Siam: Kenneth on Trains, Time, and the Thai

Siam: Kenneth on Trains, Time, and the Thai

Kenneth speaks of all the traveling he did. His parish extended from the Malay border up to Chumphon, and he really toured his parish. That meant he traveled by train, by dugout canoe, by elephant, by bullock cart, by foot, and by any other way he could get around. He remembers the experience of some villagers who wanted to take the train but had no sense of time. After they missed the train twice they decided to spend the night at the train station. That was their first experience with the modern sense of time. Right about then, the Swiss were dumping excess watches at a very reasonable price, and they discovered that the bigger the face, and the cheaper the price, the easier it was to sell. These Thai, with their skinny wrists, wanted great big watches. And then the village people began to get on to this modern sense of time

Landon, Kenneth (1903-1993)

July 4, 1927

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LC59-01

Over a course of 13 years Kip Landon (Kenneth Landon Jr.) began recording stories from his parents, Margaret and Kenneth Landon, resulting in 95 hours of recordings. Beginning on July 20, 1976, recording finished in June, 1978. The project resumed again in 1982 for a few months. After a long break, the third recording period began in 1988 and concluded in March 1989.

Kenneth Landon (1903-1993)

5:10

Box 78: Item 1: Oral History: "The Landon Chronicles" Tapes 55-60

Hour 59, clip 1

Sub-Series 8: Audio and Video

Series 1: Biographical