BY T.D. SHOUDY
'It's been forbidden fruit for so long, and now we're allowed to go and see the people and see what's going on.'
STAFF PHOTO BY ADAM ANIK
Clarence and Lois Crawley soaked up art and music, sun, fun, food, and friendships, and returned with memories and a few souvenirs of their latest trip, a week in Cuba with the People to People exchange program. They bought ceramic tile during a studio visit with nationally acclaimed artist Jose Fuster.
- Merle Lomrantz
Ask Clarence and Lois Crawley if they like to travel, and they will pull out a manila folder containing notes, itineraries, and paperwork documenting their adventures.
Together, the
Montclair couple have been all over the world - Spain, Africa, Greece, Italy, China, France, to name a few places.
But they hadn't made any major travel plans to celebrate their Jan. 20 golden anniversary.
That was until the Newark Museum offered an opportunity to go to Cuba with a group of about two dozen people from Jan. 21 through 28. And this would be quite a different experience from most of the couple's previous trips. For the ordinary American, going to Cuba is more involved than just booking a trip.
Last year, President Obama lifted certain restrictions on travel to Cuba, and Americans are now allowed to visit with "People to People" educational exchange programs.
"The museum, they offer so many different trips, and when I saw this one ... I thought, this isn't some place we can go to every day. I knew we couldn't get in on our own," Lois Crawley, 71, said.
Merle Lomrantz, director of Member Travel Services at the Newark Museum, said she immediately thought of the Crawleys, given how much they love jazz, and how jazz is "part of the spirit of Cuba," noting, "They went and they loved it. Their enthusiasm is contagious."
The museum has been offering People to People trips since October, Lomrantz said. "It's been forbidden fruit for so long, and now we're allowed to go and see the people and see what's going on. Their arts are thriving. Their culture is thriving ... Cuba right now is on the tip of everybody's tongue."
The Museum, of which the Crawleys are members, offered the trip through California-based Cuba Cultural Travel, which was granted a People to People license by the U.S. Treasury Department.
"You can go, but you need to find a tour company to get you there," said Michael Sykes, president and owner of the company.
"The idea is not to take them down the tourist trail," said Sykes, noting that groups of only about 20 people go at a time.
"They [Cuba] have well over 2 million tourists a year in a country that has 12 million people," he said.
The Treasury Department has issued about 120 People to People licenses since regulations were announced by Obama in 2011, according to John Sullivan, spokesperson for the U.S. Treasury Department.
Another way to travel to Cuba is under a general license, which covers purposes such as religion or journalism, or if an American has a close relative living there, Sullivan said.
Clarence and Lois Crawley, who have been living in
Montclair for 41 years, said they were not hesitant about traveling to Cuba.
"We just felt good about it," said Clarence Crawley, 74.
"The nature of a vacation is not to have questions over your head," he added. "Why would I pay an amount to go to a location where there's a question mark in terms of us being in harm's way. There are a lot of other places we can visit. We haven't even scratched the surface.
"We were just looking for that day to come."
They stayed at the five-star Hotel Parque Central, where they were greeted upon arrival by an anniversary acknowledgment, champagne, and cake.
The next day, they participated in a walking tour of Old Havana.
Lois observed beautiful old buildings, nice places to eat, and cultural shows. "They had a fabulous ballet that had just come back from touring," she said.
The couple saw jazz performances, visited two synagogues, and went to a maternity hospital for at-risk women. They went to a children's after school program, and took gifts of pencils and paper.
They also felt safe. "There's like no crime," Clarence said. "There's no thought about any harm." Lois added, "I was just as safe as I would be in
Montclair."
She said it was fun to see old American cars, some of which are used as taxis. "Old classic cars like you would see in a parade in
Montclair," she said.
The couple also took in an art history lecture, and one about the complexities of present-day Cuban society.
"It's important for Cubans to know what we are like, and conversely it was important for us to know what Cubans are about," Clarence said.
They observed many little bodegas on the streets, and an air of friendliness and relaxation. "You hear music coming from their houses, and people would bring their chairs out at night and sit on their porches," Clarence said.
And they weren't the only lovey-dovey couple in Havana.
"We saw a lot of lovebirds," he said. "Young people were very affectionate toward one another, whether they were sitting in a park ... or out by the water."
According to information he received during the trip, Clarence said, there's an energy among young people.
"There is that feeling that something's on the horizon.
"The young ones are looking to the future ... They're not aspiring to go to Miami. They want to stay and develop what they have there."
Because of some restrictions, some items could not be brought back to the United States, Clarence said. "I could buy all the rum I wanted, but I had to drink it there, as well as the cigars," he said.
But they were able to bring back pieces of art, clothes, books, and shirts for their grandchildren.
While neither speak Spanish, they were comfortable traveling with a group, which is how they have always preferred to travel when going outside the country.
"There's that comfort and there's that relying on the professionals," Clarence said.
The couple met at a friend's party in Newark in 1961, said Clarence, a retired IBM Corporation business planner who also is an actor, performing in commercials for companies like McDonalds and American Express. Lois is a retired Pezro company merchandiser, he said.
To do all the things they've dreamed of, they have always been good about managing money.
"Life is precious. You have to have a financial base," said Clarence, adding that he hopes he and Lois can serve as a model of success.
"There are black middle-class persons who stay married. Are married 50 years. Let's get it out there," he said.
"This is something where they can say, wait a minute, we can work toward this ... We don't have to have a life full of problems.
"We were able to work and develop, and build."
http://www.northjersey.com/travel/143852596_Couple_celebrates_50th_in_Cuba.html
