Skip Granger, 1970
Having always wanted to see the Taj Mahal, in 1970 I ventured around the world in 27 days, something rarely 
done by a fellow 28 years old in those days. My girlfriend at the time was hoping to accompany me. The photo at right shows me thinking about how to tell her that she wasn’t going. Off I went to London, Paris, Rome, Athens, a week’s cruise of the Aegean, Ephesus, Istanbul, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, New Delhi, Agra, Tahiti, and Honolulu.
As a part of my role in the travel business, I traveled a lot and was invited on several maiden voyages of Boeing’s new 747 jetliner in 1971. The inaugural flight was over Kilauea Volcano in Hawaii. Later, I was onboard the first flights to Spain and India. Therein lies my story.
I flew to India with some travel executives, much my senior, and some other important people, which included the Vice President of Pan Am, whom I befriended. He was set up by his fellow New York friends, the Rockefellers, to meet a somewhat famous young artist named Senaka Senanayake. This artist had been put through Yale by the very famous Pablo Picasso, who was reputed to be a somewhat stingy fellow. While we were visiting at his home, Seneca learned that we were traveling on the new 747, which afforded the space to fly his pallet knife paintings to the United States without rolling the canvases. So, he offered to sell them to us for $100 each. Always the bargain hunter, I bought seven, with the provision that he could borrow them to show when he was in the US. He has yet to contact me for a showing.
Special things I collected on my travels, whether called investments or souvenirs, are still part of my life. When Mary Ann and I moved from Kentfield, California, to Sun Lakes, Arizona, in October, 2017, I contacted
Clars Auction House with the idea of selling one or two of the Senanayake paintings. Clars wanted my favorite, “Buddha at the Moment of Enlightenment,” which they said would fetch $40,000.00 in a gallery or $24,000.00 at auction.
Senaka’s “Buddha” is at right. How many creatures can you see emerging from the Buddha at the moment of enlightenment?
Instead, I sold them my “Fisherman” and “The Mirror,” which they said would sell for $16,000 and did. The Buddha still resides in our living room, where it belongs!
Below, Senaka’s “The Fishermen” with two representatives of Clars. The one on the left is named Alexa. Our negotiations with her kept getting interrupted by my Amazon Echo, which is always listening.
That trip was very interesting and exciting as well as profitable! Pan Am owned Intercontinental Hotels and offered us a month of post-tour travel at no cost for air and hotel accommodations. A group of my new friends wanted me to go with them to attend Oktoberfest in Germany. Although I wanted to go, I instead went to Bangkok with another new friend, Dr. Fred Pough. Having flown to India from Alaska, I had a jacket with me, which I loaned to one of the fellows. Only my jacket went to the famous beer fe
st!
Why did I go to Bangkok with Fred? While in Hong Kong, an older fellow that looked much like Santa Claus came in for breakfast, and I asked the maitre d‘ to invite him to sit with me. After some conversation, I learned that Fred was one of the three top gemologists in the world and curator of the JP Morgan Collection at the American Museum of Natural History. He was also the author of the leading gemology book, A Field Guide to Rocks and Minerals. I asked if he would help me select some gemstones. It turned out that he selected them for me!
We would travel into small towns such as Ratnapura in Sri Lanka, a city famous for the gem trade since ancient times. The newspapers in these towns would herald Dr. Pough’s arrival. We shared the same car and driver for the whole trip, and he would take me with him to meet with the gemstone sellers. He would gift them an Emerald Scope, which he 
had invented, and they would offer him some gems. He was only looking for Alexandrite jewelry, so he would say, ”Skip, you take it, but always choose the best one.” Then, he would wind up selecting for me. When I was offered stones to buy, he would whisper, ”Buy it,” if it was good. Thus, I collected 217 rubies, sapphires of all colors, and many other precious stones. I had rings made for my four very special ladies, and the rest went into a safe deposit box at our bank. They have seen daylight twice: once for my daughter to view them and once to be taken to Arizona in a special hiding place under the back seat footrest of our car. At right, part of my gem stash.
Souvenirs can turn out to be excellent investments.
