A Good Age: He taught world geography for 30 years. Now retired, he travels the world

SCITUATE – More than 50 years later, Larry Kramer talks about his first travel experience with excitement as if it were yesterday.

"It was pivotal – that is where my love of travel began," he says.

Larry was 16, a high school junior in Detroit, eager to escape routine life for the summer. His parents arranged for him to spend 10 weeks on a kibbutz in Israel.

"I can still feel how incredibly excited I was to feel the speed build up in the El Al plane as it took off from New York," he says. "For a minute you're thrown back in your seat from the force of lift-off and then you think, 'Oh my God we're in the air.'"

In Israel, he worked on a collective farm with people of many different backgrounds from all over the world and came home a changed young man. He had a desire to continue to travel and learn.

Kramer, who turns 70 on Aug. 6, has been traveling in one way or another ever since. The following summer he drove with friends some 11,000 miles across the country in seven weeks in Robby Wachler's new 1970 Pontiac Bonneville. He saw the Badlands, Glacier National Park and Yellowstone National Park and acquired a memorable case of poison ivy.

That fall, he was off to college at Michigan State University, where his travel adventures spurred him to major in the social sciences and environmental education. It was the start of Earth Day and the environmental movement; he read "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson and went on to teach science, social sciences and world geography for 35 years, all in Braintree, where he also was president of the Braintree Education Association for 17 years.

After he retired from East Middle School in Braintree at age 57 in 2011, Larry has spent much of the past 12 years traveling across this country and around the world, often with his wife, Nicole Kramer, 71, a retired middle school teacher of French and Spanish.

They've been to France, where her father was born, to Israel, Greece, Costa Rica, the Canadian Rockies, Vancouver, Italy and Southeast Asia.

The couple's most recent trip, to Alaska in June, was a special thrill. It fulfilled Larry's lifelong dream of going there; he has now been to all 50 states in the U.S. as well as 35 countries. He was so hooked by the terrain and the vistas that he's going back to Alaska in September for three more weeks by himself.

While he often travels alone, he has done many trips with Nicole and others through educational grants and fellowships, including to Japan.

Passionate about learning to understand other cultures and peoples, he has a few suggestions for others seeking similar adventures in retirement.

"My biggest tip about traveling is don't just go somewhere in a vacuum," he says. "If you hear about a great place, do some research. Read about where you are going, so you have a rudimentary foundation. Then go from that. As we used to tell our students, learn the common salutations: Please, thank you, where's the bathroom."

He doesn't enjoy cruises, loves driving and gets a kick out of learning about a new culture and mapping out his own itinerary. He gets on the computer and the phone. For the Alaska trip, he chatted informally with a travel agent in Calgary whom he knew from a previous trip in 2012.

"You google B&Bs, you call them, you ask a lot of questions, you call the chamber of commerce and ask, 'What do you recommend?' I love doing this, talking to people."

"I do nothing," Nicole says happily. "I like listening to him on the phone."

Larry began putting together their Alaskan itinerary last February.

In early June, they flew from Boston to Anchorage, picked up a rental car, stayed two nights at the House of Jade B&B, drove to Seward to stay two nights at Sourdough Sue’s Bear Lake Lodging in a yurt. They drove to Whittier for one night, then took a five-hour ferry ride across Prince William Sound to Valdez for one night.

They continued on to Glennallen for two nights, then on to Fairbanks for one night at Heritage House B&B. They drove to Healey and stayed three nights at Lakeview Inn outside of Denali National Park. They drove to Talkeetna and Denali State Park and spent one night at the Denali Lookout Inn B&B. They returned to Anchorage and stayed again at the House of Jade for one final night and flew home the next day.

"The many activities and adventures were beyond great," he said.

The Kramers have two sons, David, 39, and Jeffrey, 36, and four grandsons they enjoy having over. The couple met as students at Michigan State University in 1973. He graduated in 1976; they were married and will celebrate their 47th anniversary in August. After college, Nicole spent a year teaching in France and then taught middle school for 11 years in Hingham before joining the Braintree system for 19 years.

In retirement, she has become a talented photographer, with books of their travels. They lived in Hull and Marshfield before moving to Scituate in 1992.

Gladys Laughland turns 105 in Kingston

Congratulations and admiration go out to Gladys Laughland, of Kingston, who turned 105 on June 23 at Wingate Residences at Silver Lake in Kingston and enjoyed a small party.

Gladys is a World War II Air Force veteran who last year was presented with Kingston's Boston Post Cane, traditionally awarded to the town's oldest resident.

Tani Bingham, life enrichment director at Wingate at Silver Lake, said state Rep. Kathleen Lanatra presented Gladys with a proclamation last Friday, making June 23 "Gladys Laughland Day." Eleven Family members, including her great-grandson and her great-great-granddaughter, were there. The birthday cake came from Peace of Cake in Plymouth.

Gladys still gets out to lots of activities, including the Memorial Day Parade in Kingston, her daughter Linda Ryan, of Kingston, said.

Gladys continues to inspire all ages and what a great smile she has! Best wishes for another good year, Gladys Laughland.

Calling all oldies but goodies game for some updates

Summer brings vacation time and summer assignments and that can be an opportunity to re-run some of readers' favorite Good Age columns from the past – with updates and legacies.

I hope you'll enjoy revisiting some of the many great older folks who have graced this column with wisdom and a refreshing perspective. Is there someone in particular whom you remember and would like to see again? Let me know!

Reach Sue Scheible at sscheible@patriotledger.com.

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This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Retired Braintree teacher Larry Kramer has 2nd career traveling world