CONGO TO SACRAMENTO, 1955–56

September 8, 2026 seanjlogandd6dc7bfd1

We left Stanleyville [now Kisangani] on 10 June 1955 on a Sabena DC-6. After a brief stop in sweltering Khartum, we arrived in Cairo at 2 am the next day but it was not until 4 am that we bedded down in the Continental-Savoy Hotel. Later that day, we hired a dragoman to take us on a tour: the Giza pyramids where both Tom and Liz rode camels; the Sphinx; the Cairo Museum where we saw Tut’s treasures (that Tom was to see again, years later); and of course the Moski where our guide permitted us to enter only those … Continue reading CONGO TO SACRAMENTO, 1955–56

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BUKAVU

September 8, 2026 seanjlogandd6dc7bfd1

1954–55 Some Notes on Our Stay in the Belgian Congo, 1954–1955 The following notes are written for our children Tom and Liz, and we hope that they may also be of interest to our grandchildren. Both of our kids were old enough to remember the events of our stay in the Congo, but we suspect that they may not remember dates or time-sequences. We hope that they will remember Bukavu and Kivu Province with the same fond memories that we have. Once Zaïre became an independent nation, almost all of the place names in French were changed to names in … Continue reading BUKAVU

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AFTER THE WAR — MONTEREY-LINDSAY-FRESNO

September 3, 2026 seanjlogandd6dc7bfd1

I got out of the Navy in June 1946 and went to Jeanne’s home (the “Steffins House”) in Carmel while job-hunting. A 2-week trip to LA, visiting oil companies produced nothing at all but I did get a job with California’s Dep’t of Highways (now “Cal-Trans”) as a junior engineer working on a remodeling of Fremont Ave. in Seaside and Monterey. It paid rather well and I took (and passed) a state examination that gave me the title of “Junior Highway Engineer” and I came in no. 33 out of some 300 taking the exam. I was not then an … Continue reading AFTER THE WAR — MONTEREY-LINDSAY-FRESNO

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U.S. NAVY — SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIALS

August 9, 2026 seanjlogandd6dc7bfd1

Operation Olympic More on the Typhoon of Jan. 1946 We should not have been caught in it at all. Something went wrong with the Navy’s weather forecasting system, and we had a couple of days of great misery. Six LSTs in 2 columns of 3; madly pitching, rolling and yawing; almost impossible to maintain station. To avoid damage, gyrocompasses were turned off and secure — only one ship at a time kept its gyro operational and the other LSTs tried to keep station on it. On the LST-569, our steel mast was whipping around so powerfully that we feared it … Continue reading U.S. NAVY — SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIALS

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THE NAVAL CAREER OF LIEUTENANT JOHN A. LOGAN, 1944–1959

August 8, 2026August 10, 2026 seanjlogandd6dc7bfd1

Note to the reader: It appeared to me that my grandfather, John Logan, wrote part of this as a diary followed by a narrative. To highlight his narrative, I have put it in block quotes. If the readers have any comments please share. Now on to the story! Sean Logan On 29 May 1944, I was sworn in as Apprentice Seaman #8884894 in San Francisco, along with a couple of hundred other guys. We were put on a train for an overnight trip to the U.S. Naval Training Center in San Diego where we were about to begin the operation … Continue reading THE NAVAL CAREER OF LIEUTENANT JOHN A. LOGAN, 1944–1959

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BERKELEY, RICHMOND AND ON TO THE NAVY

July 30, 2026 seanjlogandd6dc7bfd1

After getting out of Cal, I could not find work as a geologist and took a lousy job as a surveyor’s assistant with the Southern Pacific Railroad, making $135 a month. Jeanne and I moved into a cruddy apartment in the extreme south of Berkeley on Grove St. next to the city limit of Oakland. Being quite dissatisfied with that job and after a few months with S’n Pacific, I was able to get another job at Richmond Shipyard no. 1, an enterprise of Henry Kaiser, that was building “Liberty cargo ships” for Great Britain, the latter country being at … Continue reading BERKELEY, RICHMOND AND ON TO THE NAVY

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UC–BERKELEY, 1936 – 1941

July 16, 2026 seanjlogandd6dc7bfd1

Barrington Hall was a very large, 3½ floor apartment building on Dwight Way near the UC campus. It was bought by a student-owned cooperative and was run as an all-male boarding house. Some 350 men took meals there, of whom 175 lived in the building, mostly in 5-man, 3 room apartments. Fees in my time were $17.50 a month plus 4 hours of work a week, with an additional $6.50 a month for rooming. In my first semester at Cal (Fall ’36), I was unable to live there and stayed in a room in a private home a few blocks … Continue reading UC–BERKELEY, 1936 – 1941

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A TEEN-AGER IN CARMEL IN THE 1930s: Recommendations for Historical Research, Carmel-by-the-Sea

July 15, 2026July 15, 2026 seanjlogandd6dc7bfd1

The items listed below may be important to our Village’s history, but I am not aware that they have been researched or properly described. 1. Sculptor/painter/illustrator/writer Jo Mora was one of Carmel’s artistic assets. When the Carmel Dairy opened in what is now the Mediterranean Market at Mission and Ocean, Mora had painted a mural around the inside of the soda-fountain-cum-restaurant. I suspect that it may still be there, covered by more recent paint. If so, a treasure would be exposed during the mural’s restoration. 2. All old-time Carmelites remember Louis Slevin and know that he was a noted photographer. … Continue reading A TEEN-AGER IN CARMEL IN THE 1930s: Recommendations for Historical Research, Carmel-by-the-Sea

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A TEEN-AGER IN CARMEL IN THE 1930s – I Talk to a Movie Star

July 15, 2026 seanjlogandd6dc7bfd1

I spent a lot of time as a real young kid watching movies and have a keen memory of the films I saw even from an age of 8-9 years, in them old days of the silents. My heroes then were Chaplin, Chaplin, Chaplin, Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Raymond Griffith, Lloyd Hamilton, Leon Errol [I particularly remember his “Clothes Make the Pirate” that I saw in Ojai when I was about 6!], and of course my super-hero, super-comedian Douglas Fairbanks. Then my family moved across the country to Tulsa, Kansas City and Chicago, and I continued to watch my heroes in … Continue reading A TEEN-AGER IN CARMEL IN THE 1930s – I Talk to a Movie Star

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A TEEN-AGER IN CARMEL IN THE 1930s

July 12, 2026 seanjlogandd6dc7bfd1

Memories written a half-century or more later John Logan What follows is a draft. The first 20 pages were written during the period 1991–1995 and this reprint was made in 2002. Many revisions (and even some deletions) are needed, and I may do that job someday. It should be evident that a number of people named in this draft are no longer with us and many of the identified stores or buildings have been replaced. I do not plan to make revisions or deletions for those listings. For openers I am making these notes in early 1991 and apologize for … Continue reading A TEEN-AGER IN CARMEL IN THE 1930s

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MY EARLY YEARS

July 10, 2026July 10, 2026 seanjlogandd6dc7bfd1

I was born in Los Angeles on 12 Feb. 1919. Until adulthood, my family celebrated my birthday on the 12th, but when I obtained an “official” birth certificate in 1944, it stated the 13th. Although I believe that I was born on Lincoln’s birthday and that the attending MD erred by one day in his filing, I have used 13 Feb. for many years for legal matters only. My father was Menifee (“Fee”) Jackson Logan: my mother, Margaret (“Peggy”) Francis Gard, and I’ll refer to my parents, below, by their nicknames. Although born in LA and having spent my infancy … Continue reading MY EARLY YEARS

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Appendix C – Nili Olay’s Memior

February 27, 2026May 10, 2026 seanjlogandd6dc7bfd1

Life in Israel: I was born in Tel-Aviv on October 25, 1944, to Cypora Besser Olej and Leon (Aryei) Olej (I later changed the spelling from Olej to Olay). When I was born, Israel was not yet a country, the land was called Palestine, and it was ruled by Britain. Therefore, my birth certificate is actually in English rather than Hebrew. When my mom and dad were first married, in 1939, they lived with my grandmother, Mindle (my dad’s mom) and my dad’s two unmarried sisters (Sara and Esther). All five adults lived in a 2-bedroom apartment. I believe that … Continue reading Appendix C – Nili Olay’s Memior

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