Pete and Mabel's Trip to the 1933 World's Fair and Beyond
By Bruce Shawkey
My grandparents traveled by auto to the 1933 World's Fair in New York. It must have quite a journey on so many levels. To my knowledge, they never ventured very far from their home in Lodi, Wis. Also, consider there was no Interstate Highway in those days, just two-lane roads. I wondered if they even had a road map, or just went "east," following Grandpa's innate sense of direction. I don't know what car they drove; presumably there was 27,875 miles on the odometer. They took someone with them named Ella, who I assume was Ella Marfelius, who my grandparents mentioned several times, but I never met, at least to my knowledge. In any event, here is the log/journal that Mabel kept of their journey (with annotations in italics).
"Left Lodi 7 a.m. 27,875 (miles on odometer), August 20, 1939. Ate dinner at LaGrange, Ill. Not very good service. Slept first night in cabin near Ft. Wayne. We cooked bacon and eggs without inquiring and later found no cooking allowed. We traveled 343 miles.
"Left cabin 7:30 Monday a.m. Ate dinner at Haysville, Ohio (population 382 in 1930). We drove 342 miles and our very big interest was East Liverpool where we crossed the Ohio River and then the scenery was beautiful. Near Washington, Penn. were coal fields and mining. Then Brownsville was an interesting town in the valley and three tiers deep up the side hill were residences. We had a cabin about 2 miles east of Brownsville which made us 2,100 feet above the level of Brownsville.
"Left cabin at 6 bells without breakfast. No water. Ate toast and coffee at Uniontown, Penn. We drove 100 miles thru mountains practically all the way. Beautiful scenery and good roads. Stopped for steak dinner at Hagerstown, Md.
"Got to Washington Tuesday at 3 bells and got a room at Cairo Hotel for $4 plus car stored. We rested an hour after cleaning up and took a taxi uptown to see a movie. After having supper at Neptune room (very ritzy; Pete had no coat or tie), saw Stanley Livingston at a theater. Had a fair night's rest on good beds.
"Wed. Aug 23
Ate breakfast at Cairo Hotel. Had pancakes and left on tour at 10:00 to see Wash. D.C. Saw Arlington Cemetery and unknown soldier's grave. The Hall of Fame Bridge over Potomac with Lincoln Memorial on one end and Washington Memorial on the other, Then we passed all the state and Federal buildings.
Near Baltimore, a darky drove up and asked for time. He came up again and said 'Did I cut that red light, ma'am?' I said I don't know. Checked out of hotel at 12:30 and started toward Baltimore on Highway 1. Stopped to eat a hamburger on the road at Hot Shoppe. We drove 120 miles through town most of the way. We saw hundreds of negroes and negro apartments in Baltimore. We found a tourist home on the outskirts of Philadelphia for $2. We ate supper at aroadside stand. Left our tourist home at 8 bells and got into lots of traffic around Philadelphia. Followed Highway 1 all the way to Holland Tunnel which was beautiful. Ate dinner at restaurant near Fair. The tolls for tunnel 50 cents.
"At Chicago. was better. We went into World of Tomorrow in sphere on a revolving platform. Found very interesting. We stayed 'til 11:30.Walked about 10 blocks to our room.
Fri. August 25
Went to Fair around nine bells and found General Motors and stayed in line in rain for an hour to see the World of Tomorrow 1960. It was very good with a lecture on a revolving platform with two seats and loud speakers. Just got in line to escape a hard rain storm. We are still in GM waiting for it to stop raining. We finally made a beeline for a bus and got one to (can't make it out) and took in Bill Robinson in Hot Mikado and also Billy Rose Aquatics International, which were both swell. We also saw a girl froze in a cake of ice come home with wet feet.
"Bought cards in a.m. and mailed to friends. Got home at 12 bells and expect to start to NY City. Left around 8:30 and drove in lots of traffic up to Wash. Bridge and nearly drover over it by mistake. A cop helped us out to get back so left our car in storage and took a taxi into town for $1.70 for 3 some class. Got room at Dixie Hotel at $2.50 per (night?) some more class Ha! Ha!
"Got a sight seeing bus for $2 per person to see N.Y. Saw Times Square, Woolworth Building, Empire State Building, Aquarium, and docks where large boats leave harbor and through slums where we saw men sleeping on sidewalk steps then to push carts to a district where everything was sold from carts from soup to nuts, even second-hand toothbrushes and false teeth. The seller paid $15 per year for a stall.
"When we went through slum district, people hollered at us and threw rotten bananas at our bus. At the docks, we saw the Statue of Liberty on the water. We went to the Fulton Fish Market where we needed a clothespin for smell. The little church around the corner performs at least 10 marriages a day and before wartime as high as high as 84 in one day. We saw Brooklyn Bridge and approach to Holland Tunnel through which we traveled before. We saw where the richer apartments were and they pay $38 a year for the hedge so nobody but those few could use it. They were also sure that no one could build any business places around this square park. We plan to go to show tonight and leave N.Y. Sun. a.m. We saw "Good Girls Go To Paris" and a gangster picture with Ralph Belamy.
I forgot to mention about the slums and poor district in the Bowery, "The Land of the Forgotten Man" where the city gives out 6,000 meals a day. We could see the men all around who were unemployed. We also saw stock exchange which had the windows barred and all dark from outside. In slums we saw a man selling boiled corn and putting butter on with a paint brush and sercing on street.
Sunday a.m.
Left our hotel around 8 bells. Ella went to church first and ate breakfast on corner of 43rd St. Checked out and took subway which went fast and we didn't know how far we had to ride but discovered the stations were marked if you looked hard enough you read the signs we went to 68th St. where our car was stored. We drove out across Washington Bridge in to New Jersey and are now in the Catskill Mountains on Highway 17 in New York State. We traveled 222 miles on Sunday and had beautiful scenery and good roads. We ate dinner at a tearoom in Middletown N.Y.
Had a good dinner and also had car greased. We drove on over more pretty scenery and all along the Delaware River most of 100 miles. We stopped near Waverly and cooked our supper and had a heck of a time to make Pete believe the stove was empty. The cabin was lovely with sink and lavatory and double bed and cot. Just had a grand time getting supper and breakfast. Left at 8:30 Monday a.m. Niagara Falls. Drove 194 miles today and got to Niagara and saw the falls on the Canadian side. Got across Whirlpool Bridge and paid 35 cent toll and had to make out a permit from our title and the cops looked over our baggage to see what we had thwn let us go on. We got a glimpse of the beauty of the Falls but will see them better tonight. We have a nice cabin and have cooked our supper of potatoes, corn, and steak.
Will see them by lights. We walked all along the park where there are beautiful flowers in designs, one of which read "God save the King." Swell hotels and eating places so you can see the Falls. There are hundreds of people here waiting for it to get dark for the lights to come on. We wanted to mail some cards and found that our cards have a two cent stamp on over our stamp on place they wouldn't take our check so when we went to buy groceries the store manager took it and gave me all Canadian money. At night we saw colored lights on the Falls and it goes beyond any description of beauty. We stayed for 2-1/2 hours and walked all around the gardens, even a rainbow to complete the picture.
When we got home, Ella stole some big apples and cooked sauce for breakfast. We slept well and got up early and filled our Thermos and made sandwiches so we wouldn't have to stop for dinner. We are on our way to see the quints (I assume she means the Dionne Quintuplets). We drove through Toronto and took just one hour to drive through. We ate our picnic dinner along side the road in a picnic park and started on. We traveled fast as we could but bad roads delayed us some but got to Callander (Ontario) just in time to get in with the last bunch to see the (Dionne) quints. There were hundreds of people watching them as they played. We pass through a building and they are in the center of a big play yard. We can see them but they can't see us. We hurried so all day that when we got there and found we still them that when they opened the gate I missed my step and fell head first through the gate.
We are now in a cabin at North Bay, Ontario. Left cabin around 8 a.m. and rove through miles and miles of poor land and miles of road construction. Ate a hamburger at Sudbury Can. where they make copper and nickel. Stopped at Webbwood (Ontario) for gas and they have free lights from a natural waterfall. This section around here has the largest nickel and copper mines in the world. Miles and miles of what seemed to us wasteland and stony hills. We drove over 280 miles and got to Sault Ste. Marie by 5:30 and found a swell cabin outside of the city and cooked our supper and went down to ferry landing which we expect to take Thurs. morning.
Souvenirs from the trip
Comments
Post a Comment