The Foreign Service Journal, January 2005

J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 5 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 29 F O C U S O N R E F L E C T I O N S T HE G OOD O LD D AYS t may sound silly now, but I am coming to realize that 22 of the years between 1956 and 1986 — the period that constituted my career in the Foreign Service as a consular officer — were really the “good old days.” I didn’t think of them as so good then, but compared to what the life of a consular officer must be nowadays, they seem to me to be absolutely golden. Many of us then thought of what we were doing as something of benefit to our country. We saw tourist visas as a way to enable others to get to know the country we were proud of — and help the U.S. economy in the I D ESPITE ALL THE PRESSURE AND UNPAID OVERTIME REQUIRED TO HANDLE THE CRUSH OF VISA APPLICANTS , A RETIRED CONSULAR OFFICER HAS FOND MEMORIES OF HIS CAREER . B Y F REDERICK D. P URDY Jim Nuttle