Grandma was a party animal!

One thing I’ve learned about my grandmother, Loraine Gunzendorfer, is that she was a party animal!  Okay, maybe not exactly a party animal, but she didn’t like to sit around with nothing to do.  As I approach the last few pages of the scrapbook (I’m sad about that), I find lots of mementos from dances and parties.

On June 10, 1914, Grandma attended the Hollister High School Senior Ball at Berberich Pavilion.  Here’s her ticket.





After nearly 100 years, the chips are missing.  I can see the blank area where they once were.

I guess “Class Night” and the Senior Ball were one and the same.  Maybe they had Class Night and then went to the ball?



Look at this – another dance card!  She talks about Gene but I don’t see his name on the card.



Had a great time.  Enjoyed all my dances so much.  Gene took me.  After the dance the kids came to the house for awhile.  Carrol Johnson interested me greatly.

Wait?  Carrol Johnson?  Who was he?  Good thing he wasn’t interested in her or who knows, maybe I wouldn’t be here today.  And whose house did they go to – Grandma’s?

And then she went to the commencement exercises on June 19th.  Turns out that San Benito and Hollister High Schools are one in the same.  Interesting that their logo is HHS (Hollister High School) yet they call it San Benito County High School here.  The school was was founded in 1875 as a grammar school and is known as the ‘Haybalers’ or ‘Balers’.





Well look at that – Carroll H. Johnson.  Wonder how she knew him?  Hollister is about 40 miles from Monterey – she sure got around!

And then she added this picture.  I’m not sure what it has to do with Hollister High School but she’s got it on the same page.  Loraine is 2nd from the back.



And on the back someone wrote:  Gee this is some picture of you, note the expression ha! ha! cheer up.  I’ll have the camera do better next time.  I will send the rest later if you want them but this was too good to keep.  E.G.

Of course the picture is pretty small so I had to blow it up to see this expression E.G. wrote about.



Oh E.G. was right – it is a classic expression!  Wonder who said what to get her to react that way?  Although you’ll notice a young man’s hand on her shoulder – maybe she was happy about that?  Or not.

She saved napkins?

My grandmother, Loraine Gunzendorfer, had a wonderful scrapbook with a lot of mementos so why am I surprised to find napkins?  Not just napkins, but descriptions from where they came from and why she saved them.



Isn’t this a beautiful napkin?  Grandma’s description says:  Went to party at Margaret Wright’s Friday night May 15, 1914.  Had very nice time.  Neil Best brought me home.

Neil Best?  That’s a new name.  I don’t see him at Monterey High School in 1915.



The Wave must have been where kids hung out in 1914-1915.  I looked quickly to see if I could find anything about this place in Monterey and was unsuccessful.  Maybe my friend and her husband, who live in Monterey and know the history, might be able to tell me something about it.



This is to remember the minstrel show at Arbolado on the 4th of July.  A wonderful affair (oh, yes) but we should worry.

While the comment “we should worry” sounds exactly like my grandmother, I’m not sure what she meant by that.  It seems like she had a “fine time” at most of the affairs she attended.  And there were a lot!



One night Carleton, Margaret, Hallie, Frank, Neil & I went to the “movies” together.  We had some time.  My “instructor” was overly nice to me.  But alas – he gave me this match for my precious memory book.

Why would movies and instructor be in quotes?  Was this code for something else?  I can’t imagine you would need an instructor at the movies.  And just what did “overly nice” mean?  I think I need to rein in my imagination!



Here’s another beautiful napkin and Grandma’s description:

Went to a little party at Helen Otis’ Monday night, July 20/14 with Earle.  Had an awfully good time.  The napkin is to remember it.

We’ve heard about Earle before – sounds like she and Earle spent a fair amount of time together.

In other news, last week I wrote about Grandma attending the Salinas High School Graduation in 1914 as the guest of Dorothy Striening.  I was able to connect with Dorothy’s great granddaughter through ancestry.com. – what fun!  Dorothy’s married name was Lacey and her great granddaughter pointed out to me that Grandma danced several dances with Lacey.  And now I have found Lorin Lacey a few years behind Grandma at Monterey High School.  I might just be able to connect the dots yet!

Salinas High School Graduation – 1914

Here’s a new tidbit in the life of my grandmother, Loraine Gunzendorfer - she attended the Salinas High School graduation in 1914.  I realize that Salinas and Monterey are only about 20 miles apart but I’m perplexed as to how and why she attended.

Apparently, she was a guest of Dorothy Striening.



I’ve done a little searching on Dorothy on ancestry.com and I’ve sent a message to someone who has Dorothy in their tree.  I’d really like to figure out how it was that Loraine and Dorothy were friends.  Or could they have been relatives?  Now that’s an interesting thought!

Of course, this was big news and was even published in the newspaper.  I love that simple things were worthy of newspaper coverage 100 years ago.



Looks like Grandma’s dance card was pretty full.  None of these names look familiar to me, which makes sense since these were kids from another school.



I love dance cards!  These little gems were popular in the 19th and early 20th centuries and were used to record a woman’s dance partners.  Most dance cards were decorative with long strings so the women could wear them on their wrists or attach them to their gowns.  Inside the card were pages with each dance listed with a blank line after each dance.  After a man asked a woman for a specific dance, his name would be penciled in on that line.  Some dance cards had tiny pencils attached to the string, but men usually carried pencils with them.  Etiquette stated that if a man introduced himself and asked for a dance, the woman could really not refuse.  Dance cards weren’t used any longer by the middle of the twentieth century but often times we still hear the phrases “my dance card is full”, “pencil me in”, or “save the last dance for me”.

Here’s Grandma’s description of the weekend she spent in Salinas.



Had a lovely weekend at Salinas as the guest of Dorothy.  Went to the ball with a splendid young fellow from the city – he did not dance because the board forbid strangers to do so.

Wanted to get something for a souvenir at the Lodge at Pebble Beach the day we came over in the machine but saw nothing worthwhile save a finger bowl and Jack would not let me take that.

Who was Jack and why wouldn’t he let her get the finger bowl?  Why would the board forbid strangers from dancing?  I feel like every time I find something it leads to more questions.

More dance cards later in the scrapbook!