passing of Lawrence DeWolfe Kelsey, the explorer, from Earth.  Some of the things that have happened since his passing, he would have predicted, and yet others would have saddened him.  Some days I am secretly glad that he is not here to see some of the things that have befallen the nations and the people he cared and worked so hard to help.

                 Still, this is a chance to read about the man, his life and times, in what at least seemed for a moment,  like a simpler world. 

       Buy the Book




Saturday, September 8, 2018

"Westward: The Novel" Has Been Released.


  

          Although I have written fact based or true books in the past, I also occasionally write novels.  This is my second novel which was released for sale this week.

          For those who are interested in learning about it, or purchasing it, it is available at this link:

   https://booklocker.com/books/9981.html


About the Book Larissa (Lara) Crowell is a registered nurse with four young children.Now that her husband has made the transition from police officer to attorney, she hopes to be able to remain at home with their four young children. The sudden death of her husband causes her to have to return to work. This is the story of her adjustment and triumphs as she learns to combine both the world of being a breadwinner and a parent. It also traces her eventual meeting of the second great love of her life, and of her learning to trust him enough to blend him into her close family with her children. Sometimes the challenges you anticipate are not the ones that actually occur. 

      Thank you for considering reading it also.



The varietal electronic versions are also available.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07J4VK99P

It is also up at the other stores:

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/westward-jane-alexandra-krehbiel/1129481765

https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/westward-the-novel/id1438371156

https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/westward-the-novel







        

Sunday, June 17, 2018

On Father's Day

           



            Lawrence D. Kelsey Jr. wasn't much of a holiday person. He took time off to celebrate Christmas and Easter when his children were small but other holidays for him were largely meaningless. Although he enjoyed gatherings, dinners, brunches and barbecues they were just as likely to occur on an ordinary day that fit for those attending, than he was to attend them on a particular holiday.  On Father's Day, we was just as likely to buy all the oil, oil filters and air filters needed for the family's cars, along with a timing belt, and he probably would have preferred to catch up on those, rather than have had a celebration.

               With his being gone now, I sometimes wish that we had more of the celebrations on the actual holiday. I wish I could remember more gatherings we had specifically on Father's Day.  The truth is, he didn't. He lived his life largely as he wanted to and sometimes his practices were unconventional as he worked hard to fit in all of the interests he had.
            
             Make no mistake though, even without the celebrations on Father's Day that he really chose to skip, he knew in many other ways that he was truly treasured as a Dad, and he probably still does, even now.

                    Happy Father's Day, Daddy.

The book is on special sale today.

Thursday, April 19, 2018

Progress on Book Distribution and Many Thanks to You All

                
This is my grandfather Lawrence DeWolfe Kelsey Sr. holding my father as a tot, the subject of this book.  Time flies no matter what year you were born on the Earth!




         The book has been broadly released and is available in English in softcover book form and in electronic form as far afield as Russia, Australia, and Germany. It was interesting to me that readers in South America were quite interested in this book.

                      I think Dad would have been pleased and slightly embarrassed that his life story was released and covered the world. I am sorry that he is no longer available on our plane to do the speaking engagements and question and answer sessions he excelled at and that he did following the Finn Ronne Expedition, and his time in Afghanistan.

                       A number of Lawrence DeWolfe Kelsey Jr's friends and co-workers are alive, and the book has been well received by them, which has been a great source of pleasure for me.  I thank those of you who have read this book, and those of you who contributed to it, with all my heart.  Best wishes to you all.





Friday, December 1, 2017

Available for Sale: Lawrence DeWolfe Kelsey:The Life of the Explorer

       






   This is the very first link I have found which is selling the new book, which was technically released on November 30th, 2017

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1634927850/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1512141728&sr=1-4






Thank you to all who aided me in the writing and production of this book!

 Probably the least expensive source: https://www.amazon.com/Lawrence-DeWolfe-Kelsey-Life-Explorer/dp/1634927850

or:
 http://booklocker.com/books/9550.html

or:

 https://www.barnesandnoble.com/p/lawrence-dewolfe-kelsey-jane-alexandra-krehbiel/1127574533/2678725078888?st=PLA&sid=BNB_DRS_New+Marketplace+Shopping+Books_00000000&2sid=Google_&sourceId=PLGoP164949&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIxs7YlNaM2QIVS1mGCh01gwMGEAYYASABEgI05_D_BwE

https://www.booktopia.com.au/lawrence-dewolfe-kelsey-jane-alexandra-krehbiel/prod9781634927857.html;jsessionid=VmS64+5P-yI+sNr84UMVPEXO

Kindle version:

https://www.amazon.com/Lawrence-DeWolfe-Kelsey-Life-Explorer-ebook/dp/B0782819RV/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=&dpID=51c%252B4d8L8gL&preST=_SY445_QL70_&dpSrc=detail

Other electronic versions:

Amazon Store URL - https://kdp.amazon.com/…/dualbookshelf.marketpla…/B0782819RV

BN Store URL - https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/lawrence-dewol…/1127574533…



Please visit my Amazon Author page:


https://www.amazon.com/Jane-Alexandra-Krehbiel/e/B00J94CM9U