Ben Oostdam's Autobiography: 1960-1963

page 51

Hawaii I I I - oh! Feb. 1-3, 1963

On Friday, February first, I unexpectedly ran afoul of Ralph when I asked him for a copy of a Maui map: "You don't accept our decision? These maps can be bought ...". Later on he practically tried to evict me from my office, so I told him I had asked for a meeting with Doak that afternoon.
That two hour meeting went better, discussing point by point the confidential memo I had prepared. He admitted that he might have acted too hastily and had no concrete objections to me, except from hearsay. He was convinced that I was a good and hard worker and that "smearing my name at SIO" was not too fair. He agreed to call Ted and Ralph, and I should call him back that evening. I dined that evening with a lady from the French Embassy, a numerologist, who told me today was a bad day.
When I called Doak, he said that not much had changed, and suggested that I write a letter to Dr. Fager at SIO explaining my point of view and asking them to add someone from Hawaii to my committee, from HIG rather than Geology (more politics?) I spent till midnight composing that letter. ( cannot find a copy of that now.)

The next morning I met Doak at his office to take care of Shepard's stuff for the HORIZON. I asked him for a Maui map and apparently impressed him with my comparison of charts of South West Maui by LaPerouse and Vancouver; he wants to disprove Groote Reber (sp?)'s date.
After dinner I went for a haircut and met a haole barber, Burt, who had been all over Europe, and invited me for a party later that evening. On Sunday, I drove him and his girlfriend Barbara and her Mom (from Bathurst, N.B., where I worked the summer of 1959) around and had lunch with them, at which time he offered me to stay with him and a few marines for about $ 10/week. I checked out of the hotel where Hugh Bradner first charged me $ 25 which he later nicely reduced to $ 6.
Later that Sunday evening I also talked with Mme Tatabouet, our last year's German landlady. She told me she had finally succeeded evicting "the Greeks" from her corner house, but had found the place so dirty that she had had it boarded up awaiting demolition.

She said I could stay there for free till then if I wanted and took me there to show it - at which time she pulled her skirt over her face to hold her nose in disgust with this veritable Augias stable ...a challenge for a Dutch clean(s)er....