Memories of East Pakistan by Mark Hotchkiss (Son of Ken and Joy Hotchkiss)

I am going to join the conversation in bits and pieces from my memory,

a little at a time. I have a lot of both and so does my family.

My father and mother are Kenneth W. and Joy R. Hotchkiss. I am Mark. I

was six years-old when I arrived in Dacca, I think in the fall of

1963. In the first photo, I am the blond kid in the front. I always

drew a crowd wherever I went while there. My brother David (now

deceased), my sister Deb, and my brother Bob round out the crew

roster. It was a blistering hot and humid day. I remember it and the

jeep ride to Dhanmondi.

We left Dacca in the fall of 1965. I remember crying for a long time

when the plane took off. I loved living there, but I was only eight.

Now that I am older, I understand why my mom was relieved we were on

our way back to Minnesota.

Ken and Joy are still active, but slowing up a bit, and they will be

in touch through me. I will try to contribute a photo or two and a

memory now and again.

I can see Road 22, Dhanmondi and my ride to the Dacca American Society

School, both old and new sites, in my head pretty well. For some

reason, the experience is still very vivid to me.

I have to comment on Donna J. Moore’s piece from Nepal: One of the

greatest vacations my family had while in East Pakistan, was to the

Pokhara Valley:

We took a DC-3 from Kathmandu to the valley and landed on a grass

runway. We stayed in an open air hostel with a small courtyard in the

middle with the Annapoorna range. While there, my whole family hiked

about 13 miles, I was told, into a Tibetan refugee camp. Attached are

just some of photos. You can see my brother David sipping some tea,

Deb in the green wrap and red socks, me in the gray jacket, and Bob in

the foreground looking back. I remember playing “secret agent” with my

brother on some rocks near the grass runway for the DC-3. What an

adventure.

Here is a picture of Ken and Joy relaxing at home in Hotchkiss, Colorado during May 2011.  The town's name is genuinely coincidental to where they settled.  (Picture taken by Mark Hotchkiss.)