Dancing In a Jar (7 page)

We will miss you this Christmas but I am working hard not to let that ruin my first Christmas with Don. We will find all the happiness we can and hope we don’t get beach rocks in our stockings.

Love,
Urla

P.S. Give big hugs to Sturdy for me.

P.P.S. I forgot to tell you how the whole town’s prayers came true. Remember I told you about the men put in jail for smuggling during the Prohibition? Well, the
Which One
arrived in the harbor a couple of days ago to great fanfare! The men had spent twelve days in jail before a well-known mobster named Vannie Higgins managed to get them free. That will tell you who is benefiting from the Prohibition!! Probably just as well that is now over. Mr. Louis had a joyful reunion with his children and brought back with him a barrel of apples and a radio, the second one in town. The first one belongs to the Catholic priest!

24 Wayne Pl.
Nutley, New Jersey

December 23, 1933

Dear Donald and Urla,

We received your Christmas letter yesterday although there was no card attached, so I don’t know if that will come later or got lost in your local post office. I hope you two can get through Christmas without too many lonely moments.

We have our turkey and all the trimmings set for dinner here with Howard and Edith, Aunt Meta, Uncle George, and Kenneth. I am sure we will see the Crammonds at church on Christmas morning. Then, on the 27th, we will all head into Radio City for the Rockette show.

I hope your trip to the French islands was successful and we look forward to the perfume and cigars. That may be a perfect way to send the furs you promised when you left. I hear there are plenty of beaver and mink pelts about the place. Don’t trouble yourself though, my darling.

We sent your card early and took your advice on not sending presents. We don’t want the government to take any more of our money with those crazy tariff charges.

Love to you both,
Mom

1934

St. Lawrence, Newfoundland

January 7, 1934

Happy New Year, Mother and Dad,

I can hardly believe we are into 1934 as we finish up the twelve days of Christmas in our little town. We were hardly expecting this kind of celebration in a place that is struggling so much. But a celebration it has been.

On Christmas Eve, we joined Mr. and Mrs. Giovannini and the children at mass at the Catholic Church. Everyone walked, greeting others as we went around the harbor. Drawn by the lights of the church, eventually we could hear vespers being sung. The entire town attended this service as the priest went by boat the next morning to tend to other communities. The mass was sung in Latin (Don said it was all Greek to him) and the whole experience was highly ceremonial.

At home that night we put up the tree after the children went to bed and woke in the morning to their squeals and the beautiful smell of balsam fir. Don surprised me with a box of French candy and produced a bottle of champagne just before dinner. I have no idea how Mrs. G managed such a grand dinner for all of us, but we ate like kings with two large chickens, salty navel beef, roast potatoes,
pickled beets and cabbage. It was all topped off with a sherry trifle. How wonderful to share that day with this special family. I gave Don one sock that I had managed to knit surreptitiously, and he laughed sweetly but reminded me he is a biped!

Starting that evening, there was something on every night up until January 6, the feast of the Epiphany. Christmas here is a twelve day affair with every day offering another round of music, story telling, singing, dancing and going from house to house where every night the food and drink seem to multiply.

Don had been very excited to get the new pumps installed at the mine just before Christmas and soon realized that would be the extent of the work from the men until today. It was wonderful to watch him have a break too and he became a very popular dance partner in the evenings!

The story telling left me fully enraptured. At times I would just stand and stare while this inexhaustible flow of words came pouring out from someone’s mouth, regaling the room with some incident from the other side of the harbor or down the road or anywhere that really isn’t very far at all but gets the attention of some global event. The audience gives back to the storyteller everything he needs to be encouraged.

It’s like there is no other way or no other means for keeping everybody together in that room at that time so the flow of words continues and no one wants to miss out or make a sign of leaving.

There’s much more to tell of course but I will get this on the next boat. I’m looking forward to hearing the news from home so hopefully our letters will cross over the Atlantic.

Lots of love,
Urla

Bucknell University
Lewisburg, Pennsylvania

January 8, 1934

Dear Urla,

I can hardly believe I am back at school already. Christmas went by so quickly and of course it wasn’t the same without you at home. Granny Crammond and Dot and Bill came for Christmas dinner, which was uneventful as always. We saw the Poynters at church but Mrs. Poynter never makes an effort to look our way. Maybe our Scottish heritage really seems to bother her. Mother is not amused!

My excitement was going to Broadway with Vanessa and William. Moss Hart and Irving Berlin have a masterpiece on their hands! The theater was full to capacity and it’s a great sign that the Depression is finally behind us. Ethel Waters and Marilyn Miller were terrific, but to be honest, I was so excited sitting next to William that it could have been a high-school band on stage. I am crazy about him, Sis, and I just hope he feels the same. I told Vanessa and I’m hoping she will grease the wheels of our romance.

Classes are back with a thud and we are now taking Arts Appreciation, hardly my forte.

Lots of love to you and my favorite brother-in-law,
Ivah

St. Lawrence Corporation Ltd.
Room 1116, 120 Broadway
New York 5, NY

January 6, 1934

Dear Donald,

I hope this finds you well. I had hoped to have better news on the financing front although I have yet to give up hope. I’m making progress with the Wayne Bank, otherwise there are very few interested in supporting an independent mine. Almost to a man, they advise me to sell the licenses to a large mining venture and secure financing that way.

As a result, you will have to approach your merchant fellows and ask for an extension with the wages until I have better news. I will leave it up to you what you tell them exactly, but my guess is we will have to encourage them to advance credit to the men until we can sell the fluorspar in the spring. This is not ideal, but I know you are the man to keep everyone moving in this direction.

I think you will also agree it would be wise to delay building you a new house until we get some of our ducks in a row.

I want you to know I haven’t forgotten our agreement on your shares in St. Lawrence Corporation. My suggestion would be to formalize things when I’m ready to declare dividends.

Otherwise, I hope you and your beautiful wife are coping well. Mrs. Siebert and I enjoyed a wonderful Christmas season and spent a few days with friends on their estate in the Hudson Valley. The weather was mild, but I hear now some snow has accumulated.

Best,
Walter

St. Lawrence, Newfoundland

January 7, 1934

Dear Mom and Pop,

Happy New Year to you all. We received your Christmas card just as we were recovering from our own twelve day celebration. We both loved the Courier and Ives painting on the cover, which made us both nostalgic.

I surprised Urla with some fancy French food that I picked up in Saint Pierre. It was the perfect addition to our Christmas day dinner. Mrs. G produced her own loaves and fishes story with a table worthy of a king. Urla surprised me with a sock knitted by her own hand—a new skill courtesy of our next-door neighbor. I’m hoping the second one comes before the winter is over.

You would be very proud of your son’s popularity during the dances. I have never danced so many squares, and these people can go as long into the night as the rum lasts. But the most entertaining for both of us is what they call mummering. Without warning, there is a knock on the back door and in they come, a group of five or eight, dressed in all kinds of regalia, faces blackened or shielded from the host. They sing, dance, and play music all the while we have to guess who they are. This went on every night of Christmas, and you could hardly believe there are enough people in this town to fool you but fooled we were. Then all hands have a drink and something to eat and off they go to another house to try their luck. Apparently, it’s an old English custom started on Boxing Day, which is known as St. Stephen’s day here.

Still waiting on word of financing from Siebert. We are so close now to getting ore on the wharf that I don’t want to lose momentum.

We are going through what everyone here says is the worst winter in years. We already have about three feet of snow on the level and up to ten feet in the drifts. Snow doesn’t fall here but comes in absolutely horizontal on the high winds. The sun is very low in the
sky. Every morning someone will announce if we have had “frost,” which is another way of saying freezing weather. Ten degrees of frost is ten below zero.

Dorothy and Bill sent us a subscription to Colliers as a Christmas present and three of them arrived in yesterday’s post. They have finally directed my Popular Science magazines to this address so we have plenty to read at the moment. I suppose by now you have had notice about the Saturday Evening Post. I hope you folks like them and can share them with Howard and Edith.

I joined Father Thorne last evening for a good chat and his favorite evening beverage, which happily also happens to be mine. Radio reception was excellent and we enjoyed Amos and Andy holding forth on the qualities of Madame Butterfly.

Speaking of radio: Mother, I must ask you to be careful about what you say in interviews. I know you were thinking only the people around you were listening but you must remember that almost 50,000 native Newfoundlanders live in Brooklyn today. So your comments about us being in a very primitive place are now circulating in St. Lawrence. Josephine, the daughter of Mr. Turpin, our local customs officer, has just returned from living there (on Fourth Avenue near Greenwood Cemetery). So it didn’t help our cause to have your views making their way from house to house. Plus, I can’t afford to be on the bad side of the customs officer.

Hope gifts arrived from Saint Pierre and the New Year is treating you all well.

As ever,
Donald

St. Lawrence, Newfoundland

January 30, 1934

Dear Ivah,

So happy to get your letter and I hope studies are going well.

I had to write you today because I know everyone wonders how I fill my days, yet I can’t imagine being any busier than I am right now.

I think I told you I have met two sisters my age, Gertie and Ena Farrell. They come calling most afternoons to go for a walk if the weather allows or just to sit and chat. They are both gifted piano players and sometimes we spend an hour playing and singing. They are very worldly given their isolation here and I continue to be amazed by this. I am hoping once Don is finished with the new sewing machine that we can use it to rework some clothes into the latest fashions.

Last night, Mrs. Giovannini and I went calling to the neighbors and found there was a party at the house and what a party it was! The house looked dark from the outside, and inside there were about thirty young people—all good dancers. We danced square dances for hours then ate partridge soup, homemade bread and butter, three kinds of delicious cake and tea. Around one in the morning, we started playing games, and at three a.m. we were having the last square dance!

Don and Mr. G knew the time we got home and I’m sure we will never hear the end of our short visit at the neighbor’s.

As much as I love being here with the Giovanninis, I am looking forward to getting our own house. I want to establish some good patterns early in our married life and to take care of my own nest. Siebert had promised to build us one, but now this snow is firmly on the ground and I don’t see that happening.

By the way, snow that falls here stays until the end of spring. It doesn’t get pushed or removed and everyone accepts the isolation, as
they do the cold. I sometimes wonder if the lack of questioning and simple acceptance doesn’t lead everyone to greater happiness.

Hope you are finding lots of happiness these days and I look forward to new reports on this William character.

Lots of love from your very busy sister,
U

St. Lawrence, Newfoundland

February 15, 1934

Dear Mother and Daddy,

I haven’t heard much news from either of you, so I hope that means you are okay but the post office is simply shut down! Here we don’t have to worry about that because it’s simply a matter of bringing your mail to the coastal boat. In fact it is in the harbor at the moment, so I hope you don’t mind that I will be quick with my requests.

First, I have learned to turn the heel on a sock, so I am ready to go to greater production. Would you mind sending me some 4-ply wool in navy or gray so I can continue with my newfound passion? Don finds the local wool to be a little too scratchy for his tender American feet!

Second, I have taken on a small group of girls in a reading circle and I’m in desperate need for some books to pass around. I have five bright young women who were forced to leave school early to take care of their siblings, in some cases due to the death of their mother. I can’t imagine their double tragedy. Two of them, Florence and Kathleen Etchegary, told me their father simply said, “Today will be your last day at school so pack up your desk and bring it home in your book bag.” No more warnings than this. They told me they walked home around the harbor with their heavy book bag hitting their legs, and with every step they cried.