Next stop – Portland!

The Levy Family Motoring trip of 1940 continued north to Portland.  I think the scrapbooker was quite taken by the Columbia River. 



This is clearly a purchased photo of some sort but it’s interesting to see what things looked like in 1940.

And here’s my grandmother, Loraine (Gunzendorfer) Levy, in front of the Vista House that can be seen in the photo above.



Once again, stylish clothes with a hat to match.  One thing I remember about my grandmother is that she was ALWAYS dressed to the nines!

I did a quick search to see if she was, in fact, standing in front of the Vista House and to see if there were many changes.  Looks like those are the same windows.

Photo by Frank Kovalchek

 

This photo hits close to home since I live in Washington – Dad was so close and little did he know his daughter would one day live here.



This seemed to excite the scrapbooker.



And then I turned the page and saw this.



Ha!  Not sure if it means the trip was getting tiresome or the bills that were on the page.



$6.50 for one room.  They must have decided to share that night.  Wonder who they called for 80 cents?

Here’s my dad in front of the Coquille Coffee Shop.  Being that he never drank coffee, I wonder what he ordered.



And then another bill from the Hotel Benson.  Same date – July 9.  Must be an error as I’m sure they weren’t in two places at once.



I’m guessing they stayed here for 2-3 nights – I can’t imagine $36.00 for one room.  Glad they were able to get their laundry done!

I looked to find some photos of the hotel and sure enough, it is still around today.  I can imagine it was just as fine in 1940.

 

Photos by Sporst

 

Last but not least was something titled “Don’t Peek”. 



Of course, the first thing I had to do was PEEK!




Looks like they wired ahead on July 8 to make their reservation for the following night.  Could they have changed their reservation from The Benson to arrive on July 10?  I had to laugh that on the back of the “Don’t Peek” things, someone wrote “It was the siliest thing of the trip”.  What was silly?  Wiring ahead to change/make a reservation?  The fact that someone wrote “Don’t Peek” knowing the first thing anyone would do was, in fact, PEEK?

On to the next adventures!

And now I’m 6!

Photo by Jessie Pearl

Wow, where has the time gone?  I’ve been blogging for 6 years!  How is that even possible?  I’ve come across some amazing discoveries during these last six years – ‘finding’ cousins, discovering my 3x great grandfather in an unmarked grave, documenting my grandmother’s scrapbook from 100 years ago, and learning so many details about my ancestors’ (and my own) lives.  It has been such a rewarding journey.

Over those six years, here are my top 5 blog posts.

• On June 16, 2013, I wrote about a Bittersweet Day, another Father’s Day without my dad.  I’ve probably looked at the post so many times over the years that it pushed it to the top of my posts but if I had to pick one to push to the top, this would be the one.
• On March 8, 2013, I followed a Fearless Females blog prompt and wrote Is there a Diary?  Interestingly, I did later find a ‘real’ diary and wrote about that HERE.  
• On February 16, 2016, I asked for some translation help for words on the back of a photo in What does this say?  I received lots of good suggestions – the power of blogging!
• On August 17, 2013, as part of documenting my grandmother’s scrapbook, I wrote Grandma was a Party Animal.  While she really wasn’t a party animal, she did like to dance!
• On April 27, 2014, I asked readers to Raise your Hand if you’d seen your mother, grandmother, or great grandmother pregnant.  I think I can say I’ve seen my great grandmother (at least a photo) pregnant!

Within the last few weeks, I’ve had another blogging success story which seems appropriate to share here.  I know we’ve all seen on the news a story of someone finding another person in order to share a family heirloom, photo, letters or the like and we are always a bit envious and wonder why that never happens to us.  Well, it DID happen to me!

A few weeks ago I received messages in several different locations (Facebook, WikiTree, and even my main office phone) saying:

I recently purchased a WW2 hat, case and pins from a Goodwill near me with the name Robert S. Levy lieutenant in it. My family and I think that this is a special and personal treasure that a family member should have. If I've done my research correctly, this would make you his niece. Is that correct? I would love to get this special treasure to the right person. Not sure if your uncle has any children or grandchildren that may want it? In any case if you would contact me I'd greatly appreciated it!

That’s right – Robert S. Levy was my uncle and my dad’s only sibling.  And this woman had his WW2 hat and wanted to return it to the family!

So contact her I did!  And it turns out that she did, in fact, have my uncle’s hat!  I asked her to send me a photo…..



And the inside….



And then I compared it to a photo I had of Rob in his hat…….



SAME HAT! 

Next step was to contact my cousin, Rob’s daughter, to ask her if she wanted the hat.  Turns out she had been sorting things into boxes – one to donate and one to keep – and the hat ended up in the wrong box!  And off it went to Goodwill by mistake.  My new ‘friend’ was a hero – she had saved the hat!  I connected the two of them and the hat is now back with my cousin who, coincidentally, lives fairly close to my new friend.

I’ve since asked our hero how it was she came upon the hat, to which she responded:

I found the hat in the box at a Goodwill in Buckhead.   I like going there to find special treasures and I've found quite a few in the past.  I love finding artwork or vintage decor and doing research on it, so when I opened the hat box and pulled out the hat I knew it was old and that my kids would love to see a real army hat.  But after I looked at it closer I saw the card with Robert S Levy's name on it.  I knew that once I got home I would research.  I first found the article from the Fresno Bee in 1944 that had Robert’s name and Sigmund Levy’s name.  So I googled Sigmund Levy and found the wiki tree .  Your name was connected to that.  We were hoping to find a wife, children or grandchildren.  The pins were in the box too and we just felt that someone in his family should have this special treasure.  I have 4 kids and they all showed the hat to their friends.  They tried it on and saluted each other :)).  All of the kids kept saying wow, this is so cool!  So we were on a mission to get in touch with you!  We found you on LinkedIn and Facebook and then found your blogs about your family and read about them with Robert’s name hidden amongst some of your blogs.  We were like wow, that's him!!!  So yes, when you sent the pictures with the hat on him that was a full circle moment.  I felt like I knew your family history after all that!  I hope your uncle’s hat and pins stay safe and his grandchildren find a spot for this special piece of history.

And that’s where blogging has provided me with another success story and proves that just when you think it can’t happen to you, it does!  Thank you again to my new friend – I can’t thank you enough! So that’s what I’ve been up to for the last six years.  Just when I think I’m losing interest and have said just about everything there is to say (even though I have about 20 more scrapbooks left to go through), I get re-energized.

And while I don’t have a photo specifically of my 6th real-life birthday, this is a very special photo from when I was about that age.  My husband found it while he was scanning the thousands of slides my dad had and pulled it out of the archives.  Just maybe I was thinking about what would turn up in my family history so many years later!



And now on to 7!

Heading North from Crater Lake

The Levy Family motoring trip of 1940 continued north – next stop, Crater Lake, Oregon!



This was a souvernir that someone in the family added to the scrapbook.  Yes, I know it’s spelled wrong but I think that adds to the story since that was the way it was captioned. 

And the back of the postcard packet.



July 3 – Sometimes Oregon is a low country because sometimes - Oregon Caves.  Corny, right?  For anyone who knew my uncle, Rob Levy, you know he was the king of corny jokes.  So was he the scrapbooker?

Another corny joke…..



And then we see the familiar trio – Gordon, Loraine, Rob.  Looking good!



Don’t fall over?  What in the heck does that even mean?



And to prove they actually visited the caves, a ticket was included.  I had to laugh that coveralls or shoes may be rented at 25¢.

I’m starting to feel like this is a bit of a treasure hunt – we see where the family spent the day and the finale was how much they paid for their lodging (not loging).



The scrapbooker states that July 4 was at Crater Lake, Oregon.
.

Yes, that’s right.  We payed for this one.



But this Dad took.  That tells me that one of the boys was the scrapbooker.  Although my grandmother always called Sig “Dad”, too. 

This one is titled Massive.  Isn’t that the truth?

And here’s my dad looking so cute!



And some more photos of the lake.

We finally see one of Sig.  I can’t get over how stylin’ they were while on a motoring trip – can you even imagine how families would be dressed today?



And the stop wouldn’t be complete without a statement of their charges for the night.  They spent almost as much in meals as they did in room charges. 



Looks like they had a quick stop in Roseburg.



Not sure what they bought (or brought) but, of course, we had to see the hotel bill.



Next stop – Portland!

Pictures, Bills, Etc.

When I last wrote HERE, I had started to go through my grandfather’s scrapbooks.  So now I’ll add a few more pages.



This is going to be interesting as I find out what a trip like this cost.  The more I look at this scrapbook, the more I’m thinking it was the work of my dad’s brother, Robert Levy.  Maybe I’ll be able to tell better as I go through the book.

At closer look, I can see that the family stayed at The Clift in San Francisco on June 30, 1940.  Grand total for the room – $13.00!  I remember my grandparents coming to the hotel when they’d visit San Francisco – looks like the tradition started many years before.  I’m puzzled thinking that a family of four, which included sons who were 13 and 20, would have stayed in one room, especially since my grandparents never seemed to be that “type” of parents.  Maybe the 1112-14 indicates they had rooms 1112 and 1114?



And a few photos.



That’s Uncle Rob – the caption of “Look at the Buick” just makes me think he wrote that. 



Sig and Loraine in front of the hotel.  I’ve said over and over again how short Sig was – you really get a feel for it here since Grandma was maybe only 5’ 4” tall.

And Loraine and Gordon (my dad).



AND this -



I think this is showing that they had two rooms – room 104 and 105.  And one was $6.00 per night, the other $4.50.  Add a few dining room charges and tax and they were up to a grand total of $18.74.




Looks like a very serene place. 

Then they were on to Eureka.  This postcard has the caption “On the way to EUREKA”.



And then on to the Eureka Inn - that’s my dad, Gordon, and Loraine.



And a postcard that was “touched up” – not sure what that meant.



And finally the bill – this is captioned “This comes every day.  Why?” 



Okay, that’s definitely two rooms – room number 349 and 350.  $10.00 per day for TWO rooms?

It’s fun to see where they stopped on their way north.  More to come!