My first US Passport was issued in 1972, and it had space in it for my wife and all of my children. Of course, at that time I had neither wife nor children, but if I had, they would not have needed their own passports.
“My first US Passport was issued in 1972, and it had space in it for my wife and all of my children. Of course, at that time I had neither wife nor children, but if I had, they would not have needed their own passports.”
What is so strange about my passport, but what was accepted at the time....see below....
My daughter, husband, and I visited Berlin. The wall was up. I left my daughter, who was a toddler, with friends in the West, while my husband and I visited East Berlin for a few hours.
Before leaving Checkpoint Charlie to cross the wall into the East, our military police took a permanent marker and scratched out all my personal information I had written on the first page of the passport. The rules were that our military could visit the East, in uniform, but dependants could not. Thus the elimination of my name, address, etc. Because our MP’s thought it was fine, we proceeded to the East.
I was held and questioned for at least 1/2 hour while trying to cross the wall and re-enter West Berlin, but I pretended not to understand German and eventually they let me go. I have to admit my heart was thumping!
I used the same passport to re-enter the USA a few years later....no questions asked. Can you imagine what would happen in today’s world if info on a passport was crudely scratched out with a black permanent marker?