Dear Folks: The Letters of Gilbert Hall Flint

Post #43: Student teaching

2012-01-28T11:57:00.000-08:00

Ithaca, New York
Friday night, October 27, 1939

Dear Folks,

I received Pop's interesting letter this week and wanted to write sooner, but I couldn't find time. You see I had to do considerable teaching this week and it meant a lot of preparation. In fact, I quit most of my Coop job this week because I was getting so far behind with my other work, and exams were rolling around.

I just got through correcting papers that my class had for today. There are 17 boys in the class and they are mostly Seniors and full of the devil, so I really had my hands full.

I am glad to hear that Walter is doing fairly well. I also think it's the only thing to do about drilling the well, because the water might not have started up again all winter.

How did the plow work this fall? It ought to have worked pretty well with the hard ground, didn't it? Tomorrow is the all important football game between Ohio State and Cornell out there, but I doubt whether we have much of a chance.

The weather is just like summer out; I'll be glad when it settles down because this is very bad for colds. I had my picture taken this week for the Cornell Annual, which contains all the pictures of the graduating class. I think we get off for our Thanksgiving vacation around the 22nd of November this year. I am looking forward to seeing everyone.

At Trumansburg, the next town up the lake, they only are able to have school in the morning because the water runs out at noon. It's very dry all around here too, and not nearly the rain that we usually get here. It snowed a couple hours one day this week.

I hope Katie's cold is alright now. I am getting sleepy so will close.

Lovingly, Hall

Post #42: Trouble at the Coop

2012-01-28T08:31:00.000-08:00

Ithaca, New York
Sunday afternoon, October 9, 1939

Dear Folks,

Hello, Everybody - I missed getting a letter from you this week, but trust that everything is alright - at least I hope so. How is Kate's foot now, and the other horses and cows? I'm always interested in hearing about everything.

I was going to write sooner, but I was sick last Sunday and got back on my work some. I also have a Saturday class from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. so it cuts down my weekend quite a bit. The reason I wasn't feeling well Sunday was that I ate something that didn't agree with me and was sick to my stomach. This followed up with severe stomach cramps so that I had to have a doctor. He gave me some gas relieving capsules and I finally got to sleep about 2 a.m. Monday morning.

I felt alright in the morning except for being pretty weak, so I gave my rescheduled Farm Practice tests at 8 a..m and 9 a.m. and went to all my classes, took a final, and got in four hours of NYA work besides working at the supper meal. I've been alright ever since, but will watch what I eat more in the future.

Yesterday there were 25,000 fans in to see the annual Syracuse - Cornell game, which we won 19-6, much to the surprise of most people. I met several of my friends who graduated last June.

Friday I went to a teacher's conference for my professor whom I work for, and heard an excellent address by A.K. Getman, who is the Supervisor of Agricultural Education in New York State. Besides being very educational, I got NYA time for going and also credit toward my practice teaching hours. I'm going to be teaching until Thanksgiving and then dropping it, unless the Coop folds up before that.

Business is bad now because we have too few members and too big an overhead - $35,000. There are only five of us on the Board of Directors who are in charge of it, and I've had to put in a lot of time lately trying to figure out a way to keep going, but as I am not majoring in Hotel Administration, I don't intend to sacrifice my studies for it very much longer.

I've got to work tonight so will close. I received a short letter from Catherine and Andy at the World's Fair and will answer them sometime soon. How is Linda Jo?

Lovingly yours, Hall

Post #41: Life insurance and the war scare

2012-01-23T17:23:00.000-08:00

Ithaca, New York
Friday night, September 29, 1939

Dear Folks,

I received both Katie's and Pop's letter and Aunt Dorothy's card this week and was glad to hear from everyone. This has been a very busy week for me and has passed away before I hardly realized it. The first few days I spent all the time working for the Coop, as I was put in charge of the registration of members. Besides that I had to register on Tuesday and get my Rural Ed job with my professor fixed. I have the job and worked all day yesterday afternoon on it, running off mimeograph copies and other work in his office.

I also have been working four hours a day at the Coop, since our opening Wednesday night, as a cashier in order to check up on all the people who eat and guests. Starting next week I'll have someone to help me with this work however, and I'll only be working for part of my meals.

School got off to a good start this week, and I'll have plenty of work in my various courses. I have one lab tomorrow (Saturday) from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Ag Engineering. Besides this I am taking courses in Animal Genetics, Animal Diseases, Agronomy, and Rural Education. This latter course will consist of my practice teaching which I'll have to do in the Ithaca High School one or two days every week.

Yes, I bought myself a pair of shoes, suspenders, tooth brush, paste and numerous other incidentals which are necessary and which I realized I haven't got as I begin to get assembled. I also purchased a small radio - 8 inches x 4 inches x 6 inches - a "Westinghouse" which is very helpful and worthwhile. Irving didn't bring his back and I decided I would want one next year anyway, so why not get it a little ahead of time. I think maybe Pop and Katie would like to have one like it or else an "Emerson." This size costs less than $10 new, in either case, and is just as good as a larger one for a couple of years.

I received both boxes OK with my clothes - Thanks a lot - What is Martha's address again? Thanks for the check; I won't need anymore before Thanksgiving as I am taking out a loan from the university to pay my fees and rent with for awhile. I am thinking of increasing my insurance policy and changing it somewhat, but have not fully made up my mind. I have a chance to have the policy start right away without having to pay for it for a couple of years. Most of the students in Rural Education are taking advantage of this. This will mean less that I have to pay every year, and would be very worthwhile to me. If I don't wait very long I won't have to worry about the rates going up on account of the war scare also.

I am going to talk to my advisor (Dr. Olney), whom I work for, about it as he is quite well acquainted with the best size of policy to have, but I would like to have Pop's advice on it before I do anything. New York Mutual Life is the company I am thinking of taking the policy out with.

Lovingly, Hall

Post #40: Orchards and Muck Farms

2012-01-22T18:20:00.000-08:00

Ithaca, New York
Saturday noon, May 20, 1939

Dear Aunt Dorothy,

Thank you very much for doing my laundry up so nicely, and also for the excellent cakes. I won't wear the flannels much; I just wanted them for Sundays.

I could make it down to Martha's graduation as I don't have any finals on the 8th or 9th (you said it was on the 8th), but it will probably be just as well for me if I don't, as I have two big finals on the 7th and one on the 10th (which is my last). I haven't thought much about how I am going to get home yet; the man I am bringing home is going to New York City first for a few days to see his folks.

We had a lovely day for our trip yesterday up to Lake Ontario, and everything was very beautiful and impressive. The orchards were all in bloom, and we traveled through miles and miles of cherry, apple, pear, and peach trees with their different colored blossoms stretching right down to the lake shore. We also visited about a half dozen other types of farms on the way up, including a muck farm where only lettuce and celery and potatoes were grown.

We also visited about the largest certified seed farm in the state, the Robson Seed Farm, and saw how they grow and prepare different types of seed. We went up along the shores of Seneca Lake and by the Agriculture Experiment Station at Geneva. There were 30 of us in the bus from about half as many different countries, so we had a lot of fun.

I received my gold fraternity key at this week's meeting and also will get a membership diploma. I am looking forward to seeing Linda Jo and everyone in three weeks.

Lovingly, Hall

Post #39: An Explosion at the Coop

2012-01-16T18:35:00.000-08:00

Ithaca, New York
Saturday, March 18, 1939

Dear Folks,

I received Katie's nice letter early in the week and am glad to hear that you have a radio now. I think it adds a lot to a house and is really almost a necessity nowadays rather than a luxury. My heel is coming along very nicely but I still have to go to the doctor occasionally.

I think I am lucky not to be working on the morning shift this term because yesterday morning, they had an explosion in the kitchen when the big baking oven blew up. Someone had covered up the gas escape vent on top and when one of the boys went to light it, the commotion started. All the windows got blown out of the kitchen, and everything was knocked off the shelves. Luckily there was only one person in there at the time, and he didn't get hurt very bad.

My first speech in Public Speaking went off fairly well. I discussed Briarcliff Farms from the angle of its history, accomplishments and future, for a few minutes. We have to make four speeches during the term, with two on agricultural topics at least.

Last night we had a St. Patrick's Day party up at the Coop and had it decorated up quite nicely. We had quite a nice crowd too. I have plenty of work this term to keep me busy. Almost all of my courses have long reports attached to them, and my work at the Coop fills up the two or three hours between my morning and afternoon classes every day. They also want me to run for the Board of Directors of the Coop this year, but I haven't fully decided. I need $20 sometime if you can spare it to catch up on my rent.

Lovingly, Hall

Post #38: Future Farmers of America

2012-01-14T12:48:00.000-08:00

Ithaca, New York
Friday night
March 10, 1939

Dear Folks,

I was very glad to receive two letters from home yesterday noon. Thanks very much for the check. I am not certain that Dr. Raeder in Millbrook will remember my dentist appointment. I would like to have it between the 3rd and the 8th of April; probably about the 3rd is best. I will be coming home the 31st of March and have to be back here the 10th. This term has been going very fast and I have lots of work to keep me busy until about 1 o'clock every night, but have good marks so far - over ninety average in Farm Management.

When is Easter Sunday - it's around the 10th of April isn't it? I was sorry to hear about Mrs. Benton; it will sort of disrupt their home, won't it. I'll write Charles over the weekend. The weather is pretty tricky around here; one day it's like spring and the next we have a foot of snow.

A couple of weeks ago I was invited to a Kappa Phi Kappa Fraternity meeting along with several others interested in education. It is an honorary Education Fraternity and the only one they have here at Cornell. It is comprised of prospective teachers, mostly in Agriculture, Arts, Engineering, and Law. They have about twenty-five members, and over half are Seniors and the rest are Juniors. They also have about 30 other national chapters throughout the country and none of them have houses. Here at Cornell, they have meetings at Willard Straight Hall every week, and a member has the opportunity of meeting all the important professors, in education, from here and other colleges and also acquiring valuable information relating to our profession.

Today the president of the fraternity (he is also president of the FFA Organization) told me that I have been selected to join if I cared to. I hadn't really expected to be picked because I didn't think my marks were high enough, but I guess my average last term raised it quite a bit. I have talked with several of the members who have belonged to it for a year, and they tell me it is really very much worthwhile and that they have gotten a lot out of it, so I am thinking rather seriously of joining as the initiation fee is only fifteen dollars and I don't have to pay it now. You might tell me what you think about it in your next letter.

Wednesday night I was invited up to a Ho-Nun-De-Kah smoker. This is an honorary agriculture society comprised of Juniors and Seniors. The name is the Indian word for maize or corn. The organization was originated partly by a group of Seneca Indians who attended the College of Agriculture about fifteen years ago. There was a very good speech at the meeting by Professor Bates on Indian History and Traditions of New York State. Afterwards, there were color movies of the Cornell-Dartmouth game which I had seen once before. When I got home, I had to light into a Farm Management report until about 2 a.m.

Last night, I was one of several given the degree of Future Farmer of America by the FFA Organization here at Cornell to which I belong. It was the second and highest degree which one can receive in a local chapter. After the business meeting, there was an excellent speech by Bristow Adams of the Journalism Department telling about some of his experiences in his two trips around the world. He is a very gifted speaker, I think, and possesses a very good blend of humor and tact in all that he says. He spoke mostly on rice and tobacco production in different areas of the world.

Maybe the warm weather will start the hens laying again. Do they get outside occasionally? I will delay mailing this until I have a chance, tomorrow, to find out about guinea pig production. They don't have any bulletins on it, but I can probably get something in the library about it, and at least I can bring home a bulletin on Rabbit Production when I come.

Frank Hedges, from Pine Plains, has a job already in a town near Amsterdam. He is going to teach Agriculture there. He is in the same department I am in and is taking several courses with me now. I visited a large Central School in Spencer down near the Pennsylvania border in my Practice Teaching lab this week. They have an excellent agriculture department there.

You will probably be tired of trying to read this by now so I will say good night for now.

Lovingly, Hall

Post #37: Plucking chickens

2012-01-02T12:33:00.000-08:00

Ithaca, New York
Friday night, January 1939

Dear Folks,

I received Andy's card today and was glad to hear from home. I hope the traveling isn't as bad now as he said it was. It is still just like spring here and it rained about all day on and off.

I was through with my classes for the day at 8:30 this morning instead of 10 or 11 as I usually am, as they are having a veterinary conference here. I worked about four hours at the Coop and have been working all afternoon and some tonight on the last half of my Sociology problem.

My glasses arrived Monday all done up so carefully that I had to cut the box open with my jackknife. They are a wonderful help for close work as they magnify the letters considerably, but they aren't any help where I have to see any distance, so I only use them in my room. Wesly Smith was down to my room to copy some notes that he missed, and he informed me that he had to get glasses while he was here also.

In your next letter, would you send Jessie's address which is on her Christmas card? I forgot to copy it down and she asked me to write to her. Thanks for the toothbrushes, even though neither of them are mine, but it is my fault for not telling you what color, and I can use them just the same.

Have the chickens started to lay any more yet, or did I kill the only two that were laying? In poultry recitation yesterday, they showed us how to cold pluck a chicken by slitting the roof of the mouth and sticking the cerebellum of the brain. This loosens up the feather follicles so that if one is very quick he can pluck the feathers out before they set again. Seeing that it is time for me to go to bed, since I get up quite early.

Good night,
Hall

Post #36: A sore rear end

2012-01-02T12:19:00.000-08:00

Ithaca, New York
Sunday, January 8, 1939

Dear Folks,

Well I'm pretty well started on the last lap of this term and only have three more weeks until finals. It doesn't seem much like January here; it is so warm and springlike.

This morning I heard an excellent sermon by an Elmira preacher on childhood psychology, which was very good. Last night Cornell won their first league game of the year from Penn in basketball.

You might tell Mrs. James sometime when you see her that I was sorry I didn't have a chance to say goodbye to her before I left. Today I got up in good time and did quite a bit of studying for tomorrow.

Fred Pulling came back with us from Rhinebeck so we were pretty well crowded on our trip. In fact I could hardly sit down for the next couple of days. It's one consolation to know that I haven't got very many more in front of me.

Did the tractor start alright after more gas was put in? There doesn't seem to be much else to say just now so I will close.

Lovingly, Hall

Post #35: A bus trip back to Cornell

2012-01-01T15:50:00.000-08:00

Ithaca, New York
Sunday Morning, January 1, 1939

Dear Folks,

Arrived here at 5 p.m. last night to find no snow or ice and the weather just like spring -- really quite a contrast to Albany. However, the roads were just a glare of ice from Syracuse up to within a few miles of Ithaca, so it took us 2-1/2 hours on the bus to go less than 60 miles.

Only had to wait 10 minutes for the bus at Syracuse and was able to take it direct from the railroad station. I slept 14 hours last night as a result of being up 24 hours straight on Friday and only having 3 hours of sleep Saturday morning.

Hope Catherine and Andy got home OK. I went up and got a free breakfast from a kid across the hall who is on the basketball team. They get all their meals free if they stay here to practice during vacation. Have been studying some and have a lot more to do so I had better stop.

I forgot my two toothbrushes and toothpaste. I can't think of anything else that I have forgotten yet except that I nearly left my skates on the train. If you could send the tooth articles I would appreciate it very much.

Lovingly, Hall

Post #34: Losing the cows

2011-12-27T08:39:00.000-08:00

Ithaca, New York
Saturday afternoon, November 1938

Dear Folks,

I just received your letter on my return from work so will answer it right away. It snowed here yesterday and this morning, and the trees and shrubbery were beautiful while it lasted.

I am sorry to hear that Pop and Aunt Julia are not feeling too good. It is very changeable weather and one has to be very careful the way he dresses.

It's too bad that so many cows went, but you are much better off potentially and the loss will pay for itself in a few years. It will be important to see that the cows get all the hay and silage that they can eat, as long as you will probably have more than enough. A cow is the only animal alive that will utilize all the feed it eats.

I don't know just when I will be home for sure, maybe not until late Wednesday night. If I get Catherine Robinson to let me off at Keller's it would save any confusion, and I would call up the next morning. I haven't even seen her yet, but have been in contact with a boy from Poughkeepsie who is going home with her.

I have been invited over to a fraternity for supper Tuesday night so will sell my ticket at the Coop to somebody else, as that is my last meal. It will seem nice to get away from the place for a few days.

We had our pictures taken for the Annual at the 4-H meeting I went to Monday night. I also sent in my project record sheet as soon as you sent it to me to fill out.

Wednesday night they had a celebration for the 12th anniversary of Willard Straight Hall. They had the large memorial room all decorated up and a huge 50 pound birthday cake with 12 candles in it. The head of the board of directors of the hall and Mrs. Day spoke for a few minutes. There were about a thousand students who attended the celebration. Afterwards they had dancing, but I came home as I had a lot of work to do.

One of the boys who rooms across the hall went down to the Infirmary with jaundice a couple of days ago and is quite sick. Irving is going to stay here over Thanksgiving as he has a lot of work to make up, and it is only about three more weeks until our Christmas vacation from the time we get back. I'll bring my dirty clothes home with me when I come and then will have enough to last me until Christmas.

Please don't go to any extra work for us as I probably won't have much of an appetite after riding all the day before, and I don't imagine Martha will. Is Catherine going to be home?

Well I still have some studying to do so will get at it. Hoping to be seeing you soon.

Lovingly, Hall

Post #33: A date for the dance

2011-12-27T08:14:00.000-08:00

Ithaca, New York
Saturday afternoon, October 1938

Dear Folks,

Thank you very much for the apples and the interesting letter. I will enjoy the apples as they arrived in very good shape.

Do you have to get rid of the cows that react to the blood test immediately, or aren't they testing for awhile?

The weather is very miserable here as it probably is all over. It's rained incessantly since last night. Our Dining Club had a dance last night and I helped them decorate the place. Mr. and Mrs. Truax were chaperones and we had a very nice time. I took a girl from Sage whom I met at a 4-H meeting Monday night. She went to Albany Teacher's College last year but didn't like it so she is in the Home Ec College now, planning on teaching when she gets out.

I find I have a lot of studying to do this term and was up till after 12 every night all week. I am going to try and get a decent night's sleep tonight.

I am going down to the Presbyterian Church Sunday night with a couple of boys from the Coop. I have been elected an alternate member of the board of directors at the Coop to represent the 30 boys who are working there.

One of the boys who lives here and works with me on some of our reports is from Palestine. He said that they turn the lights off at 9:00 every night and that he used to read by candle light afterwards. As a result, he has spoiled his eyes so that he will have to get glasses.

Mrs. Roosevelt spoke to the girls in the Home Ec College this morning. She seems to get around about every place.

No, I haven't made plans for any trips yet as I am tied down at the Coop every day unless I get a sub. I have to make up the time anyway so it's not really worthwhile now.

I will find a way home at Thanksgiving but it's a long way off yet. If I can have a $25 check as soon as is convenient, it will last me until then. I have been broke for two weeks and have several minor expenses as well as my rent to pay.

One of the boys here was operated on for acute appendicitis within an hour after Mrs. Truax took him to the Infirmary last night. He came out of it alright so far, but his term will be all shot as far as his studies are concerned.

I hope Teddy and everyone else is alright, and remember me to the men.

Lovingly, Hall

Post #32: Hard to study

2011-12-27T07:48:00.000-08:00

Ithaca, New York
Sunday afternoon, May 1938

Dear Folks,

I haven't much to say, but it is such a beautiful day that it's hard to study, so I shall begin a letter anyway. I am using Aunt Dorothy's fountain pen as it is nicer to write with than my own.

Did the seeds ever come up? I rather doubt it, but then miracles do happen occasionally. Has the grass on the lawn grown very high yet? And did the order with my shorts come? If it did, I could use them sometime in the near future.

Tonight is the only night in the whole week that I don't work at the Coop, so I really look forward to Sunday night. I was playing ball a while this afternoon, but I nearly popped a cop on the head when he happened to walk by, so I didn't trust my arm anymore after that.

Well I'll see if I can study a little now. Have you heard from Martha lately?

Wednesday night - After receiving your most interesting letter, I think it's high time I finished this. I was out in the orchards all afternoon helping lay out and plant two year old seedlings. Every year's class in Pomology plants an orchard.

Last night I went to a Coop membership meeting and then up to hear the Cornell Symphony Orchestra, which only plays once or twice a year. They had the concert in Bailey Auditorium, and as it was free, they had about 3,000 attending.

Tell Martha not to work too hard in the garden if she comes up. I am sorry to hear that Mrs. Deusards wasn't feeling well. Please remember me to her when you write again.

Well I'm pretty sleepy and have to get up early in the morning, so will say goodnight for now.

Lovingly, Hall

Post #31: Swimming in April

2011-12-26T08:25:00.000-08:00

Ithaca, New York
Friday night, Late April 1938

Dear Folks,

I spent five hours, nearly six, working at the Coop today, so I don't feel too much like studying. Since I don't have to study, I will get caught up on some of my letters. I got back three prelims this week with over an 80 average. 75 is my lowest average in any subject this term so I feel pretty good, as the end of this coming week will be midterm.

The weather has been very tricky lately. Tuesday and Wednesday the temperature was around 85 most of the time and today down to 25. About 50 kids were swimming in Beebe Lake Wednesday afternoon when I came home from my lab. I stopped in at the Old Armory for a half hour to swim myself, for the second time since I've been here.

I don't know just how I am coming home yet, but I will probably arrive Saturday. I may come home with the Robinson girl from Stamfordville again, and if I do, I will get to Keller's Friday night I guess, but I am not sure yet.

Monday I took a sample of milk from the Coop up to the lab to test it for fat, as I had suspected for some time that one of the companies that we had been getting it from was putting something over on us. I found that it tested 3.25 percent, so we have stopped buying milk from that firm. I will check up on it every week from now on.

I received a 95% on my Holstein cattle judging last week; the average of the class of about 200 was 65. I fell down on some of my Guernsey judging this week, as they seemed to be much harder. Our placing is only a third of the mark and our reasons are two thirds.

I go to church nearly every Sunday and have heard quite a diversified group of sermons.

I went to the Cornell Invitational Inter-scholastic track meet Saturday between some of the largest high schools in New York State, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. One of the schools from Troy, which I ran against in cross country, came out third. It was more sensational than the tri-meet between Cornell, Colgate, and Syracuse, as the best college records didn't come up to the best high school ones in many of the events.

I guess this is all I have for now, so will see you in a week.

Love, Hall

Post #30: How is Teddy?

2011-03-06T11:31:00.000-08:00

Ithaca, NY
Thursday afternoon, late March, 1938

Dear Folks,

I got Popa’s letter but didn’t write last weekend as I had just sent a letter. Thank you for the extra money. I really will need it.

Yes, April 4 is OK for my dentist appointment because I decided I would rather wait until some other time to go to Washington. I have plenty of studying to do this term, so I don’t go out hardly at all because I need my weekends to get caught up on my work.

I went to the Yale-Cornell basketball game Saturday night with Ralph as it didn’t cost me anything. It was very good and we won 60-36.

How is Andy now? Getting well fast I hope. Do you hear from Martha much? It is only 3 more weeks until spring vacation; the time seems to really fly.

It has been a beautiful day here and seems to be getting spring like, although some days are quite cold. It seems pretty cold when we go out to the orchard to prune apple trees anyway!

I have a flock of prelims beginning next week – 2 on the same day – so I guess I will spend another weekend grinding.

How is Teddy these days and the chickens and horses and cows and cats and everyone else? I am looking forward to coming home next month as it is quite a stretch since the beginning of the year.

Papa’s birthday comes somewhere along about this time I think, but I’ve forgotten just when. Anyway I hope he has a very happy birthday and many more of them!

Editor’s note: Gilbert Augustus Flint was born March 27, 1883 and died September 27, 1979. Teddy was the family dog.

In my Dairy Industry lab, I learned how to test milk, cream, and skim milk for butterfat. All of my tests have come out exactly right so far. We have to run duplicates on each sample we test, and they have to be correct to within .1 of 1%. It is very interesting and relatively simple except that it takes considerable equipment.

We had our election of board of directors last night at the coop. Each candidate had to have someone give a speech about him the night before sharing his qualifications for the position. I spoke for Ralph Resmiels. It was very important that we get the correct people on the board because we are running a $25,000 a year business. Things haven’t been going too good lately, as the membership has decreased.

I didn’t run as one of the candidates because I am already labor representative and it would take too much of my time to do full justice as a regular board member with my other work too. It seemed last term that every night I had a lot of studying to do there would be a board meeting. Ralph is more or less taking my place.

Lovingly, Hall

Post #29: A complicated situation

2010-04-18T17:23:00.000-07:00

Ithaca, New York
March 19, 1938

Dear Folks,

I was very pleasantly surprised to receive two letters from home in such a short while. I went downtown and bought myself a pair of pajamas, on Aunt Dorothy’s advice last Saturday afternoon. It was a lovely day and I like to get out in the sun when I can, as it is overcast so much here. I don’t think I’ll bother getting a laundry case this year as I can get my shirts laundered for a dime a piece and I can do the other washing myself. I will bring part of my accumulation home in a couple of weeks.

I am glad Pop had the chance to see “Emile Zola.” I saw it last fall and was deeply impressed also. I had a nice letter from Catherine and Andy yesterday. I just got two prelims off my shoulders this morning and stayed up most of the night studying for them. I only have a couple more before I go home. I also got back several hundreds on quizzes during the week.

Monday evening I went up to the 4-H meeting and heard Professor Goodman speak on his trip to the resettlement project in Alaska and also saw several slides on it which he had taken. He is one of the heads of the Agriculture Engineering Department here and was appointed through President Roosevelt to go up and make a report on the agriculture situation last summer.

We are hiring a new cook-buyer for our Coop as the combination which we have had has proven unsatisfactory to our business. The cook is the landlord also and so the situation was rather complicated. However, many members have dropped out of late because of the meals mainly and we are losing money, so we had to do something about it. We interviewed several prospects and this afternoon decided on one at a meeting of the Board of Directors.

This afternoon’s laboratory in Agronomy was very interesting. We tested several samples of soil which had been treated under various conditions of liming, superphosphate, sulfur, etc and determined the amounts needed by different types of plants in different soils. Most of it is based on organic and inorganic chemistry, but it is very interesting and practical nevertheless.

I have a chance to get my New York State milk tester’s license when I get through with my Dairy course if I want to by taking a comparatively simple examination and for the sum of 2 dollars, but I don’t know as if would do me much good. I guess I could get it later or anytime that I wanted to.

It seems that Emmadine Farms is the headquarters of the Guernsey cattle breed in the U.S. Professor Savage told us about its history and that they got their foundation stock here at Cornell to begin with.

This is about all I can think of and I am getting rather sleepy.

Lovingly, Hall

Post #28: Pomology

2010-03-21T16:09:00.000-07:00

Ithaca, New York
March 17, 1938

Dear Folks,

I received Papa’s nice letter the early part of the week. My vacation is from April 2nd and school is resumed on the 11th. There wouldn’t be any possibility of having the wedding a week sooner would there? It would be very hard and rather expensive for me to come home a week after I came back on account of my work too. Don’t change it if you really want it on the 17th, but I was just presenting my situation.

I hope you didn’t get snowed in on Monday. We sure had some blizzard here but most of the snow has melted now, although it is very cold and damp today. Last night when I came home from work it was warm and rainy. This morning it was zero with a very cold wind, so you can see the way the weather changes here.

I was up before 5:00 this morning to study for a Pomology quiz that we didn’t get, but I have the work done anyway. Yesterday our lab section had to walk to the University orchards about 2 miles out (over a hundred acres) to prune young apple trees ranging from 1 to 15 years old. We also will learn all types of grafting and apply it. Nevertheless it is pretty cold pruning this time of the year and pretty hard to keep warm. Later on we are going to plant an orchard.

How is Andy coming along? How long does he have to stay at the Hospital?

Thank you for the check. I guess I will be able to scrape together enough to pay my fees with that, as I am getting a dollar for working overtime at a fraternity and am selling my meal at the Coop tonight. I have been invited over to Alpha Gamma Rho (the agriculture frat) to supper tonight in the hopes that I may join sometime, but I rather doubt it. However I’ll get a good meal so I might as well go over.

I can’t seem to think of much more just now. I may be able to go home Easter with Wesly Smith but don’t know for sure. I probably won’t bring anyone because it is hard to get rides. However it is 4 weeks off yet.

Lovingly, Hall

Editor's note: The wedding mentioned is his father's second marriage. The Flint family bible indicates that Gilbert A. Flint and Catherine Wilkinson Bockee were married April 17, 1938 (Easter Sunday) at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Poughkeepsie, New York.

Post #27: Patching pajamas

2010-03-21T15:39:00.000-07:00

Ithaca, New York
Monday afternoon, March 1938

Dear Folks,

Well exams are over and I feel a lot better. I made out pretty well in all of them, I guess or hope, but haven’t received my marks yet.

I started working for my meals along with Irving Saturday night at a house near Sigma Chi where I worked before. It overlooks Cayuga Lake and the inlet on the west, and is right along side of Ithaca Falls on the south across from the Ithaca gun factory. The water is quite high now and the falls present a splendid view and really look like a miniature Niagara.

I didn’t go to church Sunday as I had to go to work at 11:30, but will go every Sunday this term to make up for the past term as I really miss it. I listened to part of a sermon over the radio Sunday morning and sowed on my pajamas for three hours, and for an hour before I went to bed, as I had gone through both knees and the seat in both pairs of pajamas.

I cut up one pair and patched the others up so that I wouldn’t have quite so much of a ventilation system through them. Also sowed up the lining in my brown jacket which had come apart in several places and my bed slippers which Aunt Julia sowed up once, but which had gotten in pretty bad condition. Am working on my raincoat now and have my bathrobe to do.

This morning after I came back from breakfast I went up and had my schedule changed and got an appointment for an x-ray for which Martha sent me 2 dollars, but which I promptly sent back along with a seven page letter to make up for not writing to her before.

My books will scarcely cost me anything next term as I will be able to borrow practically all of them, or else go shares with a couple others on this floor who are taking some of the same subjects.

The weather is very warm for this time of the year but is continually overcast. I can’t remember when I saw the sun last around here. It rains about half of the time so you can see why I have to sow on my raincoat.

I am taking Pomology and Animal Husbandry instead of Ag Engineering and Vegetable Crops, which I was signed up for, as I didn’t want six labs because that won’t leave many later on and I wouldn’t have enough time to study. I am starting my Pomology this week so as to get a general idea of the course. Will appreciate a letter anytime.

Lovingly, Hall

Post #26: Pruning trees

2010-03-14T16:59:00.000-07:00

Ithaca, New York
Saturday morning, February 26, 1938

Dear Folks,

I received Aunt Dorothy’s nice letter Thursday and am very sorry to hear the bad news. It seems as if Andy is getting much more than his share of tough breaks doesn’t it? I hope he is coming along nicely now. I sent him a note and a card under his new name as I supposed that was the one he was entered under.

My fees have to be paid by the 7th of March. They come to $33.50 in all so maybe I had better have about $35 as soon as it is convenient. I am enclosing a few pictures that I had taken about three weeks ago. They aren’t very good for the most part but I thought I would send them anyway.

It has snowed here some lately but there isn’t more than 3 or 4 inches. The weather is quite nice in general. How is the new truck in the snow? Irving and I are buying our Agronomy books together, but that is the only one that I have to buy so I am able to borrow all the rest and am saving about $25.

I didn’t go to school yesterday (the first day I’ve missed in the last year or this year up to now) as I ate something Thursday night which didn’t agree with me and didn’t eat anything all day except for an orange and a little super. I ran quite a fever but am ok today, I guess, and will be able to start working again this noon. I didn’t miss too much school work as Tuesday and Thursday are my hardest days when I have classes from 8 to 5 except for an hour at noon when I work.

I received a nice letter from Martha, and also a card from John Serafin yesterday. He just got back from 4 weeks of vacation from the Hospital and is starting work again. I wrote him a letter about two weeks ago. I hope Papa doesn’t have to work too hard now that Andy isn’t there.

The weather hasn’t been so cold that you needed as much wood as usual has it? And besides it’s just three weeks until spring. It would probably be better if I didn’t go to Washington at Easter, seeing as things have turned out the way they have. Maybe I could go the beginning of the summer for a few days when I would have more time instead. Besides I should have my semi-annual dentist appointment. I wonder if you could get me an appointment for the 4th of April if possible. I hope Catherine is feeling better now and got over the cold.

In our Pomology lab last week we were loaded on trucks and taken out to an abandoned apple orchard where we learned how to prune mature apple trees. We also learned how to prune young ones and plant trees, not only apple but others and it is very useful. In my Animal Husbandry course which is just dairy cattle, we judge them all term at all ages, and all breeds. I expect to know a lot more about them when I get through. I guess I better get started studying now.

Lovingly, Hall

Post #25: Farm and Home Week

2010-03-14T16:58:00.000-07:00

Ithaca, New York
Saturday afternoon, February 19, 1938

Dear Folks,

I appreciated Papa’s letter very much which I received Wednesday. Farm and Home Week ended this noon and they registered over 15,000 altogether, an increase of 4,000 over last year and an all-time record. The people had quite a time finding a place to sleep around the city.

I managed to get around and see a lot of the exhibits when I wasn’t ushering or helping register, and they certainly were very fine. I hope that in the future some of you will be able to come out and see them and take in some of the lectures on topics which interest you – hundreds of which are given each day.

They had a very big crowd for Mrs. Roosevelt – about five thousand – and the auditorium seats 2500 so we had quite a job keeping the people from forcing their way in. She gave a very good speech and so did Governor Lehman yesterday, some of which you may have heard. On Wednesday, Mr. Tabor gave a very good speech which was also broadcast.

This afternoon I did a Pomology report and tonight all the members who worked on the Farm and Home Week committee have been invited over to Alpha Gamma Rho, which is the agricultural fraternity, to a dance, so I guess I will go.

Do you suppose it will be alright if I go down to Washington over Easter vacation for a couple of days? Both Margaret and her mother have invited me to come down and I would like to go very much if I could.

Tomorrow morning we are having a very good minister from Boston speaking at Sage and I am going up to hear him. I work at 12:00 so I have to rush right down to the coop from there but I don’t have to work Sunday night, which is the only night in the week that I don’t.

I got some bulletins on potato storage and the waxing of vegetables yesterday from a professor and will bring them home when I come. They say that only a light coating of manure should be applied to the piece where one is going to plant potatoes, as too much nitrogen is not good for them. Also the land should be fairly well drained. I think perhaps the place where we had them last year is a little too wet and it would be better to rotate them again. It helps immensely in reducing the number of potato bugs.

I have to go up to work now, but will be looking forward to a letter.

Lovingly, Hall

Post #24: Ushering for Eleanor Roosevelt

2010-03-14T16:57:00.000-07:00

Ithaca, New York
Tuesday afternoon, February 15, 1938

Dear Folks,

I didn’t write Sunday as there wasn’t much to say and I was rather busy that day. I went to church in the morning and had to attend two committee meetings in the afternoon. I only have a couple classes each day but when I am not doing that I am either ushering or helping register or working at the Coop. Rather contrary to my wishes I have been appointed head of both the noon and night shifts. It keeps me busy especially these first few days when the people are new at their work.

If I find that I have too much on my hands I will resign from the head of the night shift. Yesterday I ushered for Dean Ladd at the Agriculture College and Miss Flora Rose who is head of the Home Ec. College when they spoke at 2 p.m. I also ushered for the Future Farmers of America during their Amateur Hour, which was two hours at night – both programs were broadcast.

Today I ushered for George F. Warren who is head of the Ag Economics Department here, and I will again tonight when the University Orchestra gives a concert in Bailey Hall. Governor Lehman and Mrs. Roosevelt are speaking the next couple of days and I will usher for them too. Over 4,000 registered for Farm and Home Week yesterday. They only had 11,000 for the whole week yesterday.

I saw the Penn-Cornell basketball game Saturday as it didn’t cost me anything to go with Ralph. It was very good although we lost by a few points, but we are second in the league. Today I got the rest of my marks and made out a little better than I expected. This is all I have time for now.

Lovingly, Hall

Editor’s notes:

Click the links below to view photos and background information about Eleanor Roosevelt’s visits to Cornell during Farm and Home Week.

http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/homeEc/cases/eleanorroosevelt.html

http://he-photos.library.cornell.edu/image.php?record=1165

http://he-photos.library.cornell.edu/image.php?record=1169

Click the link below to read Eleanor Roosevelt’s “My Day” column for February 19, 1938.

http://www.gwu.edu/~erpapers/myday/displaydoc.cfm?_y=1938&_f=md054881

Post #23: Five finals

2010-03-14T16:42:00.000-07:00

Ithaca, New York
Saturday afternoon, February 5, 1938

Dear Folks,

I have been looking for a letter lately as I was anxious to hear how Andy was and how things were going. All the snow has disappeared here during the week and we had a lot of rain.

One week from today I will be through with my finals and will have quite a load off of my mind. I have five, but they are spread out over most of the week so it gives me a chance to study for them.

I just got 98% on an Animal Physiology prelim which will raise my marks some in that course. I have been asked to help during Farm and Home Week from two sources. The 4-H Club has appointed me as one of the ushers for the visitors the dav Governor Lehman and Mrs. Roosevelt speak. The chairman of the registering committee has asked me to serve on the registering committee to help preregister the visitors who come here during Farm and Home Week. There are 10 agriculture students who are appointed each year to do this.

If you want me to come home for a few days the week after next by myself, or possibly with Ralph, maybe we could hitchhike home. If you don’t think it is necessary please let me know so that I will know what plans to make. Of course weather conditions are uncertain.

I had a very interesting discussion with one of the sociology instructors who did survey work in Dutchess County all around our section last summer. He was making a study of organizations such as Dairyman’s League and Sheffield and the feelings that the farmers had toward these organizations.

The president of our Coop sent a letter to Governor Lehman asking him to eat at our club when he comes to Ithaca for Farm and Home Week. He wrote us a very nice letter thanking us for the invitation but saying that he had so many official obligations that he wouldn’t have time to during the short time he plans to be here. We have his letter posted on our bulletin board. It has a gold seal signifying the executive department on top of it.

A week ago I was on the reception committee for Professor Gibson, who is head of the placement bureau in the Ag School, when he ate at the Coop. We are closing tomorrow night for two weeks so I will buy my meals.

Lovingly, Hall

Post #22: Candy and toothbrushes

2010-03-14T16:40:00.000-07:00

Ithaca, New York
Saturday morning, January 1938

Dear Folks,

I just have time to write a letter before I go up to work. I have just returned from taking a prelim in Economics which I stayed up most of the night studying for.

You know the gifts that were given out the night of the wedding? Well I stuck mine in my suit pocket then without opening it, and I just discovered it a couple of days ago. It was a bottle of Pond’s cold cream, so I am letting Irving use it.

Editor’s note: The wedding refers to Catherine Matilda Flint and Andrew Burton Leigh, who married on December 31, 1937.

The only time I’ve been out since I came back was Monday night when I went up to the 4-H meeting to hear Professor Agustensen talk on his trip to Europe. He is a professor in the Agronomy Department and gave some very interesting data on agricultural methods employed on the British Isles and in France. His lecture was also accompanied by slides. Last night there was a 4-H party but I didn’t go on account of my prelim.

Your letter was very interesting and I enjoyed Martha’s too. I suppose I should take a lesson from her marks but I don’t seem to be doing it yet. I’ll bring a couple toothbrushes back the next time I come home if you don’t need them before. Thank you very much for the package and candy. I have been feeling much better lately and have regained my appetite. Although my nose is still rather sensitive, I have had no more bad nose bleeds.

I probably won’t work at the coop for two weeks during exams and just following, as I have a chance to get off since they are only running part time. It will give me a chance to hit my finals better. My marks as a whole are picking up although they have a long way to go yet.

Remember me to Catherine and Andy and the rest. It has been snowing quite a bit lately but there isn’t much on the ground, although it is quite cold.

Last Saturday afternoon I played basketball on the coop team and was high scorer, but felt very stiff the next day as it was the first time I had played this year. I also watched the wrestling bouts between our freshmen and some other college.

Cornell won their first league game in basketball from Princeton but lost to Dartmouth Monday night. We are playing Columbia here tonight.

Well, I have to go now so will be expecting a letter soon.

Lovingly, Hall

Post #21: Sliding cars

2010-03-14T16:38:00.000-07:00

Ithaca, New York
Friday afternoon, December 1937

Dear Folks,

We have had quite a bit of snow and wind here the last few days and I suppose you have too. I hope the road didn’t fill in too much. I have had two prelims and some quizzes and two income tax blanks to fill out this week, so I have been rather busy. I get up about five every morning but it has been so cold the last few mornings that I have studied in bed.

I have a term problem in Sociology to do over the weekend and may go down to Pennsylvania with a bunch of cooperative students either tomorrow or Sunday to study economic conditions in a leather tanning town about a mile over the border. The Coop is sending down a load of coal and a load of food to help some of those who have been out of work for a long time.

The roads and sidewalks have been a sheet of ice for a few days and there have been a lot of minor accidents. Thursday night we were watching the cars trying to get up Eddy Street without chains. They would get almost up to the top and then would put on their brakes and slide all the way down to the bottom again faster than they came up.

I don’t know when we are coming home yet but will let you know when I find out. Vince Peppe’s brother isn’t going home until the day before Christmas so I won’t go with him but will be able to come back with him. I’ll probably get home by Saturday but am not sure. I found my skates and think we are going skating tonight for a little while over at Beebe as I haven’t been yet.

Cornell had its first basketball game with Toronto last night and won 44-21. The kid who lives across the hall and who is on my shift at the Coop plays on the Varsity team. Every player gets two free tickets and he is giving me one for next Tuesday’s game against Bucknell.

I can’t seem to think of much else so will close for now.

Lovingly, Hall

Post #20: Sardined

2010-03-07T16:19:00.000-08:00

Ithaca, New York
Saturday afternoon, Late Fall 1937

Dear Folks,

I meant to write sooner this week but have been terribly busy since I cam back, and haven’t even slept much, let alone write letters. We had rather a long trip back on Sunday as we had to wait an hour at the ferry at Tivoli on account of the fog. There were two more of us going back than came so we were pretty well sardined. We tied part of the baggage on the side and part between the fenders and the hood. It simply poured all the way and we didn’t get here until 9:00. I had one prelim this week and have two coming up next week.

Tonight we are having our first anniversary celebration at the Coop. They have several things planned. It has been down around 15 degrees several mornings this week and it feels quite cold. Thanks for sending the keys although I didn’t really need them – but you didn’t know. I won’t miss my coat for a couple of weeks and can bring it back with me next year.

I helped get Vincent Peppe a job at the Coop and have a chance to go home with him at Christmas if I want to. His brother is coming over from Syracuse to get him, but not until about the 21st as they both have some work to catch up on and I could use the time myself. However I am not certain yet whether I’ll come with him or Katherine Robinson on the 18th.

Irving would like to go home with me and then take the train from Amenia as it would be a lot cheaper for him. Would it be alright if he stayed at the house for a day or so? He has invited me down to his house for a couple of days either at Christmas or Easter to show me around New York City and Radio City, which I haven’t seen.

Nothing much happened this week and I have to get something ready for tonight. I will stop, hoping that everyone is alright. I enjoyed the candy and apples that I brought from home very much.

Lovingly, Hall

p.s. Let me know whether it makes any difference with whom I come home.

Post #19: By the skin of my teeth

2010-03-07T16:00:00.000-08:00

Ithaca, New York
November 14, 1937

Dear Folks,

I received Aunt Dorothy’s card yesterday and was glad to hear that the Turkey Supper was such a success. I have had quite a bit of work to do this week even though I didn’t have any prelims. I received two of my three prelim marks back and passed both of them, but only got through Economics by the skin of my teeth. I don’t like the course too well as it deals almost entirely in abstract theory and the terminology is rather difficult. However I am not much below average, if any, in the class so am not worrying too much. I got 92 on my poultry prelim which was quite easy. It was mostly on poultry genetics and diseases.

This morning I had to attend a Coop board meeting as the other alternate member is in the Infirmary. I didn’t have time to get much done as I had to go up and work at 11. I didn’t get up too early this morning as I didn’t get to bed until about 2 a.m. Irving and I went up to a C.I. A. get acquainted party at Barnes Hall and studied some.

Friday morning I got up at a quarter to four to study for two quizzes and read a hundred pages of Sociology. I slept a couple of hours Friday afternoon after I got through work, and that night I had to attend a rather lengthy meeting of the help at the Coop. After I got home I worked on an Ag. Economics report until about 3 a.m. Saturday morning and then Irving came in, after having first arrived by bus from Pennsylvania – about 300 miles distant - where he had been playing football – so it was about 4 a.m. when we finally got to bed and I was up at 7:30 for my class. I got back at 10 and found Irving still sleeping so I went to bed for an hour until we had to go up to work. I got wet right through my rain coat just walking to and from class – that’s how hard it’s been raining lately around here.

Saturday afternoon I listened to part of the Cornell-Dartmouth game which was very exciting and ended in a moral victory for us even if the score was 6 all. I must stop now as I have to get the rest of my work done so that I can go to church tonight. I will write again next weekend and let you know if I change my plans or anything.

Lovingly, Hall

Post #18: Planes and trains

2010-02-28T13:04:00.000-08:00

Ithaca, New York
Sunday afternoon, Fall 1937

Dear Folks,

I received Katie’s and Pop’s letter and was glad to hear that Andy is coming along nicely. This has been a very busy week for me with my Plant Pathology taking up about six hours a day besides my Coop work, farm practice tests, and other subjects. There has been an epidemic of colds and grippe going around the University and almost every other person has a cold.

Irving was sick in bed Thursday. Friday he had to leave for Rochester on a field trip at 7 in the morning and got back last night. He is playing on the 150 pound football team again this year. He and another kid bought a car for nine dollars this summer (you can imagine what it looks like), but it runs ok and that’s the main thing.

Last Sunday we went for a ride out to the farm where we worked this summer. It is about five miles up the west side of the lake on top of a hill, and it commands a magnificent view of the lake and surrounding country. He is a graduate of Cornell and quite an interesting person to talk to.

On the way up we stopped at the Ithaca airport and looked over about a dozen different types of planes and sat in one a while. A fellow wanted to give us some lessons but we decided we better wait. However, flying does appeal to me and I think I would like to learn some time, but I guess there’s no rush right now.

Today I heard a very good sermon by a man who is pastor of one of the large churches in New York City. This afternoon I had a contract to go with a gang of fellows from the Coop out to Cayuga Heights to pick apples, as we got them very cheap out there. After we got back, Irving and his friend and I went out to East Ithaca. We got the Engineer of the train which was resting over there to show us how it is operated, and he also gave us a short ride.

I got 96 on my first Animal Husbandry report in animal nutrition and I only wish I could keep it up - anyway I’ll try. Tomorrow I go on a small trip in my Rural Education lab out to a central High School in Groton to observe how a vocational agriculture class is carried on. I have to do some studying now so remember me to everybody.

Lovingly, Hall

Post #17: Head waiter

2010-02-28T11:17:00.000-08:00

Ithaca, New York
Early fall 1937

Dear Folks,

I received Aunt Dorothy’s interesting card yesterday and will look forward to the letter. This has been quite a busy week for me and next week will be too. I have to give farm practice tests temporarily whenever I have free time, which isn’t too much as I am working from 11 to 1:30 as head waiter at the Coop on the noon shift every day and have much more work than last year.

We are serving about 175 people now and will be serving nearly 200 after all the members begin to eat. I dish out all the individual meals alone, or if it is an extra heavy meal I have someone to help me. This takes about an hour of fast work and then I have to help set up first and clean up afterword. It leaves me only 10 minutes to make my lab but I guess I’ll get along somehow. I’ve got all eight o’clock classes, so I get up in good time in the morning, also Saturday classes.

Yesterday I listened to part of the Cornell vs. Colgate game over the radio. They had about 20,000 people here to see it and the traffic was something awful. Everybody including the coach was amazed that we should win by such a lopsided score of 40 to 7. They are looking forward to a good year. I walked down from the campus yesterday afternoon with President Day’s wife; we both happened to come onto the sidewalk at the same time and she started talking to me about the game. She said that President Day and Dean Ladd of the Agriculture College had been to Albany that day and had hurried back to see the game.

In the poultry course I am in, we have the largest number of students that was ever grouped together in one room at Cornell University to study poultry. I think I am going to like my other courses real well too. Remember me to Teddy and the kitten. This house is a hundred percent improvement over the one I was in last year. We have a large lounging room downstairs with a telephone which any of us can use. There’s plenty of noise, but that doesn’t bother me much. I have to go up to the Coop to a meeting now so will mail this.

Lovingly, Hall

Post #16: Football celebrations

2010-02-20T16:29:00.000-08:00

Ithaca, New York
Sunday night, early September 1937

Dear Folks,

I was very glad to receive your letter and to hear the news. The reason Andy’s spring broke was because it was a weak one which he had put in temporarily, and it was cracked before we started anyway. No we did not hit any construction and he drove slowly all the way.

I sent you the “Sun” as I thought the inauguration address might interest you. They had 31 different college presidents here that day and it was a school holiday. I gave farm practice tests all afternoon, and we finished the last of them up. They only give them during school hours and I didn’t have much free time with my Coop work. I can’t get in as one of the term instructors in the course because they only teach it Monday and Tuesday afternoons and I have labs on those days. However next year if I can arrange my labs so that I have those afternoons free I will have a good chance to get in.

I can’t arrange to go to church very often Sunday mornings because Sunday dinner is the most important meal of the week and I have to be there early to see that the counter is set up right. One of the boys whom I eat with at the Coop occasionally is from Oakland California and is doing graduate work in Floriculture. He is part Chinese and part American; another boy is from the West Indies and he helped get the Coop ready to open.

There has been a lot of celebration over the fact that Cornell beat Princeton 20 to 7 Saturday. We play Syracuse here next Saturday and I bet the place will be packed on account of Syracuse being so near. Ken Brown made one of the three touchdowns Saturday for Cornell. He’s from Millerton and only weighs about 160 but is very fast. Bill Moulton is also on the first team. I worked at the Coop with him last year and this term he is in three of my classes. Irving made the 150 pound football team and is going to Princeton this coming weekend to play.

I wrote Martha a letter yesterday to the address you sent me in New York City. Margaret made the first church choir at Oberlin, and is also in the Orchestra, on the Frosh bowling team, on the tennis team, and is taking archery besides. She’s surely going places for only having been there a few weeks.

I hope Pop’s fingers are alright by this time; did he get the fastening on his leather jacket fixed yet? For our lab in Agriculture Economics Tuesday we have to go out to a large farm about two miles north of Ithaca and make a farm inventory. If I don’t find a way to get there I will have to walk, so I am going down to call up a fellow now – will be glad to receive a letter anytime.

Lovingly, Hall

Post #15: Painting the Coop

2010-02-20T13:57:00.000-08:00

Ithaca, New York
September 1937

Dear Folks,

Catherine sent you a post card so I didn’t write immediately to let you know we arrived ok and have been quite busy since. I am very well satisfied with my rooms – plenty of heat and a nice environment. Irving and I have the rooms all decorated with the banners he and I brought out and some tapestry which he brought from Mexico.

I didn’t have a chance to show Catherine and Andy around as much as I would have liked to but did fairly well for the time we had, as they wanted to get a good start. After they went I unpacked and fixed my room up and then went to work at the Coop. There were a whole bunch of new fellows around looking for jobs and working free gratis so I knew I had better get started right away if I wanted to be sure of a job.

Yesterday I spent eight hours up there painting and today four hours. I did practically the whole kitchen and the bathroom today. They have 125 members signed up already and their full quota is 150 so I guess we will have a waiting list. The membership fee is $5. All of us who work there are members as it is a club which is beginning to look like a large fraternity. Everything is being redecorated and the place is beginning to look very nice.

Today I registered. A bunch of us were supposed to go up at 8:30 a.m. so we went up at 8:00 without eating any breakfast only to find a line about a quarter of a mile long ahead of us with people who had the same idea as we did. I finally got through at 11 a.m. and had a couple of sandwiches and then ate a late dinner.

It seems nice to meet all of my old friends again and feel much less lost than I did a year ago. Monday I saw Wesly Smith and was talking with him quite a bit. He is rooming on College Avenue right across from where Pop used to room, with a friend of his who used to go back and forth with us last year. Only two of the old roomers are back at 210 Dryden as all prices were raised. I haven’t seen anything of Fred Tillerton and don’t think he’s back yet. I’m wondering what happened as I was going to get a second hand Economics book from him.

I have started to keep a diary again. It’s raining here as usual since I arrived and kind of cold, although Saturday it was 87. I heard that the 8,000 people who watched the game nearly smothered but Cornell beat Penn State as you probably know. I will write later when I have more to say so remember me to the others.

Lovingly, Hall

Post #14: Lifelong friends

2010-01-31T13:31:00.000-08:00

A passage from "Memory Traces"
by Irving Luban, published 2001

Lifelong friends

Gilbert Hall Flint and I met on the campus of Cornell University more than a half century ago. We have remained lifelong friends since then and although miles apart, correspondence and the telephone had kept us in close touch with one another. Hall, as he was known to friends, was the product of 200-year ancestral annals. Whether fact, fancy, or fib, he claimed that a family relation, one Captain Flint, was the pilot of one of the caravels that hit the shores of the New World.

“My sister Catherine died on 8/11/90. The funeral was in our Smithfield church, not far from what used to be Flint Hill. She was buried in the church cemetery along with my relations of the last 200 years” recently wrote my roommate of so many years ago.

The name “Hall” stuck and fate determined our link on the campus grounds of Cornell more than fifty years ago: he was a tall, spare taciturn farm boy from the bucolic hills of the country, and I came from the swarming paved streets of a crowded city.

Coupled for good, we never lost touch as years passed; our friendship was solid and durable throughout school, careers, war, births, and the remotest of distances. We exchanged two or three letters each year and made phone calls to each other. This kept the lifeblood of our friendship unbroken, flowing, and very much alive.

In those long college years, farm training was absolutely essential to remain in good standing in the Agricultural College of the University, especially for city-bred kids. We had to work on a farm for four consecutive summers in order to matriculate. The Flint family dairy farm, on Flint Hill, whose ancestors settled near the tiny hamlet of Amenia, Dutchess county, over 200 years ago, became my home for those wondrous summers of my youth.

His letter continued: “I drove up over Flint Hill last week. There is now a winery and a fancy restaurant on top of the mountain. At Amenia, Route 22, there are many signs directing you up Cascade Mountain Road, where Martha used to drive her horse-and-buggy carriage to high school.”

Probably the same gray mare on the same rocky road, but now mare and Flint Hill are no more; farmstead is gone, progeny scattered.

But then, both Hall and Martha knew, I’m sure, that the immortal souls from the nearby churchyard graves were still keeping a watchful eye on their beloved ancestral grounds.

Post #13: A college prankster

2010-01-31T13:12:00.000-08:00

A passage from "Memory Traces"
by Irving Luban, published in 2001

A college prankster

Over the years, those farmlands at Flint Hill were passed from father to son until they were about to rest on the shoulders of my friend Gilbert, or Hall, as he was known to his friends, who, after tasting the glories of farm work for his first eighteen years, decided he wanted no part of it and departed from the land of his ancestors to attend college. Along with his deeply inherited sense of puritanical humor, he landed on the same campus I had chosen. We met, became friends, and bunked in the same house; his room was directly above mine.

Those were hard years. However, we did not know that we were poor and we felt very fortunate to have had a bed to sleep in, work, and enough energy to squeeze through our exams. In order to survive, we each had to hold down two or three jobs, working in between classes and on weekends. Seven days a week I had the additional problem of fending off Yankee skullduggery when, frequently, Hall would get into his periodic prankish moods.

Both of us in my room were cramming for the following day’s heavy exam, late into the night, when Hall called it quits and left for his room upstairs. All was quiet during my attempts to decipher some complicated formulas in Chemistry I when a light tap on the window snapped my attention from the books. The tapping noise continued and it broke my concentration, enough to force me to proceed to the window and investigate. At that late hour, I wondered who the devil it could be. It was when I pulled the window up to peer outside that I realized I was caught in a trap- again. But by then it was too late; the waterfall had already drenched me, body and soul. The Yankee rogue had struck again! A dangling broom did the tapping, and a pail of water did the rest.

I called Mrs. Truax, our landlady, to witness this abomination. We climbed the stairs rapidly to the room above mine. There lay Gilbert Hall Flint, under his blanket, sound asleep. Only when I ripped the blanket off and exposed a fully-clothed sleeper, did a smile escape his angelic composure. Well not exactly a smile, more of a Yankee inner chuckle.

Post #12: Summer at Flint Hill

2010-01-31T12:57:00.000-08:00

A note from Jim Flint ...

In reading through my father's letters, I wondered about his college roommate and lifelong friend. Through an internet search, I located a listing for Irving Luban, age 94, with references to places he had lived.

The directory included Irving's children, Nina, Michael, and Malva, whose names I remembered from family visits in the late 1960s. A subsequent query brought me to a medical practice in Chicago -- and a photo of Michael Luban which bore a striking resemblance to my own memory of Irving.

Michael responded warmly to my email and shared that his dad was very much alive and doing well in Florida. Nina emailed a day later and attached a few chapters from Irving's book, "Memory Traces: A family's life journey," with permission to share the passages on the "Dear Folks" blog.

The phone rang yesterday with a call from Irving. We talked about the times they spent together at college and on Flint Hill, the visits and letters exchanged with each other, and their endearing bond of friendship over so many years, beginning in the spring of 1937 at Cornell University.

A passage from "Memory Traces"
by Irving Luban, published in 2001

Summer at Flint Hill

The first in our family, and in our Brooklyn neighborhood to go to college, I entered Cornell University, School of Agriculture in 1936, received my B.S. degree in 1940, and was pursuing graduate studies when I was drafted into the United States Army on August 7, 1941, six months before we went to war against Germany and Japan in World War II.

College tuition was free then. But in order to qualify for acceptance, I had to work during my vacation time, four summers and parts of the winter, on a family income-producing farm. My roommate at Cornell was Gilbert Hall Flint, Hall as he was known to his friends. His folks owned a herd of 50 Holstein cows and over 500 acres of mountains, woods, and farmland. It was there that I worked, sweated, enjoyed, and shared their life on the land that had been in their family for over two hundred years. It was called Flint Hill.

I am still in close contact with Hall and Martha, his sister, whose poems about her beloved Flint Hill I possess to this day.

The great gray house on the hill, the family, barns, cows, horses, and the scent of freshly-cut bundles of timothy and clover ... all were real. Now, fifty years later, they are but a dream.

My introduction to a Puritan way of life was not easy. I did not relish awakening at 4:00 a.m. to retrieve fifty head of Holstein cows from distant foggy pastures; sleep-swollen head leaning heavily on the cow’s flank; stripping every ounce of milk by hand from each udder; fifteen- hour days of scorching labor in the fiery fields of hay; meager, very meager meals (dairy farmers were getting less than two cents per quart of milk produced) and learning the art of reading by candlelight.

But we were young and optimistic then. And it did not take long to form a ringingly active group, almost foreign to the enduring solemn farm life and to the indigenous silence of timeless meadows and lonely, distant mountain tops.

There was Catherine, Hall’s older sister, married but still full of zest and plenty of youth. And slim, statuesque, blue-eyed Martha, Hall’s other sister, with windblown, autumn glistening, shoulder-length hair, who was the poet and avid researcher of her family’s ancestry, whose striking poems of life and freedom on her beloved Flint Hill still reside and echo from the files of my extended family.

Actively outgoing, Martha once shamed me into mounting the old gray workhorse. Out of character, the mare suddenly developed a fast trot as it approached the narrow, stony mountain road. My first time on a horse and with no saddle, swaying wildly as I desperately held on to its neck and billowing mane. This did me absolutely no good as horse and I soon parted company. The old gray mare went one way and I went the other. I recall my very secret love for Martha fading as I observed, from my less than elegant prone grassy sprawl, her inelegant, ear to-ear-grin.

Post #11: Prince and the Pauper

2010-01-24T11:12:00.000-08:00

Ithaca, New York
Sunday afternoon, April 1937

Dear Folks,

I have just finished some back reading in English, and I decided this would be a good way to rest my eyes. I haven’t had much of a weekend, as yesterday morning I made up a Botany lab and yesterday afternoon cleaned house over at the cooperative.

One of my friends who belongs to a veterinary fraternity (Alpha Psi) gave me a bid to a formal that they were giving in the banks downtown last night. However, I was so busy the last few days that I didn’t feel like making the necessary preparations for it, and instead I went down to see the “Prince and the Pauper.” I read the books several years ago, and I enjoyed both very much. I took a girl who sits next to me in English class and with whom I have become quite well acquainted during the term. She belongs to a sorority house and invited me to take her to an informal dance they are having next Friday night. Her home is in Detroit and her father is an airplane designer for the Army.

The Monday after I returned they had a large Beef Sale of cattle from all over the state. Briarcliff Farms had a large group of cattle there, and also Bethel Farms Inc. and Mr. Bontecue. Mr. Bontecue brought the highest priced animal - an Aberdeen Angus bull for $625. The auctioneer was supposed to be one of the best of his kind in the county, and he sure could talk fast.

I stopped in to see it for a half hour on my way back from lab. I saw Sam Morrison but didn’t bother to stop to talk with him as he was pretty busy. I finished up a report for Ag. Engineering this morning and had to go to work at 11:30 until 2:00 for one of the boys who worked for me when I was away. I will also have to work tonight and for two more Friday nights before I am all caught up. I have a series of prelims coming up this week of which I haven’t started studying for and probably won’t get around to it until the night before. I was up at 4:30 every morning this week also.

What room will Irving Luban and I be able to have this summer? We want to room together as we are going to next year. We have two beautiful rooms on the west side of this house overlooking the city. We are going to be able to get them for the same price that I am paying for this cubby hole this year, and it’s only one block further down. The prices are going up here next year.

I would like to have Irving come as my guest and be entitled to the same privileges as I would receive, as he is superior to me in many respects and possesses an admirable personality, and I feel that the two of us could accomplish a lot if placed under similar circumstances, trivial things included.

I have just been out having a catch for about 15 minutes. It gives you a chance to be outside and breaks up the monotony. I received your letter. I will be able to store a lot of my stuff in the place where I room next year.

Love, Me

Post #10: Not a very Good Friday

2010-01-24T06:05:00.000-08:00

Ithaca, New York
March 26, 1937

Dear Folks,

I just received the package this afternoon after returning from Botany lab. Everything is very nice and I surely appreciate your thoughtfulness. I also received your letter Tuesday and was very sorry to hear about Peter’s death as it will be very hard for his wife and children, won’t it.

It has been a very blustery day here with a hard wind and plenty of snow and ice along with it. I believe it snowed harder than it has any time yet this winter, but only for short periods of time. Nobody seems to think that it is a very “Good Friday” after all.

I have plenty of work to do over the weekend as I have four prelims coming along near the beginning of next week. I had two this week. I am not sure when I will be coming home so will make no definite plans – probably Thursday or Friday – but don’t expect me until you see me as my plans have been changed and I probably won’t come home with Wesley. I am looking forward to my vacation very much because this life is getting rather monotonous and a change will do me good.

I didn’t go to the 4-H meeting this week because the last time I went I sat up half the night doing my Chemistry, and besides I have been going quite a bit lately. In Hygiene Monday we were shown moving pictures of the sewage disposal systems at various state hospitals, two of which were Wingdale and Hudson River State Hospitals.

I am planning to go to the Easter Service at Sage Sunday and may also go up tomorrow afternoon when they broadcast a program over the Columbia Network. The Cornell choir and orchestra are participating.

I am glad Papa sent me $10 instead of $5 because I have had to get my laundry done and buy some school supplies. I will not bring any dirty clothes home with me as it makes too much luggage and I can get them done here very reasonably. No, I don’t think I really want a radio now as I probably wouldn’t use it very much.

One of the boys told me that Professor Bevan spoke here last year and that he liked him quite well. I can’t think of anything else to say now but will make up for it when I get home. I hope the roads don’t get too bad.

Loads of Love,

Hall

Post #9: Snow drifts and ice

2010-01-17T10:39:00.000-08:00

Ithaca, New York
November 20, 1936

Dear Folks,

I received your letter yesterday and was very glad to hear from you. I also got a letter from Martha on Monday and one from Andy yesterday. It is very nice out today for a change. Most of the week has been quite cold and raw. We had to plow through snowdrifts on our way up to the Dairy Building on Monday morning.

I renovated my room so that I have more room and better light and also fixed my light so that I can turn it off and on from my bed. I have done a lot of studying this past week. I had two prelims and have another one this Wednesday. I didn’t wait table hardly any this week so am running a little short of money but don’t send any as I can borrow some easily if necessary.

In our Animal Husbandry lab, we judge different types of livestock and I have over a ninety average in it so far. I also have over a ninety average in Drill, but my other subjects aren’t so high. However I brought most of them up quite a bit the last week or so. I hope the Turkey Supper turned out o.k. I don’t have any classes after Wednesday noon but Wesly’s father is coming out the next day rather than take a day off. He is going to start out early in the morning and get here about 7 a.m. Thursday. They are coming out in his uncle’s new Plymouth. They will probably start back about 8 a.m. and get to Saugerties about 11:30 so Papa had better meet me at 12 noon at Tivoli. Of course everything may not work out as nice as that but that is what they plan to do.

I had to buy a new English book and that set me back some. I have heard from both Robert Storrs and Jessie Thompson since I have been here, and also Aunt Tillie. I can’t always remember what I said in my last letter so if I repeat a few things don’t mind. I probably will have time to go to church the Sunday that I come back here. I studied until 12 midnight every night this week. The streets have been a sheet of ice all week and the cars have a terrible time getting around. Cascadilla Creek was frozen over yesterday morning.

I haven’t missed or been late to a class since I have been here but I haven’t had much time to spare. They are expecting to open up a new eating place right across the street sponsored by the students in order to get more economical meals. Most of the places raised their prices this year so that one can’t eat decently for much less than a dollar a day. This place that is expecting to open is going to be organized in the form of a club as it would be illegitimate otherwise. It is going to cost $4 to join it, but you will be able to get 21 meals a week for $4.50 so you would save the $4 in less than two weeks. However it may not go through – at least not if the other restaurants can stop it.

Meet me between 12 and 12:30 rather than between 12:30 and 1:00 if convenient for you. Martha sent me some money and I am using that for meals and will pay my board when I come back as Mr. Lender says it will be alright.

Lovingly, Hall

Post #8: Drill training

2010-01-16T17:20:00.000-08:00

Ithaca, New York
November 15, 1936

Dear Folks,

I received your very nice letter and also the “Times.” It is raining out this morning and it sleeted almost all of yesterday afternoon. I waited table for two meals every day last week but haven’t anything in prospect for this week yet – except for this noon. Every one of the fraternity houses were trying to get extra help on account of the large weekend crowd. I had five houses call me up yesterday afternoon to work so you see that my star of ascendancy hasn’t declined yet. I guess Miss Lender is afraid that her stairs are going to collapse one of these days with my running up and down them.

It is just a week and a half before I go home. I am looking forward to it very much. I will probably get a chance to go home with Wesly Smith (the boy who lives in Saugerties) at both Christmas and Easter and a couple times in between as he says that he will be going home every 3 or 4 weeks and that I could just as well go with him. He is an outstanding 4-H Club member of Ulster County. He is majoring in Poultry. For these reasons I have cultivated a good friendship with him and given him several chances to work.

I got 90% in my Drill prelim and like it a little better since then. Speaking of military training, I heard Senator Gerald P. Nye speak up at Willard Straight on the subject “American Driven into War.” It was an excellent address and impressed me a lot. The Cornell Unified Religious Forum sponsor these talks and bring some great speaker here every two weeks. It cost $150 to bring Senator Nye here so they had to charge a slight admission but it was certainly well worth it.

Yes I obtained a pair of rubbers, but I don’t wear them any oftener than I have to as the pavements are rather hard on them. The registry of College students hasn’t come out yet but I met the Miller boy from Millerton last week. I discovered that he sat two seats over from me in Botany and that he is in my section of the English class – quite a coincidence. No I haven’t had my watch fixed yet but intend to sometime soon as I miss it. I can’t come home with the Miller boy as he goes home on the train. I think that I am very lucky to get as near home as Saugerties with some one else.

You will have to be content with a 4 page letter this week as I have two more prelims coming up and I want to try and raise my marks. I received a lovely package of cookies from Katie Bockee on Thursday and also a letter and will write her today. I heard the Rev. Allan Knight Chalmers D.D. speak last Sunday at Sage and he was very good. I am sending the order of service in case you want to see it. The chapel is always packed every Sunday.

This term is nearly half over if not more – the days seem to fly very fast. Write real soon.

Lovingly, Hall

Post #7: Keeping a diary

2010-01-16T06:59:00.000-08:00

Ithaca, New York
November 6, 1936

Dear Folks,

I just received Aunt Dorothy’s letter and the clippings. I thought I would write now rather than wait until Sunday because I don’t have any p.m. classes and I have been studying hard all week anyway. I enjoyed Dad’s letter very much and was very much interested in the home news. It is a lovely day today and the sun is so bright that it nearly blinds one to look at the snow. It snowed for about five hours Wednesday night and two fairly warm days haven’t melted it yet. This morning on my way up to the dairy industry building I noticed that the tennis courts were a sheet of ice with a few people skating on them. Did you have much snow there?

I will leave here about 7 a.m. Thanksgiving Day and probably arrive at Saugerties around 12:00. Tivoli is about 30 miles from Smithfield as I figured it up on the map. I will get acquainted with other people from near home sometime. However, it is no easy proposition when there are six thousand students roaming around. One is doing good if he sees a person who isn’t in his class twice. I only earned 6 or 7 meals waiting table this week and was glad that I didn’t have to do more because I had 5 prelims and they were no “cinch.” I went to bed after twelve every night and was up at seven in the morning. I intend to catch up on a little sleep over the weekend.

I am sorry that Aunt D. and Aunt J. have been having such bum luck with their teeth. I got a nice letter from Martha Tuesday. It is rather difficult to get acquainted with your lecture instructors but I am acquainted with most of my lab instructors. The laboratory is the place where I learn the most. Yes I like college now but will probably like it better when I become accustomed to things more thoroughly. I have made several friends since I have been here and I meet new people every day. One boy is from Argentina and I pal around with him quite a bit. Some live in Ithaca and one Japanese boy I know comes from Korea. It seems to me that it rains about every other day here. The day I had drill it poured for 12 hours without a let up until it turned into snow. The creeks rose to three times their former capacity.

I am not feeling up to par today and think that I will take a walk downtown and around this afternoon as I haven’t had a chance to see much of it yet. I expect to go up to Taughannock State Park some Sunday with one of the boys who has a car. It is only about 10 miles up the lake. A week ago yesterday our geology lab section went out to Portland Point which is about 10 miles up the lake. They have a large cement factory there. They have quarried acres and acres of the Tully limestone and shale to use in the manufacture of cement. They dig down about 20 feet into the ground until they reach the Genesse shale which is carbonaceous and not so good for their purpose. This shale is loaded with shells of small sea animals which have been preserved for thousands of years. I brought a few of the best specimens that I could find home with me. Last spring during the flood, the water entirely filled this vast, artificial dugout and swept away one end of it, after which it rushed down into the lake carrying everything before it.

I started keeping a diary a couple days ago as I thought since Dad’s proved so interesting to me that my children might be interested in reading mine sometime. I am glad that Aunt Dorothy liked her birthday present. I also sat up listening to the election returns and was very much surprised. The newspapers can certainly fool us alright. The election didn’t impress me very much as I was not affected directly and had my doubts to whether Landon would be much better than Roosevelt. This is a Republican center. Cornell University students had an election of their own and Landon won by a large majority. I voted for Landon. A lot voted for Lemke (Union Party) and some for Browder (Communist Party).

I have used up nearly a half bottle of ink so you see I have done considerable writing since I’ve been here. I hope Uncle Charles is better now. I would certainly enjoy having the Times once in a while. I never buy a paper here as it takes too much time to read them. Some of the other boys have papers occasionally and I glance at them.

I guess I haven’t told you much about the boys who live on this floor. There are seven of us. The boy next to me Dave Titterington comes from Glens Falls and majors in poultry – third year. He is very nice and helped me a lot to get used to the place. Then there are two boys from Long Island – Bruce Bevin is taking a two year course in Agriculture. This is his second year. He is the one who has the car. I used to ride to classes with him occasionally but he has put his car in a garage now – a new Ford V-8 comfortable coupe. The other one – Dexter Seymour – is a freshman majoring in Chemistry. He says his mother used to live in Pine Plains. Then there is a boy (26 years old) from the coal mining section of Pennsylvania. He worked in the mines for 10 years and went to night school. He put two brothers through college and is majoring in Botany. His name is Clem Sergolt. There is a boy who graduated from the University of Rochester with a $1000 scholarship to take up graduate work in Engineering at Cornell. He is very bright but a little peculiar acting. Well I guess you will be tired enough by the time you finish this so goodbye until next time.

Lovingly, Hall

p.s. Write soon

Post #6: Studying for prelims

2010-01-09T11:59:00.000-08:00

Ithaca, New York
November 1, 1936

Dear Folks,

I just have time to write this letter before going to church. I am just returning from work. I have been waiting table over the weekend at Theta Delta Fraternity where Evan Jones works. It is quite near the campus and a very nice place to work. I finished working over at Sigma Chi Fraternity Thursday as the regular dishwasher came back.

I enjoyed the package very much and everything was swell. The weather has been cold and raw most of the week. It snowed Friday afternoon some. I have four prelims this week and have a lot of studying to do for them yet. Did Aunt D. get back from the Dorwards yet? I am sending a little something for her birthday which I thought was quite nice. She will probably get it Wednesday.

We got short black coats with our R.O.T.C. uniforms which are very warm and nice. I wear it a lot. How did the potatoes turn out? It was nice that Papa and Aunt Julia could take the trip over to Connecticut. I got Aunt Dorothy’s card from South Windham. How are the Kibbes? I listened to part of the Cornell – Columbia game yesterday and it was very exciting. Would you send me a copy of the Amenia Times or of the news sometime?

I saw Julia Bockee the other day and she invited me to go up and see her but I haven’t gotten around to it yet. How is everyone at home? I was helping Miss Lender fix one of her old lamps the other day, and after I got it apart I found that the new cord she had wasn’t small enough to go through the frame of the lamp and so had to put it back together again. She is having some company visiting her now from Florida.

I bought myself a pair of shoes with crepe soles which are much easier on your feet when you have to walk a lot. I wore out another pair of old ones which I brought with me.

Well it is 3 p.m. now and I just returned from work. I went up to Sage Chapel this morning and saw a lot of people that I know. I am enclosing the program. After coming out of the service, I didn’t have time to come back to my room before going to work so I stopped in Willard Straight for a few minutes. It is the 4th time I have been in it since school started. Friday, I played basketball for about ½ hour. I haven’t got any work in prospect this coming week unless I get a call.

Write me a longer letter the next time and tell me all the news. I have to study now.

Lovingly, Hall

Post #5: Football and tree climbing

2010-01-09T11:03:00.000-08:00

Ithaca, New York
Sunday afternoon, October 1936

Dear Folks,

I will have to make this letter shorter than my former ones because of an overabundance of work which I have to do. Your letter was very interesting and also the clippings and Aunt Julia’s note and Cousin Ethel’s card. I worked for practically all my meals last week and as a result have gotten behind on my school work. I have a seven page report to write for botany before tomorrow, also a bacteriology prelim. tomorrow, a theme to write for English, 50 pages to read in Geology etc. so you can see why I am cutting my letter short.

It takes between 6 and 7 hours a day when I work for all my meals so you see it takes quite a slice off of my time. I have found a way to go home at Thanksgiving with a boy from Saugerties (right across the river from Rhinecliff). I will probably leave here Thanksgiving morning and get to Saugerties about 1 p.m. I will go across on the ferry and meet you on the other side. It is about 30 miles from Smithfield and only 165 miles from Saugerties to Ithaca the way they go. It consists of several short cuts but I will get acquainted with the road on the way out and back so that I will know it. (I will go back again with him also.)

Yesterday I decided that I was going to try and see part of the Cornell – Penn State game so I chimmied up a tree which stood fairly close to the stadium and saw the whole last half perfectly. It was a very nice day and since I had made up my mind to see part of one of the games I thought I would do it then. However I won’t waste my time on anymore this year.

Could you please send me $15 as soon as it is convenient as I am getting rather low. I haven’t heard from Martha yet but expect to soon. Will write her a short letter today and send on the one you sent me. I paid my room rent for the next 4 weeks Friday as it was due. It has been a perfectly lovely day and I took advantage of it by going for a short walk down in back of the fraternity house where I work. I got there ½ hour early this noon accidentally so thought I would do that. I walked down to about ¼ mile from the lake and had an excellent view in all directions.

I got the towels as well as the candy the time before. Remember me to Uncle Charles and tell him to stay out as much as possible during this nice weather. Tell Mr. Moody that I hope he is feeling much better. I am glad that you like Dr. Raeder. I think that he is an excellent product of modern dentistry. It is too bad that Aunt Dorothy is having trouble with her tooth but I hope it is better now. Am glad Papa got a chance to sell the straw. Hope Teddy is alright now. How are the chickens doing?

I take a bus occasionally but usually one has to wait about 15 or 20 minutes for one and it puts you in a hole if you are going to work. Yes Margaret writes to me every week. She went out to Oberlin Thursday to arrange her schedule etc. I have seen one movie since I have been here. Hope Aunt Julia is feeling alright now. I had to work 2-1/2 hours for lunch today but what a meal I had! 3 helping of everything including ice cream. They don’t fool me much. Will have to stop now, but will be expecting a letter soon.

Lovingly, Hall

Post #4: No time to sleep

2010-01-03T16:43:00.000-08:00

Ithaca, New York
October 17, 1936

Dear Folks,

The very first thing that I want to do is to apologize most heartedly for neglecting to thank Aunt Dorothy for the excellent fudge which she sent. It arrived in fairly good condition and lasted 3 or 4 days. Somehow or other I neglected to mention it in my last letter but don’t blame me because I had a lot on my mind at the time.

I hope that everybody is enjoying excellent health and also the wonderful weather that we have been having up until today. It poured here all day without letting up once except for a little while before the football game. However that did not stop the bleachers from being packed with a huge throng of people who had come from miles to see it. Cornell won 20 to 7; as you probably know they played Syracuse and it was the first time that they have beaten them for four years. As I was studying I didn’t have time to go up and see any of it.

I will do as you say about my laundry. I wrote a letter to Aunt Tillie last Sunday and also received a nice letter from Catherine the same day that I received yours. I am glad that Papa has two men now and hope that he will take it easy while he has the chance. You surely have been having a lot of company lately. It was nice that Cousin Ethel could come up. I hope that you will excuse any misspelled words, but as I have to write in a hurry I am trying to write an interesting letter in an informal way.

I tried on Papa’s yellow shoes before I came out but they were too wide for me as I have a very narrow foot. Maybe later on I will need my work shoes and if I do I will send for them. I haven’t had any sign of a cold since I have been here but if I have escaped today I will count myself pretty lucky as I walked over and back from work three times today in the pouring rain. My rain coat surely does come in handy. I have worn my rubbers through my shoes and socks. I may have to get another pair.

I haven’t had a chance to go swimming yet but hope to pretty soon. I have been waiting table off and on all week and am getting the hang of it pretty well now although it was rather hard at first. I figured up this morning that I had earned 42 meals with a minimum value of $21 in the three weeks since I have been here—not bad is it?

I had a chance to work at three different fraternity houses tonight but had to turn two of them down. I have all of my weekends filled up to the middle of November and all of my Mon, Wed, and Friday mornings beside. However I am going to quit working at Phi Kappa Sigma the most of next week as I will have a steady job washing dishes for a few days down at Sigma Chi where I worked before subbing for one of the boys.

I got six telephone calls this morning and I guess Mr. Lender is going to move the phone up into my room if it keeps up. I have to get up at 5 a.m. when I am working in order to get my toilet done, study some, and get over at the Frat. house by 6:30. As a rule I don’t get to bed much before 10 or 11 p.m. so I have a hard job to keep awake through some of the lectures. We have one old fossil in orientation who is dryer than sawdust in July.

This morning I decided to snatch an hour’s sleep after I got back from work, and so I set the alarm and put it along side of my pillow. The next thing I new Mr. Lender was standing in the doorway trying to wake me up in order to tell me that I had three telephone calls and that he had rung for me every time but had supposed that I was up by that time of day. I explained to him that I wasn’t in the habit of sleeping until 10:30 and that if it had been very important the person would have given him the message. (I didn’t find out who it was but probably somebody calling me up to work).

I ran across part of Papa’s old diary in one of his botany notebooks the other night and it was very interesting indeed. It gave me the inspiration to want to keep one myself. We have a very interesting geology book which I paid $4 for and I know Papa would be very much interested in it. As this is only a one term subject, I think that I shall keep the book and give it to Papa for a birthday present. One of the editors is Richard F. Flint who is assistant professor of Geology at Yale University. It is a very new book and has a lot of new information in it. I have 75 pages to read for Tuesday and so far have read 25.

I have some long walks every Mon. Wed and Friday morning from the Frat. house way up to the Dairy building for Bacteriology. In the morning I have to wait table by myself for about 25 people so it keeps me stepping in order to get through in time to get up to my 9 o’clock class. We have a fellow taking graduate work from South Africa (German descent). Mr. Lender stays that it is the sixteenth that he has had from there as he has been taking in roomers and that they have all been very nice people. I went up to the Cross-country meet which Cornell had with Alfred yesterday afternoon and Cornell won 19 to 36 (team with lowest score wins). They had two fellows come in a dead heat a full quarter of a mile ahead of the rest in a 3 and ½ mile race.

This must be one of the most ideal places to study Geology that there is in the world. Nearly every thing that one studies about can be seen in actual existence within a few miles of Ithaca. Thursday for Geology lab we went over to Six Mile Creek on the bus and walked home. I think it was the longest six miles that I every walked because it took us from 1:30 to 4:30 to make it. We passed the Ithaca Reservoir and it was stone dry -– however, it was a marvelous sight to see all the sand and silt that had collected on the bottom.

They have the most peculiar heating system in this house of any place I have seen yet. The fellow next door to me has his room up to 70 and mine is 54 and we have both had our radiators turned on for the same length of time. Yesterday my room was warm and his was cold. I am writing this letter with my bathrobe on over my clothes and a blanket around my legs. If it keeps up I’m going to holler about it.

If you think that I valued my meals too high when I said 50¢, I figured this up for my breakfast at the Frat. house: 5 glasses of milk at 5¢ a glass --25¢; 2 dishes of cold cereal at 5¢ each -- 10¢; bacon, eggs, and toast --25¢; buns -- 5¢; orange or pineapple juice -- 5¢; total 70¢. If one was getting that meal anywhere in Ithaca he would pay $1 for it. However when you get up early and work you need a fair sized breakfast. I guess I must walk most of it off because at lunch time I am just as hungry as ever.

I don’t think so much of drill. We have a sour old captain who glares at you like a hundred watt bulb if you make a little mistake. We are learning how to operate some French 75 motorized cannon now and I never saw such a mixed up mess in all my life. Everybody looks at his neighbor and he doesn’t know any more than you do. However I suppose I will get used to it after a while. We have a colonel who fought in the Spanish-American and World War who lectures to us about the glory of going into trenches and getting your face shot off. One fellow went to sleep Wednesday during the lecture and fell out of his chair. The colonel made a goat out of him and I bet the poor kid must have felt like two cents.

This is all I have time for now. Write soon.

Lovingly, Hall

Post #3: Worn out shoes

2010-01-03T14:08:00.000-08:00

Ithaca, New York
October 10, 1936

Dear Folks,

I decided that I would write tonight rather than wait until tomorrow as I couldn’t seem to concentrate on what I was reading. Your letters were very interesting. How is everybody and how is Mr. Moody getting along?

I want to thank Papa for spelling the words out for me that I missed, but I want to remind him that there is only 1 r in “necessary”. Tell Papa that there is a tailor shop at 402 College Avenue but that 403 is Sheldon Court (a boys’ dormitory). It is an old building built of red brick. I haven’t had time to look up 424 East Seneca Street yet but will Friday when I go down to the Infirmary to have an xray taken as part of my medical exam. I had the rest of the exam this morning and it took quite a while. The xray will cost 2 dollars.

About the question of my laundry—if I get it done here it will be rather expensive as it cost 15 or 20 cents to have a shirt laundered and the other things in proportion. Most of the other kids have a laundry bag and send their laundry home as they say it is much more economical. I can get a very nice little laundry bag with a place a the front to stick in a card with address and name on it for from 1-1/2 to 2 dollars. It will hold 2 weeks wash and the postage will cost about 15 cents one way. So far I have been putting my dirty clothes in my small suitcase but it is getting pretty near full. If you would tell me in the next letter what you prefer to have me do I would be very much obliged.

Tell Aunt Dot that I had an apron when I was washing dishes (a great big rubber one). However, I haven’t been working at that place most of the week as 3 of the regular house members started on Tuesday. I will probably work there this coming weekend as one of the fellows wants me to sub for him. This weekend I have been working at another fraternity house which is about a block nearer than the other one was. The head waiter said that if they go 3 or four more pledges they would need another waiter permanently, but I don’t put too much stock in that. However, that’s another place where I will get a chance to do subbing.

I met Evan Jones and he says that he will give me every chance to sub where he works. (It is much nearer than the other two places.) I went down there to get acquainted with the head waiter Thursday night and he is a very nice fellow. (I have been waiting table this weekend and it is much easier than washing dishes.) I went to a University 4-H Club meeting last night and didn’t get in until late so I guess that I will finish this in the morning.

Sunday a.m. Well good-morning everybody, I didn’t wakeup very early but nevertheless, I seem to be the first one up. Two of the boys that room on this floor went home to Long Island Friday so there are only about four of us on this floor now.

I did a lot of studying yesterday and am beginning to realize that I have quite a tough schedule. Botany and English seem to be the subjects I have to spend the most time on. In all our classes we have slides on the subject of the lecture and it adds greatly to the interest of the work.

Yes I moved the cot into my room while I wasn’t feeling very well as it made it seem more home-like. However, I have my window all the way up every night so I get plenty of air. That couch is taken apart very easily if you want to put it in my room. I will get what notebooks I can use etc. from that chest when I go home at Christmas. I have plenty of towels. I take a shower every other day and it makes one feel much better. Thank you very much for the clippings; they proved very interesting.

The scenery is very beautiful here now. There has been enough cold and sunshine so that the pigment in the leaves has turned a brilliant red in many cases and I have an especially nice view from my window.

I had to judge sheep as part of my laboratory work in animal husbandry Tuesday and what a job. However, I placed 3 out of 4 of them correctly. For geology lab Thursday we went around to the various buildings on the campus and studied the stones which comprised the base of the buildings. Our hypothesis was that some of them had been formed from red hot lava and rocks some 3 and ½ million years ago. Others were much newer and had been formed by various stratified layers of material.

I am going to church this morning. I didn’t go to any of the church student reception parties as they came while I was working at Sigma Chi Fraternity and I didn’t get through work in time at night to go. I have had several invitations from different fraternity houses to go to different smokers (parties) which they give, but the one Friday night was the first one that I had been to since arriving here.

I have been wearing those old black and white shoes since I came and yesterday when I took them off I found that I had worn through the 5th and final layer of the soles in both shoes and as the rest of them was completely shot, I discarded them. My breakfast only costs me about 10 to 15 cents every morning because I buy cold cereal, a pint of milk, and a little fruit and eat them in my room. I just finished the last of the apples that I brought out the other night and I haven’t touched any of the jam yet but intend to pretty soon. I must stop and eat my breakfast now, but will write more later.

Later: I think that I have just time to finish this before going to church. I forgot to get any cereal yesterday so I had pancakes and doughnuts for breakfast this morning. I intend to write to Aunt Tillie this afternoon as she asked me to. I am enclosing a picture of Cayuga Lake as Aunt Dot said that she would like to have one. I hope that all the corn is in by now as I judge you have been having as nice weather as we have. Is the silo anywhere near full?

It rained terribly hard yesterday and I had to take the bus over to work at lunch time and even then, it wet through my rain coat. I met a girl at the party the other night who was from Poughkeepsie and she wanted to know if I was any relative of the Agnes Flint that teaches in Arlington High School.

If you want to get heat very quickly out of the radiators just unscrew the valve which is on the left hand side, I think, and take it out for a half hour or so, that’s the way I have to do quite often in order to get any heat.

The only way that one can get a job around here is to have a pull (that is know somebody who will let you know whenever a sub is needed). One of the boys here as been in touch with Mrs. Fuertes since he came and he hasn’t had any results yet; so I am working on that angle of the case and getting acquainted with the kids who wait table etc. and it is much more productive because they always give sub jobs to somebody they know if possible. My wrist watch has stopped running and I don’t know whether I will bother getting it fixed for awhile.

The other night I went over to the gym and one of the guys wanted me to play on the Frosh basketball team as a couple members of the varsity were there and wanted a game. I hadn’t played much for a couple of years but we came within 2 points of beating the other team made up of the varsity fellows. Another night one of the boys wanted me to practice tennis with him and it was a lot of fun except that I have felt kind of stiff ever since.

I intend do go swimming in the new pool (which is in the gym) this week sometime. The gym is in the old armory which is right nearby. I had my first R.O.T.C. drill Wednesday and we drilled for 3 hours and then listened to a colonel give a lecture for another hour on the necessity of having a larger army in the U.S. Well don’t forget to write me a long letter and tell me all the news.

Lovingly, Hall

Post #2: Sore legs

2010-01-03T11:29:00.000-08:00

Ithaca, New York
October 2, 1936

Dear Folks,

Well I am still alive although I am not feeling up to par. In fact I have felt lousy since Tuesday. I have had cramps in my stomach and stiff legs from walking but feel much better today. However, I have been working for my meals every day (3 times a day) and walking back and forth (2 miles down and 2 miles back). I got a ride down one day and I measured it on the speedometer.

Today is the first day that I haven’t worked every meal and probably won’t work more than one meal a day after things get going, although I will probably get a lot of chances to sub for others. Monday and Tuesday were very hard days for me as I had to go through a whole lot of red tape as well as go down and back to work.

There were 1500 of us that registered in the New York State Armory. There were about a dozen different things that we had to register for and for each one we had to stand in line for anywhere between 1 and 2 hours. It took me all day Monday and Tuesday to finish it. They soaked us for $20 for our R.O.T.C. uniforms (1 shirt, 1 pair of pants, 1 necktie, 1 cap, 1 belt, and 1 swell pair of riding boots).

The lieutenant wouldn’t let me register for the artillery af first because so many had registered before, but the next day I went up to see the major to see if I could get changed to the artillery and I did. One gets $19.50 of the $20 back at the end of 2 years and one has a chance to take advanced drill with pay and get so many credit hours for doing it but not many do.

I never walked so much in all my life except when I was in Washington D.C. The hard pavements are very hard on one’s legs. Every day during the week I have walked 12 miles back and forth to work along and about half that distance around the campus and have lost 5 pounds. However I expect to gain it back when I get to feeling OK again.

I washed dishes about half of the week for 60 people and dried them the rest. I have advanced so that it only took be 25 minutes to do breakfast dishes this morning (dry them) and less time to wash them. However it takes 2 hours to do supper dishes. They have 6 courses and absolutely clean dishes for each course. At dinner time, it is nearly as bad but only takes 1 hour and a half. It takes 20 minutes of fast walking to go one way and a little time to eat, so you see it takes more time than I can spare from my lessons to do it 3 times a day but I can stand it once or twice a day.

I am taking Geology, Bacteriology, Animal Husbandry I, English I, Orientation, Botany, and Hygiene I. So you see I have quite a bit of studying to do. They are all term subjects except Botany and English, 17 credit hours in all. One has to have 122 credit hours to graduate so one has to take around 16 or 17 hours a term.

We have an English teacher who is even more concise than Miss Hoffbeck was and twice as strict. It is my smallest class; there are only 20 in it. I have 200 in my Geology Class, 400 in Botany, 300 in Bacteriology, 300-400 in Orientation, 400 in Animal Husbandry, and I don’t have Hygiene until Monday so don’t know about that. I am making a copy of my schedule so you will know what I have and when and where.

This morning I had to walk all the way from Cayuga Heights where I worked to the Dairy Industrial Building, nearly 2-1/2 miles. If you look up on the map I sent you, you can see the distance between my other classes. They soak me like the dickens for books but I managed to get a couple of mine second hand so that helped some, and I am going to borrow a couple of the others from the library for a day at a time and thus save buying one. In some of the subjects you are required to buy several books and also lab manuals for 2 subjects.

My lunch today only cost me a dime as I wasn’t very hungry and I had some cookies which I brought back from the fraternity house where I work. You get perfectly elegant meals and I can live on two meals a day when I eat down there. Last night we had a half of a chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, beans, cranberry sauce, soup, buns, ice cream with chocolate sauce etc. However I didn’t eat much because I wasn’t feeling too good

I have just finished trying to arrange my room a little differently so as to have room to turn around but it is quite a job. It has been quite cold here lately and Mr. Lender has such a cold that he can’t talk. There are four of us that room right near each other, two from Long Island and one from Auburn. There is one fellow from Saugerties who rooms on the second floor and he said that it was only 175 miles from there to Ithaca and that maybe we could arrange about going home together sometimes. Saugerties is 10 miles north of Kingston.

I got a nice letter from Martha yesterday. I got 100% in my Geology laboratory experiment yesterday. I don’t get time to use Willard Strait Hall now so the fee is really wasted but everyone has to pay it. I intend to use the gymnasium and swimming pool a little to make for having to pay that fee. I don’t need anything besides the towels.

I hope everything is going smoothly at home and that the corn didn’t get frosted. It froze ice here once. It is very nice today. Write often because I love to get letters.

Lovingly, Hall

Post #1: Working for meals

2010-01-03T11:02:00.000-08:00

Ithaca, New York
September 1936

Dear Folks,

I sent you a card yesterday, so I haven’t very much to say except that I got a job for today and tomorrow washing dishes and waiting table for my meals at a Fraternity house up on Cayuga Heights. This morning I worked from 9:00 to 10:30 washing dishes from 35 people for my breakfast, but it usually isn’t that long. One of the waiters that rooms here got me the job. He has a car so I ride up with him since it is about 2 miles from here (nearer 3 miles).

Last night I went to 3 plays (one act) given by the Cornell Dramatic Club, who invited all Frosh as guests. It was very good. When I got back I talked with Lawrence Tucker (the fellow who got me the job) for quite a while and then went to bed (the job is only temporary). The fellow who rooms next to me is taking an agriculture course and is majoring in poultry. He expects to either teach or take up extension work after he graduates.

Monday will be quite a busy day for me as I will have to register and arrange my schedule if possible so that it won’t conflict with my working around meal time.

Yesterday afternoon I went up to the football stadium to try to peek in at the game but the cops kept chasing us away. However Cornell beat Alfred 14-0.

My supper didn’t cost me anything as I ate some of the fruit and cakes that you gave me and shall also do the same tonight, as I am only working for breakfast and lunch today and for lunch and dinner tomorrow. Lawrence is going to sell me some of his books that he had last year second hand after I find out what I will need. I also found out that chemistry only lasts one term and that you get about half of your deposit back if you don’t break too much.

In the R.O.T.C. one can either go out for the infantry or field artillery and I think I shall go out for the field artillery as Lawrence says it is easier. The first year one learns how to march, load, and fire 6 inch artillery guns etc. The second year, one rides horseback most of the time and learns how to jump and do other maneuvers.

Mr. Lender (my landlord) has put 4 children (2 boys and 2 girls) through Cornell so he says that he knows quite a bit about it. He moved here from the Pacific coast for that reason.

Last night I got acquainted with a Spaniard who is a Junior here, a Frenchman who is a Freshman, and an American who is a graduate student. We played ping pong in Willard Strait. That’s all I have time for now.

Lovingly, Hall