The Bea Blog consists of
excerpts from the diaries my grandmother Bea Cohen (1899-1985) kept for 38
years, starting in 1913. For more background, see Part I -- Intro and 1913 (under Blog Archive).
The Bea Blog
Excerpts from My Grandmother's Diaries
Part IV -- 1916
In 1916 Bea graduates from high school. She
is voted “Most Conscientious” in her class and least likely to be seen “in a
hurry.” She goes to her first dance and enrolls in secretarial school. President
Woodrow Wilson comes to Long Branch.
 |
| Bea’s New Year Resolutions for 1916 |
January
January 1
Happy
New Year!
Resolutions
I ought to make and keep
1.
Don’t
worry
2.
Don’t
frown -- smile
3.
Don’t
be discontented
4.
Don’t
be so slow
5.
Don’t
displease Mother and Father
Milton, studying at the Philadelphia Textile School, continues to woo
Bea with letters and gifts. Bea remains unsure of her feelings, still
preferring Milton's younger brother Harold.
Milton is so fickle and has queer faults but
instead of disliking him terribly I feel sorry for him. I wish I’d see Harold.
He’s adorable, I could rave. If he were older ---- !
Wish I had someone to love. I’m lonesome. I
need confection [sic]. Must have it [.
. .] Some men are so good-looking it hurts [. . .] Oh Beatrice you’re young
yet. What have you been reading?
February
Sollis has been at the Battle Creek Sanitarium for more than two months (see The Bea Blog 1915). He returns home this month but he remains anxious and moody.
Father may feel splendid one minute and the
next may be completely upset. You never can tell!
Around this time, Bea voices frequent concern about her weight, looks
and abilities. She begins a lifelong
struggle with low self-esteem, though it is tempered with humor in these
teenage years.
Enough for now you poor fat cow! Wish I were
thin.
Slower than molasses, worrying disposition
and hard to please. Some fine girl oh yes!
March
Bea is asked to her first dance, “the Rival Dance at the Plaza,” by a young man named Arthur Tager. She enjoys the dance, though she doesn’t “rave” about it.
The
Plaza Hotel on 59th Street and Central Park South was still a
relatively new hotel (it opened on October 1, 1907). http://www.theplazany.com/history/
It was the first time I was ever to a real
dance like that and I did have a good time. I couldn’t rave though – somehow it
takes a tremendous lot to make me rave […] Arthur’s a peach.
Spring brings the “grippe” (also known as the flu) to the Cohen
household
Father is gripped in the grip of the grippe.
And soon after Bea also gets sick
April
On doctor’s orders, Bea stays home from school and eventually is sent to a hotel in Lakewood, New Jersey to recover from her bad cough. She spends most of the month of April there. One day she spots a celebrity in town.
Had a shine in the village and saw John D.
Rockefeller come out of church into his machine.
The industrialist and
philanthropist John D. Rockefeller (1839-1937) had an estate in Lakewood.
At the end of April, back at school, Bea comments on her
diary-keeping
This diary is so punk. It will never be a
Pepys or an Evelyn but I don’t want it to be and when I grow up and get older I
hope I’ll have something worthwhile putting in. Amen!
Pepys and Evelyn were two famous British diarists. Samuel
Pepys (1633-1703) kept a diary from 1660-1669. John Evelyn (1620-1706) wrote
from 1641 until his death.
Faced with making up all the work she missed when she was sick – and
knowing that graduation is just over a month away -- Bea is restless
President Miss Something of Wellesley spoke to us to-day and said we shouldn’t complain of hard work. To the contrary we should enjoy it. Sure!
President Miss Something of Wellesley spoke to us to-day and said we shouldn’t complain of hard work. To the contrary we should enjoy it. Sure!
 |
| Ellen Fitz Pendleton, President
of Wellesley College 1911-1936 (http://www.wellesley.edu/about/president/formerpresidents) |
In four weeks I’ll be free. Think of it! [. . .] I want O. Henry and Kipling for graduation.
May
We have a regular Fairbanks scale now. Reduced ¾ pound since Friday. It’s a peach.
 |
| Fairbanks Platform Floor Scale (center), early 1900's cast iron, brass “Marketed as a Personal Scale, the catalogue reads, ‘The Fairbanks personal scale, placed in bathroom or bedroom, offers every family the advantage of obtaining personal weight without clothes as frequently as desired. It is convenient and easy to use, takes up but a small space, and is handsomely finished to ornament any home.’ Cast iron base, platform, pillar with double beam and adjustable measuring rod. Original white paint.” http://vermontscalemuseum.com |
May 13
Preparedness Parade was to-day and 5th
Ave and the streets near it were crowded all day. 59th St crosstown
was jammed like sardines.
The Preparedness
Movement was a Republican-led campaign to strengthen the U.S. military after the outbreak of WWI.
Preparedness Parades were held throughout the country. The painter Childe Hassam (1859-1935) began
his famous Flag Series after seeing the May 13 Preparedness Day parade. He
recalled: "There was that Preparedness Day, and I looked up the avenue and
saw these wonderful flags waving, and I painted the series of flag pictures
after that."
www.artsjournal.com/aboutlastnight/2008/05/tt_waving_the_flag.html
 |
The Fourth of July, 1916
(also known as The
Greatest Display of the American Flag Ever Seen in New York, Climax of the
Preparedness Parade in May)
Frederick Childe Hassam (1916)
http://www.the-athenaeum.org/art/list.php?s=du&m=a&aid=1310&p=6
Frederick Childe Hassam (1916)
http://www.the-athenaeum.org/art/list.php?s=du&m=a&aid=1310&p=6
Towards the end of May, Bea asks Milton to her school graduation
dance to be held Friday night, June 2
Heard from Milton that he can’t come on
account of his religion [the Sabbath]. It put me in sort of a hole but he’s
bully to stay away when I’m sure he wanted to come.
June
June 1 (the eve of Bea’s graduation from Horace Mann)
Father to-night shyly gave me a check for
$100. I can’t get over that. It is beyond me. I don’t deserve it!
Sollis’s $100 gift was equivalent to about $2000 today. data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl
June 2
The happiest day of my life! The day was
marvelous in every respect and I am no longer a “school girl.” I am a graduate
and I have a cute little piece of paper to prove it [. . .] My hair was down
for the last time in the afternoon and up for the first time in the evening.
It’s going to stay up.
 |
| The New York Times published this item about Bea’s graduating class |
The day after graduation Bea reluctantly attends a dance with an escort she refers to as a “simp.” But the dance has some “redeeming features,” including a young man named Bennett Cerf.
Bennett came with Sophye and what a
good-natured fellow he is! Wears a standing broad grin and tried to cheer me
up.
Bennett Cerf (1898-1971), a founder of Random House, was a well-known humorist as well as a regular panelist on the popular TV show What’s My Line? which ran from 1950-1967.
 |
| Bennett Cerf in later years
(still wearing that broad grin) |
Whether because of Sollis’s health or troubles with his business or a combination of both, Bea’s family is worrying about expenses and an apartment search begins
Mother and Marion looked for apartments [. .
.] If we stay here [The Wendolyn at 324 West 100th Street] the rent goes up $400 and
we’ll have to take a 3 year lease on it. Perhaps Father will be able to afford
it if we do without a car this summer.
Bea sees an apartment building going up at 89th Street and
West End Avenue
I guess that’s where we’ll land.
In the weeks following graduation, Bea spends time with her friend
and Horace Mann classmate Jeannette Lorber – whose father owned Lorber’s Restaurant
(see The Bea Blog 1915). Bea writes admiringly of Jeannette, both in this diary
and throughout her early diaries.
Jeannette is really adorable and I can
understand why all the boys fall for her right away. As Father says she has
vivacity and that does count for much. She’s extremely good-looking, quick,
bright, beautiful pianist, adorable size and full of life.
She looked lovely. She wore a gray taffeta
dress, gray pumps, a large white hat with black velvet and her gold mesh bag.
Some doll! We were at the piano all evening. She plays wonderfully!
After Bea married Milton in 1920, she remained friendly with
Jeannette who married soon after and had two sons. Jeannette’s husband died
in 1943 and eventually Milton and Jeannette fell in love. Milton moved out in
1952 to live with Jeannette and lived with her until her death in 1969. [As a
child, I spent time either with “Grandpa and Jeannette”, as I called them, or
with“Grandma”(Bea). I knew that Bea and Jeannette had been classmates, but
didn’t know the extent or quality of their early relationship until I read
Bea’s diaries.]
June 27
Marion and I went downtown this morning and we saw the 71st regiment leave for Mexico. We saw them march up 5th Ave.
The 71st Infantry was a regiment of the New York State Militia. In
1916, the 71st was mobilized as part of the U.S. Army force serving on the
Mexican border to stop raids by Mexican leader Pancho Villa. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/71st_Infantry_Regiment,
www.firstworldwar.com/source/mexico_pershing.htm.
July
By mid-July, Bea and her family are back in Long Branch for the
summer. She continues to enjoy a privileged life, but her entries begin to
show a bit more maturity and self-reflection.
It’s quiet out here but I’ll have tennis,
bathing, horseback riding, machine riding, bicycling, walking, sleeping,
eating, practicing [piano] and flirting, so what more?
I don’t appreciate my advantages as I should
and I don’t show enough respect to Father and Mother. It’s time I reformed.
Father and I went for a horseback ride this
morning for an hour and a half or so [. . .] Had a dandy horse and cantered
too. I hadn’t ridden for two years and it made me sort of schwach in the legs.
“Schwach” means “weak” in
Yiddish.
Things of importance such as the epidemic of
infantile paralysis, the shark scare, our troops in Mexico and the war in
Europe I rarely if ever mention in here but foolish details can be found by the
score.
In 1916, there were over 9,000
cases of polio (also known as infantile paralysis) in New York City and many
more nationwide. The
Jersey Shore shark attacks occurred
between July 1 and July 12, 1916, killing four people and injuring one. These
attacks are said to have inspired Peter Benchley's
1974 novel Jaws.
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/The-Shark-Attacks-That-Were-the-Inspiration-for-Jaws-165313716.html
July 26
There is a case of infantile paralysis at the
[Hotel] Vendome – very wealthy family – but even in such a case money doesn’t
help.
August
Bea’s family decides to rent an apartment in the newly-built
apartment house at 590 West End Avenue at 89th Street
I can at last have a room all my own T.G. [.
. .] I want a big cozy chair – comfy, roomy and delicious.
September
On September 1, Bea joins the crowd in Long Branch to greet President Wilson. Her views on women's suffrage appear to be shifting (see The Bea Blog 1915).
Wilson has finally arrived! We were at the
station tonight (about 9) when he came. Some mob! He’s a very fine looking man
and I shall surely vote for him.
And the following day
Mother and Father went to Shadow Lawn where
Wilson held his notification reception.
 |
| President Woodrow Wilson (in profile) on porch of Shadow Lawn, Notification Day, September 2, 1916. http://www.westlongbranch.org/history/images/earlywlb_38.jpg |
Shadow Lawn was the “Summer White House” for President Wilson in 1916 and it was there, before a crowd of 15,000, that he formally accepted the Democratic nomination for another term as President. New York Times, September 3, 1916 http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9A04E6D91439E233A25750C0A96F9C946796D6CF
Bea remains uncertain about her future plans
It must be wonderful to be able to go out of
town to college.
But she never seems seriously to consider leaving home for college or
even attending a regular college program in New York City and it seems unlikely
that her parents encouraged her to do so. Instead, she considers taking either
a secretarial course or music and language lessons.
October
Bea’s family returns from Long Branch and moves into their new apartment and Bea decides to go to the Scudder School for a secretarial course
In The Handbook of Private Schools (1918), the Scudder School for
Girls (founded in 1912 by Myron T. Scudder) is listed as offering a
post-graduate course in “secretarial and executive training.”
Can’t pass a verdict yet, but it shall be all right because I intend making it so. I take Current Topics, English, Typewriting, Commercial Geography, Spanish, Stenography and Bookkeeping. Mustn’t take it too seriously because I want to do lots of other things besides this winter.
On October 18, Bea's 17th
birthday, Milton makes a splash with his gift
A beautiful letter and a bottle of Roger
& Gallet “Fleurs d’Amour” perfume and it’s some bottle. He’s so
extravagant. He’s too decent to me.
November
November 6
Father and I walked to 96th
St to-night and listened to some good speeches. Heard Walter Chandler,
Republican candidate for Congressman of that district, Vincent Gilroy,
Democratic Assemblyman and Judge Seabury, Democratic candidate for Governor.
November 7 –
Election Day
Election Day! Vacation! Can hear the
extras but don’t know yet whether Wilson or Hughes got in. I want Wilson but
Father has an expensive bet on Hughes so what can I do.
Some days later
Forgot to mention in this memorable and
brilliant diary that Wilson was reelected. Very close election.
One of the
speakers at Scudder brings out Bea’s sense of adventure
We had a wonderful speech this morning
by a man who used to be a lumberjack, an outlaw and a regular wild fellow. Now
he preaches the Gospel up on the frontier and is intensely interesting. No
high-born high falutin’ speech, but frank, sincere and honest [. . .] I’d love
to travel West and through the real U.S. and meet real men and women, not
pampered dressed-up dolls.
November 23
King of Austria died yesterday and Jack
London died too! Everybody’s doin’ it!
Jack
London (1876-1916) was the author of The Call of the Wild, among other works.
November 27
Marion’s really a wonder. She’ll get
along with the fellows wonderfully and she’s got a great future ahead of her.
She’s a regular, wide-awake, alive girl, is going to Bryn Mawr.
Bea means that Marion, about to
turn 15, was headed in the direction of a prestigious college such as Bryn Mawr. Marion
was very popular at Horace Mann and excelled in both academics and extracurriculars,
especially sports. For these reasons, and probably because her parents believed
Marion was less likely to marry (she was less conventionally attractive than
Bea), Marion was encouraged on the college path, while Bea was not.
December
Milton phoned to-night. Sounds cheerful
as anything. He is surely reforming right. Wish I could. Still sick of myself,
old cock-eyed fool hippopotamus that I am.
As Christmas approaches
Christmas will be around soon, but we don’t make any fuss about it anymore [. . .] We sure used to have some wonderful Christmases.
As Christmas approaches
Christmas will be around soon, but we don’t make any fuss about it anymore [. . .] We sure used to have some wonderful Christmases.
Bea fondly
recalls the Christmas traditions introduced into the Cohen household by the
family’s beloved German-born, non-Jewish governess Miss Coons (who worked for
the family until 1912). But Bea and her siblings did recapture the holiday
spirit in later years – regularly exchanging gifts on Christmas with friends
and family. And once I was born, I became the lucky recipient of both Christmas
and Hanukah gifts from Bea.
