Four Meranski sisters and sister-in-law Jen spring 1948 Hartford Ct

Left to right in photo are Jen (Mrs. Israel Peter) Meranski, and the four sisters
Esther, Babe (Rebekah Geetter), Bertha (Mrs. Samuel Pollack) and Sophie (Mrs. John B. Barrett) - first reunion after Sophie returned from Hawaii 1947

Jack Barrett with John at Owls Head Park Brooklyn 1940

Jack Barrett with John at Owls Head Park Brooklyn 1940 near home at 9615 Shore Road.

Wedding of Mollie's cousin Eileen Sullivan to Raymond Sullivan Melrose 1938

Wedding of Mollie Barrett's cousin (and chum) Eileen to Raymond Sullivan at Melrose 1938

Grandfather John Robert Barrett with wire haired fox terrier Skippy about 1939

This photo from about 1939 shows grandfather John Robert Barrett with his wire haired fox terrier Skippy in back yard at 640 E. Seventh St. South Boston with garage or barn in background.

Sophie + Jack Barrett June 1957 at Debbie Meranski Al Sonnenstralh wedding Baltimore

 Photo at left shows Sophie and Jack Barrett at Debbie Meranski wedding to Al Sonnenstrahl Baltimore June 1947. A smaller photo at top center shows Sophie and Jack New Year's Eve 1956-7 at home of John and Helen Donovan next door to Barretts at 44 Emmonsdale Rd., West Roxbury.
The photo at lower right shows the December 1978 Christmas party of the Massachusetts State Poetry Society at Rossi's restaurant Dedham Mass.

Sophie and John Barrett at Owls Head Park Brooklyn 1940

Sophie BARRETT speaker at ROSLINDALE HISTORICAL SOCIETY 1978 about 1941 Pearl Harbor attack

Sophie Barrett addresses Roslindale Historical Society on Pearl Harbor history

Sophie Barrett [front] was active many years in Roslindale and West Roxbury Historical societies. In November l978 she spoke on the Pearl Harbor attack at Roslindale Knights of Columbus Hall. Probably Jim Dolliver orTony Solimeme photo for West Roxbury Transcript, where editor Jason Korell took a great interest in Barrett memoirs and programs on Brook Farm, Faulkner hospital, and Boston Latin 350 anniversary. In photo are Roslindale Historical society Treasurer Bill Welsh, John Barrett junior, President Helen Goetz, and Secretary Mrs. Mellyn p 18 $144 "Willie Steele" Story told to Sophie by Jack Barrett When Jack was Gunnery Officer on the USS TULSA in Tientsin in 1930, he enjoyed going to the Tientsin Club after work about five in the afternoon, before my arrival November 1930. The Club was for men only - a chance to relax and get acquainted with men of many natinalities with good conversation. At the Tientsin Club he met businessman Faison Jordon, Mr. Reynolds of Ford Motors, and "Willie" Steele, head of The Tientsin Pukow Railway line. According to Jack, Willie was a tremendous Scotsman with a tremendous appetite for good food, good liquor, and good conversation. When Jack said to him, "Willie, are you a Highlander or a Lowlander?" Willie struck Jack hard on the back in friendly fashion and replied, "Ach, mon, that's all past and done!"

Sophie Barrett in China 1931

Sophie Barrett in China p 7 #53 {S} {9}

Sophie was fond of John Greenleaf Whittier's lines "I'm sorry that I spelled the word - I hate to go above you - The brown eyes lower fell - Because, you see, I love you." Iat the Brown school in Hartford she memorized these lines and William Cullen Bryant "So live that when thy summons comes To join the innumerable caravan You go as one whom wraps the draperies of his couch about him And lies down to eternal rest." Mount Holyoke had a long tradition of missionary activities epecially in China.Mount Holyoke President Mary Woolley one of the "ten most admired American women" of her time in polls made an extended visit to China in l922.Sophie's classmate Becky Smaltz recalled Miss Woolley boisterous welcome back to the South Hadley campus. Students composed a song "Will we be your rickshaw coolies, Miss Woolley?" A friend Mrs. Faison Jordon on Sophie's arrival at Tientsin November l4, l930 put her in touch with Mrs. Evans of the Mount Holyoke Club of North China. Through Mrs. Evans Sophie found her former student Grace Liang Mount Holyoke l925. Sophie and Jack Barrett had first tea and then dinner at the home of Grace's father and mother in Tientsin. Grace's father was known as M.T. Liang, though that was not his original name. He had attended Hartford Public High School, Connecticut, graduating about l880, but then a change of Chinese government polict required his return hom. He had a career in North China railroads and customs service and them diplomatically. Sophie understood he was the first Chinese to be invited to speak to theUnited States Congress. Apparently this was at the time of the Nine Power Conference l922.Some material is in files at Williston College Liobrary Historical section Mount Holyoke. Then Jack Barrett invited Mr. and Mrs. Liang to be guests aboard the gunboat TULSA at the docks in TIENTSIN. This was a rare and unusual honor for a Chionese in those days, to have dinner on a U.S. ship. Word womehow got around, and a large and respectful crowd cme to the dock to watch them go aboard. The crowd kept at a distance out of the way. Soon Grace was married to Dan Yapp of Shanghai. After World War II she taught high school in Connecticut and around l970 lived on Kalakaua Avenue, Waikiki, Hawaii.Sophie corresponded with her in l970's

view of Pagsanjan canyon southeast Luzon Philippines Jan. 1932

Pagsanjan canyon, southeastern Luzon, Philippines p 3 #24

One of the most enjoyable events on Sophie and Jack Barrett's ;l932 world tour was a day trip from Manila to southeast Luzon, where they were guests in a guided canoe tour. One photo of Sophie in a canoe survives l993 thefts. The trip is recommended for all first -and- second honeymooners. Astron--Constellations Lloyd Motz Carol Nathanson 523.8903- Bet M0Ia. diam 920 sun.-550 puls 2070 days semireg he4+he4 = Be8. +he4 - - C12 + gam RIgel LEF LEG TRIPLE 150 S LUM bELLATRIX 5H 22' +6,18' MAG 1.64 saiph K ORIONIS sword color -.16 700 parsecs BO Ia. abs. mag -6.8 50,000 s lum. p.98 -eta handle ofsword Saif al jabbar close optical double eclipsing like b Lyrae. MINTAKA "the Belt" Delta Or 20,000 s. lum. 450 parsec 1500 ly. abs mag -6.0 col +.21 5.7 day eclipsing binary.Interstellar matter Mintaka's spectrum K lines on calcium in stars O5 to B3 Doppler. Alnilam epsilon string of pearls 45,000K B0 Ia color -.18 -abs mag -6.8 single star radial veloc 26.1 km/sec 500 parsecs 1630 ly 51 parsecs from Mintaka or 163ly - Alnitak zeta girdle mag -6.2 O9.5 Ib col -21 s lum 35,000 - 1600 ly-500 parsec moving away from "Belt stars -TRAPEZIUM Theta-1 theta open cluster popul I stars p 282 Cygnus V444 Cygni 20 h 17.7' +38,34' nne of P Cygni Wolf-Rayet 17 million milews from O four day period.--few hundred WR abs mag -4 to -8 60000 - 100,000 surf temp K radii about twice sun V444 4900 ly-- Wr 18 solar masses 1450 lum 2.3 s radius. He++ C N O Si ions gas shell expanding inner 3 x rad s thin outer 8 times radius

View of Phantom Ship lava islet Crater Lake from Kerr Notch June 1947

Phanton ShipCrater Lake from Kerr Notch p 3 #23

June 28 or June 29, l947. Barrett family arrived from Redwood Highway and Crescent City California June 27, l947 in heavy snowstorm approaching Cater Lake Lodge, with the largest fireplace in state of Oregon. Weather was clear June 28-29, and road was open to southeast to Kerr Notch, where Jack took photos in clear sunshine. The north rim and sixty per cent of the rim Drive remained closed with late spring snow accumuilation. The Barretts proceeded to Portland and Columbia river via Eugene and Willamette River after return to Grants Pass, where they were forced off road by out-of control big lumber truck,but truck driver and passing motorists assisted getting l937 Lincoln Zephyr out of ditch and back on road.

Jack Barrett,Sophie,Mollie at Yosemite Valley 1947 from Christmas card

p6-45 Christmas card near Merced River Yosemite Valley - Mollie Barrett at left; Sophie center, Jack at right {M} {S} {J} {Y}

Photo by John Barrett, junior, about June 20, l947 in Yosemite Valley near the Merced River. Commander Barrett and fmaily left Honolulu June 4 on Army transport GENERAL RANDALL and arrived San Francsico June 10.Mollie Barrett took sux weeks leave from Metropolitan Life Insurance South Boston Office and flew to San Francisco. The family stayed at Hotel Californian while Jack made reservations via American Automobile Association and prepared l937 Lincoln Zephyr automobile.Sophie was recovering from surgery.Barretts saw Harry Meranski's sister-in -law Marion Taylor, a nurse then in San Francisco, who had visited several times in Brooklyn l940-l94l.They visited Golden Gate Park, the Presidio, Golden Gate andSan Francisco Bay Bridges, and Twin Peaks.Radiator troubles in the old l937 Lincoln Zephyr delayed the trip one day at Merced, California after hot radiator water spurted up and hit the roof of a service station at Modesto. During the week at Wawona June 17-24 the family visited Hetch Hetchy Valley in the north part of Yosemite Park, where the Tuolumne River created a second valley with wildlife and scenery similar to the better-known Yosemite Valley on the Merced River.Unfornunately in l9l3 over objections of John Muir this Hetch Hetchy Valley was flooded as a reservoir for San Francisco. There is new interest today in restoring Hetch Hetchy and removing the dam.Mount Holyoke College art museum has a fine l880's painting of deer grazing in Hetch Hetchy Valley.Kings Canyon near the General Grant giant sequoia is another deep glaciated valley of the western Sierra Nevada.The name means "shining range" and reflects the earlier-named mountains near Seville, Granada Spain.

Barretts Mollie,Sophie,John at Crater Lake (Kerr Notch) June 28, 1947

Kerr Notch Crater Lake, Mollie, John,Sophie Barrett, Phantom Ship p6-46 {S} {M} {Y}

Jack Barrett photo June 28 or June 29, l947 at Kerr Notch, southeast corner of Crater Lake (which is oval and does not have corners). Phantom Ship lava islet is visible.Barrettt arrived at Lake in heavy snowstorm June 27, l947 froj Cresecent City and Grants Passs after touring redwoods and being forced off highway by logging truck.The nothern sixty pper cent of the Crater Lake Rim Drive was closed with snow deposits, and Kerr Notch was the easternmost point open to cars. After the snowstorm there was pleasant sunny weather.Crater lake Lodge was said to have the largest firp[lace in Oregon. Another larger island in Crater Lake, cone-shaped Wizard Island is covered with whitebark pine, whose indehiscent seeds are spread by Clark's nutcracker, a bird related to the crow family and credited by some researchers with remarkable spatial-visual memory.

1920s photo of Jack Barrett sent by Marie Nelson Rowe of Philadelphia to Sophie

Jack Barrett 1920s p 20 #158

photo a gift of Marine Nelson Rowe to Mrs. |Barrett. 1970s. The Rowes were a Charleston,South Carolina family who often entertained Jack when he was stationed there 1921 on destroyer TOUCEY.Marie's father was very friendly to Jack, but would not let the limited-income Naval Lieutenant participate in his high-stakes poker games.Marie's sister Lucile went to Paris about 1924 to study singing with Madame Calve, and later sang professionally in touring productions of Sigmund Romberg's musical \\\\\'Blossom Time," based on the life of composer Franz Schubert.The Nelson sisters were friendly with social worker Ann Taylor (Mrs. Ivan McCormack) who sublet a room 1927-1930 to Sophie Meranski at 27 Commerce St., Greenwich Village, and it was there that Jack Barrett met Sophie Meranski August 1928, which she was studying for an exam at Columbia graduate school. Marie and her husband settled in Philadelphia. One of her friends Rolfe Druen dated one of the Toucey officers 1921. In the1950s Lucile was housekeeper of the Waldorf Astoria, one of the leading New York residential hotels, where General Douglas Mac|Arthur lived in retirement.Lucile continued 1970s in retirement in Carmel, California to write frequently to Sophie and share round robin letters with thweir friend Ivan McCormack on his farm between Salem and East Greenwich, New York

Roxbury Latin lunch room 1952-3

Roxbury Latin lunch room l953 p 35-910

visible left to right seniors John Barrett,Joseph Bonarrigo, Edward Galvin, Robert McLaughlin,RobertMacdonald, James Sullivan- Macdonald lived nearby in Dedham, but the rest lived in West Roxbury less than half a mile from Barrett family corner Emmonsdale and Rustic Roads.- I also have been reading a 1975 biography of the "great lexicographer" Samuel Johnson 1709-1984 by recently deceased Harvard English professor W. Jackson "Jack" Bate , whom I knew slightly years ago.Johnson's early education emphasized Latin very heavily as was then the custom in England. He was a remarkable translator. In the book I ran across the phrase from Horace PRAEMONITUM est PRAEMUNITUM - "forewarned is forewarmed." MONEO, MONERE, MONUI MONITUS is second declension with long E as stem vowel. MUNIO, MUNIRE. MUNIVI, MUNITUS is fourth conjugation with stem vowel I. Figure out from which of these are derived 'admonition' and 'munitions'. PRAE- is one of the prefixes that takes the dative case in the object. Basic meanings of MONEO and MUNIO are 'warn' and 'arm.' --Horace Odes 1- 11 Tu ne quaesieris scire nefas quem mihi quem tibi finem di dederint. Leuconoe nec Babylonios temptaris numeros. Ut melius, quidquid erit,pati seu plaris hiemes seu tribuit Iuppiter ultimum.Quae nunc oppositis debilitat pumicibus mare Tyrrhenum.sapias vina liques et spatie brevi spem longam reseces.dum loquimur fugerit invida aetas.Carpe diem quam minimum credula postero. Carpe diem - Horace's most famous line "seize the day." Another famous line "Dum loquimur" = "even as we speak" - loquor, loqui is a deponent verb - conjugated in passive form - meaning to speak = root of words like 'eloquent" 'elocution' 'loquacious'

Sophie and Jack in Malaya Botanic Garden January 1932

Sophie and Jack Barrett in Sultan's Garden, Johore, Malaya l932

#916 January PRESIDENT PIERCE honeymoon tour (7) {J} {S}

Sophie Barrett in Sultan's Gardens, Johore, Malaya January l932 p 35-917 (7){J}{S}

Dr. Isadore Geetter January 1945 Waikiki

Dr. Isadore Geetter with Sophie and John Barrett 2415 Ala Wai Boulevard #939 p 38 bottom {F}{H}{S}

Photo by Jack Barrett during Dr. Geetter's January l945 visit with his sister-in-law en route to Naval Reserve medical duty at Navy Hospital Samar Philippines shortly after their liberation from Japanese

Harry Meranski in 1911 family group [not enlarging as supposed to]

Harry Uriah Meranski born May 1891 from 1911 group p 37=925 {F}

Eldest of eight children of immigrants David Meranski and Thalia Goldfeld. Around 1914-1915 Sophie remembers her eldest brother Harry composed music for songs with lyrics (words) by his friend Martin Kupperstein, which they performed publicly under stage names "Cooper and Moran or Meran. Kuppersteon's family in Hartford area have later shortened the name to "Kupper."Sophie also remember Harry playing Irving Berlin's 1015 hit "The Girl on the Magazine Cover" on a wind instrument called the occharina.Harry married Sarah ("Sade") Taylor, whos parents were neighbors of the Meranskis as early as 1892 on Front Street near the Connecticut River on the north part of the east edge of Hartford, CT. Harry had severe influenza at Fort Devens Massachustts when drafted in U.S. Army l9l8 World War I. He was in furniture and bedding business l920s with Al Deutch, who married Sade's older sister Minnie.They had two children Arthus born December l9l9 who served 28 years in U.S. Army as officer mainly in Tanks including Normandy invasion June 1944 under Gen George Patton and amphibious Inchon Korea Sept. l950 under General Douglas MacArthur. Arthurmarried Betty and had four childrenSteve, Hank,Tom, and Paul in Maryland area in recent years. Arthur's sister Pearl is in West Hartford Connecticut.

Sophie's mother Thalia Meranski enlargement from family group 1911

Thalia Godfeld Meranski - Sophie's mother p 37-930 {F}

Probably born 1869 or l870 Brody in Lemberg province then Austrian Galicia later in Poland, Russia and now Ukraine.She was friendly with the Meisselman and Witkower families of Hartford, also believed to originate from Brody. Her youngest daughter Rebekah Geetter stated her mother traveled though Hamburg Germany. She was married to Daivd Meranski in Hartford August 8, l890. A younger brother Jacob had some sort of speech or hearing problem - was unmarried - worked as tailor.Many neighbors whose mothers had died lived with the Meranski family including Julius Aronson and his brother. Both parents spoke many languages including German, Yiddish, and Polish, and Pa Meranski spoke Russian. At home Sophie often used an Austrian German dialect with her mother and took German at Hartford Public High School and three years of college German at Mount Holyoke reading Goethe and Schiller with Professor Grace Bacon after World War I, when enrollment in German-l;anguage courses was low. Babe recounted that when three sons got Army draft notices in l9l8, her mother was so nervous she used salt instead of sugar by mistake in jelly she was making.Her gallstones became cancerous when improperly diatgnosed. He had an operation in l925 - was well enough to attend Sophie's Mount Holyoke grandaution May l923 but died September 8, l925 aged about 55 years. Her sonBen furnished "Abel and Bertha Goldfeld" as names of her parents. A family named Goldfield were neighbors of the Meranskis on Portalnd St. Hartford l909 - possibly relatives? [draft 01A:]#01A- Date: Mon, 18 May 1998 17:16:31 PDT #01A Thalia Goldfeld Meranski- To the best of my knowledge my mother Tahlia Meranski came to Hartford Connecticut from Vienna Austria with her younger brother Jacob, when she was a girl.I understood that she and my father were married in Germania Hall at the corner of Main and Morgan Street in HartfordAugust 8, l890. My first memory of my mother finds her standing in the living room, holding my infant sister Babe in her arms on Pleasant Street when I was five years old, iin l906. Babe was her eighth and last child - all healthy.I was her sixth born in a family of four boys and four girls. My mother was of average height, slender, black=haired and black-eyed.She was a good cook, but I never saw her sew or mend even though my father was an excellent tailor who enjoyed his work until his eyesight was strained by the use of fineneedles and dark thread on dark blue overcoats and black velvet collars. Apparently around l909-l9l0 as he got into his mid-forties, it became difficult to adjust to the close work.In l906 owing to a financial Panic my father found it very difficult to support his large family of ten in Hartford, where very few customers if any could afford a custom made overcoat. Through a friend Samuel Schlimbaum he found work as a tailor in New York for a time in l907. He located a cheap tenement at Twenty=-Seventh Street near Third Avenue and wrote my mother to bring the family.Less than a year old my sister Babe was an infant in arms suffering from the measles when my mother gathered her brood in a horse=drawn carriage and took us to the railroad station. My sister Esther remembers my mother keeping Babe's face covered with a blanket asd we rode in the coach train to New York city.My three older brothers slept on the floor at 27th Street, and one night Ben stepped on Al's hand, which was sore for weeks afterward.I was too young togo to school, though my sister Bertha did attend New York schools forsome time. I spent most of my time looking out the window, as mymother had two very young children to care for. Although I was lessthan six years old, my mother would give me ten or twenty cents everynoon, and I would go to the store to buy the baloney.We had no bathroom of our own and had to share the toilet out in the front hallwith the other tenants on that second floor.To supplement our diet, wehad a corn popper and popped corn on the coal stove nearly every night.My brothers would take a coal hod down to the railroad tracksand spend long hours trying to fill their hods with coal that mighthave fallen from the coal trains. Wood was difficult to get, but mybrothers searched endlessly for kindling wood. One evening my father'sfriends the Schlimbaums had the ten of us for supper. We went to their flat by streetcar, and I can remember my disbelief at the number of courses and quantity of food on the table. At Halloween, looking out the window I saw some mean tricks as teenage boys would hit passersby with long socks with a heavy brick inside. One morning I was standing in the front room when myt father unexppectedly came home. My mother without a word followed him from the entrance down in the kitchen to the front room and watched the poor man put his scissors and his tape measure on the table. When she questioned him with her expressive eyes, he told her that there was not enough work, and as the last man hired, he had been fired.We returned to Hardford and lived on Portland Street.There are Portland Street neighbors named Goldfield listed nearby in directories, but we have not been able to find out if they were relatives of my mother. In Boston in the l970's we spoke with a widow Celia Goldfield of Milton, whose husband had come from Rovno in eastern Poland, on the same railroad line as Brody, where my mother came from.The name probably dates back to an Austrian taxation plan of the later eighteenth century.My mother had a family photo album. We believe her parents named Abel and Bertha were deceased in Austria before 1890.Ellis Island opened in l892, and immigration records from New York from the 1880's are said to have burned. e her parents named Abel and Bertha were deceased in Austria before 1890.Ellis Island opened in l892, and immigration records from New York from the 1880's are said to have burned

Israel Peter Meranski enlargement from family memoir 1911

Israel Peter Meranski born October 1903 on Orchard St. Hartford {F}

Sophie's youngest brother graduated from Hartford Public High School 1921 and Trinity College 1925 - for some reason his photo appears in l926 Trinity Year Book.His future wife Jeaneete Goldberg of Baltimore and her parents greatly assisted him during four years at University of Maryland Medical School, where he graduated l929 and was married June 9, l929 - Sophie attended in Baltimore. He became a pediatrician and served in U.S.Army World War II in Georgia and France - daughter Deborah Meranski (Mrs. Sonnenstrahl) was born l935 and son Daniel Meranski was born l951. In 1925 "Pete" escorted one of Sophie's students to her Mount Holyoke Senior Prom when her fiance was too far away to be able to attend the prom. InJune l957, Sophie and Jack Barrett traveled to Baltimore to attend the wedding of "Pete's" daughter Deborah. They had a very happy reunion - a photo of Sophie and Jack dancing at the Baltimore wedding reception appears on this photo website. Pete was active in Trinity college

David Meranski enlargement from family group 1911

David Meranski probably born Brest, Russia March 1865 father of Sophie Ruth Meranski and seven other children p 37-927 {F}

He is believed born Brest l865, spent time in Odessa near Black Sea, was photographed wearing few in Turkey, left home at age seventeen because of repressive persecution and probably militasry draft, learned tailoring Cairo Egypt l880s, was married to Thalia Goldfeld August 8, 1890 at Germania Hall Hartford -had eight children Harry l891 Ben 1892,Esther 1894, Abe 1896 Bertha l889 (l899?) Sophie 1901 Israel Peter l903 +Rebekah l906. After his first wife died of cancer September 8, l925, he married Mrs. Adelman, a recent immigrant from Lithuania with four young children.The youngest Rachel Shulman was very friendly with Sophioe Barrett in later years, and her son Mark visited Sophie's l923 Mount Holyoke classmate Betty Giles (Mrs. Howard) at NIH Washington DC l974 when her incurable motor neuron disease was being studied there. Rachel and Albert Shulman of Hartford have three daughters also - the youngest Amy is Mrs. Robert Weinberg in Brooklione - wife of noted MIT cancer geneticist. David Meranski was a tailor on Portland St l909- ran restaurant at 25 Morgan St l9l90-1915 -grocety at 4 Wooster St Hartford after autumn l9l6. He was active helping new immigrants in Moses Montefiore society and in Capital City Lodge helping Hartford Jewish families plan burial arrangements.He attended Sophie's l923 Mount Holyoke graduation.

Babe Rebekah Meranski enlargement from family group 1911

Rebekah Meranski born November 1, l906 married Dr. Isadore Geetter June 16, l929 p 37-926 {F}
Youngest sister of Sophie Ruth Meranski Barrett, called "Babe" by the family Rebekah Meranski took commercial course at Hartford Public High - married Dr. Isadore Geetter June 16, 1919 at Meranski rural property the "Shack" near Farmington River Windsor CT - they were married sixty-one years - romance began l922 when "Babe" was fifteen years old - they had five children - David l933 Albert l935 Thalia l938 Harold l940 Suzanne Ruth l942 - and eleven grandchildren. They invited Sophie Barrett and her family to Thanksgiving dinners, graduations, bar and bat mitzvahs and other events and often visited West Roxbury also.
Subject:	Rebekah Meranski Geetter in 1911

Dr. Geetter seated on Barrett front lawn Waikiki January 1945

Dr. Geetter visits with Sophie and John Barrett junior Waikiki January l945 #940 p 39
Photo by Commander Jack Barrett with view east along Ala Wai Boulevard -past home of James and Edythe Needles. At the second house there was a large royal poinciana tree of the legume family with brilliant orange blossoms - the outlines of the tree are visible.{H}{F}{S}
Subject:	Dr. Geetter visits Barretts- Sophie & John Waikiki
Year:	1945January

Abe Meranski enlargement from family group 1911

Abe Meranski born l896 married Ethyle Bererson - father of Ted Meranski and Carol Jane Meranski Gitlen

Abe was drafted in Army l9l8 in World Wai I - was at Camp Devens Massachusetts at time of Armistice November 11, 1918. He worked at Vandeman plumbers Hartford - has five grandchildren 1998. p 38 {F} Some events of June 1999- On Greyhound Ameripass I have visited Harvard 1958 E. Robert Owen in Topeka ,Kansas and have seen my cousins Ted Meranski and Carol Gitlen in Steamboat Springs Colorado where we visited Ted's son Arnie Meranski who is in real estate in Aurora-Englewood and Colorado generally.I saw Carol's husband Herb Gitlen and Arnie's mother and brother Michael who operates hotel and restaurant in St. Georges Granada West Indies.Also several other family members.I toured many parts of west Boise-Payette River-Little Salmon river-McCall riggins, Lewiston, Moscow Idaho - in Montana Mission Mountains Whitefish Lake, Kalispell= Missoula- Grand Falls, Billings - down across eastern Wyoming via Gillette-Cheyenne Powder River- crossed Colorado by several routes - Vail - Grand Junction- Gunnison. In 1996 I came west via Albuquerque over Las Animas-Durango route in southwest Colorado eleven thosuand feet- through Green River Utah to Salt Lake City.On earlier trips 1990 I visited Madison -Gallatin rivers Montana and West Yellowstone and 1995 several routes from Butte across Bitteroot area and Henrys Fork,Rexburg, Idaho Falls.Not driving a car, I have tried to see as many parts of weswt by Greyhound as possible. My family visited l947 Yosemite, monerey, Redwoods, Crater Lake, Columnbia River, mt. Rainier, Lake Pen Oreille idaho north pandhandhle - Glacier, Yellowstone, Grand teton. Yesterday I passed near Ritzville in Washington's eastern emprie, where we spent a hot night in early July 1947- I remember the hollyhocks there, and was glad of motel showers, but it was quite hot.Kalaloch and Forks are nice June 30. Craig Jensen recently on mission in Port Angles, was married in Lindon Utah yesterday - resides Heber City.While at Bob Owen's in Topeaka I spoke by telehpone with his classmates Tom Fritz and John Copeland and John's wife Vinnie Copeland.Bob wss Olympic hockey poayer, majored in english - took Bullitt's course on Swift and eighteenth centruy writers . His fater had South Dakota balloon business Raven Industries.

Ben Meranski enlargement from family group 1911

Benjamin Franklin Meranski born November 1, 1892- photo from 1911 family group p 38-935

Ben was second eldest of eight Meranski children.He was hired as teenager at drugstore, where owner promised to train him, but months later his father came by and found him "still sweeping the floor." He played the saxophone had aspirations to go into vaudeville, and quit this job, but his father then threw him out of the house, but "looked the other way when brothers and sisters took food out to him - Then Ben would sneak into the house late at night." Then he worked at Hartford's G. Fox and co department stores, where Sohpie also worked in soda fountain Saturdays during the school years and several summers inmcluding 1919, 1920, 1922.Ben was drafted into Army l918 and sent to Fort Dix, New Jersey, while his brothers Harry and Abe were at Fort Devens Shirley Massachusetts north of Hartford, where flu was severe.The war ended before they were sent overseas. When draft notices came summer l9l8,their mother was so nervous that in making jelly she used salt instead of sugar.Ben provided information to doctors when his mother died September 8, l925 of gall bladder cancer that she was fifty-fife years old and her parents names were Abel and Bertha Goldfeld.{F}

Bertha Meranski enlargement from family group 1911

Bertha Meranski-Sophie's next older sister - married Sam Pollack l924 p38-934 {F}

Sophie roomed with her older sister Bertha and often received her hand-me-down clothes. They walked to school together. Bertha took the business course. Three photos of her appear in the l9l7 Year Book of Hartford Public High School - one a formal photo, and she also appears in the Glee Club group and Girls business club groups.I would like to obtain copies of these three photos if anyone who sees thiscan visit the Hartford PublicLibrary (masin) when I saw these photos in l988. I would also like to obtain the photos of Bertha's friends and classmates Eva Levin (later Mrs. Bacon) and Lynette Silverberg - they were also in the photo groups. Eva Levin and her older brother Meyer were neighbors of the Meranskis on Morgan St l9l2 - and they introduced Bertha to their relative Sam Pollaack of Minsk and Dorchester, whom she married in l924 - having sonJason daughter Thalia (Klein) and four grandsons.

Esther Meranski enlargement from 1911 family group

Esther Meranski born November 19, 1894 Front Street Hartford, CT p 38-933 {F}

Esther attended business school and became bookkeeper at H.L. Handy Co and then at Swift and CompANY MEAT PACKERS HARTFORD.She assisted her younger sister Sophie and brother Israel Peter in meeting college expenses and lived with her brother Abe and his wife Ethyle at 75 Hawkins Street in l930s and with her youngest sister Babe Rebekah and her husband Dr. Isadore Geetter from l945 until l974 when she became a resident at Hebrew Home, Hartford very active until shortly before her death of metastasized breast cancer october l981. She helped served the noon meal at Meranski restaurant 25 Morgan Street about 1910-l915 and helped her mother with the younger children - bought a piano on which her sister Rebekah took lessons - also a victrola on whch family played Al Jolson and Eddie Cantor recordings around l920. She often brought home maple walnut candies and other treats for the younger children.Esther Meranski -l973 letter Sophie Barrett to Ivan McCormack Date: Thu, 02 Jul 1998 13:22:25 PDT Sophie Barrett letter to Ivan McCormack in Salem New York (Sophie sublet from Mrs. McCormack l927-l930 at 27Commerce St, Greenwich Village) (1973) November 2 Friday morning VITAMIN enclosed. Dear Ivan, As Esther's birthday approaches on the nineteenth of November it occurs to me that I have neglected her shamefully in my accounts of the four sisters in my family. That is unfaiur as she was as interesting as any of us-taller than the other three with jet black hair like my mother, jet black eyes and with a better figure than Bee, Babe or me.- and from an early age she mothered us as we were eight by birth and more than fourteen by additions of motherless children who actually lived with us.Esther had more close girl friends and boy friends than we did, and with the first money she earned she bought a piano for the family as well as a record player and many records - and paid for a telephone when so few people we knew had telephones that ours rarely rang.She did well professionally because she was smart and went to a fine business college for bookkeeping, typing, and shorthand- at which she was a whiz.But her first job was at Vogel and son,a Hartford wholesale grocer. To preserve their stock there was no heat in the place - not even in her office as the men wore overcoats and sweaters at worlk and warm gloves. It was a big, profitable business that Esther enjoyed,but because she had to do bookkeeping,typing and stenography, she couldn't wear gloves while working and got frostbitten hands as well as feet! He boss liked her, so she stayed despite the cold, but when she confided to her best girl friend that her married boss was trying to make love to her- that friend told my father, who would not let her rtrun to that job- not even to collect her pay and her sweater!Soon the business college got her a job at the H.L. Handy Company,-wholesale dealer in meats, poultry and eggs. In the (p.2) office was Charles Bardous the head bookkeeper, one other male bookkeeper, and Esther.She really liked that job, was a happy girl with a piano record player, telephone,and always treated us to "college ices" -sundaes of chocolate sauce and nuts and always had a pound box of chocolates in her bureau drawer.I used to steal a few candies, which she never complained about if she knew they were gone.One night Pete was reading in bed at age fifteen, and I said to him,"Don't drop those apple cores on the floor- throw them out."-And as he chewed Esther's candies, he replied with a gleam in his eye,"Sis, there are no cores in these apples!"Esther must have known we were eating her candies, but she never stopped us or let us know she realized we were at her drawer.And when I could not see how I could pay the colllege fees, Esther and Al told me to go ahead - they would meet the expenses! Esther gave me her suitcase, her winter coat, and a lot more , and Al took me right to my room at the college (September l9l9). =And Esther was at the station to see me off in HER best clothes I was wearing. In my freshman year she came to visit and won the hearts of my classmates, who gave supper parties in their rooms for her, and the house mother invited Esther to sit with her at the head table while I waited on that table for one hundred dollars that year.Esther was so proud of me as very few women from Hartford went to the five best women's colleges in those days- certainly none of our friends except one older one who went to Brown University in Providence (earlier) but was working in Washington when I was growing up. And when I came home, Esther had a grand job for me (l921) for the summer in HER office- so we walked to and from work together every day and across the street near the lad I eventually invited to my junior prom (p 3) for a fabulously delightful weekend- a prom date with a car and a tux of his own!I was blind to the charms of Esther because she never seemed to have men come to the house for a date but yet she went out every evening, and I thought she was walking with her girl friends - who by then had telephones.One night I went to an outdoor summer dance with a girl Esther's age and was startled when she told me she was sorry for Esther. Only then did I learn that Esther and her young boss in the office were deeply in love and had been for years, but Esther would not marry him.What I did not know is that my father REFUSED to allow it and would not let Charlie come to the house, so she met him every evening on Main Street - had no place to entertain himin any weather, and that bothered Esther's close friend, as Esther told her it would be Charlie Bardous or no one. My father objected to Charles only because he was not Jewish. This went on for years while Esther saw me through college after Al married, and then Esther began to see Pete through college and medical school and mother Babe when I was away and when my mother died.Even then my father would not see Charlie.H.L. Handy sold out to Swift and Company, soEsther and Charlie were transferred to a big office force where they were never alone. Charlie then lived w8ith his aged mother, who was as opposed to a Jewish daughter-in-law (beautiful and generous and wise and kind and musical and in love with Charlie to the exclusion )(p.4) of all other men) Julius Aronson loved her for years before he finally married Mollie at an advanced age.So it went on.My father died in l933, so Esther was free to follow her heart, but Charlie's mother stayed alive.- and by the time she grudgingly agreed that Esther could live with them Esther would not marry Charlie and live with that old witch -whom even Charlie thought to be a witch- and he supported her as his duty and not for love of her.Esther could not bring herself to live under the same roof as she knew the mother would make her true love's life miserable. That mother lived until she was close to one hundred (years).I don't know what finally happened to Charles as I was so rarely in Hartford- but Esther never dated dany other men! She went to live with Babe and with Geetter to help them with the five children when Geetter went to war.She lugged home the meat and eggs after work from Swift and Company and stayed with the five babies while Babe shopped in the evening- and helped with the washing and the housework in addition to her job. Geetter said to me, "I think so much of Esther I don't know which one I married - Babe or Esther." She was always "Nan" to the children and should have had a flock of her own! Now her birthday approaches- about seventy-nine and Geetter will send the the big yellow chrysanthemum he sends every year - the flowers that will still be fresh on Thanksgiviing Day. Esther and I were very close, but never once did she breathe to me the sadness of her broken romance. Maybe now you will know why I was so secretive about my marriage (p5) to Jack - an Irish Catholic and a devout one.I knew about Esther's broken romance with a Christian, and I feared for mine even though I learned about Esther's only from her best friend who later told me Esther wept bitterly often over my father's attitude before Charles ever told his mother about Esther.So I kept my marriage secret until I was about to sail, and then I did NOT go to Hartford to see my good Dad bfore I sailed.I did not want to see him hurt that his daughter who had been so sought after by fine Jewish men should marry a Christian- even one s fine as Jack Barrett. Esther's life had been ruined, and no one was going to ruin life forjack and me.I saw my father only once after that in l932 shortly before he died, but Jack was not with me.Pa ignored my marriage and made no effort to see me in Boston and died some months later (March 29, l933).All Hartford was there (at his funeral) to hear the rabbi say "David gave his life to the unfortunate in Hartford after the expense of his own chldren, who numbered eight by birth but countless by his big heart." Esther loved him always, so she disregarded Charlie's pleas that she elope with him as she had no desire to hurt Pa.What a person. Greater than I could ever hop[e to be. I was headstrong. Even when my father came to New York to urge me to accept Bill Nuremberg and to forget the charming but poor Irish naval officer of a different faith.He came to New York only to dissuade me from Jack long before Jack proposed.What I did not know was that Jack (p.6) went (December l928) to New Haven and to Hartford to inspect naval Reserves at the armories there, had found my brother Al's home had dinner there and left Al with the impression that he was seriously interested in me.Al told Pa, who came rushing to New York to put a stop to the nonsense.She had NOT met Jack but did meet him at your apartment (27 Commerce Street) the night he lost his money to thieves in the subway.There is no doubt Pa likedJack BUT vastly preferred Bill (Nuremberg) whom he had called on atGrand Central Building that afternoon without my knowledge or consent.The father watched his daughters closely - could run Esther, Bee, Babe but found me always headstrong attractive to the Italian and Irish boys.He moved away from 25 Morgan Street (l9l6) because of the attentions of Joe Paonessa- a rich builder's son from Holy Cross who lived across the street. And on Wooster Street he told Justin McCarthy a United States sailor, that his daughter could not go out with him and could NOT accept thebeaded bag Justin had brought to me all the way from the Mediterranean. Justin went off with that bag really scared, and I never saw him again.My father was very tall- powerful, and even an Irish sailor feared his wrath.He did likeSam Pollack Dr. Geetter, and his three good Jewish daughter-in-law! All (except Pete and Jen in Baltimore) were married in his living room except Babe, who was married in his summer home ("The Shack" or "Snug Harbor" near Windsor) with Jack present (June l6, l929).A really wonderful man of principle. He did not just blindly object to marriage outsidethe faith. He believed firmly that the chance o hapiness in mixed marriages was slight but p7 above all he believed such marriage a great injustice to the children.I had a very good father and a very good mother.I believe Esther would be the first to agree.Charles Bardous was not her only chance for happiness.Julius Aronson loved her, Jack Fine loved her,Charlie Rosenblatt loved her - all had sense enough to make happy marriages with other girls- all were successful, happy men - all would have made Esther happy,and my father knew it. But she was in love with Charlie when she knew his mother objected and knew that after their elopement she would have to live with her as Charlie would never desert that mother who tied him so closely for her own support.He did not earn enough as one employed bookkeeper to support two households.She was happy (later) to live with Babe and Geetter and her five nieces and nephews who adore her as she appraoches her birthday on November l9. But isn't it strange that p8- she never talked to Bee or to me or to Babe about her broken rmance and that I never heard it discussed by any of my sisters or brothers? I got it in bits and piece from her friends and from my father.One of her friends married Julis Aronson and another close friend married Charles Rosenblatt... the others my father and mother cared for in their home I have only sketchy information except for Julius Aronson and Catherine Cooper, who for years I believed were my blood sister and brother. And Catherine married Sam Aronson! He was Julius's brother -9- who almost lived with us when his mother died but went home only to sleep as we had run out of bedspace! All of us slept two in a bed- four in a room, but we ran out of space even when my two oldest brothers Harry and Ben offered to sleep on the living room floor if my parents would only keep a few of their motherless friends. One day Al stepped on Ben's hand while Ben was sleeping on thefloor, and his hand was broken.Ben needed that hand to play the saxophone when he had the vaudeville bug at an early age and left the good job in the drug store and then added gray hairs to my father's fine head of jet black hair!My father put Ben out of the house for giving up that job.Then he sent me out with fod for Ben and shut his eyes when Ben sneaked in to bed at night! - And poor Pete had the earache, and Ma got Dr. Kates to come in. He asked her what she had done for the boy, and Ma said she had heated sweet oil and put a spoonful or two in the ear.The doctor turned on Ma - a very Jewish doctor and said, "I don't want no 'hoil' in 'dat h'ear."Poor Pete was in pain, but he roared laughing, and after that we would mimic"I don't want no 'hoil' in that h'ear." I forget what he prescribed, but he did clear it up. I sippose my mother could have clogged the ear and hurt the hearing permanently. When I was small my father owned a good-sized restaurant He had a big coal stove and loved to stand near it. At times one of his customers would brew tea- strong tea there and -p 10- put it into small bottles. he claimed to be a drug salesman. I learned later that he sold that tea as eye drops from his pack of patent medicines he sold to druggists. That was about 1909.(After recent Halloween activity in West Roxbury) I am remind of l907 the one year we lived on 27th Street in the heart of the East Side of New York city in the Panicof l906 when I was five or six.In terror I stood at the window on the second floor of the tenement house and watched the boys with long stockings - women's black- filled with flour hit poor passing men and other boys across the back- hit them so hard white fluor showed on their overcoats. I was petrified and did not go out all day. It was traditional then just as trick or treat is here.-re lost.He lived on LpowerEast side part of l907 in Economic pani, when friend named Samuel Shlimbaum found him tailoring work.Shlimbaum was in Hartford directory one year abour l892. David Meranski knew Boris Thomaschevsky of Second Avenue Yiddish theater in New York, who performed at the Meranski restaurant with members of his family around l912. Aunt Babe Thalia's motherrecollects that he invited aunt Bertha to travel with his touring troup, but the family did not think it advisable.Bertha belpong to business club and singing group at Hartford Publioc high School class of l9l7 with her friends Eva Levin and one other. Their [photos are in the l9l7 Yearbook on file at Hartford Public library. I hope to get copies for website.There was no l9l9 yearbook because of paper shortage after World War I. There may be historical material on Hartford Puiblic high School and elementary Brown school at Stow-Day House in Hartford, an important repository, and other interesting material at Jewish historical Society of Greater Hartford - thanks to cousin DavidGeetter for sending me the address.. There is atape there that rose Rosenblatt Witkower made for them. She lived to age ninety-one and remembered the Meranskis. Her husband was born in Vienna but his older brother in Brody. The Witkowers came to US in April l890. Rose Witkower's brother Charley was a very close friend of the older Meranskis. His father had been a populist candidate for governor of California in l884 - came to Hartford l885. Rose son continues Witkower Press. There is a letterin this notebbok eight from Albert Geetter and one from Saul Seidman of Hartford, descenant of Mrs. Meiselmann, another Brody emigrant and friend of Thalia goldfeld Meranski our granmother. i am very glad this material has survived the l993 thefts and will be typing it out. - cousin John Barrett

Sophie enlargement from 1911 family group Hartford

{S}{F}Sophie Ruth Meranski 1911 38-932

Fro0m 1911 family group. Her mother;s shoulder appears. Sophie born October 4, l901 was about to celebrate her tenth birthday. Photo was probably at time of September holidays. Sophie married John Berchmans Barrett then a naval Lieutenant at New York City Hall about 2 pm Friday June 21, l929 an hour before he left by train for Chicago and the Orient and duty in the Asiatic Fleet aboard destroyer TRUXTUN based at Cavite, Philippines. A mole or birthmark on Sophie's left wrist was removed early l930s, not known to be cancerous - visible in photo.ESTHER TEXT to be TRANSFERRED:As Esther's birthday approaches on the nineteenth of November it occurs to me that I have neglected her shamefully in my accounts of the four sisters in my family. That is unfaiur as she was as interesting as any of us-taller than the other three with jet black hair like my mother, jet black eyes and with a better figure than Bee, Babe or me.- and from an early age she mothered us as we were eight by birth and more than fourteen by additions of motherless children who actually lived with us.Esther had more close girl friends and boy friends than we did, and with the first money she earned she bought a piano for the family as well as a record player and many records - and paid for a telephone when so few people we knew had telephones that ours rarely rang.She did well professionally because she was smart and went to a fine business college for bookkeeping, typing, and shorthand- at which she was a whiz.But her first job was at Vogel and son,a Hartford wholesale grocer. To preserve their stock there was no heat in the place - not even in her office as the men wore overcoats and sweaters at worlk and warm gloves. It was a big, profitable business that Esther enjoyed,but because she had to do bookkeeping,typing and stenography, she couldn't wear gloves while working and got frostbitten hands as well as feet! He boss liked her, so she stayed despite the cold, but when she confided to her best girl friend that her married boss was trying to make love to her- that friend told my father, who would not let her rtrun to that job- not even to collect her pay and her sweater!Soon the business college got her a job at the H.L. Handy Company,-wholesale dealer in meats, poultry and eggs. In the (p.2) office was Charles Bardous the head bookkeeper, one other male bookkeeper, and Esther.She really liked that job, was a happy girl with a piano record player, telephone,and always treated us to "college ices" -sundaes of chocolate sauce and nuts and always had a pound box of chocolates in her bureau drawer.I used to steal a few candies, which she never complained about if she knew they were gone.One night Pete was reading in bed at age fifteen, and I said to him,"Don't drop those apple cores on the floor- throw them out."-And as he chewed Esther's candies, he replied with a gleam in his eye,"Sis, there are no cores in these apples!"Esther must have known we were eating her candies, but she never stopped us or let us know she realized we were at her drawer.And when I could not see how I could pay the colllege fees, Esther and Al told me to go ahead - they would meet the expenses! Esther gave me her suitcase, her winter coat, and a lot more , and Al took me right to my room at the college (September l9l9). =And Esther was at the station to see me off in HER best clothes I was wearing. In my freshman year she came to visit and won the hearts of my classmates, who gave supper parties in their rooms for her, and the house mother invited Esther to sit with her at the head table while I waited on that table for one hundred dollars that year.Esther was so proud of me as very few women from Hartford went to the five best women's colleges in those days- certainly none of our friends except one older one who went to Brown University in Providence (earlier) but was working in Washington when I was growing up. And when I came home, Esther had a grand job for me (l921) for the summer in HER office- so we walked to and from work together every day and across the street near the lad I eventually invited to my junior prom (p 3) for a fabulously delightful weekend- a prom date with a car and a tux of his own!I was blind to the charms of Esther because she never seemed to have men come to the house for a date but yet she went out every evening, and I thought she was walking with her girl friends - who by then had telephones.One night I went to an outdoor summer dance with a girl Esther's age and was startled when she told me she was sorry for Esther. Only then did I learn that Esther and her young boss in the office were deeply in love and had been for years, but Esther would not marry him.What I did not know is that my father REFUSED to allow it and would not let Charlie come to the house, so she met him every evening on Main Street - had no place to entertain himin any weather, and that bothered Esther's close friend, as Esther told her it would be Charlie Bardous or no one. My father objected to Charles only because he was not Jewish. This went on for years while Esther saw me through college after Al married, and then Esther began to see Pete through college and medical school and mother Babe when I was away and when my mother died.Even then my father would not see Charlie.H.L. Handy sold out to Swift and Company, so Esther and Charlie were transferred to a big office force where they were never alone. Charlie then lived w8ith his aged mother, who was as opposed to a Jewish daughter-in-law (beautiful and generous and wise and kind and musical and in love with Charlie to the exclusion )(p.4) of all other men) Julius Aronson loved her for years before he finally married Mollie at an advanced age.So it went on.My father died in l933, so Esther was free to follow her heart, but Charlie's mother stayed alive.- and by the time she grudgingly agreed that Esther could live with them Esther would not marry Charlie and live with that old witch -whom even Charlie thought to be a witch- and he supported her as his duty and not for love of her.Esther could not bring herself to live under the same roof as she knew the mother would make her true love's life miserable. That mother lived until she was close to one hundred (years).I don't know what finally happened to Charles as I was so rarely in Hartford- but Esther never dated dany other men! She went to live with Babe and with Geetter to help them with the five children when Geetter went to war.She lugged home the meat and eggs after work from Swift and Company and stayed with the five babies while Babe shopped in the evening- and helped with the washing and the housework in addition to her job. Geetter said to me, "I think so much of Esther I don't know which one I married - Babe or Esther." She was always "Nan" to the children and should have had a flock of her own! Now her birthday approaches- about seventy-nine and Geetter will send the the big yellow chrysanthemum he sends every year - the flowers that will still be fresh on Thanksgiviing Day. Esther and I were very close, but never once did she breathe to me the sadness of her broken romance.

Abe Meranski in Army uniform 1918

Abe Meranski at Fort Devens in Army uniform l9l8 #798 p 26

Three of Sophie Meranski's brothers were drafted into United States Army about August l9l8 in World War I. When the draft notices came, their mother Thalia Goldfed Meranski was making jelly and was so nervous she used salt instead of sugar in making the jelly.The Armistice November 11 came before they were sent overseas, but the eldest brother Harry got severe influenza, which probably contributed to his death of pneumonia December l931, leaving permanent effects. Harry and Abe were at Fort Devens near Shirley, Massachusetts, and Abe sent a copy of this photo to his brother Ben, who was at Fort Dix, New Jersey.It is believed one other brother besides Harry had influenza also. Abe married Ethyle Berenson, a Hartford Neighbor, whos family w2ere neighbors of the Meranskis on Front Street as early as l892. Abe worked at Vandeman Plumbing and frequently acted as vaudeville Master of ceremonies for the Hartford Young Men's Hebrew Association. A letter to Sophie from his sister Esther recounted an enjoyable evening in April, l934, in which he was leader.His son Ted Meranski is retired from Post Office, Miami, Beach Florida, and has three married children Aleen Mercer in Raleigh North Carolina, Michael Meranski in Grenanda, West Indies, and Arnold Meranski resident in Steamboat Colorado with real estate business in Denver.Abe's daughter Carol Jane and her husband Herb Gitlen are in Jensen Beach Florida after years in Bloomfield, Connecticut and Newport Rhode Island. They often winter in Puerto Vallarta on Mexican Pacific. There children are Andrea and Geoff (Jess).

Jack in Navy unifrom Waikiki

Cdr. Barrett color photo in white uniform #105 p 14 WEB page FOURTEEN #106 Dr. GEETTER 1945 color #111 Bill Barrett + Anita Douredoure Cynwyd 1937

probably taken at time of Dr. Isadore Geetter visit January l945 -with those photos Main TEXT HAWAII chapter from hotmail July '99 --On Sunday morning December 7,l94l I got up early hoping to go for a swim before breakfast.My next door neighbor Mr. James Needles (a Mormon with a wife Edythe a Christian Scientist from Wales) knocked on the window & told me Jack should proceed at once to Pearl Harbor as the Japanese had bombed the ships,& all service personnel were required to report to duty stations.Mr. Needles told me the bombing was at its height.An Army wife at #24ll Ala Wai Mrs. Means had a miscarriage that morning.A little later Gertrude Rice drove up in a private car.She lived near the Army Fort DeRussy.She said she was going to "the hills"&asked John & me to go with her.I refused, telling her Jack had gone to Pearl Harbor & wouldn't know where to find me if he came home safely.Then an Army jeep appeared,& the driver told me to stay in the house,not use the telephone, boil all water,& observe a six o'clock curfew & complete blackout as soon as darkness fell.Around dark Jack appeared in full white uniform with sword,gun & gunbelt with ammunition.Tears filled his eyes as he told me that professionally,as he had feared, the Japanese had done a superb job,crippling our battleships,killing our men,& destroying planes at Ford Island, & Army planes at Hickam Field & other installations.Jack repeated the fact that he had been "shut up" by the brass when he harped on the likelihood of just such an attack & the need for better Army-Navy cooperation.Driving to Pearl Harbor that morning Jack had to pass hot ashes where someone had been killed shortly before (possibly by antiaircraft "friendly" fire from American ships.)While I served his supper in complete darkness, he told me the ARIZONA was sunk with great loss of life- the OKLAHOMA was capsized- the WEST VIRGINIA & CALIFORNIA were hit & damaged-the NEVADA got under way but later met difficulties- the PENNSYLVANIA was hit in dry dock & badly damaged.. He became silent when neighbors came in, but they soon had to observe the curfew & go home.At curfew we put two cots together in our back bedroom & had John sleep with us there in the "Crack" between the cots.Jack went to bed when John did saying he would have the emergency duty at Pearl Harbor the next few nights & might get little sleep.About midnight I was startled when the telephone rang.I heard Captain Rice anxiously ask me if I knew where Gertrude was. I answered ,"Yes, she went to the hills."Of course he asked me what hill & to whose house she went,but I had no more information.He gallantly told me I had helped him & he would telephone everyone he knew who lived on a hill - Oahu was full of them-Round Top, Saint Louis Heights,Wilhelmina Rise, Pacific Heights.At dawn December 8 Captain Rice appeared, grey & unshaven,with Gertrude safely in tow.Since he would have duty for some nights to come,we arranged to have Gertrude occupy John's usual cot in the front bedroom = she would arrive just before blackout & leave before breakfast every morning.Jack left after breakfast Monday December 8 & I picked up a broom to sweep the living room while John was reading one of the Christmas books we bought the previous Saturday at Liberty House.There was a ring at the door & two men entered in civilian clothes.When one flashed an FBI badge,I almost passed out.He asked,"Does Walter Glockner live here?"Walter Glockner was my landlord who lived upstairs & had just returned with a large load of groceries.They went upstairs & took him off in their car,& I never saw him again until after the war.He was interned on Sand Island in Honolulu Harbor - the Hawaiian territory civilian courts held military governor Richardson in contempt of court for disregarding a writ of habeas corpus-the fine of five thousand dollars was never paid as President Roosevelt pardoned the governor- but Mr. Glockner agreed to spend the rest of the war years in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he wrote us frequently. He worked there as a brewer, returned in l945, swam every day at Waikiki Beach, & offered to give blood when I had surgery in May l947 before leaving Hawaii.We soon were outfitted with gas masks & required to carry them at all times.We also were finger printed,had our blood typed (mine was probably done wrong-my metal dogtag said "type O",but years later I found out I was type B.) We were vaccinated & given tetanus toxoid & typhoid shots.We had to turn in our money & receive bills marked,"Hawaii."Even five-year old John was fitted to a special smaller gas mask made at Pearl Harbor & had to carry it everywhere.We were no longer allowed our daily swim at Waikiki as the Army strung miles of thick barbed wire fence all along the beach with no entrance gates.Jack worked seven days a week & some nights without any holidays off-neither Christmas,New Year's Thanksgiving or any other day from the first day of the war through the last.We could no longer walk along the banks of the Ala Wai Canal for exercise,as the Army strung barbed wire the entire length.Barbed wire was strung in downtown Honolulu near the Academy of Arts on Beretania Street,where one rainy day my irreplaceable big black umbrella was caught by the wind,& a large hole ripped in it.I really believe that my umbrella was the only thing the Army caught in all those miles of barbed wire.I thenceforth got properly soaked in Honolulu's "liquid sunshine" as I walked a great deal.Jack became friendly with Riley Allen,editor of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin-Riley invited Jack to meet his friends & reporters one Sunday afternoon at their home on a steep hill.Several Sundays later Mr.& Mrs. Allen invited the three of us to have dinner with them at the Honolulu Country Club.Since Jack had to work,we met at 5:30 in the lounge,& Riley hurried us to the dinner table as the waiters & waitresses were all "enemy aliens" according to martial law.& had to be in their own homes by six PM.Young John refused to eat,on the grounds that he had not washed his hands.I tried to persuade him he could just use the knife & fork,but without being cross the childless editor calmly took the boy to the washroom, & they returned happily to eat their meal in lovely surroundings.They were neighbors of our friend Dr.Paul Withington and his ward Rose, whom he later married- Irish,Chinese, & Hawaiian. (In l990 she took John junior to visit the Administration Building where Jack worked & the site of their former home near Round Top & to lunch at the Honolulu Yacht club in which Paul was long active). After December 7 Jack's office was a very busy thoroughfare where requests poured in from the hospitals for evacuation of those wounded who could be moved,for the evacuation of outside non-residents caught in Hawaii on the day of the attack,evacuation of Navy & Army dependents & evacuation of some local civilians whose idea was to get out of there to the mainland. Jack's office had the tremendous job of sending Navy & Army personnel with orders to the forward areas of the war or to the mainland for reassignment.The lines of applicants were never ending.He had several very able assistants. Matson p.86 Navigation Company or from Castle & Cooke & worked as a Lieutenant as assistant to Jack.His knowledge of ships and of Hawaii was invaluable.From l943-5 Jack also had a young Lieutenant Martin Williams from Kentucky.In charge of the clerical force was a Chinese-American Wilfred Pang-Jack's right-hand man who relieved him of a great deal of the routine work.Secretaries Violet Ho & Blossom .. were under Pang's direction. Also there was a Marine officer present to take care of transportation requirements for the Marines.In addition to his office in the Pearl Harbor Administration Building,Jack had a downtown office for the convenience of women & children,as the rationing of gasoline & the crowded buses made it difficult for them to go to the Pearl Harbor office.The downtown office reduced the crush at the Pearl Harbor office PANG letter from Sophie Barrett l=notebook #4:"WILFRED S. PANG Executive Secretary State of Hawaii (John A.Burns governor)Department of Social Services -Criminal Injuries Compensation Commission-l390 MillerStreet-PO Box 339 Honolulu Hawaii 96809 August l4,l970 Dear Mrs.Barrett,This will acknowledge receipt of your nice letter of June 28th,which was forwarded to me recently. I am no longer with Matson Navigation Company-I left Matson in l966 & am now employed by the State of Hawaii.I saw an item in the local newspaper when Commander Barrett passed away.I am very glad you & John are preparing a family memoir of your experience.I went to work for the United States Navy in December l94l.However,I was not assigned to Overseas Transportation Office until April or May l942.Actually I was loaned to the Navy by my employer at the time,Castle & Cooke Inc.(General Shipping Agent).The Overseas Transportation Office handled surface transportation for the Fourteenth Naval District (Pearl Harbor).It was our responsibility to get personnel to their ship or station (command).In addition,we arranged transportation for dependents of naval personnel.Much of the work was of highly confidential nature.I was sort of an administrative assistant or right hand man to Commander Barrett.I coordinated activities & supervised the work of several persons-Robert Choy,who is employed by Castle & Cooke Inc, Violet Ho,& Blossom Anyong.Besides my office in Pearl Harbor, I also maintained an office in the Castle & Cooke building in downtown Honolulu. Lieutenant James Murray l94l-2 & Lieutenant Martin Williams l943-5 were assigned to the office also. I reported directly to Commander Barrett.The Commander demanded the best in a person.Because of my background & experience he entrusted me with most of the detailed work.We worked very closely & got along extremely well.I enjoyed working with him & had the deepest respect & admiration for the man.He talked to me about John often.I left Pearl Harbor shortly after thee end of World War II September l0,l945 to return to my civilian job at Castle & Cooke,Inc.My responsibility was to help reorganize the Passenger Department.In l947 I was transferred to Matson lines. I worked in the Booking or Reservations Division until l960,when I was promoted to Sales Representative.In this capacity I worked closely with airlines & travel agencies.In September l966 I joined the Mid-Pacific Insurance Agency,Limited, as an account executive.I resigned in May l968 when I was offered a job with the State Government.I am the Executive-Secretary-Administrator for the Criminal Injuries Compensation Commission,State of Hawaii.I manage the statewide program which aids victims of a criminal act.There are only six states with this type of legislation.The other states are California,New York,Maryland,Massachusetts & Nevada.I have an Investigator & a Secretary working for me,& I enjoy my work very much.Also the pay & benefits are good.Ever since l960 I have become deeply involved in community service activities.In l964 I was appointed by the Governor of Hawaii to serve as a Commissioner on the Commission on Children & Youth.The Commission is advisory to the Governor & the State Legislature with respect to any & all problems affecting children & youth in the state of Hawaii.I worked as Chairman of the Commission from l965-l969.I am now serving my seventh year as a commissioner.Under the statute the statutory maximum is eight years.Because of my interest & concern for children I have been asked to serve on many boards of private & public agencies.Among them are: Member,commission on Children & Youth,state of Hawaii=-Member of Board of Trustees,Palsina Settlement-Past President Honolulu Theatre for Youth -Past President Hawaii Eye Bank -Vice President & Director Waikiki Lions Club Vice President & director Big Brothers of Hawaii, Inc. Member of Task Force on Juvenile Delinquency- Law Enforcement Planning Agency, state of Hawaii -Director Hale Kipa Inc. (runaway shelter for girls- chairman of board Services to Girls) Blind Advisory Board. In addition I am an active big brother & spend weekends with two fifteen year old boys (twins).They are fatherless & live in low housing area.I also devote considerable time to the Lions organization. As past president of the Hawaii Lions Eye Foundation & the Hawaii Eye Bank I am deeply involved with programs for the visually handicapped.Some of my activities are glaucoma clinics,used eyeglass project,pre school vision screening program,eye bank, diabetes treatment center. I was awarded the LIBERTY BELL Award for the State of Hawaii in Conference on citizenship held in Washington DC in September.As a member of the YMCA I see Robert Choy occasionally.I have not seen Violet Ho or Blossom Anyong since I left Pearl Harbor in l945.Kindest personal regards to you & John.WILFRED S. PANG" Letter from Captain Harold F. FULTZ USN Retired July 29,l970:"8 Ridley Court,Glen Ridge,New Jersey 07028 Dear Sophie,Any people of any color who really mean business I am willing to help.I tutor black kids (age l4 to 40)-& it requires real study at age eighty-one.I am free for a week or two now & want to answer your two letters,which were quite nostalgic.I remember MARBLEHEAD Captain Miller well- I was later his Executive Officer at the U.S. Navy Ammunition Depot, Hingham, Massachusetts- and Alex Sharp (MARBLEHEAD "exec") was well known & greatly looked up to. The MARBLEHEAD was a relatively new ship,& a fine one.I was assistant engineer officer & later went to the cruiser OMAHA as Engineer Officer,where I remained over the usual tour of duty to repair her after her serious grounding on Castle Island in July l938.We eventually put her through a highly successful full power test & restored her in time for her to serve valiantly in the war.The MARBLEHEAD had a good baseball team largely because of an officer named"Shorty" Milner,who was almost major league stuff.Bumphrey was a supervisor at the Standard Oil Compound, Shanghai,& a good friend to us all.He introduced us to the Ashleys.If you look up Jack's civil war uncle in Somerville, New Jersey,come insured. It's notorious for auto deaths.I was Executive Officer of Republic-the big transport.We evacuated civilians from Honolulu.Some of the kids we evacuated had never worn shoes or even wanted to.One of my duties aboard was to play the piano in the large theatre space to quiet passenger nerves.Our warning to mothers that in event any child got overboard we would not stop was not exactly a happy prospect.Your husband,who was always able to see the real root of things,would have been amazed at the navigational problems of a hospital ship in wartime.Except in rare places all navigational coastal lights were extinguished,& we had to "grasp at a straw" to get around,because we were on the move day & night. Without forest fires, the moon &lightning we would often have been in difficulty.Off New Guinea is a passage known as the Tufi Leads (Leads means Range).A dozen times I ran it at night following very excellent range lights,which were never extinguished during the war.Finally I ran it in daylight & saw the angry,jutting rocks-& I've had a slight shake in my knees ever since,thinking of the disaster had I not followed exactly those lights.A range is a line to keep you on course by lining up two lights.-like two trees in the woods so you won't go in a circle.I've dreamed a sailing (small sailboat) back to Tufi with my wife to show her those rocks.It's only ten thousand miles as the crow flies,& a sailboat does not follow a crow.In the October 20 typhoon the COMFORT (hospital ship) came through by the grace of God. Forty nurses that night were scared to death,but not one even let their helpless patient(s) know it.Seventy craft were lost that night,I am told. My quartermaster shouted,"The barometer has reached bottom & has risen a bit. Best to you... Harold Fultz." _Another friend from TULSA days Commander Myron Thomas,was on Admiral Calhoun's staff, & through Jack he made arrangements for his wife & son to be evacuated on Christmas Day.He appreciated all Jack did to help & wrote to me recently that except for confusion on the dock his wife & son had a good trip on the Lurline. "I well remember he booked my wife & son for the LURLINE on Christmas Day l94l & I didn't see them again until Christmas Day l943.He enjoyed the reputation of being a good shipmate & always willing to help a fellow officer or enlisted man-Myron Thomas." Commander Thomas wrote that when he was on Admiral Calhoun's staff (Commander Service Force) he knew what a difficult time Jack was having trying to provide transportation with so little available space. "He performed his task in a most creditable manner & then with his tact,careful planning,foresight & diplomacy in dealing with many anxious wives & husbands at this critical time was able to satisfy the majority of naval personnel who had to remain in the (war) zone & were anxious to get their dependents to the mainland." #78-#78B Thomas Jefferson School Waikiki l942-1946 #78B Thomas Jefferson School Hawaii I entered John in the public English Standard primary Thomas Jefferson School, Waikiki near the head of the Ala Wai Canal, where Ala Wai Boulevard intersects Kapahulu Street about five blocks east of our home near Kapiolani Park with its remarkable zoo & bird collection & Sunday band concerts.At that time in Hawaii there were two school systems. For those children who passed an exam in proficiency in English a very fine education was offered. We estimated a large majority of the pupils were of Asian backgrounds, with Japanese the largest group many exceptionally gifted & hard-working.Another gifted pupil was Robert Ho of a Shanghai background. His mother lived in Waikiki & was proficient at block printing.At least one student Sam was part Hawaiian, and the students knew and used common native Hawaiian words like the greeting "Aloha" kapu keep out - Pau finished-Mauka toward the mountains - Makai toward the water, & opu - stomach.The teachers were well qualified & in many cases had experience on the United States mainland.Three of John's teachers, were of Portuguese backgrounds, Mrs Celestine Silva Barbour in the first grade, who was our neighbor on Ohua Street, Celia Ponte of Kaimuki in the third grade,& Mrs. Silva in the fourth grade. In the fifth grade John's teacher Mrs. Agnes Davidson came from an old New England family - her names was Agnes Dee Mason before her marriage, & her ancestor Mason in l630 received the original royal charter as founder of the New Hampshire colony. One of her daughters was on the staff of Honolulu radio station KHON, and her son Douglas Davidson was a professional photographer who photographed her class in l946 at Valentine's Day & also did nature photography including Hawaii's major waterfalls.Mrs. Barbour the first grade teacher had an exceptionally warm & friendly personality.Her parents had come from Portugal & Madeira in l883 to work on sugar plantations at Kohala on the northwest coast of the "big" Island - Hawaii.She remembered seeing Queen Liliuokalani around l9l5 at the girls school she attended in Kaimuki.She remembered the musicologist Sigmund Spaeth "the tone sleuth" & other interesting visitors in Hawaii over many years.She had previously taught on the Islands of Hawaii & was later a high school principal - probably at Kamehameha school Honolulu.Her first grade classroom was a small cottage at the south tip of the long covered corridor with the first, second &third grade classrooms. An art classroom was next door.A large vegetable garden run by Mr. Chong was on the west side of the building & shared by the neighboring non-English standard Waikiki school. Crown flower plants hosting monarch butterflies grew between the classrooms & the garden & furnished material for science projects.John had been reading & writing for more than two years, but he was in the habit of printing all-capitals & had to learn to use the small letters also. There were hot lunches in the centrally located school cafeteria, where pupils took turns working under head cook Mrs. Billie. A small pomegranate grew at a little fishpond near the lunch room.In the dining & assembly area a Christmas show produced eight Christmas carols, including "Silent Night, Away in a Manger" &" Joy to the World" & relatively little-known "Love Came Down at Christmas Love our lovely love divine Love came down at Christmas Stars & angels Gave the Sign." Pupils acting as angels had to stand very still while the others sang the songs.Naps were required in rest period. In January l943 John was transferred to Mrs. Elsie Mattoon's second grade classroom, where the children were six months to a year older than John. Again the teaching was excellent..One day a week Mrs. Mattoon & the other second grade teacher Mrs. Fisher sent their pupils to the other teacher's room, & Mrs. Fisher read an interesting story titled,"Billy the Goat." John was sick a couple of sessions & never found out how the story turns. out. The children used to play on swings & seesaws & jungle-jims & play games like "Go in & out the window -as we have done before-Go skipping round the village- Go kneel before your partner..." Nancy Kawamura was frequently a leader in these games & songs.Rose Lee lived on the golf course across the Ala Wai Canal in front of our home, where her father was a caretaker.Her mother was deaf. Joseph Kinoshita, who became a Honolulu lawyer (& Air Force Reserve Judge Advocate) would often walk home with John along Ala Wai Boulevard after school. Sometimes he would stop at our house & practice wrestling on the front lawn (despite the crabgrass). Miss Celia Ponte was a conscientious & understanding third grade teacher with a large number of students in her classroom.She later became a school principal.During this time John was becoming more nearsighted & got glasses after testing at school & with Dr. Withington's encouragement.Janet Ikeda was an outstanding student in spelling bees & in races to answer arithmetic flash cards quickly.The other third grade teacher Mrs. Evans always wore a flower in her hair fresh every day & like to recite a poem about the Hawaii cup-of-gold flower "made for fairies to hide in."Mary Lou Gilares & other girls acted as Junior Police Officers "JPO's" holding STOP signs after school so that pupils could cross Kapahulu Street on the east ("Diamond Head") side.Students learned to sing a melodic rendition of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, "Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; of restricting the freedom of speech or of the press or the right of the people to petition the government for a redress of grievances. All of the fourth grade class voluntarily took religion classes once a week- our Ala Wai neighbor Mrs. McCarthy covered the Good Samaritan & other parables & the Golden Rule & Sermon on the Mount & managed to convey the joyous, charitable side of religion without getting hung up over doctrinal controversies. The librarian Miss Becker was friendly & popular & one book John discovered there was Richard Halliburton two travel books - the Wonder Books of Marvels. Sometimes pupils would be assigned to assist in the school office, answering telephones "Thomas Jefferson School- office monitor speaking"- ringing the bells at proper times & taking messages to teachers.It was an opportunity for the principal Mrs. Vance to get to know the students.She was actively involved in all phases of school life.North of the school buildings were softball fields & exercise bars for chinning & arms exercises.A very active Cub Scout pack met on the bleachers near the softball field under the leadership of scout master Mr. Paul Ishimoto, who later became a top official of the Honolulu Boy Scouts.At that time the official age for entering Cub Scouts was nine years, but John did a lot of the Cub achievement tests in early l945 before his ninth birthday in his fourth grade year, looking up family history & learning scout pledges & lessons. The group climbed Red Hill & went on other hikes.After the war ended l945-l946 some of the other pupils would ride with Jack & John to the waterfall on the Pali road & other sites.In the fourth grade Mrs. Martin was friendly & sometimes rode home with us in Waikiki, but she had health problems & left Honolulu around January l945. For one week Mrs. Jepson was a substitute - one day she explained a method of thinking in terms of "aliquot parts of the dollar." The spring of l945 Mrs. Silva was an effective, hard-working teacher who stressed arithmetic achievement. One day April l2, l945 in rest period news came President Roosevelt had died & students were sent home.In the fifth grade Agnes Davidson had students memorize many poems- "True worth is about being not seeming, Of doing each day that goes by Some little good - not in dreaming of great things to do by & bye. Oh better than the riches of a gold crowned king Is the heart-felt memory Of a lovely thing." Mrs. Davidson knew a great deal of American history. She had lived in Arizona & subscribed to the photo magazine "Arizona Highways".She lived west of us on Lewers Road, where we visited after she retired.She once saw John & me after school sitting at the north edge of the school grounds under monkeypods trees near Ala Wai Boulevard & sang, "Don't sit under the monkeypod tree with anybody else but me" - a Hawaiian adaptation of the current American hit, "Don't sit under the apple tree."(*Monkeypods are members of the Bean or Legume family in the mimosoid subfamily - also known as "rain trees" because leaves fold up when it rains.We used to see sixth grade teacher Mrs. Hazleton near her home on Kuhio Street not far from the school, where she sometimes gave us ripe mangoes from a tree in her yard. In l942 there was an art teacher, who passed away not long afterward at a young age, but usually the home classroom teachers supervised periods in the art room. Mrs. Harrison,Mrs. Barbour's first grade teacher was often friendly though John was not in her class - she worked with Mrs. Barbour on the l942 Christmas Pageant, which was very well done & a welcome contrast to the war tensions of Christmas l94l when schools were closed. Air raid drills were held in bomb shelters at school,& effectiveness of gas masks was tested in a room full of tear gas.-#76-#76 Sam King from notebook p.107"The first native Hawaiian to graduate from the U.S. Naval Academy was Samuel Wilder King class of l909.He resigned his seat as elected Hawaiian territorial delegate to the United States Congress to return to active Naval duty during the war.He served as Military Governor of American Samoa during the war.During his absence his wife Pauline went to see Jack about a lost trunk belonging to her son in the Navy.She was pleased by the personal interest she felt Jack took.She used to say she was "Part-Hawaiian & proud of it."Jack knew her husband either in person or by reputation from his several visits to Hawaii in the l920's.Her husband also had New England ancestral roots & was a distant relative of the poet Oliver Wendell Holmes.One day Pauline paid an afternoon call on me in Waikiki.When I told Mrs. King I could not find a small lahalla straw mate for John's daily nap at school in rest period,she said that she would ask Sam to try to get one in Samoa.A few weeks later she returned,carrying a Samoan straw mat.- a little too large & pretty for school naps where the mats were stuffed into a wooden chest for storage, but since Sam had taken the trouble to ship it via a Navy ship going to Pearl Harbor, & Mrs. King had picked it up there & delivered it herself to us in her car,we used the mat for naps at Thomas Jefferson School.Frequently after that I would find wonderful bananas, pineapple, papayas & lettuces on the bench on my front porch & once I found some macadamia nuts there- a nut I had never seen before- hard & most delicious.These delicacies were left for us by Mrs. King after her occasional visits to her family on the other side of Oahu.During the war mr. & Mrs. King & their children lived in a rented home in Kahala because of the gasoline rationing & blackout. When the war ended,Sam returned to Oahu, & Mrs. King telephoned inviting the three of us to a supper party in honor of Sam's return home.Jack was no longer working on Sundays.As we were preparing to leave the house about 5:30 Sunday evening to go to Kahala, Colonel William Winchester Paca,commander of the Marines at Camp Catlin came to call. He was an old friend from our TULSA days in North China in l93l, & his family were descendants of the William W.Paca of Annapolis Maryland who signed the Declaration of Independence in l776. Paca's home in Annapolis became Carvel Hall at th Naval Academy.Paca was one of the few Marine officers who was a graduate of West Point military academy.He was known to some of his friends as "Soldier" because of this background- he visited us several times during his Hawaii duty l944=l946.That Sunday afternoon he was cold & tired& soon after he arrived he asked me for a cup of coffee, which I tried to make it my large Silex. i am afraid I gave him a rather poor cup of coffee because my mind was on the King party, where we were to eat at six o'clock - still I didn't like to desert Paca. Without consulting him I telephoned Pauline King to ask her if she could have the commanding officer of Camp Catlin as her guest for supper, and she agreed.At the supper we met Captain Edward D. Washburn, junior, who like Jack, had formerly been in charge of a Branch Hydrographic office. Washburn had the one in San Francisco at the same time Jack had the one in New York City l939-l94l.At the party were Captain Sam King, Captain & Mrs. Lewis- Jack's boss as Personnel Officer during the war,& the woman who headed the Women's Marine Corps.There were also a number of young people, including the King & Lewis families. When Mrs. King asked me to fill glasses of milk in her kitchen,I was amazed that she was handling all the cooking herself with no maid to cook or serve.The senior guests were served at numerous card tables in the living room, while the young people were served outdoors.Mrs. King had prepared an enormous pot of spaghetti & meatballs-just right for that rather chilly evening.We were seated at Captain Washburn's small table for four- he,Jack, John & I comprising that group.At first I did not sit with them as Mrs. King asked me to serve the dishes of spaghetti as she ladled them out & told me exactly whom to serve & to whom to give milk.So I rushed back & forth serving Captain Washburn,Jack, Colonel Paca, the woman Marine,Captain & Mrs. Lewis exactly as she told me to-& when I asked about the people outdoors, she said they understood that the kitchen would be theirs after the guests were served.Then she filled a plate for me,& when I realized it was the last of the spaghetti,I asked her about her own spaghetti, & she told me to forget it.So reluctantly I went to my seat, feeling I had done a good job.Suddenly I heard the guest of honor Sam King inquiring loudly, "Don't I get anything to eat?" We had forgotten to serve Sam.After dinner the young folks came into the living room, played dance records, & danced. Colonel Paca enjoyed himself very much dancing with the young people, & when we finally left, he continued at the party.While waiting for his supper, Sam King said," This informality is just Pauline. It reminds me of an incident that happened shortly before I resigned as Delegate to Congress.We usually came home (to the windward side of the Island) when Congress closed each year to relax.I had often said to friends in Congress 'if you come to the Islands, let us show you some Hawaiian hospitality'. One afternoon when I was not home,three Congressmen did call- & a maid told them, 'Just go out back'- because that's where Pauline was. ."- so they went out back to see the perfect Washington hostess they had known impeccable in dress when in Washington-& they were amazed when she hailed them from high up in a tree.She nonchalantly climbed down & offered the Congressmen some of the mangoes she had collected. Pauline verified that the story was true.There was a parent-teacher association at the Thomas Jefferson School through which I met some of the other parents.We met Peter Perser & his mother from nearby Tuisitala Street in the first grade on the day school opened in September l942- & later the families of Robert Ho, Nicholas Vaksvik, Rose Lee on the golf course, & the Cook family who lived half a block east of us at 2465 Ala Wai. Edric Cook worked with a shipping company,& his wife Anne was from Seattle. Her father born in Europe came for an extended visit about l945. Ether Trease was an officer of the Honolulu Parent Teachers Association.We attended the tenth birthday of her daughter Diane at their large house on a hill in Kaimuki.Mrs. Trease commented that nobody ever bothered to celebrate her own birthdays because they fell two days after Christmas on December 27.Dr. Paul Withington was a Navy Reserve doctor who advised Jack on ship facilities & priorities for the sick & wounded.His mother was the first woman principal in a Massachusetts school (in Brookline) The Withington family developed a sugar plantation on windward Oahu before l900,and five sons attended Harvard. Paul Withington played football & rowed on the crew in the class of l909.After medical school l9l3 he coached football at University of Wisconsin & became an Army doctor in World War I. In Hawaii he was interested in yachting & worked with swimmer Duke Kahanamoku improving the breathing & timing of the Australian crawl stroke. In the l930's he knew General Patton, who was stationed in Hawaii several years.One time we had dinner at Dr. Withington's home high up in a valley near Mount Round Top & saw several rabbits in cages there & met his ward Rose, whom he later married.There was a tidal wave tsunami in l946 - the most serious damage was at Hilo.In March l945 the Navy sponsored a swimming met at which we saw the famous champion Duke Kahanamoku.Jack arranged transportation for a number of prominent athletes & entertainers mostly in the Navy who entertained troops in forward areas. He had an autographed catchers mitt from Yankee Bill Dickey a baseball from Johnny Mize then with the New York Giants, & a photo of Gene Tunney, all of whom visited the Transportation Office, as did Bing Crosby's sons.We also saw exhibitions of prominent tennis players.-#28ee- the dog, except I had seen her several times with her owner. I dared not go to his apartment to look for dog food,as the large dog might have attacked me.I had stocked nothing.& the military governor had ordered all stores closed to halt the hoarding that started the day after the attack.The dog went back & forth between my front & side doors & the entrance to Mr. Glockner's upstairs apartment at the back of the house.She would not let the milkman, laundry man or newspaper boy approach.When Gertrude Rice came to spend the night,she would rush in when the dog was going to his own door, & in the morning she would rush out. I called the police to remove the dog,but they refused, saying they had more to do than be concerned about than the dog.Jack was on duty at Pearl Harbor day & night December 8-11.Finally I called the police to come at once for an emergency.The dog would not let them ring the doorbell - I called out that I had a small boy in the house & was out of food.Finally they did send the dog catcher. Later that month I had a postcard from Mr. Glockner asking me about his property & asking me to put mothballs in his clothes.Then it happened.When Navy women learned Jack had a wife in Waikiki,they began calling me on the telephone & came in droves to the little house,thinking I might plead their cases with Jack.Eventually Jack established priorities-the wounded-surviving widows & their children -pregnant women-women with very young children-& women with medical problems.Naval Reservist Dr. Paul Withington-who had grown up on a Windward Oahu sugar plantation & played football & rowed at Harvard l909 -& who was in charge of the Navy Dependents' Dispensary- advised Jack on medical cases needing to leave for the mainland.Mrs.Clorinda Low Lucas,one of the first native Hawaiian social workers advised about civilians who needed immediate transportation because of health or social need,& Pacific Fleet Chaplain Captain William Maguire haunted the Transportation Office,as he was familiar with the hardships of Navy women & children.Jack found it hard to refuse Chaplain Maguire's requests. because he was the Navy chaplain who in l93l found a room for me in Chefoo in l93l when the whole Asiatic fleet was in town & there was no place for me in the hotels.All sailings of ships in & out of Pearl Harbor were top secret..So when Jack got word from the Port Director, Lieutenant Commander Martin Derx, of the exact number of spaces he could have in the ships to evacuate personnel & dependents on Christmas Day l94l,his staff immediately started telephoning the hospitals to prepare the wounded for the trip to the mainland. They telephoned Navy & Marine personnel to be ready to sail,& then secretly notified the Navy dependents as all Navy women with young children were required to leave the Islands whether or not they wanted to.The order came from Admiral Bloch that ALL Navy dependents were to be evacuated as quickly as ships could be made available.When Gertrude Rice learned that Jack would be working on the dock all Christmas Day loading the evacuees aboard several ships, to be convoyed by three destroyers & a cruiser,she invited John & me to share Christmas dinner with her & Paul -risky as she lived near the Army's Fort Derussy in Waikiki, but it was within walking distance of our house.Carrying our gas masks,John & I walked to Gertrude's apartment, where she gave us a most delicious turkey dinner.When John asked for more peaches with his turkey,Gertrude hesitated, as they were brandied peaches.We had just finished eating when Jack appeared-tired & unfed at three o'clock in the afternoon.Gertrude gave him a good dinner,but he had to leave immediately because he was evacuating thousands of frightened wounded & dependent women with unruly children-with lines miles long waiting to get on the ships.Many women & children had given up their homes & were unfed. Jack saw our friend Mrs. Gene Nelson (from Panama days) standing in line with her two sons-ages about five & seven-at least a mile from the ship trying to control the two boys & watch her luggage at the same time.Jack called a couple of sailors to help her with her bags,& then he went aboard with her & gave her a lovely big room on the Matson Line's LURLINE.She was very pleased when he had an extra cot put in for Eric,the younger boy,so the family could be together in one cabin.Jack ordered her trunk taken to her cabin-a great privilege as most passengers could get nothing from their trunks during the voyage,because the trunks were in the hold.Later Gene Nelson wrote me that many of the children had no warm clothes for the cold weather of San Francisco about New Year's Day,& many had no shoes or stockings, which children generally do not use in Hawaii.One evening when the order came to "Darken Ship," some women thought they heard,"Abandon Ship," & there was temporary panic-but that soon subsided.The destroyers of the convoy occasionally dropped depth charges for suspected submarines,but the voyage was not too harrowing.GENE NELSON letter June 24,l970 "widow of Captain Paul Nelson,who had been a young boat officer on the survey ship HANNIBAL when Jack was "exec" & who was aboard the mine layer OGLALA on December 7,l94l, when she was sunk & who died some time ago- a letter about her evacuation by Jack on the LURLINE Christmas Day l94l.Her son Paul junior was graduated from the Naval Academy & became a submariner- & her son Eric became a Naval aviator,but Eric was killed in a mountain accident recently.Gene herself passed away from a heart condition in March l97l. There were our good Navy friends,who visited at our house in West Roxbury in the l950's for Sunday dinner. In her letter Gene wrote,'Dear Sophie: Paul had (p.ll9f)the duty December 6-7 l94l aboard the OGLALA usually referred to as THAT old minelayer.I did not know he was alive until 2;30 pm The wife of the skipper 'Colonel' Speight located me at Kay Tompkins' where I had gone after I picked up the children at Saint Andrews Episcopal Church.Kalaimaku Street was an evacuation area,so that it was senseless to try to go home. I went on home with the boys-Paul junior & Eric after spending the day getting up & down a rickety ladder with them & hiding under a reinforced concrete culvert.Later Paul & the paymaster came home-Paul trying to whistle & in khaki as the uniform was changed from whites to try to catch any possible saboteurs.I forget how I got the word,but I went downtown to have the boys evacuated right away.Later I was informed I had to go along.A might telephone call told me to report for evacuation at a downtown pier.Somehow I had trunks,suitcases & even a toy or two with us.All our Christmas presents had sunk on the OGLALA December 7, l94l.(Paul jr was about eight & Eric about five) A cot was put in a lovely room on the LURLINE now renamed the MATSONIA.It was made up about sundown for Eric.The sheets felt odd,& next morning we found they were pure linen from the lanai suites! We had nothing to bathe in for 4 l/2 days but cold salt water. We had sailed on December 26,l94l accompanied by two cruisers- one of them the St. LOUIS,& five destroyers.The destroyers ran around like mad that afternoon tossing over "ash cans" (depth charges).They were kept very busy tossing over depth charges p ll9g as we had all four of the Matson liners in convoy.We had aboard I believe thirty-eight of the burn cases.The boys went belting down a main staircase & almost ran into one, one day.I threatened them with everything I knew if they did it again. The gallant suffering burned boy (sailor) kept telling me he knew they meant no harm. have keen hearing.One night over the loudspeaker came "Prepare to darken ship."Over a hundred people paniced,as they [thought they]heard,"Prepare to abandon ship." My table mates bolted,but I grabbed an arm of each boy & told them to stay seated.Took quite a while to restore order.One evening some others were in our assigned places.We were put at a small table against the wall-I had some words,believe me with the steward- & we went back to our table for breakfast & kept on there.The stewards were quite surly. I heard later that at disembarkation at San Francisco they were marched off & sent to a recruiting office - or else...I cannot vouch for the story.They should have been,because the children were given a patented cooked cereal every day & diarrhea was rampant,you may imagine. One morning I was talking to a lovely older lady & mentioned I was worried about all the children I saw barefooted & in cotton only.Our boys had their little but too small coats & caps & were warm enough to land in San Francisco within two days. I bet it was twenty minutes later when over the loud speaker came a request that anyone who could spare clothes report to deck room- I had been talking with a General's wife.She got things done that I a Lieutenant's wife could only worry about.We docked on a beautiful day at Pier 32 San Francisco.I managed to reach a phone & called Paul's sister-at work of course.I could hear her call over her shoulder,"My brother's wife & boys are here from Pearl Harbor-'bye,boss."When she came to pick us up, I told her "Open the front & back doors. We've had only cold salt water in which to wash for 4 l/2 days." On the dock were plenty of warm donations which should have been sent to Honolulu.Plenty of time for it. The Red Cross was there selling orange juice, coffee, milk for a nickel apiece. A good friend of mine had on the same slacksuit for three days & I asked if she had any other clothes.Everything of hers had been put in the hold & no person could go look.She came down to our room & I outfitted her with a brand new suit from Sears Roebuck & even had thread & needle for her to shorten the pants- all thanks to your Jack having given orders for all our baggage to go in our lovely big room. This is July 5 now- I get sidetracked by this lousy heart & my sixty-first birthday on July 3. As ever,Gene Nelson." THE OGLALA haD PREVIOUSLY BEEN A FALL RIVER liner But she was almost always tied up at Pearl Harbor. On December 7,l94l she lay next to the cruiser HELENA at 1010 dock & capsized. She was tied up so long that a family of birds built a nest in her funnel. End addition rest from #28:Another friend- from TULSA days in China-Commander Myron Thomas-was on Admiral Calhoun's staff,& through Jack he made arrangements for his wife & son to be evacuated on Christmas Day.He appreciated all Jack did to help & wrote to me recently that except for confusion on the dock before departure his wife & son had a good trip home on the LURLINE.Since I refused to accept my Navy quarters at Makalapa in July l941 chiefly because it was located so near the oil storage tanks,I was interested to read later in Samuel Eliot Morison's official history of the Navy in World War II that the greatest mistake the Japanese made on December 7 was their failure to bomb the huge reserve supply of oil at Pearl Harbor-& their failure to destroy the repair yards & docks & command & information facilities at the Administration Building. Commander Myron Thomas on Admiral Calhoun's Service Force staff wrote l970 about Jack: "He performed his task in a most creditable manner,& then his tact,careful planning,foresight & diplomacy with many people at this critical time satisfied the majority of naval personnel who had to remain in the (war) zone & were anxious to get their dependents to the mainland. I well remember that he booked my wife &^ son for sailing on the SS.LURLINE on Christmas Day '4l- & I didn't see them again until Christmas'43." Soon after the attack I learned a lot about it from Jack & from Captain Paul Rice,who worked for Admiral Furlong in the Navy Yard in charge of civilian workers in the repair shops.When Jack was Operations & War Plans assistant at Pearl Harbor in August l94l, he tried hard to get his superiors to work with the Army & alert the navy to the real threat of an attack by the Japanese, but he was ignored-& transferred by Bloch to the Overseas Transportation Office,where his warnings could not disturb their golf.Paul Rice told me the civilian workmen voluntarily returned to work at the repair shops even while the attack was in progress-they worked well to prepare the ships for the trip to the mainland for permanent repairs.Early in the New Year l942 Jack was notified that several ships were en route to Honolulu to evacuate a large number of Navy dependents.Accordingly they secretly notified many women to give up their homes & be prepared to sail at a specified secret time.Not until the day of planned departure did Jack learn that all the ships had been sent elsewhere-the Navy women & children were stranded without places to live & without much ready cash.Jack was hounded day & night by displaced women & children=he was the victim of a situation which he had done nothing to create. For months no ships for dependents were made available to him, as they were all occupied in transporting troops & supplies for the crucial battle of Midway,which occurred June 4.Late in May l942 my friend Lillian Arroyo visited me in Waikiki as she had learned that her husband was scheduled to leave the Islands shortly.She used her precious gasoline to drive me to a Japanese store in Honolulu where they put new covers on my chair cushions & sold me their last three Philippine teakwood bookcases & the only two unpainted pine rocking chairs in the place, which was practically empty.Lillian told me the awful secret of the preparations for Midway,& I promised to say nothing to anyone-not even to Jack.But the secret worried me,& I understood why Jack had no ships for the wounded & Navy dependents.But we won the Battle of Midway- & after that Jack could transport all the people who wanted to leave. Since Admiral Bloch put pressure on him to send us away,& since we had no home to go to on the mainland, we declared Hawaii our legal residence & remained throughout the war until June 4,l947.In the spring of l942,the Army cut some of the barbed wire at our entrance to the beach at Waikiki,& we joyfully resumed our daily swim just before dinner each evening.One late afternoon May l942 I lit the oven to bake a few very old potatoes & the last four old yellow onions.When Jack finally came home,he had with him a young man in civilian clothes-a soiled white shirt & really dirty white civilian trousers.Jack took me aside & whispered that his guest was a Lieutenant junior grade just in from a forward area of the war exhausted & afraid of the Shore Patrol because he was out of uniform-he had no time or funds to get a uniform before he left for the states to receive a Presidential citation from Franklin Roosevelt on behalf of his unit that had been in the Philippines.We took Henry Brantingham for a walk to the beach & loaned him a swim suit.The four of us walked hurriedly to the beach, swam-& in the walk home Henry was relaxed enough to laugh & talk like a normal young person.I raced into the kitchen-where my potatoes were overcooked -& my few little onions almost burned. I cut some stale cold roast beef cooked the previous Sunday.By the time they had showered & dressed it was dark,but we sat down to our simple meal.But we had a pleasant time & when I asked Henry if he would like to join us for a swim & supper the next night,he merely replied,"That is up to the Commander."Jack walked to the Moana hotel with Henry so he wouldn't get lost & picked up by the Shore Patrol. Jack told him not to leave the hotel until he had heard from the Transportation Office. Brantingham had been skipper of a PT boat evacuating MacArthur & his family- then in mountains of Cebu-a Filipino loaned him a civilian shirt & trousers so he could have his dirty uniform .washed. Before the uniform came back from the laundry, Brantingham flew out on one of the two last planes to leave the Philippines.So that is why Brantingham reached Australia in soiled civilian clothes.Later in the Solomons he commanded one of the four PT boats that were with Lt. John F. Kennedy & was involved in picking up Kennedy, as described in Donovan's book "PT l09."Brantingham remembers us well in l970 & expressed appreciation in his l970 letter from La Jolla,California.