100 Years Ago – Thanksgiving 1917

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about my grandparents, Loraine Gunzendorfer and Sig Levy, because I have all (or at least most) of the letters they wrote back and forth as they fell in love during the years 1916-1919.  Wow, these are all 100 years old and in such great shape it’s amazing.  So I thought it would be fun to take a look back at Thanksgiving weekend 1917 and read what they had to say to each other.

I knew that the week of Thanksgiving they had spent a few short hours together in Oakland and that Sig returned home to Fresno the day before Thanksgiving, which in 1917 was on November 29.  So I first picked up on Sig’s letter to Loraine on Thanksgiving Day, 1917. 



Notice the number 31 in the top left hand corner?  Loraine not only left these letters for me, she numbered them so I’d know what order they were in without having to rely on the postmark.  Smart thinking, Grandma! 

And I love how the end is torn open – I can just imagine how anxious she was to receive this letter.  Back in those days, you didn’t even need a return address but Sig was kind enough to let her know just who had written the letter.



And here’s a picture of the first page; however, the entire letter is transcribed with my comments in [ ].



November 29, 1917
8:30 pm
Thursday 

My dearest Loraine,

Well I'm back again, all alone after a most delightful few hours - honestly dear it was a wonderful visit. And now you have had your big party last night. Did you enjoy it a lot or did you long for a certain someone's company? [I doubt he really had to ask as even I know the answer to that]

You know that my going up really seems like a beautiful dream. It was so quick and pretty and did you enjoy it as much as I did. You told me yes and I'm so glad and only wish I could do it often. [I’m sure Loraine had the same wish]

Had a nice trip home - the train was crowded and had several extra coaches. I knew every nearly everyone on board but I kept rather quiet thinking hard of you, my little dear, who I left behind. I was wondering if you were happy [again, we know the answer to that] and if you went through the day's work alright. I know you did and that you retired early last night and had a fine sleep - did you? But you must have as I slept like a brick and believe me I was a little tired, as you know I covered quite a bit of ground.

Just finished a big Thanksgiving dinner at my brother's home [wish I knew which brother as he had three] a while ago. The entire two [which two?] families were there and I enjoyed it immensely. There was only one missing, dear, and that was you - and it made me think of we two at our cute little table at the Palace, all by ourselves with beautiful surroundings. [wouldn’t I just love to see a photo of that?]  Wasn't it a happy few hours and don't you wish it could have been perpetual. Pardon my writing Loraine as I bumped on to a bum pen or most likely I'm tired but I'm sure it's my punk writing but I must have some excuse for its poorness.

I'm not going to talk about the war as I must wait for news and I'll let you know just how things are progressing - until then we will try and forget it.  [It wouldn’t be long before they could no longer forget it] 

Listen dear - have you kept all the nice promises you made and are you going to do it always. That's a sweet girl, and I'll always bank on you for that.  [do I want to know what her promises were?]

I wish you could have seen the breakfast I ate when I returned to the Palace.  [Returned to the Palace?  So, just where did he spend the night if he got back for breakfast?] It was large enough for a giant, but I wasn't hungry until I returned after leaving you - I was too happy to be hungry. [awwww!] 

Didn't do hardly a thing until train time excepting that I called on a couple of business friends and also went out to visit one of my big clients who is ill at the St. Francis hospital. He appreciated it a lot and thanked me so much for coming. 

And then I met a load of different people that I knew at the hotel and chatted around until train time. I sure would get fat [one thing I could never picture is Sig fat] if I followed that life - but it can't be done.

Tomorrow it is back to the hard old labor and routine. I have been told that our new theater opened in a blaze of glory. 

I want to know Loraine, if you are wonderfully happy as I want you to be always, and remember that I am always close to you. And please make me your newest little partner. If it's anything whatever, you'll know Sig is always ready, won't you? 

And now I am a couple of letters ahead so I can't wait for the nice long loving letter I'm going to get.

I haven't been away from you but a few hours so don't know anything new, so goodnight my dear little girl, and heaps of love from 

Sig 

and are we thankful on Thanksgiving? Yes.  [and I’m thankful you left these letters for me!]

And the next day, Loraine responded.





November 30, 1917
8:30 pm
Friday

My own Sweetheart 

Returned a few minutes ago from town where I have been bumming [one thing Loraine never did was “bum”].  There was no school today but I stayed there until 3, came home to get your letter and went down to get my tickets for matinee tomorrow. Am going to see “Pollyanna”, “The Glad Girl” hope she’ll have a good influence on me [boy did she love going to the theater].  Met one of the boys who was in our party last night and while we were discussing current topics on the corner of 14^th and Broadway [funny that she was so specific about where they were], the third girl in the party came along. And I have spoke of visiting in Fresno, Myrtle Jacobs. [boy, that name sounds familiar]  And what do you think of her?  [was Grandma jealous?]

My dearest, we have an awfully good time last night. It was entirely different than Tuesday night – a small crowd. After dinner we went into the little ballroom and danced until 11:30. Some men invited fifteen soldiers to have dinner with him there so we all danced with them and it was a friendly affair. Of course, Tues night appealed to me more, because I had just you, I would not liked to have been alone with anyone last night, the big crowd was much better and we all had considerable “pep”. No, dearest, I didn’t drink anything and so far have kept my promises to you. [there we are with the promises again!]

I felt terribly blue all day Wednesday because I missed you so and you weren’t out of my thoughts a minute. And I wasn’t happy – I am afraid that I am selfish as I wished so hard that you could have stayed indefinitely but shall try to think that everything will come out for the best, as you say, it should and must.

Am glad you enjoyed Thanksgiving – we had a nice little dinner at the house [this would have been the home of her Great Uncle Sam Steen and his wife, Rachel] and then I had another at night, so you see I was a sport. Mother phoned at noon to see how I was and we enjoyed a nice little chat. 

Aunt Lena said she met Mrs. Shumann [this might have been the mother of Sig’s sister-in-law, Madeline Schuman, who was married to Herb Levy] on the street the day she went down and she said something about you coming up to take me to a dance and wanted to know what I was like and all about me. Did she say anything to you, Sig? So you see we can never do anything but the whole world knows it [Fresno was a small town]. But we should worry about it.

Dear, the lady that won the prize in the second elimination dance won a saffire [sic] and pearl pin – pretty nice, wasn’t it. Someone told me what it was.

Really, sweetheart, it seems just like a dream to me that you were up here. I keep thinking about Tuesday night and wondering if it all happened [do I want to know the details of what happened?] – guess it must have or I wouldn’t have even the memory of it.

I’d love to hear from you oftener than twice a week – shall we make it three times?  [Twice a week seems like a lot but times were different then]

Will write a long letter next time, this is just hastily written. 

Remember that I love you – my own and I know you love me, so we should both be happy. [I’d say they were both definitely happy] 

Lovingly, Your own

Loraine

What a beautiful time in their lives and I feel so honored that they chose to share it with me, even if it was indirectly.  Oh how I wish I could have talked to them about it.

And just because I love to visualize (as my dad would say) things, I think of Loraine reading the letters from a very special beau.  They were so in love – who knew?



Note to self:  Get back to transcribing these letters!

Thank you for your service

To all of those who have (or currently do) served in the military, thank you for your service.  So many of my ancestors served – Revolutionary War, Mexican-American War, Civil War and World Wars I and II – and I wish they were here today so that I could thank them personally.  But since that’s not possible, I try to keep their stories alive so that in my own way, I am thanking them.

I first wrote about my 2x great grandfather, Emery Waller, and his service in both the Mexican-American War and the Civil War.  What a thrill to “find” him in an unmarked grave and then having the honor of obtaining a headstone for him so that he would no longer be forgotten.  You can read about him here:  Emery’s First Veteran’s Day.

I also had a Special Veteran’s Day post so that I could honor all of my family veterans.  My dad was such a handsome soldier in World War II! 

Today as I was gathering things for this post, I opened up the boxes of military uniforms I have to see if there was anything I had missed.  It seems like just yesterday that I combed through those boxes with my mother but since she’s been gone now for close to 5 years, it’s obvious that time has really gotten away from me.  But I was rewarded with a nice surprise – my grandfather’s WWI military overcoat! 



While it definitely needs a good pressing, it’s done pretty well for being just shy of 100 years old!  And it completes the set with his uniform and hat (you can see that in the Special Veterans Day post above).

And look what else I found today!  Obviously from a more recent time (he has it dated June 6, 1957) but look at the hat he’s wearing!  Could it be?  Could he have found a reason to pull out his then 40 year old Flying Cadet hat to wear to the Fresno Realty Board function?



I’m going to say YES!

I love to be reminded of this day 99 years ago and the loving words my grandmother, Mildred Loraine Gunzendorfer, wrote to her future husband about the excitement of the day.  In her words: November 11, 1918 – 9 PM  My dearest Boy  I was so overjoyed this morn at the wonderful news that I just had to telegraph you and hope you received my telegram O.K. At 4:20 A.M. I was awakened by whistles blowing and bells ringing out the joyous news of peace. They kept the racket up for two hours and started it again at nine this morn. Then at two this aft all the automobiles who could paraded and everyone was so happy. Everything was closed up so we went for a lovely ride around the 17 mile drive and just returned.  My, but I was busy this afternoon down town receiving congratulations from friends I met, dear. It was rather hard to recognize people in their masks but I managed to.And to think that my boy is really flying. Received your letter this morn and was so happy to get it and to learn that your first flight was so successful and I hope the rest have been likewise. And now that the war is a thing of the past, love, am so anxious to know what they are going to do about discharging you. Guess now that you have had a start at flying you would like to continue but I’d rather have you safe on terra firma. And I hope my wishes will have some weight. But it must have been a wonderful sensation – flying 2000 ft and I am so proud to think of my boy being so brave and fearless. If conditions hadn’t changed you would have probably been driving alone in a very short time. I am wondering and wondering if they will still continue to train you. Hope not. So please, let me know, sweetheart, about it as soon as you can.   It’s days like today that having the personal history to connect to is so meaningful. Thank you for your service to all those who have served!

Scrapbook #3 – Jim Jeffries Obituary

I shared this photo back in 2014, although at the time I didn’t know too much about it other than that the man on the right was my paternal grandfather, Sig Levy. I knew it had something to do with Jim Jeffries in 1910 when he was training for a fight with then heavyweight champion, Jack Johnson, but not much else. You can read about it HERE.

As I went through Sig’s scrapbooks this year, I learned more about Sig’s role promoting Raisin Day in Ben Lomond – you can read about that HERE. 

And then just a few months ago I found another reference to Sig’s involvement with Jim Jeffries, although it was a newspaper article from 1950 that referenced things that had been going on Forty Years Ago.  HERE.

I didn’t expect to find much more about Jim Jeffries, which was ridiculous since I’ve learned that my grandparents (and my parents) saved EVERYTHING.  Did I really believe that would be it? 

What kind of crazy self-talk was that?  Look at this lovely gem from The Fresno Bee, March 8, 1953, page 6-B found on the next page of the scrapbook.



BOOSTING THE RAISIN – James T. (Jim) Jeffries, second from right, who died Tuesday night at the age of 77, is shown munching raisins at his Ben Lomond training camp near Santa Cruz in 1910.  He was in training for his heavyweight title fight with Jack Johnson at the time.  This old photograph is the property of Sigmund Levy [and now in 2017 his granddaughter, Debi Austen], far right, a Fresno realtor who took a couple of cartons of raisins to the Jeffries camp to publicize Fresno’s Raisin Day.  On the left is Al Quadros, who drove Levy in a buggy [a buggy?] from Santa Cruz to the training camp.  Holding the poster is Wick Adams, a New York hotel owner and friend of Jeffries.

And his obituary followed.



Jim Jeffries is buried in Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, California.



Meeting Jim Jeffries was obviously a very important event in the life of my grandfather, Sig Levy, and he spent time in his later years reminiscing about that meeting.  Who knew?