Counting any country where I had at least one meal on the ground (no fly-overs) I looked at a 1960 world atlas and come to the amazing realization that the major countries I have
not been to are Outer Mongolia and Maddagasgar
The geopolitical map of Africa - especially sub-Saharan Africa - changed so much in the 1950s - 1960s that there may have been a few that I was in one day that were subdivided the next, causing me to miss one or two of the new ones. The same holds true for portions of the Middle East that the British used to have and South East Asia that the Frencgh and Dutch used to have.
The thing is, as I mentioned before, I really cannot brag about this as a major accomplishment of anty sort. I was a chld being dragged from pillar to post because my father was sent by the .gov to "help" scientists in those other countries solve issues of mutual concern.
As but one example, we visited Czechoslovakia (two days, or was it three?) where dad consulted with their food folks about keeping fat in canned food from going rancid in tropical heat environments. Why were the Czechs interested in that? Because they were supplying rations to the rebels in Portuegese Angol and a few other spots - something that did not become public knowledge until well after the dust had settled. But dad told the US Army about it about a year before the fun started.
We (well, OK, dad) was supposed to spend one day at Ross Station so took me along so I could say I had been there in the dead of winter. Weather problems kept us there an extra day, and I got to see what happens when you start a compost heap on the ice - the shaft was about 250 feet deep and they just kept throwing more stuff down there. I wonder if it ever hit bedrock.
I remember bits and pieces of the journey, like the two trips above. I also remember (Oh, how I remember <insert Maurice Chevalier voice please> ) the first time I became aware of chambermaids in French hotels. We will not, please, discuss the first time I went to a Dublin pub. But I can tell tyou it was no urban myth that if you could get your money up to the bar alcohol would be passed down to you. I'd rather revisit the first time I tried to smoke a cigar - or worse yet, a Russian cigarette.
Between about 11 and 15 I was palmed off on folks my parents knew/knew of and allowed to travel by myself for varying lengths of time until I me back up with my family. Talk about your classic liberal education! Looking back I still do not know why I was not murdered, assassinated, or thrown under any of at least a dozen prisons. The only thing I never worried about was being kidnapped or sold into the white slave trade. Ask anybody who knew me - it would have made
The Ransom of Red Chief look like a Sunday church social.
However, I paid dearly for all that. I never learned how to socialize, make friends, or pretty much care about anybody who was not a family member. Over the years since I was about 15 or so I learned how to fake it. But there are still times that I revert to having essentially been raised by wolves and gypsies - well-meaning wolves and gypsies nevertheless.
stay safe.
