Red Headed Stepchild
(The Barrett family memoir of Navy Life)
by Sophie Ruth Meranski with photos
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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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