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Story so far: Grandma Cecile had planned her trip to visit her relatives back in her home village of Nieder-Mohrau, Czechoslavkia. She had crossed the country by train, from Oregon on the Pacific coast to New York on the Atlantic coast. Her diary entry covering her final day on the train, the day in New York City waiting to board the ship and the beginning of the ocean voyage was not written until the next day, June 6, when she was finally at sea.
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Passing the time walking about New York City and Central Park on June 5, Grandma Cecile did take the time to write a postcard to mail back home. She addressed this card to her young daughter, Betty, foremost. Perhaps that was because June 5 was Betty's 12th birthday, even though she does not mention that in her message.
Here is the postcard and its message:
Postcard of Grand Central Station
Postmark: New York, NY Sta K
June 5 3-PM 1936
Addressed to:
Miss Betty Beitel,
Stayton
Route 1 Box 207
Dear Betty & all the Rest.
Arrived here safe & sound but tired at 7:40 this morning. My baggage is on the boat already. If I can I will write from the boat but maybe on the other side. M.
Notes about the postcard photo in upper left corner of the card:
GRAND CENTRAL RAILROAD STATION, at Forty-Second Street and Park Avenue, is the New York terminus of the New York Central and the New York, new Haven & Hartford systems. This tremendous engineering feat, often compared in magnitude with the Panama Canal, was completed in 1913. Two hundred and thirty thousand people swarm through it daily.
Photo credits - printed vertically between the note area and address space
- Lumitone Photoprint, New York - Made in the U.S.A.
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| Back of postcard |
One item worth another look. Grandma signs the note "M." An educated guess would say that M stands for mother/Ma.
Grand Central Station was the terminus of the rail system that Grandma Cecile had taken from Chicago to New York. She had to find her way from Grand Central to the dock. Besides being a historic site, it is still a very busy train station, with over one million people passing through its halls every day. For more information about Grand Central, check this article on Wikipedia. To see more images, old and modern, visit this link.
The discoloration on the postcard is smoke damage from the house fire that these materials went through in 1985.
I have a Grand Central station story of my own to share with Grandma Cecile.
In 1981, I was traveling on vacation with my cousin Diane. We had come down to NYC on a train and were headed for Philadelphia. We got off our train in GCS and transferred within the station to a Greyhound bus for our next leg. We were amazed to find ourselves on a big bus with NO other passengers as we headed out of one of the largest cities in the country!
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| Diane's photo of me on the bus |
The bemused driver watched those two young ladies bounce around his bus and eventually asked us where our luggage was. We had assumed it was on the bus as we had checked it through when we boarded the train. Finally we realized he wasn't joking. Long story short, that nice bus driver made a few phone calls when he got to the next stop (New Jersey by then) and located our suitcases, still sitting on the dock in Grand Central. Two days later, our suitcases caught up with us again. Nothing was missing and all was well, but we did visit the beach in New Jersey having to wear the same clothes that we wore on the train!
That incident did give me a healthy respect for the size of New York City. My hat is off to Grandma for her ability to find her way around the city on foot!
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Story to be continued......
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