Margaret recalls a story of the Well's fine set of sterling silver. When the Japanese invaded Thailand, they had to flee. Wells, at the time, was a headmaster at a boy's school in Chiang Mai. Teachers at the school snuck out and secretly buried the…
Peggy tells of the time the Landons lived in Indiana. She tells of the house they lived in and recalls the mahogany desk which she remembers her mother sitting and writing.
Peggy tells of the summer of 1942 in which the Landons moved to Washington. Margaret would join them a little later, as she stayed behind to take care of the moving and packing.
Peggy tells of finding out that she was to have another sibling. Margaret was shocked to find that Peggy and Bill were quite excited at the prospect of a new baby.
Peggy tells of the birth of her new sibling. She also recalls the house-hunting process in which, when they found their house, they simply knew it was the right one!
Brad was amazed at how Kenneth and Margaret had made a living. He was especially amazed at what Kenneth was doing as professor of philosophy, then when he entered the government, and when Margaret soldAnna and the money began to flow in. He couldn't…
Brad would visit Kenneth and Margaret in the city, but would always leave his car at the edge of town and ask Kenneth to come pick him up (he was afraid of driving in the city). His visits were marked by snide remarks and usually ended in a difficult…
Kenneth recalls his time in Wilkesboro visiting with Uncle Henry and several of his cousins. Henry was a Colonel and Kenneth enjoyed going around with him because people were friendly and respected him.
When Kenneth was a student at the University of Chicago under A. Eustace Haydon, he was "a very conservative Calvinist" and Haydon was one of the two leading humanist philosophers in the U.S. Kenneth would challenge Haydon's premises, which Haydon…
In 1947 Kenneth was invited to give the Haskell lectures at the University of Chicago. It was one of the six most prestigious lectures in religion and philosophy in all of the US. A week before the lectures he loaded his material and came to Chicago…
Kenneth was invited to give the Haskell lectures because A. Eustace Haydon, his doctoral supervisor, was retiring and wanted Kenneth to succeed him. He told Kenneth that he will never forget him, and went on to tell how he would prepare for his class…
Kenneth gave a dinner for the people in the department of religion at the end of his Haskell lectures. People came and they chatted for a while before Kenneth invited everyone to have dinner. He had prepared for it the best he could, but still he had…
Kenneth's book based on his Haskell lectures, Southeast Asia: Crossroad of Religions, was published not only by Chicago University Press but also by Oxford University Press, as his two previous books had been.
Kenneth speaks of the three books he has written. All of them were "primary studies" that had never been made before. Siam in Transition was a seminal study that all subsequent studies had to begin with, "whether they liked it or not." His second…
Kenneth tells of the scholars on Southeast Asia who built on his work on the region. A man named Skinner, a professor at Cornell, studied The Chinese in Thailand, and came out with his own book on the Chinese in Thailand (Chinese Society in Thailand,…
Ernest Griffith, of American University, called upon Kenneth one day near the end of 1964. He explained he had two professors who would be going on sabbatical, and that there would be a gap in the program and they hoped Kenneth might consider.…
Starting in 1965, Kenneth began work as a professor at American University while also remaining a full-time employee of the State Department. At the end of that year, he retired from the State Department, moving full-time to work at American…
As Kenneth had worked two jobs, receiving two full time incomes over the past year, in 1965 he was able to fully pay off the mortgage on the 4711 Fulton St. house in which they lived.
Kenneth received, through some persuasion, a three year contract at American University. He was instantly chosen to set up the Center for South and Southeast Asian Studies. The program was quite successful and active, as Kenneth was quite up to date…
Kenneth started from scratch in building the center for South and Southeast Asian Studies at American University. He wanted it to be a top notch program, and brought in many high-quality professors to teach Sanskrit, Hindi, Thai, etc. There were…
One of Kenneth's Ph.D. students thought Kenneth was a phony. He thought his stories were contrived, and that he didn't really know what he was talking about. Upon graduating, he found that Kenneth was legitimate in his stories, and Kenneth received a…
Kenneth describes the period he worked at the University as a period of student unrest. Many protests occured, and he recalled speaking to large groups of people who were ready to disagree with him angrily. After making a slight joke, he eased the…
Kenneth tells of the "Pentagon Papers". Through the course of things, Kenneth was interviewed and appeared on CBS and the Cronkite show. A. Eustace Haydon saw the interview and sent him a note saying "Memories of happy days!"
Kenneth describes "Kenneth P. Landon Day" which was held in Columbus, Georgia in his honor. It was at this time that he had a conversation with Carter for quite some time, as he was thinking of trying to become the President of the United States. The…