52 Ancestors: School

One of the first treasures I found when I started this journey was related to School – my grandmother’s high school yearbook.  I remember thinking it was really cool to look through it online but when I somehow discovered that I could actually OWN it, I thought my head would explode!  Since then I have become the proud owner of the original high school yearbooks of my grandfather, Sig Levy, and his brothers and the high school and college yearbooks of my parents.  But this was my first and will always be a special treasure.

The original Monterey High School, prior to 1905, consisted of both Monterey High School and Del Monte Technical School.  In 1905, the two schools were joined to form Monterey Union High School.  The school serviced students from Castroville to Big Sur to all of Carmel Valley.

When the original three story wood building burned down (on the site where the District Office is today), the new school was built at 101 Hermann Drive where it stands today.

The Whisper was the original name of the yearbook, which was a collection of poems and pictures by the students rather than a ‘traditional’ yearbook.  The word whisper was used to reflect the “whisper” in the students’ voices in their poems.  Keeping with the Spanish tradition, the name was changed to El Susurro (Spanish for the whisper).

A couple of notable people (besides my grandmother) attended the school – former Secretary of Defense Leon Paneta and former NFL head coach and defensive back, Herman Edwards.

With the rich Spanish heritage in the City of Monterey, the Toreador was chosen as the mascot when the school opened in 1905. The original Mascot "Tony the Toreador" caricature served as the face of the school for 80 years.

Some interesting facts from about the time my grandmother attended Monterey High School:

• The green and gold were chosen as the school colors in 1906.
• Three new departments were added – Home Economics, Manual Training, and Biology – in 1912.
• Eight seniors were in the graduating class of 1913, which increased to 133 in 1933.
• The new high school building was officially opened in its current location on February 12, 1915.

And now on to the yearbook of 1915.



I love that a beautiful painting was included in the yearbook – it looks so “Monterey-like”.



I guess you don’t need a huge faculty with only 16 seniors.



Luella Thurston was the yearbook adviser as the students dedicated the book to her.

“To Miss Luella Thurston who for five years has been ‘El Susurro’s’ staunchest friend, we now with our ‘good byes’ and warmest wishes dedicate our Journal”

And the graduating class of 1915.  So many names I’ve read about or seen pictures of.  My grandmother, Mildred Loraine Gunzendorfer, and that beautiful smile.  Her BFF was Hallie Hitchcock, who was actually a year older than Grandma, and her brother, John Elbert Hitchcock, was about 8 months younger than Grandma.  Another notable name on this page is Howard Hatton, who married Mary Salterbach on the next page.




Clayton Philip Salterbach was younger than Mary by two years so not sure how or why he ended up with the class of 1915.  While the other names on this page are familiar to me, one that really stands out is J. Meryl Pugh who appeared in Loraine’s scrapbook.



I laughed at the Senior Advice.  There’s Loraine advising the girls to never allow their hearts to “go adrift”.  I wonder who broke her heart that caused her to write that.




An example of a story included – Loraine snatched an apple!




This collage of photos is interesting - can you find Loraine in the Before and After photos?



Loraine’s younger brother, Wilton, was a Freshman at the time.  I know their father was often known as Gunzy so I’m assuming “Champ Gunzy” is Wilt.



And here’s mention of Wilt again – president of his class!



Even with a close up of the photo, I can’t be sure which young man is Wilt.  Perhaps the one on the left sitting on the steps?



Some more photos from El Susurro.







I can almost imagine my grandmother walking the halls of the school and sitting in the dining room.  But I cannot imagine her in the Manual Training Shop.

Another collage of photos.  Since dad Abe was a photographer, I wonder if he took any of these photos.



I have to enlarge the Mermaids as you-know-who was posing.  Yep, that’s Loraine second from the left.



Grandma was the Assistant Editor!

And no yearbook would be complete without advertisers.  I wasn’t surprised to find a very special advertisement.



The White House and the Gunzendorfers were a fixture in Monterey during the late 1800’s and until Abe’s death in 1944.  Nearly 100 years of a successful family business.

What a wonderful account of Loraine’s senior year in high school.  I am so happy to have a glimpse into her life as a young woman.

And now more dancing

I’ve learned a lot about my grandmother, Loraine Gunzendorfer, from looking through her scrapbook but the one thing that stands out for me is that my grandmother loved to dance!  And it’s also clear that she loved to save mementos and for that, I am thankful.  But what’s interesting is that even though Grandma Loraine was 58 years old when I was born and lived to be 86, I don’t remember ever seeing her dance or even talk about dancing in those 28 years.  But boy did she talk about it as a young girl!

Here’s the next pages of the scrapbook.

I believe Bagby’s was an Opera House in Monterey.

Look at that – she came home with Walter Warren.  Not just came home with him but an exclamation point at the end.  Who was Walter Warren and how did she know him?  I do know that she danced the Paul Jones and Tag Two-step with him.  Hmmm, wonder what kind of dances those are?

Here is a description of the Paul Jones dance from Wikipedia.  Paul Jones is the name used for a number of mixer dances that were popular in the first quarter of the 20th century but continue to be used in traditional dance settings to the present day. One common variation is as follows. At the signal of the caller (who may also be called by other names, such as "prompter", "cuer", or “Master of Ceremonies”), all dancers join their hands to form a circle (or several concentric ones, if crowded), with ladies being to the right of their partners. At the second signal of the caller, the dancers repeatedly do the Grand Right and Left move, well known in square dancing. As a result, the ladies move to the left (clockwise) along the circle, while gentlemen move to the right. At the third signal, dancers dance with the partner whose hand they are holding at the moment. This "third signal" is traditionally the shouted words "Paul Jones", but a whistle or other device can be substituted. This procedure may be repeated "as the master deems it advisable".  Charles J. Coll, Gabrielle Rosiere, Dancing Made Easy (1919). 

Sounds like you don’t really dance with your partner, you just start the dance with your partner.

And then there was another dance in North Monterey.


WAIT JUST A MINUTE! Earle Norton brought me home!  This must be the famous Earle my grandmother talked about here.  So now we know his last name is Norton!  And if you look very carefully on the Pacific Fish Company card (looks like a train ticket rather than a dance card) you can see on the second line written very faintly in pencil the name Earle Norton.  But why did she have just a “fair time”?  I think my grandmother was smitten with this mysterious Mr. Norton!

Of course, I had to try to figure out this mystery so my first stop was to ancestry.com where I found a Charles Earle Norton born in 1890 or 1891 in California.  And in 1910 and 1920, this Charles Earle Norton lived in Monterey.  So this could be him!  And then I found a newspaper article mentioning him and someone had circled his picture, along with the picture of his future sister-in-law, with the following caption.

Enid Williams in third row, third from the left. (Charles) Earle Norton was the future brother-in-law of his classmate Enid. He married her younger sister Margerite.



I zoomed in hoping I could see the face of the man my grandmother may have been dreaming of having a future with.



Sadly, it doesn’t show me much but I do have a hint into his life since I know he married Margerite Williams.  After following some hints in ancestry.com, I found in the California Death Index that Charles Earle Norton, husband of Margerite Williams Norton, died April 5, 1953 in Monterey and had a daughter by the name of Marian N. Norton.  I also found a few people working on a tree which includes Charles Earle and Margerite and have sent them messages hoping to connect with them, but so far, no luck. 

Would my grandmother have been ‘involved’ with a man 5-6 years older than she was?  That might not be too far fetched since my grandfather was 8 years older than she was.  How did she know Earle?  They went to the same high school but graduated 5 years apart so probably weren’t even students at the same time.  Did he have feelings for her?  Oh Grandma, I love all of the tidbits you’ve left me but couldn’t you have left me just a few more?

And here’s more dance cards!

A ball given to Knights of Columbus at Del Monte May 13, 1914. Had a pretty good time.

The dance card was at least partially filled out but since it was in pencil, there’s not much to be seen 100 years later.

Just went to look on for a short while.  Saw Earle for a few minutes but did not dance. Friday night July 17, 1914

So here she is back at Bagby’s.  I find it very telling that she found it important enough to write that she “saw Earle for a few minutes” but did not dance.  Now while it appears that she didn’t dance at all since the card hasn’t been filled out, was she commenting about that or the fact that she didn’t dance with Earle.  The poor men had to pay 50 cents yet the ladies were free!



Here’s another one but Grandma didn’t leave me any clues on this.  A few of these names look familiar – I especially like that she danced with FRIEND – I wonder if that was his name or if he really was just a friend.

This one makes me laugh – the Fish Feed Benefit Dance. 



The names of the dances are quite creative - have you ever heard of a Jelly Fish Wiggle or a Mackerel Slip?

Senior Ball 1914

After a brief hiatus, I’m back to my grandmother’s scrapbook!  And the next page shows memories from the Monterey High School Senior Ball, 1914. 

My grandmother, Loraine Gunzendorfer, was a junior and her brother, Wilton, was a freshman so both would have participated in this event. 



And once again, DANCE CARDS!  Here’s the cover – someone was quite an artist and this almost looks like an original drawing.  Would someone have hand drawn each cover?



And inside, we can see my grandmother’s dance card was quite full.

These are difficult to read since they were written in pencil and are now almost 100 years old but once thing stands out to me – she danced the waltz with ‘Lacey’.  As I learned when I wrote about the Salinas High School graduation in 1914, this may have been Dean Lacey, future husband of her friend, Dorothy Streining.  It is clearly the same writing on both dance cards.  Hmmm, I’d love to know more about the connection between Loraine, Dorothy, and Dean Lacey.

And she danced the Grand March Waltz, Two-step, and Good-bye Everybody Waltz with her date, George Hunter. 



So George was from Salinas, too? 

And it looks like Loraine helped organize the Senior Ball as she worked on the Door Committee.  I wonder what her duties might have been – collecting tickets, perhaps?  Speaking of which, just what does someone on the ‘dressing room’ committee do?



All in all, it looks like the Ball was a great success!



Congratulations, Grandma, her friends, and even her little brother, Wilt, for preparing such a splendid event!

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!

Class Photos

When I turned the page in the scrapbook and saw this photo, I immediately thought it was my grandmother, Loraine Gunzendorfer.  I’ve seen other photos of her from about this age and she had lovely, curly hair. 



But when I looked at the next photo, I’m thinking this might have been her brother, Wilton Gunzendorfer.  Wilton was 3 years younger than Loraine so when you look at this photo of the same child with an older girl, I’m guessing it is Wilton and Loraine, probably in about 1901-1902.  Girls wouldn’t have worn overalls in that time period, would they?  It seems likely that Loraine is in the dress and Wilton is in the coveralls.



The next pages show some class pictures.  While I don’t know for sure that these are Loraine’s classes, I can only assume that they are. 

There are sure a lot of kids here!  After searching and searching, I don’t see a child that might be Loraine.

 

Seems like there are a few possibilities in these photos.  One possibility in the photo below is the girl fourth from the right on the bottom row.



I’ve enlarged it here – it looks like her.



And in this photo the only girl who might be her is sitting on the chair on the far right.



And enlarged…… Maybe?



Thankfully, Grandma wrote on the back of the next photos to help me out!  Here is her 7th grade class from Monterey Grammar School.  Now Loraine is a little easier to pick out – she’s the one in the very center of the photo, second row from the bottom, third from the left.



And the 8th grade, Monterey Grammar School.  Again, she’s right in the middle, standing 5th from the right or left.



And here’s the sophomore class from Monterey County High School, class of 1915.  Loraine is in the second row, second from the right.



Grandma, thank you for being a packrat so you could share these with me!