Dear Dad, (May/June 1944?) As I write we have been at sea four days. The weather has been beautiful but much of the time I am below, unable to enjoy it. I was not badly seasick but felt distresses and thought of you and your trip to (unclear) when you were so terribly ill. Today […]
I grew up in one of two floor-through apartments on the second floor at 535 East 82nd St., just off East End Avenue. The five storey brownstone was part of “The Astor Houses, ” a block of buildings extending from 533, 535, down to the corner and then several more facing East End proper running […]
After 1910 and before his death in 1913, J. P. Morgan arranged for the consolidation of many smaller lines into the mighty New York Central Railroad. Unlike The Hudson and New Haven branches, The Harlem/Putnam was single track, non electrified and not very profitable line. At first, it had run from just north of New […]
Coincidentally, in 1912, two children, Justine and Carl, were attended the 1st grade class of the Public School on Arch Street in West Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Although they each remember the classroom, neither of them made enough of an impression on the other to be memorable and it may have stayed that way forever. My […]
Late in 1924 my father, R.C., began staying up nights alone in his attic bedroom searching the airwaves for radio signals. He was eighteen years old and waiting to begin college. I would discover this interest in radio only after his death when I found this Radio Log & Call Book which he had kept […]
R.C. Builds a Radio Late in 1924 my father, R.C., began staying up nights alone in his attic bedroom searching the airwaves for radio signals. He was eighteen years old and waiting to begin college. After his death I found the Radio Log & Call Book he kept back then and had carefully preserved as […]
My Grandfather had had a disappointing Autumn. He had taken a position, poorly paid I’m sure, but hoping for an opportunity, in the up-start organization, working outside the New Hampshire Republican Party to help elect Theodore Roosevelt as an Independent, President. This “Bull Moose” campaign only succeeded in splitting The Republicans and ensured the […]
Dearest Mother. I suppose you will receive a letter from Aunt Hattie before mine reaches you. I came down to M (arblehead) The day after I wrote you and talked it over with Aunt Hattie and Grandma (Delia Wightman). I told them that the university physicians had advised me to give up college.They cheered me […]
In the fall of 1903, two years after being accepted at Harvard, my grandfather found his way to Cambridge, took up lodgings, met his professors and discovered, with his new classmates, that they would now and forever be branded as members of the Harvard Class of ’07. So, now he was one with his […]
“Don’t marry money — Go where money is, then fall in love.” My grandfather, always quick with advice to others, offered this homily to his son some years later. It was at the Preston Hotel that my grandfather followed this advice for the first and apparently only time in his life– to the letter– with the […]
Marblehead, Mass., March 19, 1899 My Dear Nephew Ray, You see from the purple ink that I am writing in Uncle Henry’s study. He is reading nearby & it’s pouring outside as it has been doing all day. I was very glad to get your nice letter, and had […]
84 Rue D’Assas, June 10, 1890 My darling Father & Mother, Here I am safe and well in this great and beautiful city. I reached here last evening about 6.45. One of the teachers from this school came to the station to meet me. She is a pretty dark haired and eyed girl and seems […]
