Click here to read story from beginning.
A note to readers of this story, my apologies but we have to do a backtrack here. It's been a while again since I posted, but I had to stop and reorganize my materials so that I could find my way through them all. I now have a spreadsheet of all that I have, so hopefully that will help. With this exercise I discovered a few things that I had completely missed. One is this letter that Grandma received.
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A letter, dated May 31, 1936, was sent to Grandma from the travel agency that had made the reservations for her globe trotting trip. The date must have been a typing error considering that she had left on the train on June 1, 1936. Perhaps the letter was written on May 1 or 3? There would not have been time for a letter to travel by mail from Omaha, Nebraska, to Stayton, Oregon, plus have time for her to reply with her final application and down payment in less than one day. She must have received the letter before May 31, because it asks for a down payment. She went on the trip, so obviously she fulfilled all the requirements.
Whatever the case, I had to turn to my friend Al Haunold again for a translation of the letter. Al translated it as follows:
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| the letter |
31. May 1936
Dear Mrs. Beitel:
Nothing has definitively been settled regarding the 2 cent mileage rate that you read about in the papers. The Eastern railroads resist to implement the 2 cent rate. Regardless, it would not have any measurable effect on the fare, because the longest stretch of your trip is from Oregon to Chicago on the Western railroads where the 2 cent fare already is in force. Besides that, you could also travel by bus from Omaha or from Chicago to New York which would be about half as expensive.
If you would want to wait until after June 1, it might be difficult to get space on any steamer because many steamers are already booked, as you can see from the enclosed brochure. Our suggestion, therefore, is that you might join our traveling group, go by rail to Omaha and from here, if you like, take the bus and thus the trip would not be too expensive. Several other customers are also planning to take the bus. The fare by bus from here to New York is only $ 21.85, or 37.85 for the round trip and the connections are very good.
Please send us your down-payment so that we can proceed with the reservations as long as cabins are available and we can continue to take care of all the other things for your trip.
With German greetings
VAL J. PETER TRAVEL BUREAU
sig. [hand-written signature] Val J. Peter
Grandma must have been checking to see if there was any way that she could get a better rate for her travel. They suggested a bus route for part of the journey, but apparently Grandma Cecile chose to go by rail all the way across the country.
Included with the letter is a clipping with some markings in red pencil:
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| attached clipping, note paper clip mark |
Circled in red on the left edge is "HEAVY BOOKINGS FOR SEASON SAILINGS". The rest is:
Advance bookings for the Summer sailings have been heavy. For June outward and late August and September returning we have many applications for the preferred spaces that we have been unable to satisfy. Requests for berths that we cannot assign at the moment are placed on the waiting list for attention when vacancies occur through cancellation. The waiting list receives careful attention and we do not fail to use every effort.....
At that point the clipping is cut off and there is nothing else. The message is quite clear. If you want to get on the ship, you'd best hurry and make your reservations!
For a closer view of the letter and/or the clipping simply click on either.
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If you have not read the other forty-some posts to the blog, the story would normally continue with Blog Post "14 - Suggested Itinerary - Around May 31, 1936". To read that post, Click Here
Story to be continued......
To read Post "48 - Sr. Agnes's Letter to Betty 21 June 1936" Click Here
