BROADCASTS.com

b'Guido Adelfio on his passion for travel - \\n"It\'s hard work. It\'s a lot of energy to fly to Europe for three days, do stuff the whole time, and fly home and head right back to the office, but I love it. The beneficiaries of that are our clients."\\n\\nGuido Adelfio, Global Travel Expert, Bethesda Travel\\n\\nA Ockershausen:\\tWe have a special guest here today for Our Town. A man who knows Our Town and probably knows your town and their town and every town. It\'s Guido Adelfio from Bethesda Travel, a very, very dear friend of WMAL for so many years. Guido, where did Bethesda Travel start?\\nGuido Adelfio:\\tGood morning, Andy! \\nA Ockershausen:\\tWe did that already. \\nGuido Adelfio:\\tWe did that?\\nA Ockershausen:\\tIt\'s not morning, it\'s night. \\nLa Familigia, Antonio and Margaret Adelfio, and Bethesda Travel\\nGuido Adelfio:\\tThanks for having me. Bethesda Travel started in a dream of my parents. In 1961, my father was working for Air France. \\nA Ockershausen:\\tHe had been in the Italian Air Force.\\nGuido Adelfio:\\tHe had been in the Italian Air Force. He was trained as a lawyer. They met in Capri, believe it or not. Got married here in the States. Went back to Italy. I was born. Back to Canada. \\nA Ockershausen:\\tI\'ve been to your place where you were born, if you remember that.\\nGuido Adelfio:\\tThat\'s right. That\'s true.\\nA Ockershausen:\\tI loved it.\\nGuido Adelfio:\\tThen, we stayed a few years in Canada. He got his law degree. Came to the States, practiced as a lawyer then started working for Air France. He was doing very well. The way I heard it, I was a child at the time, there was a promotion. Well, the French guy got the promotion and the Italian guy was left sitting at the desk. He said, "The heck with this. I\'m going to start my own business." That was in December of 1961.\\nA Ockershausen:\\tOh my god . . .that\'s 70-some years ago. \\nGuido Adelfio:\\tWell, not quite, but ...\\nA Ockershausen:\\tFeels like 70 years.\\nGuido Adelfio:\\tAlmost 60. \\nA Ockershausen:\\tGuido, but did he start in Bethesda?\\nGuido Adelfio:\\tIn Bethesda, right on Waverly Street. If you\'re familiar with the Vamoose Bus?\\nA Ockershausen:\\tYes.\\nGuido Adelfio:\\tWhere it stops on that same block, we had a rented office. In the day, it was the Suburban Trust Bank Building. Nearby, you had the Hot Shops. No metro yet. Bethesda\'s really changed.\\nA Ockershausen:\\tYou mentioned two businesses that don\'t exist anymore.\\nGuido Adelfio:\\tCorrect.\\nA Ockershausen:\\tSuburban Trust and Hot Shop.\\nGuido Adelfio:\\tThere was also a Dart Drug.\\nA Ockershausen:\\tThat\'s what happens.\\nGuido Adelfio:\\tThere was a Dart Drug and a Grand Union. There was a Grand Union. A lot of stuff.\\nA Ockershausen:\\tGuido, when he started in the business, it was a different world, of course. He was on the ground floor of what was going to be the future, is travel. \\nGuido Adelfio:\\tCorrect.\\nA Ockershausen:\\tI mean, people who help other people travel.\\nGuido Adelfio:\\tAbsolutely.\\nA Ockershausen:\\tHe was really on the ground floor.\\nWhat Stamps Had to Do With It\\nGuido Adelfio:\\tWhen he was in University, he had two experiences, actually, three. One as a child. His uncles had a shipping agency. They used to bring home, this was a kid in the \'30s in Italy, Mussolini was in charge. They used to bring home stamps from all over the world, decorated stamps. Sri Lanka, Brazil, Finland. As a child, that wakened him up that there was a world outside of Palermo, Sicily.\\nA Ockershausen:\\tAmazing.\\nGuido Adelfio:\\tAbsolutely. That woke up his imagination. Then, after the war, he went in the Air Force. Then, he was in University. At that time, he had two jobs. One was, I think he thought he would meet more girls, but he got a job at the fledging Club Med that started right after the war as a tour guide.\\nA Ockershausen:\\tA Club Med!\\nGuido Adelfio:\\tTaking people, French visitors, it was called "Club Maaseik," at the time. This was \'48, \'49. Then, he morphed that into a job at the train station in Palermo assisting travelers who had com...'