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
Gilbert Hall Flint was born August 14, 1918 and raised on Flint Hill Farm in Amenia, New York. His formal education began in a one-room schoolhouse in Smithfield. He graduated from Amenia High School in 1936 and from the Cornell University College of Agriculture in 1940. He taught high school agriculture from 1940 to 1944, served in the U.S. Army from 1944 to 1946, taught high school agriculture from 1946 to 1963, and finished his career as a school principal from 1963 to 1975.
Gilbert Hall Flint passed away on December 16, 2009. The letters are published in his memory. To view the letters in chronological order, please click a timeline label from the side bar menu, scroll to the bottom, and read up.
Gilbert Hall Flint passed away on December 16, 2009. The letters are published in his memory. To view the letters in chronological order, please click a timeline label from the side bar menu, scroll to the bottom, and read up.
Showing posts with label Cornell 1936 (Fall). Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cornell 1936 (Fall). Show all posts
Post #8: Drill training
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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