Skip Granger, A Traveling Family

Skip Granger

My life in travel began very early, but that’s another story for another time.  I will fast forward to when I went to Kansas City in 1966 and applied for a summer position as a Tour Director at Berry World Travel, which hired many KU law school students for such positions. I got the job!  My summers were filled with tourists and travel to such fun and interesting places as California, New York, Las Vegas, Hawaii, all over Canada (including EXPO67 in Montreal), and many other places, including several Mardi Gras and the Rose Bowl games.  After those exciting summers, law school was…well, law school.  But I did well, and when I graduated, I accepted a position as Research Attorney for the Supreme Court, for which I had to pledge to stay a year… which was just long enough to learn that I did not want to spend my life working with attorneys!

Thus, the travel bug having bitten, I found my way to a job as a travel executive. After traveling around the world, enjoying the Orient and South Pacific, I moved to Hawaii and took over as the  manager of Beltz World Travel.  I enjoyed the Islands, but soon learned that doing business as a haole there was quite difficult; so, I moved to San Francisco as the Sales Manager.  While there, I was involved in putting together and marketing  the TWA Getaway packages and PanAms World.  While meeting with the Pan Am manager, 30 years my senior, in San Francisco, we came to odds, and he took  a phone call, saying ”Do you mind?” That meant “I’ll never see you again.”

But he was wrong!  As I was leaving his office, a pretty young blonde came running over and said, ”Aren’t you Skip Granger?” to which I replied, ”You are Mary Ann Johnson.”  I knew Mary Ann from KU as a TriDelt sorority sister of my sister, Brenda [RIP].  She took me in to meet her manager, who had just thrown me out of the same office.  Suffice it to say, she has been half of the Skipper and Mary Ann Team for the past 50+ years!  Pan Am no longer exists, but I have Mary Ann, the sweetest lady in the world!  Now I ask you — who won that deal!?!

When Mary Ann and I were married in 1974, I soon left the travel business, which did not meld well with family life, but we have continued to travel until 2020.  Damned pandemic!  We had our kids late in life and took them with us as soon as they broke diapers. Summers in Europe were really fun.  Our daughter Amanda would take an empty suitcase to fill with back to school clothes and be two years ahead in style. The rule was — No more back to school shopping once we are home!

When Amanda graduated from high school, we took our Indian Princess tribe on a cruise to Mexico, which none of us will ever forget.  The details must remain in Vegas, but often come up within the tribe, all of whom attended her wedding in 2008. 

Also in 2008, the Great Recession occurred, and venture capital came to a complete halt. Luckily, we had started our Starry Night Winery well before that, but other than crush, I had a lot of time on my hands; so, we continued to travel, sometimes being away from our home for over half of each year for eight years. At right, we cruised in the Atlantic in 2010. The travel bug is a very jealous mistress! 

A friend told me to “see the world while you can still see!”   Having watched so many of my Berry tourists that waited too late to travel, I am eternally grateful that we did it OUR WAY!

We have proved the axiom. ”The family that plays together stays together!”