I'm always hesitant to write about more obscure memories. After all, just three months after putting this site up for the first time, we already have a nice amount of traffic in the form of reminiscing Baby Boomers. I don't want to discuss things they don't remember, but on the other hand, maybe they've been looking for info about the same obscure factoid. So here goes.
I was unable to find ANYTHING on the web about Commander Whitehall's Explorer's Club. So I'm operating on memory alone. Fortunately, my memory is pretty good.
Mrs. Cox, my third grade teacher, introduced the class to the Explorer's Club. It cost about $5.00 a month, and a child would receive a box in the mail filled with genuine treasures from all over the world.
When your eagerly anticipated package would arrive, you would rip it open to discover a flexi-disc record, a brochure with pictures of the featured land, and, best of all, a trinket from that country!
I was in the club for six or seven months before dad decided that $5.00 a month was too much to spend. But during those months, I learned a tremendous amount about other nations.
Commander Whitehall would narrate the record, filled with sounds of the land he was in at the time in the background. It was killer stuff, and it wasn't unusual to listen to the recording ten of fifteen times while playing with my monthly treasure.
I can recall three of the items I received. Apparently, Commander Whitehall was actually touring these countries, because all of the ones mentioned during my too-short membership were in South America. I got a set of pan pipes from Peru that looked just like the pictured ones. I also got a "pipette" as he called it, a miniature non-functioning pipe with a person's face carved in the bowl. And I got a little drum-on-a-stick that you operated by twirling between your hands. Sadly, I don't remember what countries the latter two delights came from.
I also recall that dad got into a fight with the Explorer's Club when he tried to quit. They sent a final package that he didn't want to pay for. All he got was letters demanding payment, because we were living in rural Missouri at the time, and didn't have a phone yet!
But despite dad's bad experience with Commander Whitehall's Explorer's Club, it is still a precious memory for me, and it made me curious enough about geography that I grew up to be one of those exceptional adults who can pick out South America on a world map ;-).
Comments (4)
I don't remember the explorer club but I had a similar experience ordering a "Crimes and Punishment" Time/Life book club and every month they'd send a book that covered various crimes of the century (Lindbergh baby, etc.). For 3 mos. they sent us one book a month with a bill for $10. Then in the 4th month, they sent 17 books at once and a bill for $170.00. Boy was my dad pissed off and he spent a ridiculous amount of time figuring out how to get those shipped back. Now that I think of it, I have many memories of my dad trying to undo things I had signed up for (especially record clubs).
Posted by Wesley | February 26, 2007 9:36 PM
Posted on February 26, 2007 21:36
Wow-What a flashback! I remember getting those fabulous packages from all over the world and racing into the sanctuary of my bedroom to listen to the floppy records and check out the treasures from places I'd never heard of. It infected me with the bug and as an adult I travelled all over Central America. Wish I could find more on the old Commander!
Posted by Kaye Jones | October 22, 2007 12:21 PM
Posted on October 22, 2007 12:21
Good grief!
I can't believe that I found someone who remembers Commander Whitehall's World Explorers Club. I received the boxes in the mail each month for nearly two years back in late sixties-early seventies?. The pan flute, the drum thing that you twirl between your hands. I still have a little brass bell that the Commander sent to me. The little paper thin records were great, too. I remember that a few came from countries that no longer exist (Ceylon, for example). After a while, the country boxes ran out and Commander Whitehall moved off into other directions. There was a box with foreign coins. Another contained fossils and shells (including a shark's tooth). My personal favorite from these was a box that introduced us young explorer types to rocks and minerals. It included a small lump of asbestos (a mineral used to make fireproof clothing!). That was nearly forty years and twenty countries ago for me. I wish I had that stuff (with the exception of the asbestos sample).
Posted by Eddie Suttles | March 27, 2008 11:36 AM
Posted on March 27, 2008 11:36
I also had searched for information on the Commander and found nothing, until your post on the subject! I couldn't remember the name of the club. Still have some of those flexi-discs packed up somewhere. It has been over 30 years since I looked at or listened to them. Not sure if I still have the twirl drum on a stick or not, but did have it for many years. I recall receiving the very same things Eddie Suttles mentioned in his post, so we were likely in the club during the same time period, which was late 1971 to early 1972. I didn't realize about the asbestos, though I do remember a little crumbly thing being included in that bag of rocks. The bag of stamps was interesting too, and I have those packed up.......somewhere. I'm curious about whatever happened to Commander Whitehall. Remember when he was on Mount Everest? I could almost feel the wind howling on that flexi-disc as it muffled the Commander's voice. I need to dig out those disc's and give them a listen, if they survived storage.
Posted by Iggy Who | October 31, 2008 8:52 PM
Posted on October 31, 2008 20:52