South Hadley, Massachusetts
Department of Physiology
San Francisco, Cal. October 7, 1940
Dear Friends,
Here I am at the other end of the country, the place where my ticket turns around - and I feel much farther away than I did in the happy home in Seattle. That was such a lovely visit. I do not believe anything nicer will happen all the year. Today I met a woman on the train who turned out to be a publicity person in Seattle - she just came and talked with me after what we are led to think is the friendly custom of the great west. In the course of time I told her with whom I had been staying in Seattle and she says there is no more important man in the city than Frank, no one who has done more for the best welfare of the community. I may have said that he is president of the school board, and she told me of a speech which he made in which he gave the diplomas to the graduating class in one High School and gave them what you might call an inspirational talk at the time. She said it almost made tears come to her eyes, "And in our business we hear many talks and get to be hard-boiled!" She told me what it was about but I can't reproduce enough to make it count. It was interesting because one of the tings he told me in our evening talks was how hard he works to find things of importance to say at just those times. He just is splendid and fine. I do hope Gertrude he will come with Mollie to collee and I do think there is a chance for he has never been and he seemed interested to go, and also to think they might do some of the things this time they do not always have time for in these semi-business trips. I guess I told you he goes for the annual meeting of the National Board of the Y.M.C.A. at Pittsburg. Mollie started this morning I suppose to go to New Haven. She goes by Canadian Nationalbecause [sic] they have a pass that way because Frank is their legal representative I believe. I gave you Genevieve's address in the last letter. Frank does not start until about the 20th or so.
I'll go back to the events of this last week because they were of interest in different ways. My only hope is to do it chronologically. On Monday, Sept. 30, we went in town for lunch with Frank and to see his very elegant ofices. They are in one of the big new office buildings of which Seattle has several on what was formerly the university location. After a certain number of years in which the present lessees reap their financial harvest for building these fine structures they revert to university ownership and the revenue then is available for education - which seems to me to have been good university management. The day we went in the bands began to play and bombs went off the moment we got there, with all the office force in each window as far as one could see. It was the opening of the annual Community Chest Campaign, done with more spirit and zest than I have ever heard of. All the Junior League girls were involved in the personal canvassing, and this music in the heart of the city by the various high school bands was most effective. I enjoyed seeing the city in action! For luncheon we went to a restaurant more or less like a business men's club and with delectable things to eat. It really is surprising how many thigns grow large, e.g. the crabs! And the fresh western salmon just is better than any we ever get in the east. On the train yesterday I had a barbecued cod, just because the name was amusing, and that was superior too, like a much glorified kippered herring, no bones, and a wonderful taste. I might say at this time that the nearest I came to Friday Harbor and its fishing interests was the meetin of the wife of the director who was going to have me meet the oceanographic people over at the university, but there just was not time enough. The laboratory season is over now.
Monday night I went to dinner with Helen Clapp Barnes, daughter Barbara and husband Sam. Do somebody tell Miss Ball how much the Seattle folks enjoyed her visit, notably this family I have just mentioned. Sam is a cheerful soul. We had alcoholics before the dinner, but such is my ignorance that I am unable to tell whether I had a mild whiskey and soda or a Martini! Anyhow, I did not like it much and got only half through it as usual. I've met two of the California wines and they just are not like what we think of as sherry though they are rather pleasant. However, some fresh Muscat grapes were just perfectly wonderful, I don't think they transport very well, too soft and sugary, so I have never seen them in the east, great big light-colored things.
Tuesday Mollie and I went in town to lunch at a big department store where she had some errands, name Frederick and Nelson, and Evelyn Gibson's husband is named Frederick Nelson so she has a hard time getting her mail. This is really a western Marshall Field and has the atmosphere, slightly reduced. There was also a ride, on one of these days when the weather was a little less thick, out by the golf course where Frank plays most. It was after the players were mostly in and lots of pretty wild ducks were out walking on the fairways. They are on a little pond which is a water hazard during the day, but as soon as the folks are gone they step out for pleasant strolls. The course is just a beauty, such grand big tres and such greenness of turf. It made me pine to get to playing again.
Wednesday Mollie's family came to dinner, Elizabeth, Frank and his wife Frances, and Emory and Dorothy. In the latter case we had gone around that way and pickd her and the adorable little Christopher up. He came along, had an early supper and went peacefully to sleep upstairs. I must tell you about their new house because the plan is so different from our houses. So many of the houses here have only one story and just keep on rambling as far as may be. Often there are maids' quarters in the basement for everything is on a hill. I'll put in a rough floor plan.
It is close to Dorothy's father's house, in a big estate, with most gorgeous trees. The drive to the front of the house stops at the foot of quite some steps up to the terrace and they have a charming view. Seattle is full of views, by reason of the many hills and not only the harbor with its varied outline, but also two freshwater lakes, Lake Union right in the city and Lake Washington which is some twenty miles long and gives suburban slopes for lovely homes. ... The dinner party was a lot of fun for the boys are well and spirited. Two, Elizabeth and Frances, went off to the pre-view of the annual Art Exhibition at the Museum, and everything was most informal.
Thursday was the day of the big tea Mollie gave for me, twenty five or so, about half and half, Mount Holyoke and others. I was so glad to see Evelyn Gibson Nelson who is as irresistable as ever and Miss Louise Ayer, who is of Miss Purington's class and drove east alone for her fiftieth. She is as valiant as Dr. Dole.
Mollie expected the folks about 3:45 or 4:00 but they began to come at 3:00 and stayed until nearly 6:00. The freak was a recent one, Jeannette Kelly, also her mother. J. is supposed to have had a nervous breakdown following her father's suicide - mother talks about it freely - but the girl seemed to me just awfully crude, and so did mother. Nothing the matter with appetite! Ruth Holmes Huntoon told me things about Dr. Clapp I did not know. I knew she was sick here once and went to their home to get better, but I had no idea that it was a very dangerous illness, probably gall-stones, and that they were much worried about her recovery. I do not think she ever let us know how sick she was nor how long she was in the hospital. This was long before her operation, maybe along about 1900-09.
Friday was another day of social engagement. I tried not to do more than one thing a day, but somtimes this one thing was pretty long. This was a party given for me by a friend of Mollie's who seemed interested in my having my degree from Radcliffe! It was a luncheon of the utmost elegance, a corsage of gardenias and baby roses for me, and such remarkable things to eat. Now for an introductory salad take some pretty lettuce, and plant on it a big half pear. Cover this with cream cheese of just the right consistency (important) and then plant all over it half grapes, these were green ones, and the whole thing looks like a bunch of grapes. Oh, yes, the hole in the pear has a little bit of ginger, etc in it. Of course an elegant dressing though not a heavy one. The guests were interesting, one who writes book reviews for the papers, another who has travelled a great deal, and so on. They mostly had some special interest. The daughter of the hostess does expert photography and had made some exquisite enlargements for one of the women. After the lunch one of Mollie's special friends - she at once called me by my first name - took us for a lovely drive in that section of the city, along the slopes above Lake Washington. --- For dinner that night Elizabeth and her girls were in again, and I really feel some sense of acquaintance with that nice crowd. That was the last time I saw them for they went on Saturday to the Island to see the ouse there and to work on the grounds.
Saturday was the day of the fine arts. The mother of the wife of son Frank could not come to dinner on Wednesday so she invited us to lunch on Saturday, and sent around her chauffer [sic] for anything we wanted in the forenoon! Wasn't that nice! She has carried on the lumber (?) business of her husband since his death and is a wealthy and competent woman of about fifty. Also she fosters the fine arts. We went to the Catholic cathedral to see the Connick windows and it was perfectly easy to pick them out, three above the high altar with a most beautiful gleam from the west end of the nave. They followed the general scheme of the other windows, a good deal of golden grisaille, if that is the right term, but in these were big fine figures above this and such a wonderful border where the gleam was. Then the Art Museum which doubtless Gertrude and Florence saw, with the splendid Chinese Camels and Rams from some long past age out front, and with such exquisiste jade inside. That was all we looked at for there was no more time. Mrs. Stimson's house is in a restricted residential place called The Highlands, not a part of the city, but on the edge. She is interested in Chinese art and I just never saw such elegant things. She had a cabinet of jade things and bronzes, little ones, as good as those in the Museum and had that day bought several more. On top of the cabinet sits a most beautiful Buddha about 2 1/2 feet high, really a lovable god. Her estate has many trees on it, old Douglas firs, and goes down to the Sound. It is the kind of home you read about and that I seldom see. She took us to the other Connick glass in a little private chapel near by, just exquisite, but the place too small for that gleam.
I have no more of this paper here, so I will turn thos over for the last and most important paragraph - for Rainier came out on Saturday and I saw it just as it came from the mist, still all ethereal, with no base at all, just up in the sky. It is some 70 - 75 miles away, but it still looks very high, and all Seattle loves it. They telephone when it is out so the folks on the other side of the hills can goover [sic] to see some special charm. We saw it all white and shining as we came home from the luncheon, and Frank took us out to see the alpine glow, just for a few minutes at night. Then we drove over the new and quite remarkable great bridge of boats across Lake Washington and around the tops of the hills to see the lights of the city.
Yesterday, Sunday, October 6, I left and all the way down to beyond Tacoma the mountain came in sight at intervals. Then beyond Portland there was Mount Hood, not as fine to my thinking. Rainier is over 14,000 and no other mountains near it are anything as high. Hood may be 11,000. I did not stop at Portland because I got discouraged about the weather - there had been so many dull days. Also I have a hunch it may be best to let a doctor look at my back. I do not think it worse, but yet I am not sure it is markedly better. It still hurts a lot, especially at night. I rested much at Mollie's, more than I can when just going along by myself. So now I am in SanFrancisco [sic]. My friend with whom I shall stay after a time is probably not back yet - she and her sister were out of the city to return "the first of this week" and I wrote her I would stop in Portland as indeed I expected to do. Since coming in I have begun to lay lines to find out which of the two doctors recommended by Dr. Goldthwiat [sic] is better - I have conneted [sic] with Dr. Olmstead's office but he was in seminar. I shall call again tomorrow. The physiology is all over at Berkeley I find, for the U. of C. which may have an influence on my later reading, if any. I have still to find out about the Stanford library. Prof. Baumberger is listed for Palo Alto, he is bio. chem. I do not know who is in physiology unfortunately. I should like to be in PaloAlto [sic] rather than Berkeley. Miss Smith did not have such a good time in Berkeley - it is so huge. There are Mount Holyoke people I know in both places.
[Unsigned, but written by Abby H. Turner]