The Bea Blog -- Part IV -- 1916

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 59^th 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!

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 5^th Ave and the streets near it were crowded all day. 59^th 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

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.

http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/digital/collections/nny/cerfb/profile

Bennett Cerf in later years (still wearing that broad grin)

(© Bettmann/CORBIS/Corbis Images)

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 100^th 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 89^th 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 71^st 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 89^th 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 17^th 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 96^th 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.

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.