Five boys, one teacher on a road trip to Alaska in 1962

NORTH CANAAN — “Of all the great adventures undertaken since the dawn of civilization, one stands out amongst all others. It was shared by T.G. and the Boys who ventured from Canaan, Connecticut, in the Summer of ’62 — NORTH TO ALASKA — and back.”That unattributed quote is at the beginning of a scrapbook created for the 30th anniversary reunion of that trek, taken on what seemed to be the whim of a man who was a combination of brave and perhaps a little mad. In the years that followed, the five fortunate boys who took that adventure of a lifetime in the summer before high school came to realize their beloved former teacher, Tom Glennon, was in fact a particularly wise and generous man.“It wasn’t something any of us could have imagined doing at that time,” said Eugene Delaini. “Our world was Canaan. Tom showed us the world was so much bigger. He showed us what was possible.”The group included Ed Luminati, Rich Donati, Greg Perantoni, Bob Stone and Delaini. On the road they were known as Eddie, Little Buck, Tiny, Stein and Euge. Glennon was their science teacher at North Canaan Elementary School — and their fearless leader. They worked together on the garden Glennon started behind the school. It was a group that clicked. Years after the trip, Glennon would remember how well they all got along. In a series letters from the road that were published in the Connecticut Western News, there is a mention or two of having to referee a squabble. But they were apparently minor, the result of averaging 280 miles a day on the road.No one remembers exactly how the trip came about. A classroom book about Alaska seemed to be the spark. “We never really spoke of it except for that day,” Stone said. “Alaska had just become a state in 1959. It was all the rage to go there and we heard a lot about it in the news. Fairbanks, which was at the end of the Al-Can Highway, was the last frontier.”To this day, the Alaska Five remain in close contact, despite living thousands of miles apart. Glennon is given credit by all for giving them the courage to explore all the possibilities.“He gave us wings,” Delaini said.As they approach the half-century anniversary, the five still feel his influence on their lives, and are devastated at the thought that Glennon, in his 80s now, will probably not see it. He is bedridden in the Florida home he shares with his wife, Pat.Anyone who knew him, and that would be just about everyone who lived here over his decades in the area, knew him as an exuberant man who was always looking for a way to make the world a better place. He was a constant presence at Geer Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, where Pat worked and he volunteered.An orphan, he helped others“As incredible as the trip to Alaska was, I often find myself thinking about the little things Tom did,” Perantoni said. “I know of times when he would agonize over finding a way to help a kid who was having problems at home, and times when he would buy a warm winter coat for a kid that didn’t have one. I am quite certain there are many things he did that he will carry to his grave and none of us will know about.”Glennon had been an orphan, and the boys understood that this was part of what drove his compassion for children.While they were still in seventh grade, the boys were part of a group that went with Glennon to Quebec and Montreal. Stone said that trip may have been Glennon’s idea of a “shakedown cruise,” with its success encouraging him to go for something bigger.Stone said they really didn’t think he was serious. But while they were concentrating on finishing eighth grade, Glennon, still a bachelor then, was plotting and planning. With a few months left in the school year, the boys were set to raising money, getting odd jobs and holding car washes just about every weekend. Local folks were very supportive. Gas was only about 30 cents a gallon back then, but they would eventually log 15,071 miles — all of it in a brand new Chevrolet Impala convertible Glennon bought just for the trip. It was white with a sporty red stripe down each side and no seatbelts. The camping gear they would use nearly all of the 54 nights on the road was packed into a little Allstate trailer. On some of the rougher roads up north, they jammed four into the front seat to balance the load.Night falls at NiagaraThey left North Canaan before daybreak on June 18. With a goal to make the most of the trip — because who knew if they would ever make it out west again — they planned a route that hit many American landmarks. Night one was spent at Niagara Falls, where a severe thunderstorm gave them second thoughts about the adventure. Euge was found floating four blocks away from the camp site on his inflatable mattress. But with Glennon’s indomitable cheerfulness, and assurances that it had to get better, they pushed on to Chicago, Mount Rushmore, the Badlands, Devil’s Tower, Yellowstone Park and into Canada.Letters were written from the car, with Glennon dictating to one of the boys while he drove. They had general post office delivery along the route, and parents and friends sent letters and cash now and then, the latter gratefully used for the occasional restaurant meal and motel rooms with hot showers.On July 4, they reached Dawson Creek, British Columbia, and then set out on the Alaska Canada Highway. Known as the Al-Can, it was built during World War II to connect Alaska with the United States.Five days later, they were in Fairbanks, with nerves frazzled by a road that today could be featured in an extreme trucking reality show. It was still a dirt road back then, with about 1,500 miles of treacherous going marked by numerous daily accidents and run-ins with wild animals.A letter written on that last day on the highway reports that, “If nothing happens today this is how we’ll come off the Al-Can: two lost headlights, four nicks in the windshield, a lost fender from the trailer and one flat tire.”“We’d see something on the map, get there, and all you’d see is a gas pump,” Delaini recalled of the Al-Can adventure. “On the road, we saw lots of bears and moose, but it was the rabbits I remember most. There were so many and they would run across the road, hitting the car. We couldn’t help but hit some of them. There were lumps of fur all over the road.”Alaska’s wondrous beautyJust being in Alaska was a thrill for the group. They could not have imagined the wondrous natural beauty. They saw Glacier National Park, Banff and Jasper, and Circle Alaska and Fort Yukon, where they were greeted by Eskimos living as their ancestors did, with 24 hours of daylight and a flight in a Piper Comanche to the Arctic Circle. “The parks here, if they have any water, they don’t have hot water. It doesn’t sound bad but try washing with 35 degree water first thing in the morning, that’ll wake you up fast,” one of the boys wrote to his mother, going on to surely give her some gray hairs with: “In last 10 minutes had seen six bears and two moose.”Leaving the rugged beauty of the frontier they headed next to Seattle, where the Space Needle was debuting at the world’s fair.Then it was south to California and the giant redwoods, San Francisco, Big Sur, Los Angeles and Disneyland.The trip back included stops in Las Vega, where they played nickel-and-dime slots in the hotel lobby; and the Grand Canyon, where they lingered for about four days. They traveled Route 66 as far as possible on the way home.Small memories, small cigarsThe little things stick with them as much as the big things. They remember the little, smelly cigars Glennon favored and how they all got sick on one night when they talked him into sharing. They remember the time he was exhausted and let “Little Buck” drive for a bit on the Al-Can (he had been driving since he was 11). They were questioned by, according to Glennon, Canadian Mounties. They remember the crazy stories he made up at roadside cafes to explain why he was traveling with five boys.“I can’t help but think that if all the kids were like the five I have with me now, life would be rather easy. We vote on every decision. We have now traveled 12,772 miles and have enjoyed every moment,” Glennon wrote from the road.Pat, who married Glennon in 1963, was still in nursing school in Hartford the year before, but wrote to the travelers and followed the trip through the letters Glennon sent to his friend Ross Grannan at the local paper. “The stories and memories of his experience have been with us for 47 years,” she wrote in an email. “It has remained one of the highlights of Tom’s life and I am sure that he got as much out of the trip as the boys did.”She expressed her regret that they did not retrace those miles with their own two sons. But Tom Jr. plans to take his family next year.Impossible to recreateThese days, the first thought most have when hearing of the trip is how unlikely it is that it would happen today. There would be all sorts of concerns over insurance and intentions and such. “The boys” know how lucky they were that it was a different era. Their parents trusted Glennon and saw the value of what he was offering their sons. “Perhaps all of our parents just wanted us out of the house for as long as possible in the summer of ’62 and were grateful to anyone who would accommodate that scenario,” Donati said. “In reality, our parents supported the trip, as each parent recognized that this would be a unique, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for us. They were right!”Where are they now?All “the boys” are married and have forged successful careers in interesting fields.Delaini said back then, just making it through high school was all that was aspired to. “You sort of got stuck. You finished school and got a job. It was the confidence Tom — and just surviving that trip — instilled in us that kept us from getting stuck.”It was what gave him the courage at age 34, after working for years as a blacksmith and farrier, to go back to school and earn a master’s degree. He had a wife and two kids and people told him he was crazy; but he “forged” for himself a long career with Microsoft. He has traveled and lived in far-flung places — the “Glennon effect,” as he calls it — and is now “retired” and living in Costa Rica, where he has a farm.Stone does climate research at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Boulder, Colo.Donati lives in Florida, where he owns Mid-State Plastics.Perantoni found a career in computer technology.Luminati completed an Air Force career as a major, heading up a medical clinic. He revisited Alaska with his son, Jonathan.Instead of a 50th reunion with the Glennons in Tallahassee, a tree planting, in view of his old classroom at North Canaan Elementary School is planned for July 28. More details will follow in The Lakeville Journal.