Vol 39 • No. 5
Don’t let limitations stop your travels
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By Susan I. Miller In an ideal world we would all be blessed with the ability to see, hear, feel, taste, smell, walk and adapt to differences in altitude, climate and food at the same time as we have the money and time to travel. We would have the stamina to take in all the activities one can pack into a full day and enjoy a night of dining and dancing. And we’d have the capacity to learn new languages, figure out the relationship of pesos to dollars, and find our way back to our hotel when we linger in a shop while group members go ahead. We’d photograph unique sites, write a blog each night, send post card greetings, buy souvenir gifts and create an impressive travelogue to
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Helpful hints to make your trip easier
show and tell. We’d remember to tip appropriately, learn to bargain with the locals and dare to take a zip line ride or a deep-sea dive. We don’t live in an ideal world, but we do live in an incredibly interesting world. It’s here. It’s there. Waiting to be explored. The number one attribute we need to travel is curiosity. In fact, curiosity is the only quality
absolutely needed for a good travel experience. You can make adaptations for any other different ability you have, so don’t let anything stop you. Go with a friend whose abilities complement yours. If you get lost, you are lost together. Consider it one more adventure. If one needs to slow down or take a break, she can remind you See Travel , page 15
By Susan I Miller Here are some ways to accommodate if you aren’t in perfect shape. Please note that most people are friendly and welcoming and will go out of their way to help you. Low vision: Carry a small magnifying glass to read maps and bus schedules. Photograph the commentary on museum exhibits to read on your big screen at home. Take a second pair of glasses and sunglasses, or your lens prescription. Wear a hat in the sun. Carry a white cane; people will respect you for getting out and trying to see what you can see. Hearing impaired: Wear your hearing aids. Stay close to your guide when he/she is talking. Employ an interpreter to travel with you. Mobility problems: Rent a wheelchair. Use the wheelchair service in See Travel Tips , page 15
Attic shoe box held big surprise
By Bob Rives People dream about this. The shoe box in the attic for the past 30 years is filled with baseball cards. Mom was kind enough not to throw them out. Finally, someone decides they should be appraised. After all, there is a Mickey Mantle 1951 rookie season card in the box. That’s what was found by a 70-something Wichitan who contacted Chicago-based sports card and memorabilia appraiser Michael Osacky. Just after Christmas Osacky flew to Wichita, spent two days looking into the holdings of three Wichita families and bought the Mantle card. Nationally known, Osacky was labeled the “Dean of Cracker Jack
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baseball cards” by Forbes magazine in a 2017 article about Cracker Jack prizes. The caramel-coated popcorn giant used baseball cards as giveaways in 1914-15. Osacky is now a full-time collector and appraiser. His vocation-avocation began with shoeboxes filled with baseball cards handed down from his
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own grandfather. Today he owns “hundreds of thousands” of them and his hobby has been his career since 1997. He didn’t reveal what he paid for the Mickey Mantle card that turned up in Wichita. It was, he said, in poor condition as many were that had been printed and sold by the Bowman Gum Company. “The card is prone to bad centering and print defects. The printing capabilities in 1951 were fairly rudimentary. There wasn’t a quality control person making sure the cards ‘look good.’” If the card had “looked good,” the Wichita family would have had a true See Baseball, page 11
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