Mail Call: 10 Feb 1936 (George)

"...killed by...one of those Bill Hart
gunmen like we have here"

Motion Picture Magazine,
June 1917 cover
Fair use claimed.

From George Potter in Cabool, Missouri to his daughter Mary Potter in Washington DC.

Page 4 excitement:  one of Dorothy Potter's beaux is shot in a roadhouse by a "deputy sheriff of the hill bIlly type" ----------------->

Dave gets a suit; some tailoring required as "Dave has a sort of a short neck".  Marjorie walks to Sargent School, while Florence takes Cabool High seriously, is "sort of like you used to be, sort of half mad all the time."

George's high blood pressure gets mentioned again, perhaps a repeat from the last letter, perhaps a fresh visit for ear wax.  "...if I had the ambition of a dozen wood cutters I am at the point where I have to go easy, which by the way I am, and will have to watch the rest of the world speed by as my speeding days are past."

"Emma" is George's sister Emma Potter Parker back in Corry, PA

"plugs"...earwax, which I inherited.  Costs $20 now co-pay, probably billed $200

Mail Call: 7 Jan 1936 (George)

Metropolitan Opera Program Cover

From George Potter in Cabool, MO to his daughter Mary Potter in Washington, DC (who was recently visiting New York...and attending the Opera.  Wish her letter had survived!)

Gladys is feeling better;
 "on the go chasing dirt and knocking over dishes and making lots of noise."

"Eat Waffles...They Fill Your Face"  (no electricity...such would have been made on an iron in/on the stove.)

"I expect you felt real up(p)ity at the Opera; didn't you see lots of Janes in low neck & men in full dress.  I never went to one.  I have a notion I would like to see one, altho they are a little hibrow for me."

A reminder not to waste a dime on Special Delivery as there is none out by Sargent, Missouri.

"Art" is Mary's then boyfriend, Art Stewartson
"Long Island" i.e., where Art was from, Mary had visited there over Christmas
"John" is presumably John House, ex-suitor of Dorothy Potter

"ears blowed out"....drat, that's whence I get the earwax problem!

"Emmy" is George's sister back in Corry, PA
"Opera" as in Metropolitan Opera, NYC.  See below.

The Metropolitan Opera Program centerfold, 26 Dec 1935
Tannhauser...with Loritz Melchior, no less.
(I assume Mary and Art were in the cheap seats, if not the standing room in back....))

No supertitles back then....and the libretto is in German/English across pages.
Even the stage directions are given in both German and English!

But...the libretto included a piano reduction of choice bits to play at home!

Mail Call: 24 Dec 1935 (George)

Mary Potter, December 1935

From George Potter in Cabool, MO to his daughter Mary in Washington, DC.

Christmas presents for all are appreciated by all; pants for Dave that actually fit, a doll for Marjorie ($1.98 in the Wards' Catalogue) and imported socks, "the snakes' hips", for George...plus cash quickly gone for the most part to the Land Bank.

"Tell Roosevelt that we are for him out here and hope he stays in.  Did you ever see him?"

"Merry Christmas, and don't eat too much turkey."

"Soph" is daughter Elaine in St. Louis
"Dorothy's friend" is probably John House.

Mail Call: 21 Nov 1935 (George)

George Potter , Cow and Dogs (*)

From George Potter in Cabool, MO to his daughter Mary Potter in Washington, DC

Mary takes the hint from a previous letter and sends the tax money.

"Betty Lou" the cow died suddenly, and neighbor Arch Brooks and Arch's mules helped George drag the remains into the woods.  There is a more detailed and alarming account of "Betty Cow's" demise in the next letter; it was actually a close call for George himself.

George comments on Glady's Oct 30 rant about Dorothy having gone wild..."a swallow of gin makes any ones breath smell like a distillery and dont take much to set a girl giggling"

"The young people are all wild pretty much but I think they will settle down in time."

"Arch" is neighbor Arch Broooks

"Soph" is daughter Elaine Potter, staying with George's sister Dora in St. Louis.

(*) Note on photo: this was image-processed from a negative, only one of four that I have found.  I will put a scan of an original print up next time.

Mail Call: 9 Nov 1935 (George)

George Potter in Cabool, MO to his daughter Mary Potter in Washington DC:

Coat on the way; "try and not see the ghost of the old hen that went to pay the postage"

Follow-up to Gladys' earlier rant about Dorothy gone somewhat wild; she is engaged to a "nice guy" although one much older and frequently married.  Nothing comes of this, eventually.

"You never say what you think about helping us on taxes, etc"

"Can't get in on gov. work as we have a home and cow and chicks etc, have got to be destitute"

"Dora & Walt & Soph & Bob"  Dora is George's sister in St. Louis, Walt Bremerkamp is
her husband and Bob is their son.  Soph is, as usual, George's daughter  Elaine Potter.

Mail Call: 30 Oct 1935 (Gladys)

From Gladys Potter in Cabool to her daughter Mary in Washington, DC.

Dorothy Potter's earlier visit to the big city (St. Louis) has given her ideas and much attitude; she has taken up with an older man with a kid somewhere.  Nothing comes of this, of course, but it is a running theme in many of the following letters.

(The original of this letter is in pencil and much faded, this has been heavily enhanced (sharpened) to make it legible here.  I don't usually do anything to the scans, but this one was too far gone for that policy to make sense. The odd speckled effect is an artifact of the sharpening process.)

"Dora" is George's sister in E. St. Louis
"Lillian" was George's niece, daughter of his late sister Bessie Johnson.
Lillian was back with Emma Parker in Corry after a stay with Dora.

1 Sep 1935: Mary's big day in New York City

Mary Potter saved, among other things, these relics of a quick trip to New York CIty over Labor Day, 1935. Most likely, this was the idea of recent boyfriend Art, who had grown up in Huntington, NY.

The Pennsylvania RR bargain fare is to leave DC just after midnight on Friday (by then, Saturday, Sept 1) and return at noon on Monday (Sept 2), as checked off on the flier at the right.  After sitting up all night in the train, that left all day Sunday plus Monday morning in New York City.  Sunday night, perchance, at the Parents?...could have been a shock, as the Mother of Art was from seriously high-class roots in Chicago.

There is also a flyer for Jones Beach, so perhaps that was the agenda for morning before Radio City.

Pencil notes on the back of the excursion flyer:

"Sat Nite: Elks convention returning, Hershey Bar, 5:30 AM New York!"
Mon. Nite: "Crowded train, Juicy People, Rainy Weather, home at 6:00."

I hope "Juicy" meant drunken; the image is unpleasant.



George, in his next letter on 14 Sept 1935, will be worried about his daughter getting over-tired and gently re-inforces the urgent need for cash.

Labor Day Excursion Fare DC-NY-DC! $3.50!

The Grand Organ (still grand in its way), plus
Symphonic Orchestra and Glee Club
(Friml composed "Rose-Marie" and "The Vagabond King" among others)

Radio City show for $0.99!

The Corps de Ballet (still a thing) and Glee Club (reprise)
Finally, Rockettes.

AND, after all that, the movie...Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in "Top Hat"

(I am intrigued by "The WIVEL", a "Glamorous Scandinavian Cabaret,"
unfortunately, it does not seem to have been on the itenerary)

13 June 1817: George's great-grandfather George Valentine, whaler, comes ashore.

Two hundred years ago today, third great-grandfather George Claghorn Valentine returned from a ten-month whaling voyage on the brig Sally to the whaling grounds off the coast of Africa (probably south of Maderia).  He had signed on at age 18, the youngest member of the crew. He never went whaling again, instead moving to Collins, NY in 1835 with his wife (Mary Green, married 1821) and six children (four more were later born in NY).

A whaling brig christened Sally
(probably not the same one mentioned below)

This was not a particularly successful whaling voyage.  The captain, Fred Arthur, got ill and left the ship at some point. The remaining 13 crew members continued on but returned with only 250 barrels of whale oil, probably from ten or fiftten baleen ("right") whales.  The per-crew share, or "lay" is not listed for the Sally nor is anyone's rank below captain.  George probably got little, either way.

Note:  I believe the return date in the following Federal tables (13 June)
rather than the 16 June in this transcription, for what difference that makes.
Credit: New Bedford (MA) Library whaling archives

Detail of right-hand facing page of federal fisheries report, continuation of Sally's entry is underlined.

Source: Starbuck, A.: "History of the American Whale Fishery from its Earliest Days to the year 1876"
pages 218 and 219 (details) on https:archive.org/details/historyofamerica00star

Detail of left-hand page of federal fisheries report; Sally's entry  is underlined

Mail Call: 18 March 1935 (Marjorie)

From Marjorie Potter in Cabool (Age 11) to her sister Mary in St. Louis.

The fun in this letter is on the second page; Sixteen year old brother David has been snatching his sisters' gum and gets shut out of the house for dinner.  He manages to improvise for himself and does not go hungry,

Thanks to cousin Linda Rauk for this letter, which Mary had returned to Marjorie in the 1980's

Mail Call: 3 January 1935 (George)

George Potter in Cabool, MO to his daughter Mary who was still working in St. Louis at what had (fortunately) turned into more than a ten-day job.  Mary had evidently traveled back home for Christmas, after all.

"...we ate candy Christmas eve 'till the world looked level"

Note:  "Bright Eyes" is a 1934 Shirley Temple movie, black and white
"Jake and Fritz" not identified