Red Headed Stepchild
(The Barrett family memoir of Navy Life)
by Sophie Ruth Meranski with photos
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June 22 text;I have been researching whether someday it will be possible to remove mass from the sun. to keep the earth habitable many millions of years longer, and energy sources for long term human survival. Do you know of anyone interested in the problem, at NASA or universities or privately? Names, addresses, and E mails of interested persons will be appreciated. In 1992 I read the Caldeira-Kasting NATURE article estimating that the sun becomes about ten per cent warmer every billion years, and about 1995 I attended a talk by James Kasting at Harvard, which was hosted by Professor Heinrich Holland, the paleosol specialist. [Professors John Imbrie and Warren Prell of Brown University participated in discussion. I have been interested in the problem whether life on earth can be prolonged by removing mass from sun. It appeared extremely difficult for space ships to penetrate close to sun's surface, but April 7 I realized that heating the surface of the sun would increase loss of mass in solar wind. It will take a great deal of energy to achieve optimum effect, but the time frame would be very long. Fusion powered lasers, reflectors or greenhouse gases to reflect sun's own energy, magnetically contained anti-matter, disruption of sun's surface to expose hotter interior gas would be strategies, or beaming energy from hot objects in deep space or using nearby brown dwarfs as hydrogen source for fusion all come to mind. Since 1996 I have been at 113 West. Third St., Port Angeles WA98362-2824. . I have written a series of essays on future of sun and life on earth- In the essay below please note nine NUMBERED Energy sources - 1. Fusion Powered Lasers orbiting sun 2. Reflectors around sun 3. A greenhouse gas around sun to warm its surface - this probably would need to be contained by a strong magnetic field to keep it in place 4. Antimatter - magnetically contained - probably manufactured in deep space as a means to bring energy here in 'storage' 5. Disrupt relatively cool sun surface 5500 degrees Celsius and expose hotter layers beneath deeper 6. Develop technology to beam high energy long distances from far away hot objects - periphery of black holes and neutron stars - possibly bend the intense beams of pulsars 7. Find nearby sub-star "Brown dwarfs" that probably exist within two or three light years from earth and utilize their hydrogen or hydrogen clouds in space for fusion. 8. Oort cloud comets within half a light year from sun as hydrogen source. 9. Design heat resistant space ships. Three other points - In this essay you will see discussion whether helium concentrations occur in sunspots. It would be desirable to remove a portion of helium as well as the lighter hydrogen. Second, success in reducing mass of sun would change orbits of earth and planets - they would move outerward, which might be helpfuul in long run but would need to be calculated very carefully. - About seventy per cent of the sun's 433,000 miles radius, heat from fusion comes out by radiation through very hot dense, plasma. In the outer thirty per cent of the sun's radius - which must be 129,000 miles - more than five times circumference of earth, plasma convection is the main way the heat comes to surface. I want to learn more about this convection process. One important technique is helioseismology. Whether there is any way future engineers could affect this convection process I don't know at present. I have seen estimates it takes a million years for energy to get to the surface after it is generated by fusion at the core. - - John Barrett Remainder is April 22 essay: SUN MASS Removal STAGES- Blaise Pascal -= Alpha Centauri - LEAH - RACHEL :- Astronomy Professor David Latham has suggested that it will take a great deal of energy to achieve the ideal maximum amount of mass removal from the sun to keep the earth habitable as long as possible. However the time frame is very long. The basic equation is mv squared or m DELTA v squared, where m is the desired amount of mass removed, and Delta V is the difference between starting velocity and escape velocity. I believe that "m" the ideal amount of mass to remove over four or five billion years is not precisely known at present. The optimum rate of removal is likely to be a curve rather than a straight line. Too rapid a beginning might trigger an ice age or orbital instability of earth and planets. The longest-lived stars have 7.5 to eight per cent of the mass of the sun and are estimated to remain on Main Sequence with stable heat output about five thousand trillion years [5 x 10 to twelfth power]. In atlas of the Universe 1998 I see an estimate that sun equals 333,000 earth masses. Suppose that in four billion years, it was desired to remove eighty per cent of present solar mass - this is very likely more than enough, but illustrates the nature of the calculation. This would mean if one proceeded in a linear fashion, that one per cent of solar mass should be eliminated in the first fifty million years, dividing four billion by eighty. So 3,330 earth masses would be removed in fifty million years, or 66.6 earth masses per one million years - around one earth mass every fifteen thousand years. The acceleration would be complex. I have heard the escape velocity at the surface of the sun estimated between 384 miles per second and 500 kilometers per second. However, the heat of the solar surface 5500 C and the much higher heat and convective motion just below the surface may contribute significantly to the starting energy as we come to understand how the existing solar wind forms and the stellar winds of other stars,including those hotter than the sun. For seven years I have been studying whether it would be possible to remove ANY mass from the sun. I call this stage "Leah" after the older first wife of the Biblical patriarch Jacob. Before we get to phase Leah, where we might experimentally try to remove a small amount of mass from the sun to observe technology, there would be phase "Blaise Pascal" where we would do thought experiments and test ideas theroetically. If the technology appeared risky, there might be a phase Alpha where we might test procedures on the star Alpha Centauri before working on the sun. As a target, perhaps an experimental small operation to remove a little mass from the sun might be targeted for the year 2099, within the lifetime of persons now living. Since April 7, 2000 a number of possible technologies have come to mind, but they will require huge amounts of energy.Most of the technologies involve heating the solar surface to increase the amount of mass that escapes in the solar wind. At present it has been estimated about one hundred trillionth of solar mass escapes each year in naturally occurring solar wind. Hopefully, the sun's own energy can be utilized in one way or another.It is conceivable that over thousands and millions of years ways can be found to store energy from giant objects deep in space,and then beam or transport it Most technologies involve application of some form of heat to the solar surface. There may also be the possibilty of disrupting the surface chromosphere and exposing slightly deeper layers which are much hotter. In the order I have thought of them, these are techniques for warming the solar surface- locally or around the entire surface. [1] Lasers - possibly utilizing hydrogen from the sun itself for fusion power. [2] Reflectors or mirrors to aim the sun's own heat back at the surface. [3} A greenhouse gas - if one can be maintained stably in the lower corona, this would be the ultimate mirror or reflector. Extremely high million-degree C. temperatures occur in portions of the lower corona, and the forces that cause them are not completely known- very likely magnetism is involved. This strategy would take mass relatively uniformly from all areas of the surface. It would be desirable to remove mass from the polar regions of the sun, so that it would travel away from the orbit of the earth and other planets. [4] Disruption of the cooler chromosphere to expose hotter interior gas or plasma. [5] ANTI-MATTER- would be extremely effective annihiliating some of the sun's mass and generating astonishing heat if ANTIMATTER can be found, manufactured and handled and contained, as by very strong magnetic fields. There might be advantages in concentrating ther ANTIMATTER at very low temperatures near absolute zero possibly utilizing superconductivity to assist handling, which is far in the future .[6] collect energy from hot distant sources such as black holes, neutron stars,supernovas, giant stars and beam it to solar system[7] find nearby BROWN dwarfs believed to exist within a few light years of earth and utilize their hydrogen or intragalactic clouds for FUSION. [8] Utilize Oort Cloud comets gravitationally bound to solar system as hydrogren source. [9] Design heat-resistant space ships that can withstand tmperatures above 3000 degrees C. These might use refractory materials such as tantalum carbide which melts above 3800 C - various forms of carbon perhaps fullerene or nanotube - tungsten, thorium oxide. Albert Brown of Joyce suggests solar heat might be turned to electricity, at the same time cooling outer surface and powering space craft and lasers. He also suggests comet ice might contribute - a space ship could even operate for a time placed inside comet ice. The sun is presently about seventy-one per cent hydrogen, twenty-seven per cent helium, and two per cent heavier elements. The removal of helium probably would favor stability, but the helium tends to be concentrated near the core, as David Latham pointed out in 1995. Recently Sean Root of Port Angeles heard a broadcast on a TV history channel in which something was said about "helium bubbles" observed in sunspots. If this is true and if they can be targeted, a substantial amount of helium over a long time can be removed from the convective outer zone of the sun,which constitutes thirty per cent of solar radius and sixty-five per cent of volume. Doug Wadsworth of Port Angeles and Western Washington University at Bellinghan points out that if it is possible to reduce solar mass significantly, orbits of planets will be affected by reduced gravitational pull, and planets will move further from the sun. This will help delay or prevent over-heating the earth and may be of great long run importance. Effects on earth and future colonies on satellites of outer planets need careful calculation. It appears likely a time will come when much of the world's population will move to satellites of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune. Mars is very small. Colonies can be sent to distant space, but moving all persons and animals and plants is much more difficult, but relevant to democratic planning and popular will. Someday it will be possible, but it is important to gain time by keeping earth habitable as long as possible. Huge amounts of energy will be required either for survival on earth, where overheating of sun will become a problem- or on the outer planets, where fusion energy will eventually be the main fuel- how much hydrogen would be needed for 2-3 billion year survival on outer planets? It comes to mind that the outer planets are mostly hydrogen - it is sugggested their cores may be largely metallic hydrogen, which conducts electricity under pressure. A recent issue of Astronomy magazine suggests that brown drawfs are likely to turn up within a few light years' distance from the earth. They might be excellent fuel sources, whether for my project of reducing mass of sun, or for heating life on the rocky outer satellites. I still hope the best source of energy will be the sun itself. If advanced civilizations already exist in Milky Way galaxy, might we detect them diverting pulsar beams to places where they need energy? I see much progress on non-baryonic matter and other topics. I found article on June 1999 observation of sun's galactic rotation relative to galactic center - but I am still looking for more on its motion relative to neighboring stars and galactic plane. + This E mail will be the first many people will hear abot a competition to design space ships that will remain functional for reasonable periods at temperatures above three thousand [3000] degrees Celsius. Initially I thought they might be necessary in an effort to prolong survival of life on earth by removing mass from the sun. It now appears clear that with sufficient energy, an augmented solar wind mass could be created simply by aiming heat at the solar chromosphere surface, without bringing space craft into extreme heat or gravitational pull. However, the design of space craft that can function at very high temperatures remains of value for many purposes, and the first thing is to identify materials that remain solid above three thousand degrees Celsius for the outside structure. Then a variety of technologies might be developed such as heat pumps in the interior. The nature of the outside surface remains a problem. Tantalum carbide has a melting point above 3800 degrees Celsius. The element tungsten has a melting point above 3400 degrees Celsius, according to usually reliable sources. Thorium oxide has the highest known melting point of an oxide. References say carbon does not melt but vaporizes to a gas at a comparble temperature to these. Carbon has many forms [is the term 'allotropic'?] graphite, charcoal, diamond, and the recently discovered fullerene and nanotube materials. Might a thick layer of some form of carbon or alternating refractory materials and perhaps vacuum or cooling spaces be effective? Diamonds are formed at high pressure and temperatures, and perhaps other refractory materials could be formed similarly. Read on you mark - get set - go! Let's have some prize ideas! My budget is somewhat less than NASA, the astronautics and space administration, but this could be a start for someone on an exciting career as a designer of space ships. After a while it might pay pretty well if you're good. When I was much younger, my father wanted me to try for a scholarship at the Webb School of Naval Architecture on Long Island, New York. Perhaps our prize-winner will become an astronautical architect. Hurry, hurry, hurry! ADDITION June 6 Albert Brown, who drives the Port Angeles-Forks bus most afternoons pointed out that solar heat could be converted to electricity, first cooling the exposed outside surface and then providing power either to move the spacecraft, or to power laser aimed back at solar surface in the application to mass removal. Magnetic fields around the outside of craft and various refrigetating liquids and vacuum spaces could come into designs. Get there fustest with the mostest. Let's have good ideas and soon. Al Brown also points out that comets and the Oort belt contain a great deal of ice, which might be packed around the outsides of space ships one way or another. One might visualize a space craft docking with a comet to utilize its ice, even put the space craft inside the coment. But I don't want to solve all the problems, or there will be no design competition. These are only a few suggestions. May scientists do their best work by the time they are age 24 -but anyone can enter. fun for young and old!!! |
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Tune is 'California here I Come. "THE RAIN MAKES EVERYTHING BEAUTIFUL" Washington is lots of fun. Come on out to Washington We've steelhead and salmon and beautiful girls Volcanos, high mountains, and OCEANS of ocean Cherries and apples and tall Douglas firs Rain makes everything beautiful Come on Back to Washington- Washington is lots of fun" Additions, suggestions welcome .-John Barrett AMBORELLA and other BASAL ANGIOSPERM CLADISTICS to Professor MICHAEL DONOGHUE formerly Harvard, now Yale - I enjoyed hearing and seeing you November 1999 on my trip east. Your use with Sarah Mathews of the phytochrome gene doubling to find the very early divergence of Amborella is a splendid piece of work and a great opportunity for cladists to use a really old outgroup. I read that ribosomal RNA studies by the Soltises and several other studies support the result, but yesterday I ran across a Penn State study that suggests Nymphaea might be as divergent, at least according to their data. Nothing in science is absolutely certain, but I wonder if you see any way of "falsifying" the position of AMBORELLA as outgroup? Could something have happened to accelerate 'molecular clocks' in Amborella? It would have to be pretty extreme, but organisms do vary in the rate of molecular change- the best known factor is generation time, as a substantial percentage of mutations occur in meiosis and recombination. It would be worth examining the ctyogenetics and chromosomal position of phytochrome genes and also the genes controlling the ribosomal RNA studied by first Woese and now the Soltises. It would be worth looking at and perhaps publishing information on the chromosomal positions of the variable sites you are using. Presumably these codons are mostly selectively neutral, conferring neither selective advantage nor disadvantage to their host plants. Sometimes it does happen that DNA sequences that are selectively neutral in one population and environment develop a selective force in other situations. One common situation involves what I think are called "R-selected" organisms, where rapid cell replication permits colonization, as with fruitflies Drosophila, which can launch a new generation in six weeks when abundant fruit is available. In such organisms non-coding "junk" DNA which otherwise would be nearly neutral selectively is jettisoned because it slows the cell cycle. It would be interesting to calculate whether some organisms have fast clocks because genomic sequences that are ordinarily selectively neutral have developed some bias. Viruses,plasmids, jumping genes, neighboring genes, chromosomal linkage factors or new phenomena yet to be discovered might occasionally disrupt clocks that are usually reliable. I am beginning to gather a list of cladistic characters worth investigating in Amborella and other basal angiosperms. If Amborella is truly basal as currently appears probable, some parallelisms probably exist that need to be explained. I sent Peter Stevens an E mail this week inquiring about the cotlyedons - Idiospermum and some others show extra cotyledons which might be either primitive, character reversal, or new mutation. Variability within the extant Amborella trichopoda population should be preserved and researched as much as possible, noting if there is any different between higher and lower elevations among other factors. I shall probably try to communicate with Porter Lowry and others to find an estimate of the number of extant Amborella trichopoda plants in the New Caledonia uplands. I see it is said to be fairly abundant in the moist high elevations on relatively normal soils, not the serpentine and specialized mineral areas of the island. Pollen may be the best chance for some fossil record. The Amborella clade is much older than the present volcanic island of New Caledonia, but there could be fossil pollen extending back some millions of years in New Caledonia, and it would be worthwhile if pollen or other fossils of the clade could be recognized there or elsewhere. Peter Stevens in reply mentions there is uncertainty whether double fertilization and endosperm are basal in angiosperms. Rolf Dahlgren was interested in seed characters of Nympheales and Piperales, with abundant perisperm and little endosperm. During 1988-90 I helped enlist Delbert Wiens, who went to Juan Fernandez with Tod Stuessy and Dan Crawford and helped discover the principal locations of Lactoris fernandiana January-February 1990 - Wiens then managed to propagate some of the very temperamental tiny Lactoris seed - some has been used by Dan Crawford and others for molecular study, and one plant which Wiens personally took to Kew was photographed by Peter Endress and reported by Tony Hall late 1990s in bloom at Kew Alpine collection. William Burger suggested that Lactoris might be among the most primitive flowers, but molecular data placing it near Aristolochiaceae imply probably it has been reduced in wind-pollinated wind-seed-pollinated [anemochorous?] environment. Fossils may clarify what the common ancestor of Nympheales and Piperales + angiosperms was like - dicots and most angiosperms retain a eustele apparently homologous with conifers and other gymnosperms despite the long divergence of time. On the other hand Barry Tomlinson has developed evidence of a major re-organization in monocots, so that monocot vasculature he believes in not homologous. Much of my interest in angiosperm cladistics goes back to two August 1984 papers that remain important. The Missouri Botanic Garden had a symposium on 'Bases of Angiosperm Phylogeny' including James and Audrey Walker on fossil pollens, in which I learned the names of a great many of the basal families, which I have since studied -- and in TAXON August 1984 Klaus Kubitzki and Otto Gottlieb discussed the SHIKIMATE PATHWAY, which they believe gave early angiosperms great chemical versatility both for defense against herbivory and then for attraction of fruit dispersers and pollinators. I see Watson and Dallwitz 1999 report Amborellaceae lack essential oils and have thirteen as the base number of their diploid 26 chromosomes. It seems probable that as Rome was not built in a day, the molecular complexity of genes underlying the shikimate pathway took many millions of years to develop, but the chemically more advanced forms probably came after the branching of Amborella, Nymphaea which may have regressed chemically, and perhaps the Austrobaileya clade. The delightful re-discovery of Madagascar Takhtajania in 1997 has supported an opinion of mine based on Kubitzki-Gottlieb that chemically complex fragrances like tropical Zygogynum were ancestral in Winteraceae, and lost in fly-pollinated, more temperate Drimys. Various taxa in Monimiaceae can be explained similarly. It is still not certain where vesselless wood is ancestral in angiosperms, but living taxa seem confined to year-around moist sites, generally not too warm. It would be interesting to have as much data as possible on present and past climates of New Caledonia. I note that the Missouri Botanic Garden has a major role there, and other botanists and conservation biologists should give this extraordinary large island as much attention as possible. Political changes there should be watched from the conservation viewpoint. I am starting to develop a personal file on Amborella, including bibliography, cladistic characters, and ecology-conservation, which I will be glad to share with anyone interested. I also attended Harvard-MCZ population biology seminars and have been interested in genes and genomics. I wonder if information is available on genome size and generation time in Amborella. I believe Amborella is ordinarily dioecious, but occasional variations in this character could be very informative, and there might be the possibility of "breeding back" to show what monoecious or perfect-flowering ancestors may have been like including evidence of self-incompatibility. Initially I am writing this for Michael Donoghue and sending copies to Peter Stevens, Judy Warnement, Bob Cook,David Boufford, and plant geneticist David Haig. I shall try to find E mails of Sarah Mathews and Porter Lowry and perhaps others - please pass this along if you have a convenient opportunity. Respectfully, with best wishes John Barrett 113 West Third St., Port Angeles WA98362-2824 . ADDENDUM Not to distract from main message above, I wonder how useful fossils may be as outgoups, and what will happen to other vascular plant cladistics. It will be interesting whether Archaefructus and/or Sanmiguelia and various pollen fossils prove to be angiosperm relations. In living vascular plants, recently published molecular studies appear to place Botrychium and Ophioglossum in a clade with Psilotum at some distance from main fern group, and then all these are nearer seed plants than Lycopods and their fossil relations. Molecular and fossil evidence of origin of seed plants needs to be clarified, and the long gap to angiosperms filled in. Did entomophily arise independently in cycads and Gnetales or in a common ancestor - then lost in conifers? Welwitschia shows signs of a bisexual inflorescence in an ancestor, and my recollection is that in "Phytomorphology" I read of some functionally bisexual infloresences of Asian Ephedraceae species. It is possible but probably difficulty for rearrangements to occur to bring separate reproductive structures in proximity with entomophily acting for selection. I saw one recent opinion that Bennettiales may be near cycads than either Gnetales or angiosperms. I note that Mishler's Berkeley group has moved Caratophyllum nearer core angiosperms than Nymphaea though I do not know all the reasons. There was another Kubitzki - Gottlieb paper I think October 1984 Planta Medica that showed that Gnetales and rosid angiosperms had a wide range of analogous chemicals, but it has been suggested they come in from chloroplasts rather than close direct relations. I have read that plants utilizing the shikimate pathway require more nitrogen and other soil nutrients, so they have not entered many new habitats since the success of bee-pollinated flowers. It is suggested flies and small beetles were among the earliest pollinators, and that specialized flowers with numerous stamens to feed large beetles emerged much later perhaps Paleocene. - I once visited a pub in rural Cork, Ireland, which had a clock whch I was told was right twice a day. |
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For editing - 1947 "Over the Mountain" chapter Hawaii - western national parks -Boston: Jack and John were at Pearl Harbor the day the Japanese surrender was announced in mid-August l945. All the sirens and bells in the Navy Yard sounded,and there was general rejoicing.Hawai from pages ll9-ll9a Since John could read at a very young age, the base librarian at Pearl Harbor delighted in supplying him with books as he had so much time to read.She gave him Irving Melbo's "Our Country's National Parks", which he studied avidly. Then he had maps of the western part of the United States, studied them carefully, and planned a trip to be taken on our return to the mainland, which turned out to be June l947.Jack belonged to the American Automobile Assoication, where Roberta Clark of the Honolulu office was tireless in supplying us with tourist information and making reservations for us in hotels, motels, and cabins at national parks. As soon as John finished the sixth grade school year at Punahou, we boarded the Army Transport GENERAL RANDALL for our return to the mainland,sailing June 4 from Honolulu harbor p 57-#1108 "OVER THE MOUNTAIN" Western national parks summer 1947 Edit Year: 1947JuneYosemite #1201 p 69 Yosemite Falls - one of group of three photos by Jack Barrett June 1947 showing substantial changes in shape of upper fall because of wind. Sophie visited Yosemite Valley late September 1930 while en route to Tientsin China on transport HENDERSON, but falls were seasonally dry at that time. She prchased a handcolored photo of Bridal Veils Falls that was stolen 1993. #65A with p. l20 added summer l947#65 for disk summer l947 Crater Lake Ch. 24 O-V-E-R T-H-E M-O-U-N-T-A-I-N page 120 On the GENERAL RANDALL en route from Honolulu to San Francsico we had some very congenial Navy people at the table with us I I enjoyed having someone else prepare & serve our food.I well remember a most kindly Navy Captain who remarked after we had been at sea for three days that he had been concerned about the state of my health when he first saw me (after my operation) but was delighted to see how well I looked.It was an uneventful trip. Jack took complete charge of John as I was recuperating from major surgery performed only a week previously.As we had reservations at the Hotel Californian June 10-17 in central San Francisco, we registered there to await our car & to wait for the arrival of Jack's sister Mary Barrett-John's aunt Mollie -to arrive by plane from Boston to join us for our tour of the National Parks & for the trip across the country to her home in South Boston, where we planned to live until we could find our own quarters.Our first meal at the Californian was lunch - without Jack, who was off trying to locate our Lincoln Zephyr on the San Francisco dock- that car had to take us across the country to Boston.John & I enjoyed the fish & vegetables served at lunchat a most reasonable price-about sixty-five cents.The Californian was an excellent hotel.We stayed there a week while Mollie came from Boston & Jack got the car ready for the long trip. We drove all around San Francisco- up the Twin Peaks for the View,around the coastline & the Presidio- & at the Golden Gate Park we saw rabbits,which do not run wild in Honolulu. Also there was white clover - not found where we lived in Hawaii. John picked a clover leaf at random- which proved to be a four-leafed clover.We enjoyed riding the cable cars. One afternoon after telephoning we went to a San Francisco hospital where Marion Taylor my oldest brother Harry's sister in law, a native of Hartford Connecticut, was a nurse.She was delighted to see us. We (p. l2l....insert later. p. l22": The next morning we had breakfast at a pleasant restaurant of the Pine Cone Doughnut chain.We drove to Yosemite that day taking our time on the uphill route to avoid overheating.Jack bought a special water can to keep in the car with an excess supply of water for the radiator.The Wawona hotel was twenty-two miles south of Yosemite Valley,& we had engaged it on the American plan. The Ahwanee in Yosemite seemed out of our price range (I had stayed there September l930 while the HENDERSON was being overhauled ar Mare Island before its journey to China) & everything else was booked up, so we became quite familiar with the road back & forth from Wawona to the vallley.We visited Hetch Hetchy Valley one day on the Tuolumne River - flooded l9l3- but a painting in Mount Holyoke art museum shows it as it was in l880's.We looked around the sequoia grove near Wawona- the road went through one of the big trees-& twice we visited Glacier Point high on the South rim above the valley.Jack took photos ofVernal & Nevada Falls.We had the Sawyer's Viewmaster stereo photo of the Fire Fall,which formerly was produced by dumping glowing charcoal off Glacier Point, but we did not see it on our visit.We had though of visiting Lake Tahoe,but the Tioga Pass Road across the Sierra Nevada crest was still blocked by snow.We drove in for a close look at BridalVeil Falls & photographed El Capitan, Yosemite Falls,the foot bridges on the Merced River, Half Dome, the Three Brothers,, Mirror Lake and Mount Watkins. We hiked to the Happy Isles area on the Merced River, and Jack& Mollie went up further for a view of Vernal Falls.Our troubles with the radiator were by no means over. On the ride into Yosemite it was necessary several times to fill the water can from the Merced River.As Jack's left shoulder was stiff & painful, Mollie gallantly went to the river to fill the water can.Going to Monterey we left Yosemite by a different road.Jack was interested in the agricultural area around Salinas & the Monterey peninsula with its seventeen-mile drive & Carmel.There was a special development for retired naval officers at Monterey,& Jack thought about settling there.After a very lovely day we arrived at San Francisco the evening of June twenty-fourth.The California Hotel had no room that night,but I think we ate there while sleeping at a less well-known hotel nearby.The next day we drove across the Golden Gate casting a look out to sea toward Hawaii-& proceeded up the Redwood highway.Jack stopped to see friends, & that night we got as far as Ukiah,which we remember for its amber sodium lights.The next day we drove as far as Crescent City.On the way we stopped to see a redwood which in l947 was the tallest tree yet discovered.Other taller redwoods were discovered -also in Northern California-in the early l960's- so that tree cannot longer be considered the tallest.June 27 we left Crescent City & drove into Oregon after stopping at the California border agricultural inspection station.We proceeded to Crater Lake,encountering huge lumber trucks, one of which forced us into a ditch north of Grants Pass.Eventually with the help of the truck driver & a lot of passing motorists we got back on the road. After we arrived at Crater Lake National Park we began to see flakes of falling snow & accumulations in shaded area under trees along the road.Jack stopped the car to let John go over & look at the snow, because we had not seen snow since we left Brooklyn six years earlier.As it turned out, we need not have stopped,because we soon found ourselves in a full-fledged snowstorm that afternoon of June 27,l947,.Jack had to stop & ask questions for fear of driving over the rim & into the Crater lake (never having been there).Using our chains we had no great difficulty arriving at the Crater Lake Lodge, a cheerful large building that claimed to have the largest fireplace in the state of Oregon.Our rooms were satisfactory,& the food was good.Only the southern third of the Crater Lake Rim Road was open,but we enjoyed some fine views & good weather the next three days.We got a very good photo of Mollie over near Kerr Notch on the southeastern side of the Lake, with the Lake & Phantom Ship a small twisted lava island in the background.We also saw the symmetrical cone of Wizard Island (with whitebark pines), & the "Old man of the Lake" (a tree stump which floats in a vertical position) & numerous ground squirrels.About June 30 or July l we headed for Portland Oregon reminiscing that in Eagle l9 days l932-3 in Maine we once drove a long ways back from Bar Harbor with a hitchiking passenger who kept asking "Do you think we'll get to Portland tonight?"- this became a standing family joke.We retraced our steps to Grants Pass & went up the Williamette Valley through Eugene & Salem, the state capital.We stayed at the Portland Rose Motel, and Portland, the Rose City,certainly had its flower gardens in full bloom.Jack & John had scheduled a swing over toward the Olympic Peninsula for a couple of days hoping to visit Olympic National Park near the Washington coast.Mollie &I voted for a couple of quiet days doing washing, so this was the first major departurefrom the trip plan.One day we did take a short drive down the Columbia river toward its mouth aT Astoria.Then July 3 we made a leisurely drive along the Columbia River Highway to the Dalles, where we had reservations over the third & Fourth of July. As planned we took a careful look at the remarkable series of waterfalls along the Oregon side.Multnomah Falls is the highest, but many of the smaller falls such as Horsetail & Latourette have highly individual features & can be approached closely.The Columbia River was one of the earliest scenic highways dating from l927. Many of the waterfalls are shown in the Sawyer Viewmaster stereo series.We looked at the fish ladders at Bonneville Dam. There were a rodeo & parade & fireworks at The Dalles & American Indians in the parade.Jack was impressed by the cherry & apple orchards near Mount Hood.July five to seven we visited the southwest section of Mount Rainier National Park. We had only about seventy-five minutes of clear weather in two & a half days, but Jack was ready when the opportunity came and took a few good color pictures of Mount Rainier.The rest of the time the mountain was obscured by clouds. Subalpine firs show iin the photos.About July 8 we went through Olympia & Tacoma to Seattle where an old Navy friend Adolph Bloom then in the lumber business in Tacoma came to see us at our Seattle motel. July 9 we drove east across lava flats into the Inland Empire region of rich soil & excellent crops around Spokane.In cooler weather the region would be attractive. We hit it on a very hot day & kept our eyes on the radiator gage.To avoid planning an excessive mileage in one day we took reservations at a small motel in Ritzville rather than trying to drive to Spokane to the east.The four of us competed to get into the shower first.After supper we took a walk around the town & remember the many hollyhocks.We made a start at daybreak & had breakfast in Spokane.I think this is the town where Jack reached in the sugar bowl at breakfast & found after a bit that he had put flour in his coffee rather than sugar. With the early start we made substantial mileage that day-over three huhndred miles.The Pend Oreille lake region of the Idaho panhandle was cool &pleasant, but we pushed on through Thompson Falls to Kalispell, Montana.A bright yellow mustard plant covered large areas of the grazing land in this part of western Montana.It provided a refreshing change of view.The roads from Spokane to Glacier Park are very roundabout as they follow stream contours- but this would be interesting country to explore at leisure.A restaurant called Hennessy's in Kalispell served fish & hamburger of excellent quality. Jack enjoyed the fish.The next day we drove across the Continental Divide on the spectacular Going=-to-the Sun Highway in Glacier Park.We stayed at Swift Current cabins on the northeast slope of the park, where the rivers drain toward the Arctic through Hudson Bay. One day John & Mollie hiked to the blue-green cold waters of Iceberg Lake. on a ranger-conducted tour.Mollie & I had some clothes on the line outside the cabins,& two women artists included them in their paintings.When we started to take the clothes in,they asked us to wait until they had completed their painting- in a couple of hours.Jack & I enjoyed the lovely wild spring flowers that grew atop a tall hill near our cabins & talking with the Minneapolis school teacher who ran the cabins. After a leisurely stay till about July l4we proceeded toward Yellowstone,spending a night near Helena & driving over to look at Butte, the city on "the richest hill in the world," a great hill of copper mixed with gold and silver.We stayed about three nights at Mammoth Hot Springs near the North Yellowstone entrance. summer l947 dcbr7@yahoo.com, #66 Yellowstone l947:Our first full day at Yellowstone was an extremely full one.We began by looking at the brightly colored travertine limestone terrace at Mammoth Hot Springs, drove by the obsidian cliff of black glass,& sampled some Apollinaris spring mineral water.We looked at the Riverside & Old Faithful geysers in eruption & steaming Grotto Geyser ( where another day we observed extremely brilliant sunset orange colors).We continued down the west side of the main figure-eight loop road to the South Entrance & arrived near Grand Teton National Park & Jackson Hole in good early afternoon weather for spectacular views & started back in late afternoon.Somewhat apprehensively Jack acquiesced in the wishes of the family to return via the east side of the figure-eight loop.We passed by West Thumb & saw Yellowstone Lake briefly & enjoyed gorgeous volcanic dust effects in the sunsets.We observed the very last rays of the Sunset at Artists Point on the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. Already we had put in a very full day.After losing some time on a side road used mostly by Park staff,thinking we were on the forty-mile road north back to Mammoth, we found ourselves making a small loop & reversing direction in total darkness.Jack was thoroughly baffled. At this point another car appeared, and Jack asked directions.The other driver replied,"I'm just as lost as you are." It turned out that both cars had taken a turn onto the spur road to Inspiration Point, a blind alley road that leads only to a rise which is one of the two main viewing points for tourists at the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone (Artist's Point in the other] At the parking area here the road ends in a loop designed for reversing direction, & here it was we found ourselves.The other drtiver needed gasoline,& fortunately we were able to direct him to a gasoline station a short way south.When we asked him the way to Mammoth, he said,"You have to go over the mountain."We did drive over the mountain, a disxtance of forty-four miles to Mammoth Hot Springs,with only one intersection, the Tower Junction about half way along the route- which was the only place we saw people in the forty-four mile drive.There was spectacular lightning along the highest part of the route above eight thousand feet.Jack remembered seeing the eyes of animals along the road reflecting the light of the headlights- often we did not know if they were snunks or bears.Mollie kept talking to Jack because she thought he might be sleepy. No major difficulties were encountered.The next day wee retraced the unfamiliar >road we had driven that night,stopping to see the pertified tree in the northern part of the park, then spending considerable time at Inspiration Point,which has a very fine view by day of Yellowstone Falls & the bright cliffs around it- although we had not found it particularly attractive by night far from our quarters.We revisited Old Faithful & saw Morning Glory Pool and the Fountain Paint Pots.We climbed a hill to get a good view & I asked Mollie to go over to see what a small sign on the hill said.She came right back when the sign said, "Danger, keep off."This may have been the afternoon of the spectacular sunset at Grotto Geyser,with its high steam cloud.One night Mollie had an unsettling experience with black bears when coming back to her cabin from the separate toilets. Jack had advised her to make a loud noise in the event of encountering bears, and sure enough they went away when she clapped her hands and spoke loudly.We left the park via the Northeast entrance & l0,942 foot Beartooth Mountain pass with its many hairpin turns & steady uphill climbs. We had to stop frequently & attend our thirsty radiator.We continued down the Yellowstone River route as far as Forsyth,Montana that Saturday night July l9.Having no reservations & being in a very thinly populated area we made inquiry at Forsyth & found that certain church groups arranged to have people stay as paying guests of private families.We were very fond of Mr. & Mrs. Guy Gray who took us in for the night for five dollars & gave us without charge some bread, butter & tea when I said I was too hungry to sleep.John played the theme of the first movement of the Mozart A major piano sonata K. 33l, a piece which he had memorized for Miss Canafax [Punahou School sixth grade].Mollie went to church n Forsyth on the morning of July 20, & we proceeded to Dickinson, North Dakota, where we had reservations at a small motel recommended by the American Automobile Association.As this country was thinly populated we were glad to have advance reservations.We were adhering rigidly to an eastward schedule during the trip because Mollie was an employee of more than four years standing at the Metropolitan Life branch office in South Boston, & her six weeks would be up about July 28.On Tuesday July 22 Jack drove our car to a stop at the main intersection of Mandan,North Dakota on the west bank of the Missouri River.A loud CLANK was heard.When he tried to start up again,the speedometer needle climbed cheerfully to thirty-five miles per hour, but the car sat still.A gasoline station was alongside us at our right hand, & we had to be towed in there with a broken rear axle.Mollie caught a train to Boston, arriving at work on time by the next Monday.We stayed about three days in Mandan,-a new axle cost six dollars,but telegrams to obtain it from Minneapolis cost more than the axle itself.We made one long day's trip through Fargo,North Dakota to Brainerd. Minnesota, where baffling radiator difficulties stmped the experts while we sweltered in local-record high temperatures of l04 degrees for more than a week.We were about ready to walk east but finally proceeded into cooler terrain around Duluth & Superior,Wisconsin.We spent three nights in Michigan at Ironwood & Saint Ignace on the upper peninsula & at Port Huron near the Canadian border north of Lake St. Clair.We cut across from Port Huron to Buffalo.The generator conked out,& a new one was installed in London,Ontario.Canada was observing beefless days at this time because of the postwar shortages in Europe,& we had a very good chicken dinner at Niagara Falls O ntario.In the late afternoon we observed the Falls from the Canadian side.After dark we enjoyed the American falls in colored lights until about ten pm. We planned to drive east to Rochester but found that streets were blocked off because of an American Legion convention, & all traffic was forced south to Buffalo.We were thoroughly exhausted & found ouselves foced to rent extravangtly expenbsive rooms at an ancient Buffalo hotel about three A.M.In the morning we attempted to leave Buffalo & found the urban streets incredibly confusing.Finally we pointed the car east,& by nightfall were in West Winfield, New York where we took a chance on a local inn recommended by Duncan Hines.From here the next day we drove through Albany & Great Barrington, Massachusetts & surprised my folks in Hartford by stopping in at Babe & Getter's home at 92 Fern Street.It was the first of many pleasant visits there.Before we went to Babe's house we stopped in at Swift & Company to see my oldest sister Esther, still working there as an accountant.That night after stopping at THE OLDEST ORIGINAL HOWARD JOHNSON'S RESTAURANT in Quincy,we arrived at Mollie's home at 640 East Seventh Street South Boston. It was probably around August eleven, early in the evening.We stayed there a little over three months until Thanksgiving Day l947.We soon became acquainted with Mr. & Mrs. Alphonse & Catherine Roche dowstairs & their sons Raymond, Alphonse, & Donnie ages about ten, eight & four- alsi Billy Sullivan & Bobby Adams in neighboring houses.They would come in the kitchen & play "high'low-jack"& other card games including an unusual variant of whist & "slapjack"{ & "fish."Frequently Mr. Roche would provide Mollie with fresh fish on Friday from his catch as a fisherman.Mollie often baked chocolate brownies.We would take the neighbors on rides to the Arnold Arboretum or Castle Island.The Arnold Arboretum at that time had beautiful exhibits of flowering cherry, apple & other fruit trees, -lilacs,azaleas,rhododendrons, magnolias,daffodils, jonquils,narcissus, honeysuckle & bright-leaved copper beeches.In the autumn the blue-purple berries of Callicarpa japonica attracted our notice the first autumn, l947. |
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Editing - Captain Hinkley 1934 + Truxtun 1929 At Christmastime l929 Jack went to Baguio in northern Luzon, a cooler upland area to spend a few days at the Army's recreation quarters.He bought a pair of wooden bookends carved to make figures of dwarf Igorotes- one carries a hatchet & the other a spear.Chronology: He left San Francisco at 7 AM June 29,l929 via the USS NITRO as a working passenger He arrived Manila July 25-detached NITRO July 26 & reported on board POPE -detached POPE August 5 & reported on board EDSALL l:00 PM. August l4 :Detached EDSALL & reported on board TRUXTUN, C>B>C> Carey commanding officer- From the Medical Officer of Destroyer Division 43: Dec. 23,l929 "To Senior Medical Officer Camp John Hay, Baguio, P>I> This is to certify that Lieutenant John B. Barrett has not been exposed to any communicable diseases & has not been exposed to meningitis 14 days prior to his departure from Manila." Jack got four days leave of absence December 2l & went to Camp Hay, Baguio.On the seventh of May, l930at Tsingtao, China, Jack requested six days leave, giving the address "Marine Detachment, American Legation, Peking,China." Leave was granted. Visit with classmate Rupertus is probable endTRUXTUN chapter 44-HINCKLEY- #44 -11 January l970 letter from Captain Robert M. Hinckley USN Retired 4200 Cathedral Ave. NW Washington DC-(salutations to Mrs. Barrett - main text address to John Barrett junior regarding HANNIBAL inquiries:"The survey area was the Gulf of Panama, & the Pacific Coasts of Panama & Costa Rica.We did work for the government of Costa Rica helping them find a deep sea port for shipping bananas out,She was an old ship purchased in l902 for the Asiatic Fleet.She was a collier -cast iron hull-built by Harland & Wolff shipyard un England.She was converted into a servey ship at least ten years before I took command.There was always a lot of work to do on a ship as old as she was,& we were always getting new Hydrographic equipment installed. The ship was beingmodernized to a certain extent.None ofthe officers were specialists in Hydrographic work- we had three Hydrographic officers from the Navy Hydrographic Office to plan & make charts of the work we were doing.The HANNIBAL operated directly under orders from the Chief of Naval Operations,& our plan of operations for the next survey season was made out by me in conference with the Chief Hydrographer & his aides.The ship sailed for the survey area shortly after the first of the year & would be in the survey area until late summer.We had two sub chasers & they did valuable work in going into (shallow) waters (where) the ship couldn't go to set up survey beacons & carry equipment.We left them down in Panama when the ship went north for an overhaul.Mr. Devine was in charge of the survey planning in the area,& he & I would always get together with your father to plan the next day's work.About our relations with the local government officials,the only occasion I had to call on foreign governments was when we surveyed around Costa Rica.I called on their President,& he was very appreciative of the work the ship was doing for his country.We arranged a trip from Punta Arenas where the ship was tied up to San Jose the capital for officers & wives & enlisted men to spend a weekend.We missed the regular train, so I called the President on the telephone-& he sent a "special" down from San Jose to pick us up.There was only one other ship during survey duty-the NOKOMIS-a converted yacht.We worked with her at one period sounding a large portion of the Gulf of Panama.We were the first survey ship to receive the deep sea sounding machine, which would bring back samples of the bottom & had a string of Nansen bottles,which tapped sea water every fifty fathoms.We had a scientist from Scripps Institute on board to analyze the water. The deepest sounding we got was over 900 fathoms (5400 feet).I took command of the HANNIBAL in January l933 & was detached May 3l, l934.One of the greatest thrills I had on the HANNIBAL was finding a rock pinnacle only six feet below the low tide surface about one half mile to seaward from an island near Cape Mala, Panama.The skipper of one of our sub-chasers,-Lieutenant Ascherfeld,I think-whom we left down in Panama when the ship went north-said he talked tothe captain of a small coastal cargo vessel who told him there was a rock out there & he wouldn't go anywhere near that area.If you want to see the HANNIBAL survey areas & even the logs of the HANNIBAL, write Commander U.S.Navy Oceanographic Office, Suitland,Maryland 20390.Please give my & Mrs.Hinckleyt's kindest regareds to your mother.Sincerely, Robert M. Hinckley, Captain, U>S>N> Retired." |
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[John Barrett note This letter December 27, 1929 expresses Sophie's appreciation of Jack's Christmas message from the Philippines-"Dear lady of my fondest dreams - Come join me in the Philippines Where I will build a house for you Of SAWALI NIPA, and BAMBOO With Windows made of pearly SHELL - In SINAMY I'll dress you well, And you shall have your every wish - The while we dine on rice and fish.". Their June 1929 marriage was kept secret from most of Sophie's acqaintances in New York, including Macy's friends, where Sophie remained Director of Personnel Research until August 1930.. Emanuel Lyons much older than Jack and Sophie had been a friend since summer 1923 when Sophie worked at United Hebrew Charities. He published books "1001 Business Ideas" and "2222 Business Ideas." For years he invited the social workers to his western New Jersey farm, where Sophie appeared in three February 1926 photos with heavy snow. Joe Brill, a Fordham Law School classmate of Jack Barrett,. remained in New York City law practice up to the 1970s, and occasionally through Anne and Ivan McCormack the Barretts would hear news of him and other acquaintances, including Anne's family, the Taylors, the Nelson family from Charleston, South Carolina, various social workers,, and Jmmy Jemail, the "Inquiring Reporter" of the New York Daily News, later editor.]"IV-286 To. Lt. J.B. Barrett USS TRUXTUN US Asiatic Fleet c/o postmaster Seattle from SMB R.H.Macy + Co. 34th St. + Broadway New York City December 27 1929 Barrett dear, Mr last letter to you was sent just a week ago today. Since that time there hasn't been a dull moment. Want to be bored with an account of the events? You will recall that I was planning to go to dinner with the dentist last Friday evening. Imagine my surprise when he told me his mother, father, and sister were waiting at home for us and that I was to be their guest for dinner. Gosh, but I was scared to be looked over by the family, but I pretended it was a every-day ooccurence with me. He lives up on Madison Avenue and Ninety-sixth Street. The dinner was delicious, we all got along famously, and I have an idea 'mamma' approved, because as I was leaving, she said,'Come to Christmas dinner, my dear.' I thanked her in my most charming manner and pleaded 'not guilty'. = The next day dawned like every other, but it was to be different. I was scheduled to go to a big party in Flushing- an annual party which I had turned down because you were you. To look all dressed up I decided to go home at noon, - and there I found a box from you with two adorable rings and some earrings. Promptly the rings were put on - they fit nicely - a wee bit large - and I love them. I can't wear them all the time because they are fragile, and the little decorative flowers fall off. You were nice to adorn me at this season of the year. I wear both rings on the fourth finger of my right hand. = The party was something or other - not very successful. Agnes Drummond and I stayed overnight. Sunday noon the family drove us into town, and we went to Agnes's apartment for tea. = Sunday evening after much persuasion on Martha's part I agreed to join her and Dottie on a date with three Spaniards. One of the men had a Auburn car. One of the men is an artist named Camilo Egas who has a studio on Charles Street. For some unknown reason his eyes rested on me, and he has been pursuing me ever since.Foreign men don't interest me, and when he phoned last night, I told him I was sick. He got my phone number through Martha. = Your Christmas card was received on Tuesday. It is without doubt the most beautiful card I have ever seen - and I say that in all sincerity. When Mrs. Smith rang the bell Christmas eve to deliver the card telling of the attractions of the Philippines in the form of fish, rice, and coarse clothes, my Chritmas happiness was complete. The card is just too clever and too funny. I love it and may even frane it someday. = Santa Claus was more than generous: From Mr. Lyons there came a subscription to 'The Nation', a bottle of perfume, + a beautiful compact. From Mabel there came two pairs of silk stockings - from Edna Walton there came handkerchiefs - from Anne there came Yardley Old English Soap From Willie Kennedy there came 'SRM' stationery - from Martha there came genuine amethyst earrings. = Mr. Lyons and I started out five o'clock Christmas morning. We took the train to Landsdowne, [New Jersey] where we started our five mile hike to the farm house-- it was work and fun to go through all the ice and snow. After a fine Christmas dinner we hiked the five miles back. = Helen Miller called up just after I got home Christmas night. We plan to take dinner and a walk together this Sunday. = Joe Brill called me up last night. He told me he received a card from you and that he sent you one. After much conversation about nothing at all, he asked me to take lunch with him today. I turned him down on the basis of being 'busy.' I couldn't be rude to him because he may be sincere, but perhaps he may become discouraged with repeated refusals. Harold Nelson spends a lot of time at the apartment. - Sophie." TRUXTUN-TULSA transferred from p 57 Mukden Paca Rice Rupertus -25 TRUXTUN-CHAPTER "Duty on the Destroyer TRUXTUN in the Asiatic Station" He did however complete the school year & his law examinations before he left New York City at three o'clock in the afternoon of Friday June 2l,l929 for Chicago & San Francisco to sail on ammunition ship USS NITRO for Manila. He was a working passenger & stood watches- not on leave-on that ammunition ship.He had married me just one hour before he boarded the train to ensure my getting government passage to the Orient.At Manila the heat & humidity were trying,especially as his next ship the destroyer TRUXTUN was out at sea,& he had to live on the POPE & another destroyer, where only the thought of a mango for breakfast could get him out of bed.But the TRUXTUN did return,& he enjoyed being with its captain- an old shipmate-Lieutenant Commander Carey.Jack soon went ashore with Carey to make arrangements for Carey's impending marriage to a girl who was coming out to Manila.But Carey got sick &had to go to the hospital at Canacao while Jack took the ship as temporary commanding officer.Jack had to take the ship back to Manila so Carey could get his gear off.He had to go back to the mainland to be treated for tuberculosis,& he was retired.On August 2, l967 Jack Barrett wrote a letter to the "Prospective Commanding Officer" of a new TRUXTUN (ship names are recycled) (c/o Supervisor of Shipbuilding,Camden, New Jersey)- "A note in a recent Naval Institute (professional magazine) stated you wished to locate personnel attached to earlier TRUXTUNS.In the summer of l929,after arriving at Cavite & reporting by dispatch to Com.Desron 15,I was ordered to wait for & report on board the TRUXTUN as Executive Officer & Navigator upon her arrival from China for overhaul at Cavite.I was on EDSALL & POPE until TRUXTUN arrived,then reported on board TRUXTUN.Lieutenant Commander Charles B.C. Carey was then commanding officer.I became "exec."Ralph Earle was gunnery officer.Other officers were SP Martin CommunicationsS.Y. McKown engineer,Selman S. Bowling,LF Keyes. When overhaul was completed I took the ship to Olongapo for a week for standardization & small arms practice,as Carey had to go to Canacao (Naval) Hospital to clear up a respiratory condition.We were recalled to get Carey's gear off in time for him to sail to the United States a few days later because of his physical condition. It was a sad business. I had accompanied him earlier in connection with arrangements for his wedding (his fiancee was to come out to Manila- & we had high hopes of real success with the TRUXTUN,having been shipmates on the shakedown cruise of the MARBLEHEAD in l925 (newest & fastest ship in the Navy at that time) & on sister ships during the Australian cruise in l925.He was a grand person & very able.I became temporary commanding officer for Cruise of Division 43 to southern islands, Zamboanga,Jolo, Cebu-for Navy Day-then back to Manila to prepare for duty on the Yangtze.Thomas J. Keliher joined as commanding officer on our return to Manila,& I resumed my job as "exec."We were at Nanking,China for some weeks (February-March,l930); then at Tsingtao & around to Chefoo and Tangku.There I was detached & sent to the TULSA at Tientsin. I still have films of photographs of the TULSA at Zamboanga taken from broad off thew starboard bow- one in Full Dress & the other plain. I believe CBC Carey is in the New York area.I think Ralph Earle is a Rear Admiral, retired.If I can be helpful,please call on me.Sincerely yours,John B. Barrett,Commander USN Retired."I wrote to Jack November l0,l929:Last week I read in the papers that the TRUXTUN hadbeen ordered to Shanghai to report to the Chief of the Asiatic Fleet for further orders.I'm scared pink there may be major disturbances in the vicinity of Hankow.Your responsibilities quite overwhelm me-& I can understand why your notes to me are so short.On January 24,l97l,Rear Admiral Dundas Preble Tucker wrote from La Jolla California:"In reply to your recently received letter regarding the TRUXTUN's trip up the Yangtze River in the spring of l930...In February l930 I reported to Commander Yangtze Patrol aboard his flagship,the LUZON as Flag Lieutenant to Admiral T.T. Craven.At that time all the larger cities on the Yangtze were in the hands of government forces under Chaing-kai-Shek,but Communist forces under various leaders,including Mao (tse-Tung) controlled large areas inland,particularly to the north.They made raids on the river towns & held them until driven out by government troops or foreign gunboats protecting their nationals. The Reds were quite active in l930,& the LUZON was under shore fire at least seven times that I know of between Hankow & Ichang,where they held long stretches of riverbank.In general the gunboats controlled the river from Hankow to Chungking,& the destroyers were called in to handle the lower river from Hankow to Shanghai.Since the destroyers' service under Commander Yangtze patrol was only temporary,I had occasion to board them very seldom...."On October l9,l929, the "Mindanao Herald" of Zamboanga, Philippine Islands published this story:"Officers & Bluejackets of Destroyer Divisions 39 & 43 Renew Old Acquaintances in Zamboanga: -Until the end of October the people of Zamboanga will again have the pleasure of entertaining quite a large contingent of Uncle Sam's fighting ships in Far Eastern waters.Nearly the entire fleet has returned from the China coast to the Philippines for the winter & will carry out maneuvers here.The 43rd Division comprising the PEARY,STEWART,POPE.& TRUXTUN arrived in port October l6 & will remain until October 24.On October 24 all of the ships of the two divisions of ten destroyers will fill the harbor.Numerous entertainments are being arranged for the officers of the Squadron.This evening there will be a dance at the Overseas Club in honor of the officers of the 43rd Division.The bluejackets are an intelligent,orderly bunch of young felows & seem to be enjoying their shore leave very much."Jack enjoyed this cruise to the southern Philippines.On March 23,l97l Dr.Charles Stelle wrote from Kansas:"I remember John (Barrett) very well.He was an excellent officer & well liked by his shipmates. I remember the TULSA...with tall masts.I was detached in November,l930 while on duty up the Yangtze river & returned to the US via Europe to New York.My wife was also living in Waikiki in December l94l but returned to the mainland several weeks later.I was Medical officer on BOISE cruising at that time in Philiippine waters.Best of luck."At Christmas time l929 Jack went to Baguio in northern Luzon, a cooler upland area to spend a few days at the Army's recreation quarters.He bought a pair of wooden bookends carved to make figures of dwarf Igorotes- one carries a hatchet & the other a spear.Chronology: He left San Francisco at 7 AM June 29,l929 via the USS NITRO as a working passenger He arrived Manila July 25-detached NITRO July 26 & reported on board POPE -detached POPE August 5 & reported on board EDSALL l:00 PM. August l4 :Detached EDSALL & reported on board TRUXTUN, CBC Carey commanding officer- From the Medical Officer of Destroyer Division 43: Dec. 23,l929 "To Senior Medical Officer Camp John Hay, Baguio, PI This is to certify that Lieutenant John B. Barrett has not been exposed to any communicable diseases & has not been exposed to meningitis 14 days prior to his departure from Manila." Jack got four days leave of absence December 2l & went to Camp Hay, Baguio.On the seventh of May, l930at Tsingtao, China, Jack requested six days leave, giving the address "Marine Detachment, American Legation, Peking,China." Leave was granted. Visit with classmate Rupertus is probable endTRUXTUN chapter:- 22a China- #22 China Mon, 13 Apr 1998 15:17:49 PDT Between Manila & Hong Kong we encountered a typhoon when the ship rocked & pitched dangerously & even I spent much time in my bunk-not because I was seasick but because it was not safe to be on deck.An Army wife,Florence Hilldring,came aboard in Manila for the trip to Chingwantao en route to Peking for a change of climate as she found Manila too hot & humid. Finally on the fourteenth of November l930 the ship arrived early in the morning at Chingwantao far in in northern Chinsa near the Manchurian border.Although Jack was very thin,he looked well & very happy to see me & was most complimentary about my small velvet hat & my coat trimmed with Persian lamb fur. We took a motor car to the Court Hotel on Victoria Road where we had lunch-callled "tiffen" by the Australian woman Miss Moore who owned the small hotel.Then Jack dropped the bomb.He told me that Captain Rice had held the TULSA over one day so Jack could meet me & get me settled.The next morning-early-the TULSA would sail for Shanghai for a month of overhaul & liberty- & I would be left alone again-this time in the Orient where I knew no one.I left the hotel with him right after tiffen to go the mile to the ship.Two ricksha coolies came up,& Jack signalled me to get into one.Aboard the TULSA I met some of his shipmates & saw many linens which Jack had bought-then we went to call on a civilian family-Mrs. Faison Jordon,whose husband was friendly at the Tientsin Country Club.When she learned I had been graduated from Mount Holyoke college, she said trhat Mrs. Evans, wife of a Tientsin lawyer, was president of the Mount Holyoke Club of North China, so we made a short call on her too.Then we called on the Captain of the TULSA & his wife, Commander Paul Rice & Gertrude.They were most gracious.When the ricksha coolies finally dropped us at our hotel room early in the evening for our dinners, they were well paid by Jack. Jack spent a lot of time warning me to drink only boiled water & to eat no fresh fruit or vegetables-I would get Chinese stomach ache or even cholera.Also he told me never to touch shellfish as the water was so polluted.Before I knew it,early morning arrived,& Jack was off to the TULSA & to Shanghai.Things picked up a bit when Mrs. Jordon called on me during the following week & (p.l5) invited me to a formal dinner at her home on Saturday night followed by dancing at Tientsin Country Club.Next to me at table sat Nora Waln, contributor to the Atlantic Monthly of many articles on China.Her husband ran the Post Office in the British concession section of Shanghai,where my hotel was located.Mrs. Evans had told my former Mount Holyoke (class of l925) student Grace Liang, that I was in Tientsin.Her father had graduated from Hartford Public High School Connecticut about l880, & then a change of government policy required him to return to China, where he had a distinguished career first in north China railroads & customs offices & then in the Foreign service.I believe he was the first Chinese to be invited to address the United States Congress- around the time of the Nine Power Conference in l922 when Japanese commercial ambitions conflicted with America's Open Door policy on China enunciated Secretary of State John Hay in the McKinley administration & with the principle of self-determination pronounced by Woodrow Wilson. Grace came to call on me very soon after I arrived & invited Jack & me for tea at their home when the TULSA returned.Soon we called on Mrs. Liang ,who served us tea-we left when the servants brought our coats & hats & bowed us out-but she had given us the honor of inviting us to dinner- at which her distinguished husband,her daughter Grace,& her two doctor sons would be present.These young men had been educated in England,& their services were greatly in demand.The family occupied a spacious compound.Years later when the Communists occupied Tientsin,the family lost all its possessions and Tou.....Liang though a valued physician,was liquidated.Later in l93l Grace married Dan Yapp of Shanghai.In l970 we located them in Waikiki on Kalakaua Avenue.For some years Grace taught in Connecticut.At that dinner party Grace & her mother appeared in exquisite Chinese dresses,but the men wore European clothes.Since Mr. Liang expressed an interest in ships, Jack invited the family to dinner aboard the TULSA.That evening the dock was crowded with Chinese people,who had gotten the word that Mr. Liang was expected. They respectfully kept their distance & silence as he left his car & boarded the ship.They remained on the dock throughout the dinner to get another glimpse of the respected diplomatic official.He told us about the low standard of living of most Chinese laborers & how little it took to support a family in those days deep in the worldwide economic depression.In the spring of l93l the gunboat TULSA went to Shanghai for Asiatic Fleet maneuvers & shooting excercises. She was kept near Tientsin primarily for intelligence purposes.Gertrude Rice, wife of our captain, (with her daughter), & Rachel Doughty,wife of our executive officer & I decided to go to Chefoo & Weihaiwei on the Shantung peninsula while the TULSA was cruising south.Jack agreed I could go on a British freighter provided I take twenty-four bottles of boiled water-sold be the case in a drug store.Since the TULSA left before we did,Mr. Eismonger bought the case of water for me & drove me to the frieghter,where the coolie stored the box near my bunk.I shared a cabin with a British missionary lady returning from leave in England=she was on her way to a very hot dry region in Southwestern China.She was in the cabin when the case was stowed & subsequently had nothing to do with me-avoided me like the plague.When we arrived in Chefoo,I offered my case of water to the missionary woman,as I hadn't used any of it,&it was too heavy to take ashore.She was startled but very glad to have the water, which she thought all along was gin,as she understood that all American Navy women were heavy drinkers of strong liquor.The reason she avoided me was she thought I was planning to drink a case of liquor in her cabin.Since the whole Asiatic fleet was in Chefoo for exercises,Jack had trouble fng a place for me to live.Finally the chaplain, Father William Maguire found room & board for me in a small boarding house owned by Mr.Wineglass. The goats lived right outside my room- there was no running water=a makeshift toilet & no bath.In later years we would sing the Navy song,"They wear clothespins on their noses in North China- Thet wear clothespins on their noses -(Be)cause Chefoo don't smell like roses - a verse of "O the monkeys have no tails in Zamboanga." The gunnery was successful beyond anything the ship had previously scored. Jack & Captain Rice were delighted. to celebrate Jack wanted to give a party at the Chefoo club for all the ship's officers.I bought hand painted place cards, candles,Japaese lanterns as the party as to be outdoors on a lovely summer night.Every officerwas invited even though there were only three wives attached to the ship at that time. There was much good conversation for twenty-six guests.After every other guest had gone, the wife of the executive officer, Rachel Doughty came up to me & said, "Sophie, you ought to know better than o seat me in candle light. It is not becoming to me."As we approached Wei-Hai-Wei became excited because I had often enjoyed breakfast at Gertrude Rice's home in Tientsin,where we were served in bed.The coffee pot was red pottery with pewter,& the cream pitcher & sugar bowl were also red pottery with pewter-lovely pieces of china as well as being useful & unique & Gertrude told me that they had come from Wei-Hai-Wei.It was a beautiful town developed by Germans but given back to China after World War I. I wanted to buy a Wei-Hai-Wei coffee & tea service of this red pottery with silver trim.But to my disappointment the ship anchored out quite a distance. We coul not even see Wei=Hai-Wei from the ship.Butr a smll boat was leaving our freighter & withouteven going to my cabin to get my purse I persuaded Gertrude Rice to get into the boat with me with me for the trip to Wei-Hai-Wei.. I took it for granted that the Chinese man running the small motor boat was on an errand for my freighter & would certainly return to it.I don't know why,but we left ten-year-old Nathalie Rice on the freighter when we made our hurried departure,& we waved to her as we left.Our boatman spoke no English,but I believed he understood us when he nodded assent to my questioning him as to whether we could have two hours in Wei-Hai-Wei before returning to our ship. It was getting to be late afternoon & I did not want to be in the Chinese city after dark.We started off happily & even found the shop which sold the Wei-Hai-Wei coffeee & tea sets. There I charged a set to be sent to the TULSA as I had no money with me in my haste to get into the departing small boat.When night threatened,we returned to our dock,but found no small motor boat.At first we were not alarmed,but when we heard the freighter's whistle soundig repeatedly & impatiently & when no small boat appeared as darkness approached, we bargained with a sampan to row us out to the freighter. Gertrude paid him from her purse & he tried hard to row us but made litle headway with the heavy seas.He managed to reach a Chinese junk sailing along in the wind, & we again bargained for a ride & paid the owner of the junk to take us aboard.The wind held, & the junk mnade good progress with the large square sails & we again met a difficult transfer from the junk to the freighter.The captain of the freighter was greatly annoyed by the delay & stated he would have stranded us if Nathalie had not tearfully apealed for him to wait for her mother & Mrs. Barrett. Our friend Colonel William W. Paca,US Marine Corps (native ofAnnapolis Maryland,where he was named for great-great-great-grandfather who signed Declaration of Independence) wrote June 23,l970-he was the Marine officer on the TULSA & worked closely with Jack in winning the Asiatic Fleet l93l gunnery competition:"I remember Jack fondly as a fine officer & one of my best shiipmates.I remember him too with gratitude-which I hope I expressed directly to him at the time-for his guidance & advice-which as gunnery officer of the TULSA,he gave me relative to the training of our Marine gun crew & which resulted in our winning an "E" at that year's gunnery practice.I do have an especially clear memory of Jack- & that is that he was one of a rare group of people who have the faculty of being 'where the action is.' Frequently during wardroom conversations on the TULSA when past events were mentioned,it would develop that Jack had either been there or nearby or otherwise had been in a position to have special knowledge pf the event.In past years I have several times remarked that I once served with a naval officer who had that rare facility or gift.My great great great grandfather was William Paca,a signer of the Declaration of Independence from Maryland.The main part of the hotel Carvel Hall in Annapolis was built on the (to. p.35A) In the winter of l930-31 I met two American fur buyers in the lobby of the Court Hotel.When they remarked that my cloth coat trimmed with Persian lamb was not warm enough for the piercing cold of North China,I remarked I could not afford a fur coat. They offered to buy fur skins for me in Manchuria-said they would be beautiful & very inexpensive.When thney returned,they had some sea otter skins,which were made up into a lovely coat. Sea otter is a short,durable fur with a lovely silver sheen-very warm & comfortable.In September l93l they returned to the hotel & I visited with them before they left for Mukden & other parts of Manchuria to buy furs for their New York concern.Only a few days later they reurned to the hotel,visibly shaken as they had barely escaped with their lives when the Japanese captured Mukden September l8-l9,& they got away on the last train allowed to leave the city- a bribe to Japanese officers was necessary for them to leave.The Japanese claimed that the railroad track to be used by their troops had been bombed by the Chinese,-&they used that as an excuse to occupy Mukden. I immediately telephoned Captain Rice, who was at Taku Bar with the TULSA forty miles east of Tientsin at the mouth of the Hai Ho River,because of unusually low water levels that year, which made navigation to Tientsin inadvisable.He immediately telegraphed the Admiral of the Asiatic Fleet at Shanghai-probably the first report the United States government received.The U.S> ambassador in Tokyo was on vacation. The Navy was told to keep "hands off" the situiation.When we did nothing to stop them,the emboldened Japanese militarists established the state of Manchukuo with a puppet emperor Pu Yi.They proceeded to conquer much of North China & attacked Shanghai in l932..Their heady successes in China ultimately encouraged the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor December 7, l94l.Has we pushed them out of Manchuria in l93l, we might have avoided large scale conflict later.Secretary of State Stimson & many European leaders favored action, but President Herbert Hoover |
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Black notebook One p 106 John began more and more to spend time at his father's office at the Administration Building at Pearl Harbor on weekends and in the summer. Saturday noons pork and beans and brown bread would be served at the Pearl Harbor Officers Club. The librarians at the Pearl Harbor library were very friendly, and John read a great many books on geography, travel, astronomy,and natural wonders. The Thomas jefferson School had Richard Halliburton's "complete book of marvels" and eventually we bought a copy. We also accumulated the Dr. Doolittle series and the Beatrix Potter Peter Rabbit series, the Mary Poppins books, the Tongg's Hawaiian Fishes, Birds, Flowers, Insects, Wayside Plants series, "Shark Hole", "Keola a Boy of Old Hawaii" "The Bee People" and the "Thrum's Hawaiian Annuals". Our garden featured gaillardias, nasturtiums, marigolds, caliopsis, cosmos, petunias, geraniums- which increased rapidly from slip cuttings- snapdragons and mr. Glockner's perennial plants - a big coconut palm, a panax hedge, pink and red hibiscus bushes [actually on Needles property next door] one surviving papaya tree that gave much fruit, a fan palm with big shiny leaves, elephant-ears related to taro, Mexican creeper, allamanda with big yellow flowers and milky sap, passion flowers growing on trellis in the driveway and next door at #2411 Ala Wai canna lillies and flowering ginger and a breadfruit tree. We tried growing little red plum and yellow pear tomatoes, but we had to put each tomato in a paper bag to protect it from the fruit flies. This required patient hard workd by Jack. = The Lincoln Zephyr speedometer registered 53,413 miles when the gauge broke in April, 1944. We kept the 1937 twelve cylinder car another ten years, though we were thinking about buying a new one in 1946 when there were extreme shortages. We took it across the country in 1947 and used it locally in West Roxbury in until 1954. John met Admirals Calhoun and Furlong on his visits to Pearl Harbor. Jack was on a committee in connection with war bond sales, and John met Admiral Furlong February 1944 at one of the war bond rallies. We bought many war bonds, and the boys and girls in John's class at Thomas Jefferson competed to see whether the boys or the girls could buy more war bonds. There were four more girls than boys in the class, and Admiral Bagby's daughter Mary finally bought more than we could keep up with. In the fourth grade the Thomas Jefferson School began released-time religious education. At first we were uncertain what to do, but John attended Bible history classes, conducted by Mrs. McCarthy, who lived a half block east of us on Ala Wai Boulevard between Kaiulani and Liliuokalani Streets. There was a Parent Teachers Association at the Thomas Jefferson School through which I met some of the other parents. The day school opened I met Peter Perser and his mother, who lived on Tuisitala Street two blocks from us. Rose Lee lived on the gold course in Kaimuki across Ala Wai Canal from us. Third grade teacher Celia Ponte and Janet Iekda, Nancy Kawamura, and Diane Trease were also in Kaimuki. Fred Curtice was east toward Diamond Head. Robert Ho, Nicholas Vaksvik, Fred Hunt, Milford Chong, and Joseph Kinoshita lived in Waikiki, as did teachers Mrs. Hazleton on Kuhio Street and Mrs. Barbour on Ohua Street. The nearest children were the Cook sisters Elizabeth and Penny east of us at 2465 Ala Wai. Their father Edric worked for a shipping company. His wife Anne was from Seattle, and her father born in Europe came for an extended visit about 1945. He was concerned about inflation, saying that the increased earnings were meaningless owing to the high cost of living. After a while he got homesich for Seattle and returned there. Esther Trease, an official of the Parent Teachers Association, asked me to do committee work. I declined, but we got acquainted and visited their home on a large hill in Kaimuki and attended the tenth birthday of her daughter Diane. Mrs. Trease commented that nobody ever bothered to celebrate her birthdays because they fell two days after Christmas on December 27. Diane Trease also met the Cooks through us and atended one of thweir parties in Waikiki. p 112 On March 4, 1945 the Navy sopnsored a swimming meet on the Pearl Harbor base at which we saw the famous Australian crawl champion Duke Kahanamoku, who has been Honolulu sherriff in 1920s. Jack met retired Heavyweight champion Gene Tunney, New York Giants slugger Johnny Mize, and all-star Yankee catcher Bill Dickey at Pearl Harbor during the war. He had an autographed Bill Dickey catcher's mitt, johnny Mize baseball, and large Gene Tunney photo. He arranged their transportation for Navy morale and fitness programs. We saw many major leaguers, including Yankee center fielder Joe Dimaggio in an exhibition baseball game between the Third Fleet and the Fifth Fleet. We also saw exhibitions of prominent tennis players. There was a major tidal wave in Hawaii in 1946.which wrought majr damage, but our imediate area was not affect. John was working in the school kitchen that morning, and Mrs Billie the head cook said she could see the high water at the east end of Ala Wai Canal looking out from the school, but there was no overflow bacause the Canal had high concrte walls. The winged termites sometimes were conspicuous in spectacular swarms but did no danage to our house. We heard from my sisters Esther in Hartford and Babe in New Britain fomr time to time during the war. Babe's two youngest children Harold and Suzanne were born in 1940 and 1942. They sent some excellent photographs of Geetter, Babe, Esther, Ben, and the children around 1942. Ethyle Meranski also sent pictures of Ted and Carol Jane. We saved three pictures each of my Baltimore brother Pete and his daughter Deborah. Pete was an Army doctor first in Georgia, then in Paris, France. His favorite story from his Paris days concerned his discovery [114] of a soldier from Mississippi who could neither read nor write. Pete was rather astonished, but another doctor commented cheerfully, "In Mississippi even the teachers can't read or write." We also received a picture of my eldest nephew Athur Meranski in Army uniform in 1943.He has recently retired after a 28-year career as an Army officer. In 1944 my brother-in-law Dr. Isadore S. Geetter was drafted as a Navy doctor.My sister had to give up her house on the grounds of the New Britain General Hospital, and in 1946 after Dr. Geetter returned, they purchased a larger home at 92 Fern Street in Hartford near the West Hartford line. Dr. Geetter, who had trained as an anesthesiologist, was director first of New Britain General Hospital and then of Mount Sinai Hospital in Hartford. Dr. Geetter got to see us briefly in Waikiki January 1945 en route to duty at Samar island in Philippines. Jack had to help in getting him off the ship. One Sunday afternoon I got a telephone call from a man who would identify himself only as a doctor who had just arrived ashore from a ship anchored off Pearl Harbor. He said, "Are you Dr. Jeeter's sister-in-law?" When I agreed that I was, he explained that Dr. Geetter was aboard the anchored ship and that the captain, Vardaman, would not send a boat to get him back to the ship if he came in to see me. He hurriedly mentioned the name of the ship and cut off the conversation. I immediately telephoned Jack the news, never dreaming that he could do anything about it on Sunday afternoon. Soon Jack called me back from the Overseas Transportation Office saying that Admiral William Furlong had arranged to send his gig out to the ship for Dr. Geetter with instructions to the crew to return Dr. Geetter to the ship when he was due back. In the middle of the afternoon Dr. Geetter arrived with Jack, said he was en route as a Lieutenant Commander to be an anesthetist at a hospital in the Philippines. We took him swimming at Waikiki, dorve him about Waikiki and Kahala, gave him cold roast beef for dinner, and Jack took him back to Pearl Harbor where he boarded the gig for his ship. He gave John a pocket knife with a canopener and corkscrew. [115] Although he was a Naval doctor, he was given a citation for his work with Army men and when discharged at war's end he was a Commander.On his return he became Director of Mount Sinai Hospital in Hartford. = One afternoon in Waikiki I enjoyed a telephone call from a man who introduced himself as Dr. Horn of Baltimore- a friend of my brother Pete's. When I invited him to come to the house, he explained that they were on their way to a forward area of the war, and that he was allowed only two hours in Honolulu, most of which he had already spent seeing Honolulu and Waikiki. I was amused when he said, "Tell Pete that 'Trader Horn' called up when you write him in Europe." He promised to call me up on his return trip, but I never heard from him.= Easrly in the war I had a telephone call from a young Marine enlisted man who was a guard at the gate at Pearl Harbor. He told me that his sister lived across from me in an apartment house on the corner of 97th Street and Shore Road in Brooklyn. When our old neighbor Mrs. Rooney told his sister that I lived in Waikiki, she wrote to him about me, and he looked me up in the Honolulu telephone book. His name was Warren Griffith, and he asked if he could come to call early Sunday afternoon. When I agreed but told him he would find it dull because Jack worked every Sunday, he wanted to come anyway, saying he was anxious to be in a real home.So that was the first of a long line of Sunday afternoon visits with us, when Warren Griffith always looked handsome and smart and spoke frequently of the girl he was engaged to back home. He did his best to amuse John occasionally bring his camera and taking a few pictures. He gave him a "good luck" [116] book present "Each in his Way" about famous animals - Alexander the Great's horse Bucephalus, carrier pigeons in World War I, St. Bernard dogs and others. Suddenly about 1944 Warren Griffith failed to come to see us, and I guessed he was sent to another theater of the war. But two months passed, and he returned, glowing with the news that he had gone to the mainland on leave, and that his fiancee was now Mrs. Griffith. After only a few visits, we neither saw nor herd fom him again. Since I did not know his sister's married name, and since Mrs. Rooney had died of cancer in 1944, and George Rooney at 9615 Shore Road wrote that he had no idea who Griffith's sister was in the tremendous apartment building across 97th Street, we lost track of him. I realized that if he wanted to get in touch with us again, he knew our address, - and if he was a war casualty, I was just as well off not knowing it. =When John was in the third grade 1943-4 Phil Miller, young brother of my good friend Helen Miller in New York my Commonwealth Fund assistant 1927-1929 came to see us on the Ala Wai. He was en route to the front in the Chaplain Corps where his duty was mainly singing in religious services but he helped dig graves when necessary. = As I mentioned early in my account of our experiences in Hawaii, my close friend Gertrude Rice lived close to the Army Fort DeRussy and was alone much of the time because her daughter Nathalie was at the New York School of Social Work, and her husband Captain Paul Rice worked day and night in his personnel work with those who repaired damaged ships. We often discussed evacuation, and Gertrude told me she would stay in the Hawaiian Islands unless Singapore fell. About the time the Japanese took Singapore from Britain, Gertrude left by plane for the mainland [about February 1942].Captain Rice stayed for a while,[117] but I saw him only a few times, and finally he came to say goodbye, like so many others, because he had received orders for duty in Washington, D.C. When Gertrude went to see her daughter Nathalie in New York, she met my brother-in-law Bill Barrett at the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. He invited her to lunch or dinner. = among my saddest experinces in Hawaii was the letter from my sister-in-law Virginia Barrett in late August 1942, telling me that Pa Barrett had died. When Bill Barrett learned from Mollie that his father was sick, he decided to take his charming wife and his three-year-old son to South Boston, thinking their presence would cheer his eighty-seven-year-old father. Bill was shocked to find his father had passed away August 21 before his arrival, so he remained in Boston to make the funeral arrangements while Virginia drove back to Darien with young Billy. Pa Barrett was buried in St. Joseph's Cemetery in West Roxbury with his second wife Mary Lane Barrett and their daughter Catherine. Mollie Barrett continued to live alone with the wire haired fox terrier Skippy at the old home in Souh Boston. She took a refresher course in typing for a few months and then went to work April 1943 as a clerk and typist in the South Boston office of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, then on Broadway just west of Dorchester Street. Her cousin John Lane of Melrose was a Met employee who helped her find the job, which was outside the jurisdiction of her brother Bill in New York. In later years she was a cashier on the "window" collecting payments from a great many South Boston neighbors and was well known in the neighborhood and active in Gate of Heaven church. The Met office moved west near Boston Street beyond Andrew Square, which required riding the subway instead of walking, but her boss for many years Aaron Goldstein of Newton was friendly and considerate, and permitted her to complete twenty years service for a pension to April 1963, though she turned 65 February 11 of that year, - the normal retirement age.= Toward the end of 1944 or January 1945 Mollie wrote to us in [p 127] Waikiki saying that Virginia was in a hospital suffering from sciatica. That was about the time Dr. Geetter visited us en route to the Philippines [January 1945], because I remember asking him aoubt sciatica, diagnosis and prognosis. I was stunned when Mollie wrote again May 1945 saying that Virginia had died and that her mother Mrs. Brady had moved into Bill's Darien Connecticut home to take care of young Bily. We now believe that Virginia died of cancer, but Mollie gave the cause of death as sciatica. Grandpa's death, followed by Virginia's less than three years later before we could see her again, was a severe blow to us - so far away. + Both my brother Pete an Army major in the medical corps and my nephew Arthur Meranski a Lieutenant in tanks in Normandy-Brittany invasion under General Patton served in France during the war. Pete received a letter from Arthur's mother Sade who said she had failed to hear from Arthur for two months and could get no information from the Army, which stated it was not certain of Arthur's whereabouts and couldn't be certain until it received his pay account information. Pete took a short leave determined to look for Arthur. He went to the American Army headquarters in Paris + eventually learned that Arthur was in a French hospital went to see him there and was satisfied that he would soon be recovered and returned to duty.[127] |
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Black notebook One p 106 John began more and more to spend time at his father's office at the Administration Building at Pearl Harbor on weekends and in the summer. Saturday noons pork and beans and brown bread would be served at the Pearl Harbor Officers Club. The librarians at the Pearl Harbor library were very friendly, and John read a great many books on geography, travel, astronomy,and natural wonders. The Thomas Jefferson School had Richard Halliburton's "complete book of marvels" and eventually we bought a copy. We also accumulated the Dr. Doolittle series and the Beatrix Potter Peter Rabbit series, the Mary Poppins books, the Tongg's Hawaiian Fishes, Birds, Flowers, Insects, Wayside Plants series, "Shark Hole", "Keola a Boy of Old Hawaii" "The Bee People" and the "Thrum's Hawaiian Annuals". Our garden featured gaillardias, nasturtiums, marigolds, caliopsis, cosmos, petunias, geraniums- which increased rapidly from slip cuttings- snapdragons and mr. Glockner's perennial plants - a big coconut palm, a panax hedge, pink and red hibiscus bushes [actually on Needles property next door] one surviving papaya tree that gave much fruit, a fan palm with big shiny leaves, elephant-ears related to taro, Mexican creeper, allamanda with big yellow flowers and milky sap, passion flowers growing on trellis in the driveway and next door at #2411 Ala Wai canna lillies and flowering ginger and a breadfruit tree. We tried growing little red plum and yellow pear tomatoes, but we had to put each tomato in a paper bag to protect it from the fruit flies. This required patient hard workd by Jack. = The Lincoln Zephyr speedometer registered 53,413 miles when the gauge broke in April, 1944. We kept the 1937 twelve cylinder car another ten years, though we were thinking about buying a new one in 1946 when there were extreme shortages. We took it across the country in 1947 and used it locally in West Roxbury in until 1954. John met Admirals Calhoun and Furlong on his visits to Pearl Harbor. Jack was on a committee in connection with war bond sales, and John met Admiral Furlong February 1944 at one of the war bond rallies. We bought many war bonds, and the boys and girls in John's class at Thomas Jefferson competed to see whether the boys or the girls could buy more war bonds. There were four more girls than boys in the class, and Admiral Bagby's daughter Mary finally bought more than we could keep up with. In the fourth grade the Thomas Jefferson School began released-time religious education. At first we were uncertain what to do, but John attended Bible history classes, conducted by Mrs. McCarthy, who lived a half block east of us on Ala Wai Boulevard between Kaiulani and Liliuokalani Streets. There was a Parent Teachers Association at the Thomas Jefferson School through which I met some of the other parents. The day school opened I met Peter Perser and his mother, who lived on Tuisitala Street two blocks from us. Rose Lee lived on the gold course in Kaimuki across Ala Wai Canal from us. Third grade teacher Celia Ponte and Janet Iekda, Nancy Kawamura, and Diane Trease were also in Kaimuki. Fred Curtice was east toward Diamond Head. Robert Ho, Nicholas Vaksvik, Fred Hunt, Milford Chong, and Joseph Kinoshita lived in Waikiki, as did teachers Mrs. Hazleton on Kuhio Street and Mrs. Barbour on Ohua Street. The nearest children were the Cook sisters Elizabeth and Penny east of us at 2465 Ala Wai. Their father Edric worked for a shipping company. His wife Anne was from Seattle, and her father born in Europe came for an extended visit about 1945. He was concerned about inflation, saying that the increased earnings were meaningless owing to the high cost of living. After a while he got homesich for Seattle and returned there. Esther Trease, an official of the Parent Teachers Association, asked me to do committee work. I declined, but we got acquainted and visited their home on a large hill in Kaimuki and attended the tenth birthday of her daughter Diane. Mrs. Trease commented that nobody ever bothered to celebrate her birthdays because they fell two days after Christmas on December 27. Diane Trease also met the Cooks through us and atended one of thweir parties in Waikiki. p 112 On March 4, 1945 the Navy sopnsored a swimming meet on the Pearl Harbor base at which we saw the famous Australian crawl champion Duke Kahanamoku, who has been Honolulu sherriff in 1920s. Jack met retired Heavyweight champion Gene Tunney, New York Giants slugger Johnny Mize, and all-star Yankee catcher Bill Dickey at Pearl Harbor during the war. He had an autographed Bill Dickey catcher's mitt, johnny Mize baseball, and large Gene Tunney photo. He arranged their transportation for Navy morale and fitness programs. We saw many major leaguers, including Yankee center fielder Joe Dimaggio in an exhibition baseball game between the Third Fleet and the Fifth Fleet. We also saw exhibitions of prominent tennis players. There was a major tidal wave in Hawaii in 1946.which wrought majr damage, but our imediate area was not affect. John was working in the school kitchen that morning, and Mrs Billie the head cook said she could see the high water at the east end of Ala Wai Canal looking out from the school, but there was no overflow bacause the Canal had high concrte walls. The winged termites sometimes were conspicuous in spectacular swarms but did no danage to our house. We heard from my sisters Esther in Hartford and Babe in New Britain fomr time to time during the war. Babe's two youngest children Harold and Suzanne were born in 1940 and 1942. They sent some excellent photographs of Geetter, Babe, Esther, Ben, and the children around 1942. Ethyle Meranski also sent pictures of Ted and Carol Jane. We saved three pictures each of my Baltimore brother Pete and his daughter Deborah. Pete was an Army doctor first in Georgia, then in Paris, France. His favorite story from his Paris days concerned his discovery [114] of a soldier from Mississippi who could neither read nor write. Pete was rather astonished, but another doctor commented cheerfully, "In Mississippi even the teachers can't read or write." We also received a picture of my eldest nephew Athur Meranski in Army uniform in 1943.He has recently retired after a 28-year career as an Army officer. In 1944 my brother-in-law Dr. Isadore S. Geetter was drafted as a Navy doctor.My sister had to give up her house on the grounds of the New Britain General Hospital, and in 1946 after Dr. Geetter returned, they purchased a larger home at 92 Fern Street in Hartford near the West Hartford line. Dr. Geetter, who had trained as an anesthesiologist, was director first of New Britain General Hospital and then of Mount Sinai Hospital in Hartford. Dr. Geetter got to see us briefly in Waikiki January 1945 en route to duty at Samar island in Philippines. Jack had to help in getting him off the ship. One Sunday afternoon I got a telephone call from a man who would identify himself only as a doctor who had just arrived ashore from a ship anchored off Pearl Harbor. He said, "Are you Dr. Jeeter's sister-in-law?" When I agreed that I was, he explained that Dr. Geetter was aboard the anchored ship and that the captain, Vardaman, would not send a boat to get him back to the ship if he came in to see me. He hurriedly mentioned the name of the ship and cut off the conversation. I immediately telephoned Jack the news, never dreaming that he could do anything about it on Sunday afternoon. Soon Jack called me back from the Overseas Transportation Office saying that Admiral William Furlong had arranged to send his gig out to the ship for Dr. Geetter with instructions to the crew to return Dr. Geetter to the ship when he was due back. In the middle of the afternoon Dr. Geetter arrived with Jack, said he was en route as a Lieutenant Commander to be an anesthetist at a hospital in the Philippines. We took him swimming at Waikiki, dorve him about Waikiki and Kahala, gave him cold roast beef for dinner, and Jack took him back to Pearl Harbor where he boarded the gig for his ship. He gave John a pocket knife with a canopener and corkscrew. [115] Although he was a Naval doctor, he was given a citation for his work with Army men and when discharged at war's end he was a Commander.On his return he became Director of Mount Sinai Hospital in Hartford. = One afternoon in Waikiki I enjoyed a telephone call from a man who introduced himself as Dr. Horn of Baltimore- a friend of my brother Pete's. When I invited him to come to the house, he explained that they were on their way to a forward area of the war, and that he was allowed only two hours in Honolulu, most of which he had already spent seeing Honolulu and Waikiki. I was amused when he said, "Tell Pete that 'Trader Horn' called up when you write him in Europe." He promised to call me up on his return trip, but I never heard from him.= Easrly in the war I had a telephone call from a young Marine enlisted man who was a guard at the gate at Pearl Harbor. He told me that his sister lived across from me in an apartment house on the corner of 97th Street and Shore Road in Brooklyn. When our old neighbor Mrs. Rooney told his sister that I lived in Waikiki, she wrote to him about me, and he looked me up in the Honolulu telephone book. His name was Warren Griffith, and he asked if he could come to call early Sunday afternoon. When I agreed but told him he would find it dull because Jack worked every Sunday, he wanted to come anyway, saying he was anxious to be in a real home.So that was the first of a long line of Sunday afternoon visits with us, when Warren Griffith always looked handsome and smart and spoke frequently of the girl he was engaged to back home. He did his best to amuse John occasionally bring his camera and taking a few pictures. He gave him a "good luck" [116] book present "Each in his Way" about famous animals - Alexander the Great's horse Bucephalus, carrier pigeons in World War I, St. Bernard dogs and others. Suddenly about 1944 Warren Griffith failed to come to see us, and I guessed he was sent to another theater of the war. But two months passed, and he returned, glowing with the news that he had gone to the mainland on leave, and that his fiancee was now Mrs. Griffith. After only a few visits, we neither saw nor herd fom him again. Since I did not know his sister's married name, and since Mrs. Rooney had died of cancer in 1944, and George Rooney at 9615 Shore Road wrote that he had no idea who Griffith's sister was in the tremendous apartment building across 97th Street, we lost track of him. I realized that if he wanted to get in touch with us again, he knew our address, - and if he was a war casualty, I was just as well off not knowing it. =When John was in the third grade 1943-4 Phil Miller, young brother of my good friend Helen Miller in New York my Commonwealth Fund assistant 1927-1929 came to see us on the Ala Wai. He was en route to the front in the Chaplain Corps where his duty was mainly singing in religious services but he helped dig graves when necessary. = As I mentioned early in my account of our experiences in Hawaii, my close friend Gertrude Rice lived close to the Army Fort DeRussy and was alone much of the time because her daughter Nathalie was at the New York School of Social Work, and her husband Captain Paul Rice worked day and night in his personnel work with those who repaired damaged ships. We often discussed evacuation, and Gertrude told me she would stay in the Hawaiian Islands unless Singapore fell. About the time the Japanese took Singapore from Britain, Gertrude left by plane for the mainland [about February 1942].Captain Rice stayed for a while,[117] but I saw him only a few times, and finally he came to say goodbye, like so many others, because he had received orders for duty in Washington, D.C. When Gertrude went to see her daughter Nathalie in New York, she met my brother-in-law Bill Barrett at the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. He invited her to lunch or dinner. = among my saddest experinces in Hawaii was the letter from my sister-in-law Virginia Barrett in late August 1942, telling me that Pa Barrett had died. When Bill Barrett learned from Mollie that his father was sick, he decided to take his charming wife and his three-year-old son to South Boston, thinking their presence would cheer his eighty-seven-year-old father. Bill was shocked to find his father had passed away August 21 before his arrival, so he remained in Boston to make the funeral arrangements while Virginia drove back to Darien with young Billy. Pa Barrett was buried in St. Joseph's Cemetery in West Roxbury with his second wife Mary Lane Barrett and their daughter Catherine. Mollie Barrett continued to live alone with the wire haired fox terrier Skippy at the old home in Souh Boston. She took a refresher course in typing for a few months and then went to work April 1943 as a clerk and typist in the South Boston office of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, then on Broadway just west of Dorchester Street. Her cousin John Lane of Melrose was a Met employee who helped her find the job, which was outside the jurisdiction of her brother Bill in New York. In later years she was a cashier on the "window" collecting payments from a great many South Boston neighbors and was well known in the neighborhood and active in Gate of Heaven church. The Met office moved west near Boston Street beyond Andrew Square, which required riding the subway instead of walking, but her boss for many years Aaron Goldstein of Newton was friendly and considerate, and permitted her to complete twenty years service for a pension to April 1963, though she turned 65 February 11 of that year, - the normal retirement age.= Toward the end of 1944 or January 1945 Mollie wrote to us in [p 127] Waikiki saying that Virginia was in a hospital suffering from sciatica. That was about the time Dr. Geetter visited us en route to the Philippines [January 1945], because I remember asking him aoubt sciatica, diagnosis and prognosis. I was stunned when Mollie wrote again May 1945 saying that Virginia had died and that her mother Mrs. Brady had moved into Bill's Darien Connecticut home to take care of young Bily. We now believe that Virginia died of cancer, but Mollie gave the cause of death as sciatica. Grandpa's death, followed by Virginia's less than three years later before we could see her again, was a severe blow to us - so far away. + Both my brother Pete an Army major in the medical corps and my nephew Arthur Meranski a Lieutenant in tanks in Normandy-Brittany invasion under General Patton served in France during the war. Pete received a letter from Arthur's mother Sade who said she had failed to hear from Arthur for two months and could get no information from the Army, which stated it was not certain of Arthur's whereabouts and couldn't be certain until it received his pay account information. Pete took a short leave determined to look for Arthur. He went to the American Army headquarters in Paris + eventually learned that Arthur was in a French hospital went to see him there and was satisfied that he would soon be recovered and returned to duty.[127] Jack and John were at Pearl Harbor the day the Japanese surrender in mid-August 1945 was announcd. All the sirens and bells in the Navy Yard sounded, and there was general rejoicing. John had just recovered from measles in July. Most of his fourth grade classmates had had measles during the spring, and John must have had considerable resistance not to get them sooner but as it worked out he had measles when they spoiled his summer vacation, and he did not have the consolation of being absent from school. The Cook girls were sympathetic and wanted him to go out and play, but we observed the quarantine. The end of the war led to a particularly joyous and pleasant fifth grade year in Mrs. Davidson's class.Her son Douglas photographed the class on Valentine's Day 1946. She had them memorize interesting old poems "True worth lies in being not seeming In doing each day that goes by Some little good, not in dreaming Of great things to do by-and-bye." "Into my heart's treasury I slipped a coin That time cannot take or thief purloin. O better than the treasure of a gold-crowned king Is the heartfelt memory Of a lovely thing." She had interesting china figures in her classroom. Her maiden name was Agnes Dee Mason, and she was a descendant of the first New Hsmpshire Governor Mason, who received the colony charter from King Charles in 1630. She had taught in Arizona and used to bring in Arizona Highways magazine, with fine photographs, and she told many travels and experiences. She covered a great deal of sixth and seventh grade material in English and mathemathics so that John has very light work in the sixth grade at Punahou and was well prepared for the seventh grade when we returned to Boston. One of her two daughters was on the staff of the new Honolulu radio station KHON in 1946, which broadcast the comedy series "Our Miss Brooks" set in a school setting with actress Eve Arden. Mrs. Davidson lived about six blocks west of us on Lewers Street, and we heard a great deal about her travels and experiences. She gave us a photo her son took of Waimea Falls on the north coast of Oahu. = Not long after V-J Day Jack was transferred from the Overseas Transportation Office to court duty. Of his associates I knew Captain Edward D. Washburn, a Naval Academy graduate and courageous officer who risked the displeasure of Admiral Nimitz and Acting Navy Secretary Sullivan to protect a defendant whose case Nimitz's staff had improperly pre-judged. One of the objectives of the subsequent 1950 Uniform Code of Military Justice was to eliminate this type of staff influence. Washburn sharply questioned a prosecution witness who refused to produce a letter he had written to a politically influentiual friend about the case. The witness was a Reservist, and Washburn found him evasive and unresponsive on cross-examination. The court acquitted the career naval officer who was the defendant, and high officials of the Truman administration were antagonized. At first all members of the Court received reprimands. Later all but Washburn's were rescinded, since he had been the chairman and had conducted the questioning of the witness. His reprimand stood, but he should have received a medal for his courage in safeguarding the rights of the defendant. = in the spring of 1946 Mrs. Davidson spoke to me after school, saying that she could lose her job for what she was about to say, but she thought we ought to transfer John to the Punahou School, which had reopened at war's end, - so that he might benefit from the extras offered by a private school, such as music and dramatics.She also said that she hoped we would enter John in Exeter or Andover when we returned to the mainland.So John entered Punahou's sixth grade in September,1946, - we rented a piano, and John began taking piano lessons from Miss Laura Canafax and violin lessons with Mr. William Rusinak. Other members of the musch staff including Miss Vetter were friendly also. The studios at Montague Hall, the music buidling were air conditioned. Soon after school opened Miss Canafax gave an evening piano concert,which the three of us [130] attended, and we got our first night view of the gorgeous big night blooming cereus cactus flowers widely distributed on the walls surrounding Punahou school grounds. Mrs. Archibald McVey was the sixth grade home room teacher and took the class on tours of the Dole Pineapple canneries, where spigots provided running pineapple juice, and pupils could watch automated canning and the processing of pineapple bran for animal feed. She also took them to visit the publishing facility of the Honolulu Advertiser newspaper.Athletics and dancing received much time in the schedule, with good facilities, and there was a swimming pool. The elementary grades were near the "New Spring" for which the school was named in 1841. The spring had formed a pond with water lilies.Punahou is the oldest school west of the Rocky Mountains and California forty-niners found it safer to send their children by ship to Honolulu than to go east through the Indian country by cvovered wagons. Jack retired January 1, 1947 after terminal leave starting November 1, 1946. Frequently he drove John to and from Punahou and sometimes gave Mrs. McVey or other teachers rides home. Miss Canafax was very friendly and came to Waikiki twice to swim with us and have supper. John took part in two piano recitals at the end of the year. In the second he played "The Fox" by Francesco B. DeLeone. |
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