Tag Archives: Helen Yonge Lind

More background on the Swanky Franky

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Remember this photo of my mother, Helen Lind, in the Swanky Franky hot dog stand operated by two young entrepreneurs, Spence and Cliff Weaver, in around 1939 or 1940?

Helen Lind

It was posted here earlier along with several other photos from the period, including one of my dad with the Weaver brothers sitting on the Swanky Franky.

So was surprised to get an email yesterday from Cathy Cunningham of the American Austin Bantam Club seeking permission to reprint the photo of my mom and adding some background on the Swanky Franky.

As you may know, the customized Swanky Franky was based on the American Bantam chassis. The Swanky Franky was first noted on the streets for the 1939 New York World’s Fair. We are a small club that supports the marque of the American Bantam car, which was built in Butler, Pennsylvania. I’m sure our readers would love seeing the photos.

Who knew!

Check out their website if you’re interested in this little historical nugget.

December 7, 1941: “Something is brewing….”

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It was in a box of papers uncovered yesterday afternoon as I slogged through another section of a small storeroom at my parents’ home in Kahala. The papers are dirty, faded, and covered with a fine layer of dust and rather old looking termite droppings and other bits of unknown origin. The papers included bits of genealogy, a collection of British newspapers reporting the funeral of King George VI and the coronation of Elizabeth, a carefully tied bundle of Bonnie’s school work from first through third grades, etc., etc. Then there was a small sheet of blue paper, folded in thirds. I immediately recognized my mother’s clear handwriting.

It’s a letter from my mother to her sister, Marguerite, written late on the morning of December 7, 1941, my father’s 28th birthday, as machine gun fire could be heard overhead and puffs of smoke seen in the sky.

The paper is brittle, there’s some old termite damage, but this treasure survived.

I’ve transcribed it below. You can see the original letter here.

Dec. 7, 1941
11:30 a.m.

Dear Margot:

Something is brewing but we don’t exactly know what the score is. We were awakened by a telephone call from Ma this morning saying that Japanese planes were bombing Pearl Harbor. I had a big head from a party last night so didn’t talk very much. She told John the house was shaking like a leaf. We’ve been sitting here watching the shooting. I wish I were at Waipahu to see more of it. We have to be content with just watching the puffs from the shots.

Every 10 minutes an announcement is made over the radio for people to report for one thing or another. The latest report is total blackout tonight. We still don’t know whether this is real or not. Jimi was called for sea-scout duty early this morning. All ROTC students are getting their equipment. I guess they’ll patrol the streets. One funny thing happened today. We went out to the street to watch them haul cannons. The soldiers were throwing kisses to all the gals along the street.

Guess we’ll have to stay put today. We can’t use the telephone anymore & we can’t drive our cars, so here we are.

11:50 Well, there goes the radio. Station KGMB has been ordered off the air. Governor Poindexter is declaring a state of emergency on station KGU. There come the planes!! Oh, oh, and machine gun fire right above us. I’m getting jittery! Shucks, this letter won’t get to you anyway; might as well quit.

Hawaii in 1922: “…some idea of the things we have seen and done…”

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What was it like to arrive in Hawaii for the first time in 1922 after several days on a Matson steamship from San Francisco?

The question is answered in the latest treasure found among my mother’s stash of papers.

It’s a small album in which the late UH Professor Carey D. Miller describes the first year in Hawaii after her arrival in September 1922.

The pages of heavy stock, now discolored with age, were in an old manila envelope left drifting anonymously in a storeroom off the garage in my parent’s Kahala home, among the stacks of mimeographed genealogical references from the 1960s, stashes of old newspaper clippings, small mementoes of past trips, dozens of previously used gift bags, empty Harry & David boxes, and other remnants of the century spanned by my mother’s long life.

There’s a brief introduction written in Miller’s longhand, followed by a typewritten narrative accented with small photographs, most taken by Miller and her friends, a few clipped from other publications.

She describes driving around Oahu, visiting sites from Black Point to Haleiwa, visiting Hilo and the Big Island’s volcanoes, and much more.

Miller went on to a distinguished career at the University of Hawaii as a well-known and widely published nutrition researcher who built the Home Economics program and developed a devoted following of former students and co-workers. Miller Hall, in the center of the Manoa campus, is named in her honor. After Miller’s death in 1985, my mother rescued her personal papers, including this gem.

I’ve transcribed this page, and then included an image showing how it looks in her own handwriting.

When you’re done, just click on the handwritten page to read the whole story, a page at a time.

This short chronicle of our trip to Hawaii is not meant to be a work of art nor a piece of literature. It will only be of interest to my friends as it gives them some idea of the things we have seen and done in our play time and a glimpse of some interesting spots in the island. The coloring here is brilliant, so that these little gray pictures can give you no conception of the true beauty of this Paradise of the Pacific.

Hawaii 1922

And I’m also scanning the photos separately, to be posted soon.

Another bit of University of Hawaii history: Carey Miller turned down first offer

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When nutritionist Carey D. Miller was first invited to join the University of Hawaii faculty as an assistant professor, the invitation came via a Western Union Telegraph directly from UH President Arthur Dean.

The telegram, sent on April 1, 1922, was short and direct.

MRS CHENEY AND DR NORGAN SUGGEST YOU TO TAKE CHARGE DOMESTIC SCIENCE UNIVERSITY HAWAII ASSISTANT PROFESSORSHIP TWENTY SEVEN HUNDRED PLUS STEAMER FARE SAN FRANCISCO TO HONOLULU WIRE ME AT STEWART HOTEL WHETHER OR NOT INTERESTED
ARTHUR DEAN.

Her initial response was brief, the text handwritten and edited before being dictated to a Western Union clerk.

On further consideration decide I cannot accept Hawaii position.

Dean persisted. A follow-up telegram stressed the importance placed on renewed research into the nutritional content of Hawaii fruits and vegetables, said a 45 percent increase in “women undergraduates” meant likely increases in the number of students taking Domestic Science classes, and promised to invest university resources to build up the department.

“Will you reconsider decision,” Dean asked.

It paid off. This time Miller appeared to relent.

She responded:

With chance for nutrition work will consider assistant professorship three thousand plus steamer fare San Francisco to Honolulu nine or ten months session stop Is this right Stop Wish to talk further to Mr. Hemenway where can I reach him in New York Will letter to San Francisco reach you.

The series of telegrams are among Miller’s personal papers and other items left in my mother’s care after Miller’s death in 1985. Miller had been my mother’s mentor at UH in the 1930s, and the two remained good friends throughout Miller’s life. The exchange of telegrams turned up last week while my sister and I were starting the job of clearing a storeroom at my parents’ home in Kahala.

Along with the telegrams in a four page handwritten letter from the UH president to Miller.

It began:

I was glad to receive your letter of April 12 which made clear your acceptance of the position with us; it was not wholly certain from your telegram.

Dean’s letter went on to discuss travel arrangements on a Matson liner to Honolulu (“The best I could do was an upper in room 20 which is fairly good”), the class schedule, and housing in Hawaii.

And that was the beginning of Miller’s nearly 40-year career at the University of Hawaii.

I’ve scanned the telegrams and Dean’s handwritten letter, and also transcribed the letter for easier reading.