N.Y. / REGION
Teacher, Tour Guide and Author
By KATE STONE LOMBARDIOCT. 15, 2000
ROBERT GLOBERMAN'S days of leading group tours are over, but he has his memories. Like the plane in Turkey that almost departed leaving half his group behind. And the tour bus that sank in the mud. There was the aging widow on a tour of India who became so enamored of a young man from Jaipur that she decided to stay behind to pursue a second chance at love.
His clients were generally pleasant, educated, open-minded travelers, Mr. Globerman, 71, said. But there were also those he calls ''the clients from hell.'' Like the woman who decided to get her hair done instead of visiting the TajMahal. The chronic whiner -- who complained that one hotel was inconvenient because it was not centrally situated, and another was too noisy, because it was in the center of the city. Or the client who for two weeks explained that she was far too sophisticated and independent for group travel. And those who, remarkably, found the trips ''too foreign.''
''Probably the most important trait you need as a tour guide is a sense of humor; you couldn't do this without it,'' Mr. Globerman said. After a decade guiding nearly 70 tours, he offers truisms like this one: ''If you want things as they are at home, then home is where you should be.''
Mr. Globerman, a tall, affable man who retired from leading tours last year, has written a book, ''Bags Out at Seven -- A Tale of Too Many Cities,'' in which he describes his experiences. (The book was published in July by Xlibris Corporation, and can be ordered at .com/bookstore.)
Guiding tours was a third career for Mr. Globerman, who has lived in Westchester all his life. Growing up in Ossining, he caught the travel bug as a fourth grader, while turning modeling clay into pyramids.
''It set this idea in my head that one day I'd visit Egypt,'' he said. ''I lived vicariously on the oak seats in the Ossining Public Library, just dreaming about foreign places.''
His first foreign trip was not auspicious. As a college graduation gift, his mother took him to Mexico, where, after drinking the water in Acapulco, he became violently ill.
After earning a degree in commercial art from Syracuse University and a master's in art education from Columbia, he returned to Ossining to become a high school teacher and, later, coordinator of the art department of the Ossining public schools.
After retiring from the school district in 1983, Mr. Globerman started a second career as an adjunct assistant professor of art history at Marymount College in Tarrytown. There he began leading groups on weekend tours to historic houses as part of his art and architecture classes.
As an art historian, hegave lectures with slide shows at libraries, churches and clubs. He was frequently asked whether he led tours to the places he described. One evening, while speaking about Egyptian art, the question was raised again.
''As usual, I answered, 'No, I don't,' '' Mr. Globerman said. ''From the rear of the auditorium, a small elderly man yelled out, 'I've been following you all around the county, listening to your programs. Somebody always asks you if you lead trips and you always say 'No.' When the hell are you going to say, 'Yes?'''
Mr. Globerman was so intimidated by that outburst that he asked all those who were interested in traveling with him to leave their names and telephone numbers. He never again heard from the man who shouted out, but the names he collected grew into his first tour, which was to Egypt.
Eventually, his mailing list grew to 500. He formed a company, named it Globetrotters and researched his trips meticulously, offering orientations before every tour. He developed a core group of clients who traveled with him annually.
In his book, Mr. Globerman reveals several personal travel quirks. He has left underwear, he says, in every corner of the world. He refuses to wash underwear when he travels (or to take it back home dirty), so he buys it cheap and throws it away when he leaves a city. This odd practice has the salutary effect of leaving extra room in his suitcase for souvenirs.
His purchases from years of travel crowd his home here, making it look, Mr. Globerman said, ''like the U.N. gift shop.'' Among the artifacts are stuffed alpacas and other llamas from Peru, a wooden sculpture from Bali, a horse made of oxbone from China, a dagger from Israel, an elephant prodder from India, a delicate bird carving from Russia, pillows from Thailand and much more. Large trays, Moroccan mirrors and even chairs have made the journey home in his suitcase.
Mr. Globerman said he was now looking forward to spending more time with his wife, Regina, and his two children and two grandsons. Though he is retired, Mr. Globerman still fields weekly phone calls asking him to lead just one more trip.
''There's always a temptation, just as there is when I'm asked to teach again,'' he said. ''I'm tremendously flattered, but the long answer is no. I've had enough of the leading. Now if I travel, I want to be spontaneous.''