family history archives - marian cont.

More Ramblings

[recorded 2/8/00]

I know I stopped last night with the early days of the war. I did remember Miles telling me that when the fire burned their building  - and I believe most of Seward - that he had a dresser in front of the window that had his chemistry set in it and that there were explosions and flames of all colors when the fire got to it.

My father may have come home briefly in those early days, but what I remember is Mother taking charge and getting us set up. The blackout soon turned to a "dim-out" and Dad was home at night. I was not allowed to make a sound while the news was on, but I believe that reverence for the news was started back in probably '38 as Europe began to fall to Hitler. I do remember Edward R. Murrow's droning voice "This is London..." with the explosions in the background. I remember Dad reading the Seattle Star newspaper in addition to the Times, because it had a distinctive pink front page. I think that may have been an indicator of its politics from what I've since read. I believe it went out of print in 1941, but you have to remember, Joe Stalin was an ally at that time!

I don't know when Dad went in the Navy, but he was commissioned as a Lt. Commander in the Naval Reserve. I think it was then that he was stationed in Tacoma and used to come home on week-ends. His uniform was of course very much admired. Some where in there my friend Karly Hansen's dad Willard went in the Navy and MaryLee Verd's father Wes. This meant almost all of my friends' fathers were in the service. Notable exceptions; George Marshall who was a partner at Foster and Marshall and Henrietta Chandler's father, an attorney, who eventually went to work in the shipyard in Kirkland where the Seahawks compound is. All these guys were in their forties (Dad born 3-4-1900) and of course Dad had been in World War 1. Dad told Mother and she repeated to me that he would rather be a veteran when this was over than a war profiteer. It was also, as we know, his nature to be in the middle of things.

Pivotal events were Mother and I going to New Haven on the train to spend Ned's 18th birthday with him. That would have been October of 1943. He had tried to volunteer for everything including the Merchant Marine but his eyes were too bad. He knew he would be drafted when he turned 18. He had gone back to Yale on scholarship for summer quarter 1943 so I guess he got in 2 quarters before he was drafted. He rode the train East with David Spellman who was going to West Point. His younger brother John would later be Republican governor for one term. The story was that the doctor left Ned alone in the office and he memorized the eye chart to get into the Navy. I remember the train trip really well. It was hard to get tickets at all in wartime and Mother and I shared a lower berth on the way to Chicago. The train was full of troops, most of them up in coach where I was not supposed to wander. I remember the cold wind between the cars and coming up through the toilet which dumped right out on the track, thus "Customers will please refrain..." Meals were really fancy with linen tablecloths and lots of silverware, also flowers on the table in non-tipping vases. You can well imagine the fascination all this held for your 8 year old mother, it still does! It was 3 days anyway to Chicago where we changed from the Union Pacific to the New York Central. Railroadman's granddaughter speaking here.

It was overnight to New York and Dad had only been able to get an upper berth for us on that leg. It had no window and was mighty chummy. It did have the little white hammock to put your watch and teeth in that I had believed initially to be my bed. Is that your Granddad's humor or what?

On to NY in the upper berth... I know we came into Grand Central and Mother somehow got the luggage and me on the New York, New Haven, and Hartford and off we went to meet big brother. I remember how very thin he was... his knuckles stuck out.... and that mother thought the hotel was crumby. It was the Duncan, but I can't remember the name of the nice one we stayed in after our visit to Bridgeport to see Aunt Gyppy and the cousins. They lived in that huge white Greek Revival house of which there are pictures at Tom and Jeanie's. I liked my cousin Sally a lot who was 9 mo older than I, hardly remember Sylvia, was leery of Sammy who was real creepy, and thought Tom was a major pest. Sam sneaked into my room one night with maybe a pet rat or something like that, and when I screamed for my Mother he hid in a closet and she couldn't find him. So, of course I'd dreamt it. Sure. He came out after she left and let me know I was never safe!! He was a creep.

We went back to New Haven and went to the Yale-Army football game. There were a couple of really famous Army running backs whose names I forgot, but we saw them run all over a weak Yale team. Much grumbling about a football team of choice playing against a war-depleted one. It's a bit hard to realize today, but in those days of gentlemen and truly amateur sports, the Ivy League was a football powerhouse. Dartmouth was regularly the top team in the East.

After that, we went to NY and visited Uncle Morgan and Aunt Lucy Blydenburgh at Smithtown, LI they were in "reduced circumstances" living in a three-story house with only one servant, but we went to see the estate they'd lost and it was incredible. There was a lake on it with swans and like miles of lawn and landscaping. Their house was crammed full of antiques and when that estate was settled, there were museum buyers with the antique dealers. She gave me some figurines which have somehow disappeared long since. They seemed very old and fragile to me and I was supposed to be quiet and I mostly liked the back "servant's" stairs.

We then went back to the City and visited someone else in a big Manhattan apartment by Central Park. I think it was Lydia and Al Parker, she was Mother's cousin. Then back on the train with a stop-over in Chicago and home again. I'm not sure where Dad was or how long this trip was, but Toddy stayed with the Helsells. I was supposed to do school work and did to some extent and I remember I got to give an oral report when I got back and I'm sure I was a royal pain about my trip. It amazes me that Mother would take on such an itinerary with an eight year old but I don't think she had any choice. It was the only time she got to the East Coast from the time of her Father's 25th reunion at Lehigh to when we went back for Ned's graduation in 1949. More about more prosaic times on the Home Front later.

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