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"Sally and Bill Gracie [very basic family tree]
have kindly sent a cigar box full of letters
for us to peruse. They asked that they be sent on to Rose and Michael
Calder before being sent back to them. Though I knew him as 'Harry Gordon'
all these letters are signed 'Gordon'. He sent at least 15 full letters,
some up to 8 pages long, between August 1924 to Feb 1925.
"On Thursday afternoon 18/7/02 Richard, Kate
and I had the opportunity to look over the box's contents. We read aloud
three interesting letters taken at random. The most enlightening was his
careful, detailed description of
seeing the sights in Paris over a four
day round trip from London. Just like today's visitors he was taken by
Montmartre, the Eiffel Tower, Place de la Concorde, Napoleon's tomb, Louvre,
etc. The language and dealing with the locals were also topics covered.
He mentions the Armistice and Versailles, its palace, gardens and surrounding
estates.
"His Californian letters mention Nevada, Los Angeles, Grand Canyon
and he states that he regretted that time prevented them seeing Yosemite
National Park which needed 3 days to get in and out back then.
"His description of New York is wonderfully detailed. 'This is the
city of cities' he wrote, having just been in Detroit, Chicago, Rochester, Los Angeles
and San Francisco. There are also 7 revealing postcards. Most are written
on but 3 are left blank being colour compositions of NYC features (Brooklyn
Bridge, Public Library, Whitehall Building at Battery Park). The latter
is just a hop/skip from the present destroyed world trade centre. There
is a photograph of Harry wearing a $200 full length double-buttoned 'buffalo'
coat posed in front of a brick wall. His high, prominent forehead is surmounted
with short cropped, brushed back hair and his slightly outward pointing
trade-mark ears. He is squinting in the winter sun, also rather characteristically.
"He complains about the peculiar American habit of serving a huge
glass of chilled water before any food is served. He mentions the elevated
rail, tramcars and subways on which he, like everyone else, got lost.
He was taken with Broadway and its coloured lights. He incorrectly took
it to be the main street and noted that all the other streets were at unusual
angles .... whereas it is really Broadway which is the unusual one, all
other streets being at right angles to each other if not to Broadway.
He even drew a zigzag map of his precinct, 32nd St." |
