Datebook 1920: Friday, September 17, 1920

Fair clear bright day but windy. Arose 7:30 A.M. Breakfast. Helped father. Studied chemistry. Played piano. Read paper etc. Wrote letters. Hanford upon day boat from Asbury Park. Home 8 P.M. H.H. looking fine. Just the same in weight. Talked etc. To bed 11 P.M. Thankful for protection.

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I'm guessing it would take more than a day to go from Asbury Park to Schenectady by boat, so it's possible Hanford traveled by train to Albany, then took a boat from there by way of the Erie Canal. The picture Stanford drew looks like what could be a steamboat but it's not clear what the dark object on the right is supposed to be.

I guess Hanford's weight was an issue? Maybe he had trouble keeping weight on. That's the second reference Stanford made to it since Hanford left for the summer.

Here is a map of the Erie Canal route as it looked in 1920:

And a postcard of the canal and General Electric right beside it.

About this blog . . .

I've created this blog to make a record of the hand-written journals of Stanford Stillman Closson (1900-1982), who was in his life a Methodist Minister, grandfather, father, brother, husband, son and friend. This is the second installment of Date Book, covering 1920 (the first covers 1919). For as long as seems practical, I will record subsequent years (they continue into the 1970s). I'm matching the days--January 1, 1920 to January 1, 2014, for instance--with one entry per day. So it will take a year to transcribe this second diary.

The daily entries are pretty short, though, so in addition to recording the diaries, I'm also annotating them, giving additional information about the people, places and events mentioned by Stanford. By doing this, I hope to convey a sense of 1920 Schenectady, New York and the people Stanford interacted with. Of course, I'm also hoping to give Stanford's descendants a fuller picture of who he was as a young man.

Datebook 1920

Friday, September 17, 1920

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