Friday Postcard: Barra in the 1940s

Hi all,

Well, my Mac up and died again. I am hoping that it once again springs back to life. Meanwhile, I am making due with my netbook.

Today I’d like to introduce a series. I’ll be presenting a number of writings and photos by Sid Alford, a friend of my father. Sid was married to a Brazilian woman, Olga, for many years, before she passed away. Sid visited Brazil many times, and loves the country as much as I do. He was a pilot in the days before overnight jet flights. When Sid was flying down, the flight wasn’t 9 hours, but days long. Sid belonged to what may have been the last generation of true adventurers. Our world is a tamer place now, and we are all a bit poorer for that.

Sid has maintained a blog quite consistently in recent years (a good example to me). I would like to share with you some of his writing and photos, from an  era slightly before our own.

Brazil is still an incredibly beautiful place. I can only imagine how special it must have been when Sid first flew down here. Imagine flying in an unheated, unpressurized cockpit for days, wihtout benefit of GPS, the flight engineer continually recalculating position and fuel consumption… Finally you arrive over Rio, its magnificent beaches sandwiched between the South Atlantic and cones of granite festooned with greenery. Then you begin your hard-earned furlough…

Here is the 1942 S-42 Sikorsky that Sid flew down back then:

.Just a tad different from flying today.

.And here is a shot of Barra de Tijuca in 1949:

.Barra de Tijuca (usually referred to simply as “Barra”, and pronounced BAH-hah) is within the municipality of Rio, but really is like another place. Barra exploded in the 1980s, and was modeled on the idea of a US suburb. You can actually find a miniature Statue of Liberty in front of the Barra Shopping mall!

But according to Sid, in the 1940s, only a dirt road led to Barra. Its beaches are still beautiful. How it must have been then!

Barra has better waves than most of the beaches nearby, and so is a favorite place for surfers and surfing neophytes.

Barra also will be the main venue for the 2016 Olympic Games. Maybe we’ll see you here!

Please excuse the irregular posting schedule as I contend with “technical difficulties”.

As a note, I received a nice inquiry from Aleks, who lives in Copenhagen. (The internet is wonderful, isn’t it?) He was asking about how the heck I relocated here and what I do for a living, etc. I’ll reply in an upcoming post. Let’s just say that, if you really want to start over, it is possible. I’m a good example.

See you soon (fingers crossed)!

Um abraco (a hug),

John

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