'Dear Folks’ Letters 1948-1953 by Jean Wyatt-Part 3

‘Dear Folks’ Letters by Jean Wyatt August 1951, continued

Baby Kenny

Glendale visit August 4-11

Note: Only letter in pencil, thank goodness. Couldn’t get a better scan.

Oct. 24,1951

The first TV version (November 4, 1949 - June 21, 1952) ran in primetime once a week for a half-hour and reverted the stories back to the 1932 storylines. Hazel was a 28-year old who yearned for marriage, Cliff and Claudia were students at Stanford University and Jack was ten years old. The primetime version focused on Fanny's attempts to mediate between her old-world husband and her independent-minded children. The primetime series featured such future stars as Eva Marie Saint (Claudia), Tony Randall (Mac), Mercedes McCambridge (Beth Holly #1), and Frankie Thomas (Cliff Barbour #1).

Warren Ellison and Walt

Marion with baby Kenny in his new stroller!

Dec. 26, 1951

Kenny’s First Christmas 1951

1951 00 Letters 00 Hospital 8-4-11 visit Glendale 9-10 Ellison’s visit Palo Alto 12 -1 Orange Cove

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Notes 1951 What Things Cost in 1951: Car: $1,800 Gasoline: 27 cents/gal House: $16,000 Bread: 16 cents/loaf Milk: 92 cents/gal Postage Stamp: 3 cents Stock Market: 269 Average Annual Salary: $4,200 Minimum Wage: 75 cents per hour

? The most interesting thing about 1951 was that there are no letters between Christmas ’50 and Mar

21, 1951. We don’t know the reason, but we do know Jean had kidney problems including a kidney stone and if this was the time when this happened, she may have gone to live with her parents to recover from her operation, especially since she was pregnant. The only reason to stop the letters would be that parents and daughter were together. ??

We take up the story when Marge Cochran has just visited Jean and Walt in Palo Alto, with her brand new husband, Dave Fox. The four tour the area, including their new house, meaning the model. This is the first mention that they have decided to buy their house, have it built by the Stern & Price Co. at 3161 Emerson Ave.

There are two ‘house plan’ letters, undated, which describe their house with drawings, , that were found separately in Marion’s file.

Warren Feather bone Co. Warren sent Jean an account of this company.

Our great grandmothers would immediately recognize the name of Warren Featherbone as boning for their garments and corsets; our grandmothers, as fine bias tape and other sewing notions, and the modern vintage fabric collector, a desirable

brand of fine bias tape for quilting and heirloom sewing projects.

The Warren name is an old and respected one. Its metamorphous from turkey quills to sewing notions to children's clothing is an example of how many textile companies survived and adapted to the changes in fashion and lifestyles.

Before 1883 women had to endure the heaviness and discomfort of whalebone as a stiffening in their foundations to keep

them in trim shape. Due to the high cost of whalebone, flat steel, horn, rattan and a patented fiber from the ixtle plant called Coraline were suitable substitutes.

It was then that Edward Warren, who ran a dry goods store in Three Oaks, Michigan, began a quest for a better stay after

hearing his customers gripe about the price and short durability of whalebone.

According to author Sally Helvenston in her From Feathers to Fashion, Warren in his buying trips to feather duster factories in Chicago learned that large quantities of pointer feathers, those with plumage on one side only, were discarded by

manufacturers as unsuitable for feather dusters. He decided that this cheap raw material was a perfect substitute for whalebone.

His product was patented in 1883, quickly followed by building machinery and the opening of his small factory. Once it was

proven to dressmakers and dry goods dealers that featherbone was superior to whalebone, his business flourished.

There were many imitators once competitors got wind of Warren's success, forcing the company to take many would-be rivals to court.

Out of the past – turn of the century display from the Warren Featherbone collection donated to Michigan State University Museum. Top photo is from the cover of Michigan History Magazine, Sept/Oct. 1996 issue. Bottom photo is also from that issue. - Courtesy Michigan State University Museum and Michigan History Magazine.

The E.K. Warren Story E.K. Warren was a true Renaissance man – an inventor, conservationist, entrepreneur, financier, philanthropist, political influencer and spiritual and community leader. A product of Three Oaks, Michigan, a tiny mainstream town near the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, he was as comfortable around local town folk as he was with government leaders and the wealthy. Among his many astounding accomplishments was the establishment in 1883 of The Warren Featherbone Company, a company with its own legendary story. The Warren Featherbone Company After ten years of research, development and working his way through the patent process, E.K. Warren began manufacture of a remarkable new product called Featherbone, which was used primarily as a stay material for women’s corsets. In time, Featherbone became a phenomenal success worldwide and earned E.K. Warren a fortune. For more than 125 years, The Warren Featherbone Company in its various forms (manufacturing, banking, agriculture and investments) continued operations through major crises and dramatic changes in society,

industry and technology. Two of the three major growth areas in the U.S. today are healthcare and education, and today, the Warren Featherbone Company is involved in both. Its story of evolution serves as an ideal case study for how great opportunity can be found in times of crisis.

1951 Wedgewood Stove 1951 Wedgewood High-Back Model-Oven/Broiler

Features – 1 - 16” wide Oven, 1- 16"wide Broiler, 4 Burners, Griddle, Bullet Chrome Light Cover, Clock/Oven Timer, Ceramic Salt& Pepper Shakers, with Storage Drawer.

Stern & Price-- Housing in Palo Alto

South of Midtown, Palo Alto

3161 Emerson Street is approx 2 blocks away from the Stanford Motor Court at 3402 El Camino Real.

The neighborhood may not have a formal name of its own, but residents consider it

one of the most opportune places to live in Palo Alto. Bordered by four of the city's arterial streets -- Loma Verde Avenue, East Meadow Drive, Middlefield Road and Alma Street -- it is a tranquil oasis.

Bay Area Builder, Stern & Price, built many in the Bay Area, but was subsequently sued by May when they decided to make their own house, which resembled Cliff May's design a little too closely. Stern & Price also built many Anshen+Allen homes too.

Most of the homes are single-story Eichler-style houses that were built in the early days of Palo Alto's population boom. These tracts were built just after World War II. Before the war, tight credit, high down payments and very short-term mortgages kept most people from owning their own home.

It wasn't until after World War II that the Veterans Administration's low-down payment "VA loans" made home ownership possible on a large scale, unleashing tremendous pent-up demand. Homes built between 1946 and about 1952 were the same subsistence-level housing cranked out before the war, just in greater numbers. This meant that buyers got very small homes with one bathroom and were happy to get them. It was during this era of minimalism that most of Midtown was built.

Contemporaries lie just to the south, very small 3/2s dating from 1954 built by Stern & Price and Eichler. It's a truism of Palo Alto history that "before World War II there was nothing south of Oregon".

Thousands of homes built in the 1950s to compete with Eichler in the mid-priced range, usually with the more radical elements of contemporary design smoothed off for a more commercial product. Some of these homes were designed by the architects responsible for many of Eichler's homes, Anshen & Allen.

So why did Joseph Eichler, John Mackay, Brown & Kaufman, Stern & Price, Stone & Schulte, American Housing Guild and a host of other builders build so many contemporaries in South Palo Alto and nearby cities? The midcentury modern revival has rehabilitated contemporary design, but until fairly recently the answer to "what were they thinking?" could easily have been overlooked: back in the day, these homes had a significant following.

Contemporaries were avant garde, a rebellion against traditional architecture, a statement for the young professionals and free thinkers streaming into, and changing, the mid-Peninsula.

www.midtownresidents.orgFairmeadow Palo Alto • Approx. 167 homes Architect: Anshen + Allen

Carroll Rankin remembers the excitement he felt as he drove his wife Laura into 'the Circles' to see their new home. "But I couldn't find it," he says. That was 1959, and residents of Fairmeadow, as this concentric series of streets is known, had already had eight years to learn their way about the maze-like 167-home subdivision, just down the street from Charleston Meadow.

Fairmeadow's Eichler homes went on sale in May 1951, a few months after Charleston Meadow. The homes, four basic plans and multiple elevations designed by A. Quincy Jones of Jones & Emmons, were slightly larger and costlier ($15,200 to $15,950) than Charleston Meadow. All had three bedrooms and two baths, versus Charleston Meadows' one.

Hiller-1951 Early H-23 performance and reliability in Korea were inadequate. The H-23B used a 200 hp Franklin engine, landing skids instead of wheels, and a stronger structure. Flight testing began in September 1951 with first production deliveries two months later. By this time the company officially changed its name to Hiller Helicopters. 1951 ad

Childbirth Without Fear

The Teachings of Grantly Dick-Read

By Shel Franco

"It didn't hurt. It wasn't meant to, was it, doctor?"

These words, spoken by a poor country woman after an unmedicated birth, changed the life of Grantly Dick-Read. As an English

obstetrician practicing medicine in the 1920s, Dick-Read was used to birth pain being handled with chloroform, a drug that rendered

birthing women unconscious. But on this fateful night, Dick-Read witnessed a woman deny chloroform and still birth her baby without a

struggle.

The Past Intrigued by this seemingly painless birth, Dick-Read went on to study, observe and write about birth as a

natural process in a manuscript titled "Natural Childbirth." His findings brought personal and professional

ridicule, but that did not stop him from sharing his beliefs. In fact, Dick-Read pressed onward and in 1933 his

landmark book -- "Childbirth Without Fear" -- was published. He gained a following in England, but it wasn't

until the late 1940s and early 1950s that his teachings found a receptive audience in the United States of

America. The Pain In an excerpt from his book, "Childbirth Without Fear," Dick-Read explains, "There is no physiological function

in the body that gives rise to pain in the normal course of health. In no other animal species is the process of

birth apparently associated with any suffering, pain or agony, except where pathology exists or in an

unnatural state, such as captivity."

Dick-Read hypothesized that the fear felt by a woman during childbirth caused blood to be filtered away from her uterus, so it could be

used by the muscles that would flee the dangerous situation. As a result, the uterus was left without oxygen and could not perform its

functions efficiently or without pain.

This belief led to Dick-Read's theory that fear and tension cause the labor pains in approximately 95 percent of birthing women. He

termed this phenomenon "the fear-tension-pain syndrome of childbirth," and he believed that by eliminating the fear, women could return

the uterus to its normal function, thereby eliminating the pain.

The Ridge Route Prior to 1915 all traffic that wanted to go from Los Angeles to points north were compelled to either go by way of what is now current US 101 along the coast or by a circuitous route by way of Mojave and Bakersfield over what is now SR-14 and SR-58. The first highway built to cross the mountains directly was the Ridge Route, which was completed in 1915.

When it was completed, not only did it save 50 miles versus the Mojave-Bakersfield route, it was also considered a miracle of modern engineering. It represented a quantum leap in travel, making it possible to travel from Los Angeles to Bakersfield in less than a day.

Construction of a new alignment, the Ridge Route Alternate began in 1928. This new alignment was straighter and had gentler grades than the original Ridge Route. An article in California Highways and Public Works describes one of the many improvements over the old Ridge Route. "In traveling this highway the motorist need not fear that he will encounter a sharp curve at an unexpected place - there aren't any." The new road was completed by 1933 and featured the latest improvements, which included a third suicide lane that enabled passing, albeit hazardously.

Plans were made in 1940 to convert US 99 into four lane expressway, but World War II delayed any further widening work until the end of the 1940s. The Collier Burns Act of 1947 provided funding for the widening work. Between 1948 and 1951 US 99 was transformed from a three lane mountain road into a modern four lane expressway.

Even with the improvements and modernization, US 99 still could not accommodate all the traffic traveling on it. In 1947 the section of US 99 from downtown Los Angeles to the Oregon border was designated as a part of the Interstate route that would later be known as I-5.

Nonette Hanko Nonette Hanko still lives in the same house at 3172 Emerson Street and with her husband, Bob, was friends with Jean and Walt. Bob worked for IBM and he and Nonette were married in 1948 like the Wyatts. They sent us a photo Christmas card for years. Note: Interestingly, Jean doesn’t mention Nonette very much in her letters, although she seems to have a lot in common with Jean; natural childbirth, art and nature.

December 24, 2008 Article Breastfeeding moms to protest Facebook In the early 1950s, when Hanko was pregnant with her first child, only about 20 percent of American women were breastfeeding their children, according to La Leche league International. "Doctors knew nothing about breastfeeding," Hanko said. Influenced by the book "Childbirth without Fear: The Principles and Practices of Natural Childbirth," by English physician Grantly Dick-Read, Hanko sought out a doctor who could deliver her baby naturally, but had to go to San Francisco to find one. Mothers-to-be having natural births joined a class at UCSF and brought their babies in to share their experiences. But the mothers discovered they needed to teach themselves to breastfeed, helped by Renee Wilsnack, a mother who was also a nurse, Hanko said. The group, calling themselves Nursing Mothers Anonymous, was approached by a doctor at Palo Alto Medical Foundation to teach women about nursing babies. Hanko and other Palo Alto women went to new mothers' homes to teach them how to breastfeed, she said.

In Memory of Bob Hanko The South Skyline community is saddened by the death of long-time resident Bob Hanko, husband of Nonette Hanko a founding board member of the Mid-Peninsula Regional Open Space District. Bob died on December 17 , 2001, after a long illness. http://www.southskyline.org Finding Relief Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008

“When Palo Alto music teacher Nonette Hanko was growing up..she ‘needed a place to go and just be alone, just listen, and hear nothing.’ Having studied piano since age three and imaging a career as a concert pianist, Hanko was particularly sensitive to unwanted sounds. ‘We lived a couple of blocks from the Mills Estate, where there were wild creeks and trees hundreds of years old…Wanting to be a concert pianist meant practicing two, three, four hours a day, plus doing all my schoolwork. I was always so busy, but there are times when life just gets to you and you really have to find a place that’s quiet and alone. The Mills Estate was where I used to go. I’d hear an owl, and that would revive me.’”

Electrolux Vacuum

Electrolux Model XXX 1937 This is perhaps the most visually elegant Electrolux of them all, created by Machine-Age industrial designer Lurelle Guild. Electrolux sold millions of Model XXXs from 1937 to 1955.

Cosco Posture Stool…what? 10-1951

Our Red Kitchen stool!

Bureau of Aeronautics

This was where Walt was to visit in Wash D.C. for Hiller.

The Bureau of Aeronautics (BuAer) was the U.S. Navy's material-support organization for Naval Aviation from 1921 to 1959. The bureau had "cognizance" (i.e., responsibility) for the design, procurement, and support of Naval aircraft and related systems. BuAer downsized after the war, but continued its focus on aeronautical research and development. But as Naval technology became increasingly complex, it became clear that the Navy's material organization was insufficient. In particular, the Navy needed better integration of aerial weapons with Naval aircraft. There was also the question of "pilotless aircraft" (the ancestors of the late 20th century's Unmanned Aerial Vehicles)--BuAer considered these to be aircraft, while BuOrd saw them as guided missiles.

Automatic Washer In Nov. 1951, after Ken is born they shop for an automatic washer. Heavens what did they have before?

1951 Stanford Football November 10 In Los Angeles, two unbeaten and untied (7-0-0) powers faced off, as #7 Stanford and USC met. The Stanford Indians (they would later be called the Cardinal) beat the Trojans 27-20.

November 17 #4 Stanford beat Oregon State 35-14.

ROSE BOWL

1952 #4 Illinois Illini 40 #7 Stanford Indians

1951 Pacific Coast Conference Champions

The Story of the Stanford Axe By Sean Rouse, 1990

Before the Axe was a Trophy

Stanford Buys an Axe

In 1899, the Stanford baseball team was considered to be highly rated. However, other Stanford sports had taken a big slump. Stanford had lost twice in a row to Cal in track, Stanford's '98 Freshman football team lost to Cal, and later the Golden Bears defeated Stanford in Varsity football by a score of 22-0 (Touchdowns were worth 5 points at the time).

The Stanford yell-leading squad decided that it would be a good idea to have something to help rally the student body to cheer their team to victory. Because of the popularity of the Axe Yell, it was decided that an Axe would be the perfect instrument to help rally the students. The Axe was not custom made for the Stanford yell leaders, but was a standard lumberman's axe weighing ten pounds with a fifteen inch blade (it was quite possibly ordered from Sears). When the Axe arrived, the handle was painted red.

The Story of the Stanford Axe By Sean Rouse, 1990

Before the Axe was a Trophy

Stanford Buys an Axe

In 1899, the Stanford baseball team was considered to be highly rated. However, other Stanford sports had taken a big slump. Stanford had lost twice in a row to Cal in track, Stanford's '98 Freshman football team lost to Cal, and later the Golden Bears defeated Stanford in Varsity football by a score of 22-0 (Touchdowns were worth 5 points at the time).

The Stanford yell-leading squad decided that it would be a good idea to have something to help rally the student body to cheer their team to victory. Because of the popularity of the Axe Yell, it was decided that an Axe would be the perfect instrument to help rally the students. The Axe was not custom made for the Stanford yell leaders, but was a standard lumberman's axe weighing ten pounds with a fifteen inch blade (it was quite possibly ordered from Sears). When the Axe arrived, the handle was painted red.

After every good Stanford play, Erb and the other yell leaders would use the axe to chop up some blue and gold ribbon, and then gleefully parade the axe in front of the Cal bleachers, shouting the Axe Yell. Needless to say, this upset the Cal fans, and convinced two separate groups that they should attempt to steal this annoying instrument.

As fate would have it, the Cal section was the closest to the exit of the field, and so one group of planners decided to wait for the Axe. When it arrived, an "old-fashioned brawl" (or small riot, depending on the account) ensued as the Cal men jumped the Stanfordites with the Axe. At this point, the second group of Cal men jumped into the fray. The Axe was taken by Cal at the cost of a black eye, a torn suit, and a cut finger. Paul Castelhun '00, who lived only blocks away, was given the Axe and took off as fast he could. Unfortunately, he was slowed down because he was wearing a heavy overcoat, so the axe had to be taken by someone else.

At the same time, a squad of police arrived, and Jack McGee '99, succeeded in confusing the police by trying to convince them that some Stanford students were attempting to steal a California Axe. The Sergeant in charge, Michael Josephy Conboy decided "They are college byes. Let them foight it out."

The First Football Axe Rally

In the Fall of 1899, a few days before the first Football Axe rally, Clint Miller transported the Axe back to Berkeley in a suit box. Miller, after boarding the ferry to Berkeley, ended up sitting down next to the only Stanford man that he knew. The Stanford man said "See here, Clint, I see by the papers you Berkeley guys are going to bring out that old Axe you've been crowing so much about. Well, if you do, you'll be sorry."

Miller, with his legs starting to tremble, managed to reply, "Oh, by the way, where is the Stanford Axe?"

The Stanford man replied, "Never mind, Clint, we know where it is. You're now warned never to bring it out in public."

The Axe is Stored in a Safe Deposit Box

After the first football Axe rally, the Stanfordites tried to make good their threat by attacking Clint Miller's home at about two o'clock in the morning. Miller was given just enough warning by Police Chief August Vollmer to get the Axe out of his basement and deliver it to a banker friend, Frank Naylor, who stored the Axe in a safe deposit box in one of the vaults at the American Trust Company (which is now the Wells Fargo Bank building in downtown Berkeley).

The Axe was stored in the vault for 30 years, and was only brought out for Football and Baseball rallies, when it would be transported to and from the Greek Theatre by armored car.

The Axe was passed on to Cal sprinter Billy Drum '00, who took the Axe along a winding route through the City. At one point, Drum accidently handed the Axe to two Stanford men who pretended to be Cal men, but he and some other Cal men helped retrieve the Axe from the two pretenders after chasing them for two blocks.

The Immortal Twenty-One Steal the Axe for Stanford

On April 3, 1930, a group of twenty-one residents of Stanford's Sequoia Hall, four of whom posed as photographers and reporters, stole the Axe as it was being transported back to the bank after the annual Baseball rally at the Greek. The phony photographers claimed that they wanted to take some photos of the Axe. When they set off the flash powder for the phototgraphs, one man grabbed the Axe while his well-organized accomplices set off a smoke bomb (or a tear gas bomb, depending on the account of the story). The Axe was taken to three cars which sped off in different directions. Several of the thieves were caught, but the Axe had made it back to Stanford.

Thefts and a Phony Axe

In 1946, Cal students dressed up in aviators overalls and goggles walked into the Stanford's Tressider Union and unbolted the Axe display case (with the axe inside) and walked out with it.

Over the summer of 1948, the Axe was stolen from its case in Cal's Stephen's Union and later was found leaning against a tree near the Stanford golf course.

Since becoming a trophy, the Axe has been stolen five times--three times from Cal and twice from Stanford.

Feb. 20, 1952

Mar. 10,1952

Mar 21, 1952 Mar 21, 1952

Mar 24, 1952

Midtown was comprised of Stern & Price tract homes and Eichler tract homes In South Palo Alto, there’s still an abundance of contemporaries here, particularly on the 3100 to 3500 blocks of Emerson and Ramona and from Ashton south to East Meadow. They’re Stern & Prices, sometimes similar in size and detail to the earliest Eichlers but with a few noteworthy differences.

These homes are remarkably small, 3/1s of 1027 to 1120 sq.ft. and even 2/1s of 840 to 925 sq.ft., although most have been expanded (and quite a few leveled). Heating is by conventional central forced air, not the sometimes problematic radiant. Midtown Stern & Prices use the same vertical tongue-in-groove siding found on early Eichlers, one reason the two are often mistaken.

Garages are detached and partially define the private front courtyard. The clothes washer is sometimes in the kitchen. Interior walls use sheetrock except for an Eichler-esque light-veneered plywood on the fireplace wall. Like Eichlers they’re built on slab, have floor-to-ceiling windows and either flat or low-pitched roofs covered with foam or tar-and-gravel. Both have planked ceilings and pendant light fixtures and occasionally use cinderblock as an accent.

The purist will appreciate finding one with its original laminate countertops (with that quintessentially '50s amoeba-like design) and battle-ship like Tappan gas stove. Stern & Prices are pleasant homes but don’t have the Eichler’s mystique, perhaps in part because while Eichler went on to larger, architect-designed tract and custom homes.

Hahaha!

Apr. 4 1952

Apr. 17, 1952

Dishmaster was founded in 1948 - in the wake of World War II and during a period of massive American economic expansion. Before the war, most Americans lived on farms or in crowded cities. The country had suffered through nearly 20 years of deprivation, first from the Great Depression and then the war. It’s hard to imagine today, but until 1946 the concept of a “fitted kitchen” full of matching cabinets and all the gizmo’s to go with them was a foreign - or at least unreachable - one to most Americans. During the war, technology rose to meet our fighting needs. After the war, we turned that know-how to building up our country. And that started first and foremost with new homes — and inside of them, with the American Dream Kitchen.

The Dishmaster is a very typical invention of the time. Automatic dishwashers were around - but were still quite rare in domestic environments. In many farm kitchens, you can imagine a Dishmaster being added to the new steel Youngstown sink base with its porcelain drainboard. In a new suburban kitchen, the atomic styling was mirrored in the headlights of the ‘48 Ford - another famous ‘48 model!

From Dishmaster factory, Mitchell, Indiana

Nearby, Sam was fabricating Dishmaster brushes – on a machine that has been in continuous use since 1948! Roger and Sam explain that it can be finicky, especially after the lunch break – but it gets the job done just as good as

ever once it gets going.

Kenny with Crissy and his new pyramid blocks from Grandpa.

This ad from the Feb. 1952 issue of Better Living promotes the idea of flavoring and coloring your cake with fruit flavored gelatin, "Your cake will have a wonderful, tempting fruit flavor." When this ad came out there were only three flavors of Betty Crocker Cake Mixes. The colorvision cake called for the Party Cake mix that made a yellow cake. To make it you added three tablespoons of your favorite fruit flavored gelatin as you started to mix the cake.

May 3, 1952 This is the program they were looking for and couldn’t find. Frank Bourgholtzer of NBC invited President Truman to sample the sound of the piano in the East Room during the first 1952 televised house tour. In 1952, following a major renovation of the White House, President Harry S. Truman invited ABC, NBC, and CBS, to bring their cameras and correspondents to the White House to accompany the president on a tour of the reconstructed White House.

Bathing suit that Jean re-styled into a sun suit. Photo here at Oceanside with her friend Phyl Thompson. 1948

June 5, 1952

The Barron Park Fire District #2 was also known by its radio callsign "High Pressure 90." The department was self-dispatched. The department's seven-digit emergency number rang at the BPFD Chief's house. If the call was a fire, the Chief pulled an exclusion key on the emergency line telephone and dialed zero. This grounded one conductor of the seven-digit emergency number's phone line and actuated a relay which turned on a Federal-brand, air-raid style siren at the site where the firefighting vehicles were parked. As the siren would cycle through its repartee, all available volunteers would go to the station.

June 10, 1952

Daring Young Man on the Flying Windmill, Stanley Hiller, S.E.P., 6/28/52 Issue

Fairmont Hotel SF Papagayo Room 1952

Jul. 15, 1952

July 24, 1952 July 24, 1952

Sept 4, 1952

Sept. 7, 1952

Walt Disney - Morris, The Midget Moose – 1950 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCXxKMIdLHU

From this:

To This..

Nov. 17, 1952

Flood damage Photo WCWyatt

Conclusion

There were only two more letters in this collection. They were most likely saved because they brought such good news for Marion and Warren. The two 1953 letters tell that the Wyatt’s were planning to move down to Southern California. They refer to Walt’s ‘being on the list for Douglas’, but does not say why he left Hiller. The rest of the story can be told from the photo album captions included here. Ellison’s visited for Kenny’s 2nd Birthday

A birthday Party was held with neighbors, Adelle an Crissy Hitt and Gail and Bev Edgar. Marion was acquainted with them by previous visits.

Summer 1953

Phone call the previous ed. First we heard- Had returned from S.D. trip the previous Mon-before this letter written

Ken in front of the Emerson Ave house Photo WCWyatt

Photo by Foremost Dairy Photographers

Happy Family! By the mid-sixties, Jean and Walt added two more children, Jim and Karen. Jean writes that they planned to have 5 or 6, when talking to her friends over coffee. We must have been enough.

1952 3-7-14 D>C trip & Marion’s Visit 5-17-18 Carmel scouting 4-5-6 & 5-25 Orange Cove 5-30 Yosemite 6-16-24 Carmel 8-27-9-3 Vacation

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11-26-29 Ellison’s Visit for Thanksgiving

1953


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1954


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Notes 1952 Stanford goes to the Rose Bowl!

1952 Pennant Oh, Well….. Institute of Radio Engineers 2-20

This is the meeting Walt was going to in Wash DC for Hiller in March. The Institute of Radio Engineers (IRE) was a professional organization which existed from 1912

until 1963, when it merged with the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE) to form the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Until the early 1940s IRE was a relatively small engineering organization, but the growing importance of electrical communications and the emergence of the discipline of electronics in the 1940s have increased its appeal to practitioners. Students of electrical engineering and young electrical engineers favored IRE over its older rival, the AIEE, and in 1957 IRE (with 57,000 members) was the larger organization. ’49-50 Avon Hair Lotion

Leota Kean possibly sold Avon and got this for Walt for a dollar. Letter 3-24

Hiller- Gross sales in 1952 reached $14.4M compared to $0.6M in 1949. Civil helicopter production was resumed. Hiller Aircraft was located in the baylands of Palo Alto, CA for many years.

in June 1952, with the UH-12B. 1952 – project "Sky Bus"

Stanley Hiller died last April 2006 at 81 after a lifetime of innovation and design. There is a Hiller Aviation Museum just south of SF International Airport in San Mateo, Calif. Here’s the web page and a bio: http://www.hiller.org/in_memory.shtml

The Truman Reconstruction

The White House Is Falling Down: Some said the White House was standing only from the "force of habit". Truman reconstruction, 1949–1952, a steel structure is built within the exterior shell. Decades of poor maintenance, the construction of a fourth story attic during the Coolidge administration, and the addition of a second-floor balcony over the south portico for Harry Truman took a great toll on the brick and sandstone structure built around a timber frame. By 1948, the house was declared to be in imminent danger of collapse, forcing President Truman to commission a reconstruction and move across the street to Blair House from 1949 to 1951. The Trumans moved back into the White House on March 27, 1952.

NBC PRESENTS A VISIT TO THE WHITE HOUSE WITH HARRY S. TRUMAN May 3, 1952 16mm/sound/black and white/48 min. Production: NBC Copyright: NBC Descriptions: In 1952, following a major renovation of the White House, President Harry S. Truman invited ABC, NBC, and CBS, to bring their cameras and correspondents to the White House to accompany the president on a tour of the reconstructed White House. Frank Bourgholtzer of NBC invited President Truman to sample the sound of the piano in the East Room during a 1952 televised house tour In 1952, following a major renovation of the White House, President Harry S. Truman invited ABC, NBC, and CBS, to bring their cameras and correspondents to the White House to accompany the president on a tour of the reconstructed White House.

Colorvision Cake letter 4-29 For his 1st birthday, Ken had this kind of cake! This ad from the Feb. 1952 issue of Better Living promotes the idea of flavoring and coloring your cake with fruit flavored gelatin, "Your cake will have a wonderful, tempting fruit flavor." When this ad came out there were only three flavors of Betty Crocker Cake Mixes. The colorvision cake called for the Party Cake mix that made a yellow cake. To make it you added three tablespoons of your favorite fruit flavored gelatin as you started to mix the cake. To make the Icing : Mix, in top of double boiler all the remaining fruit gelatin in package, 1/4 cup egg whites, 1 cup sugar,1/8 tsp. cream of tartar, 1/4 cup water. Place over boiling water and beat with electric mixer on high speed, or rotary beater, until icing holds stiff peaks. remove from over boiling water and beat about 1 min. longer. I don't recall seeing this idea in later Betty Crocker booklets so I wonder if it really turned out very well. It seems like it would work. Remember the gelatin poke cakes? You don't hear about them much any more either. Maybe this idea just came and went.

Dishmaster 4-29 (long version-be warned) Dishmaster was founded in 1948 - in the wake of World War II and during a period of massive American economic expansion. Before the war, most Americans lived on farms or in crowded cities. The country had suffered through nearly 20 years of deprivation, first from the Great Depression and then the war. It’s hard to imagine today, but until 1946 the concept of a “fitted kitchen” full of matching cabinets and all the gizmo’s to go with them was a foreign - or at least unreachable - one to most Americans. During the war, technology rose to meet our fighting needs. After the war, we turned that know-how to building up our country. And that started first and foremost with new homes — and inside of them, with the American Dream Kitchen.

The Dishmaster is a very typical invention of the time. Automatic dishwashers were around - but were still quite rare in domestic environments. In many farm kitchens, you can imagine a Dishmaster being added to the new steel Youngstown sink base with its porcelain drainboard. In a new suburban kitchen, the atomic styling was mirrored in the headlights of the ‘48 Ford - another famous ‘48 model!

Gerity was a merchandising partner in the early years. Dishmasters started in Pontiac, Mich.

Today, the brand and tooling are owned by SilverStream LLC, which manufacturer the Dishmaster in Mitchell, Indiana. Another great icon - saved! Thank you, Silver Stream!

As part of my trip to Louisville last week, I visited the home of the Dishmaster – a fun road trip to Mitchell, Indiana.

Roger Swayer, owner of the company that makes this wonderful authentic retro kitchen faucet, gave my mom Fran and me a tour, told us how he ended up the caretaker of this amazing brand, and then took us for wonderful lunch at the nearby Spring Mill Inn, where we also met his wife Millie.

From Dishmaster factory, Mitchell, Indiana

The factory is a small operation – with lots of personal attention to the production of each Dishmaster faucet. There are six employees in this subsidiary of the business - including Sharon, above.

From Dishmaster factory, Mitchell, Indiana Nearby, Sam was fabricating Dishmaster brushes – on a machine that has been in continuous use since 1948! Roger and Sam explain that it can be finicky, especially after the lunch break – but it gets the job done just as good as ever once it gets going.

From Dishmaster factory, Mitchell, Indiana The steps to make the Dishmaster are mapped out on the wall. Every single unit is quality-tested by an employee.

From Dishmaster factory, Mitchell, Indiana How did Roger and SilverStream LLC end up with the Dishmaster? Roger explained that the Dishmaster got its start in Pontiac, Michigan. The inventor/owner also had a place in Southern California. So the faucet was successfully marketed in those locations, in particular. Then, as Dishmaster owners – who are exceedingly loyal – retired to Florida, Arizona and Nevada, they took the faucets with them, literally and figuratively. The early models, Roger points out, look like Studebakers, and you can still see the Michigan/automotive influence in the M76 “Sidesaddle Sue” and “Sidecar Sam” models today.

Roger’s company SilverStream LLC acquired the original Dishmaster company in 2004, after seeing it advertised for sale in a trade publication. SilverStream had previously manufactured and sold bathroom fixtures – under the brand name Indiana Brass Co. – but they eventually had to exit the business as the mainstream fixture market moved to Asia. They had been looking for something unique to fill the gap – and are seeking to give the Dishmaster brand a whole new lease on life. http://retrorenovation.com/2008/12/05/dishmaster-factory-in-mitchell-indiana-mom-i-take-a-road-trip/

May -Fire on Emerson Ave

In 1952, Jean had to call the fire dept when a fire broke out on their street, Emerson, in Barren Park.

The Barron Park Fire District #2 was also known by its radio callsign "High Pressure 90."

Along the 4000-block of El Camino Real in Palo Alto exists a community built in the late 1940s known as Barron Park. Barron Park remained outside the city limits until a 1970s zeal for annexation brought it into the city. As an unincorporated area, police services were handled by the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Department. Fire services were the domain of the volunteer Barron Park Fire District, (BPFD). Based on the age of their equipment, the Barron Park subdivision is believed to have been built in 1949. The district housed two firefighting vehicles in a steel shed (the fire station) behind Lanai Florist at 4050 El Camino Real. The shed still stands today. Only one fire unit had a radio: a 1950 GMC/FMC pickup marked, "Barron Park Fire District Number Two," and used the radio callsign, "High Pressure 90."

A second unit, a 1949 White/Van Pelt, was not radio equipped. In practice, it was referred to on the radio as, "The Big One." As it had no official identifier, volunteers would tell county fire dispatch over the radio, "The Big One is also responding." Barron Park Fire operated its radios on the county-dispatched primary fire channel then referred to as Frequency 2. The department was self-dispatched. The department's seven-digit emergency number rang at the BPFD Chief's house. If the call was a fire, the Chief pulled an exclusion key on the emergency line telephone and dialed zero. This grounded one conductor of the seven-digit emergency number's phone line and actuated a relay which turned on a Federal-brand, air-raid style siren at the site where the firefighting vehicles were parked.

As the siren would cycle through its repartee, all available volunteers would go to the station. At the station, the first to arrive would lift the receiver of an extension of the seven digit emergency phone and the Chief would tell them what the call was. The first volunteer would write the call on a blackboard so late arrivals could know the location of the event. Typical of fire calls in any area, a large fire will generate many reports. The telephone technology used by many volunteer fire departments at the time — including BPFD — used an electromechanical device called a line turret. This was a predecessor to modern conference calls and call waiting.

After the Chief answered the first call, if a second person called the seven-digit emergency number to report a fire, the second caller would be bridged onto the first call. This allowed a single, rotary-dial telephone to answer multiple lines. In a typical volunteer department, emergency phones would be wired to the homes of several volunteers and they would take turns maintaining watch over the phone. It also led to confusion because the second caller might get conferenced with an earlier caller who was halfway through the process of reporting a fire. When Barron Park was annexed to Palo Alto about 1979, The Big One was donated to San Jose City College Fire Academy program where it was subsequently scrapped. High Pressure 90 was sold at auction and still resides in the area of Barron Park. Today the area receives city services and is part of the city of Palo Alto.

Political Conventions July 1952

As television's audience and influence increased throughout the 1950s, so did print journalists' respect for the new medium as a serious competitor that would require newspapers to adapt. Television's increasing influence was evident in the medium's coverage of the 1952 and 1956 national political conventions; television dominated the proceedings. The audiences for the televised events were far larger than in 1948, and the massive television crews the networks used to staff the conventions seemed for the first time to intrude on turf previously reserved for delegates and for print and radio reporters. More than 60 million people watched the 1952 Republican National Convention, the largest audience for a live television event to that date. The major broadcast networks--ABC, CBS, NBC, and DuMont--each sent crews of 300 broadcasters and technicians to the International Amphitheater in Chicago, selected as the convention site because it was the only hall in town big enough for the television equipment and cables. Newsweek magazine dubbed it the "television convention."

July 1952 Korea, MacArthur and Truman Korean War

In 1945, as part of the surrender of Japan, the United States agreed with the Soviet Union to divide the Korean peninsula into two occupation zones at the 38th parallel north. This resulted in the creation of two states: the western-aligned Republic of Korea (ROK) (usually referred to as South Korea), and the Soviet-aligned and Communist Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) (usually referred to as North Korea). After the surprise attack by the DPRK on June 25, 1950 started the Korean War, the United Nations Security Council authorized a United Nations (UN) force to help South Korea. MacArthur, as US theater commander, became commander of the UN forces. In September, despite lingering concerns from superiors, MacArthur's army and marine troops made a daring and successful combined amphibious landing at Incheon, deep behind North Korean lines. Launched with naval and close air support, the daring landing outflanked the North Koreans, forcing them to retreat northward in disarray. UN forces pursued the DPRK forces, eventually approaching the Yalu River border with China. MacArthur

boasted: "The war is over. The Chinese are not coming... The Third Division will be back in Fort Benning for Christmas dinner."

With the DPRK forces largely destroyed, troops of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) quietly crossed the Yalu River. Chinese foreign minister Zhou Enlai issued warnings via India's foreign minister, Krishna Menon, that an advance to the Yalu would force China into the war. When questioned about this threat by President Truman and Secretary of State Dean Acheson, MacArthur dismissed it completely. MacArthur's staff ignored battlefield evidence that PLA troops had entered North Korea in strength. The Chinese moved through the snowy hills, struck hard, and routed the UN forces, forcing them on a long retreat. Calling the Chinese attack the beginning of "an entirely new war," MacArthur repeatedly requested authorization to strike Chinese bases in Manchuria, inside China. Truman was concerned that such actions would draw the Soviet Union into the conflict and risk nuclear war. Dismissal

In April 1951, MacArthur's habitual disregard of his superiors led to a crisis. He sent a letter to Representative Joe Martin (R-Massachusetts), the House Minority Leader, disagreeing with President Truman's policy of limiting the Korean war to avoid a larger war with China. He also sent an ultimatum to the Chinese Army which destroyed President Truman's cease-fire efforts. This, and similar letters and statements, were seen by Truman as a violation of the American constitutional principle that military commanders are subordinate to civilian leadership, and usurpation of the President's authority to make foreign policy. MacArthur had ignored this principle out of necessity while SCAP in Japan. MacArthur at this time had not been back to the United States for eleven years.

By this time President Truman decided MacArthur was insubordinate, and relieved him of command on April 11, 1951, leading to a storm of controversy. MacArthur was succeeded by General Matthew Ridgway, and eventually by General Mark Wayne Clark, who signed the armistice which ended the Korean War. Return to America

MacArthur returned to Washington, D.C. (his first time in the continental U.S. in 11 years), where he made his last public appearance in a farewell address to the U.S. Congress, interrupted by thirty ovations.[39] In his closing speech, he recalled: "Old soldiers never die; they just fade away... And like the old soldier of that ballad, I now close my military career and just fade away — an old soldier who tried to do his duty as God gave him the light to see that duty. Good-bye."

In 1945, MacArthur gave his Gold Castles engineers' insignia to his chief engineer, Jack Sverdrup. This insignia continues to be worn by the Army's Chief of Engineers as a tradition. On his return from Korea, after his relief by Truman, MacArthur encountered massive public adulation, which aroused expectations that he would run for the presidency as a Republican in the 1952 election. However, a U.S. Senate Committee investigation of his removal (which largely vindicated the actions taken by President Truman), chaired by Democrat Richard Russell, contributed to a marked cooling of the public mood, and hopes for a MacArthur presidential run died away. MacArthur, in Reminiscences, repeatedly stated he had no political aspirations. 1952

In the 1952 Republican presidential nomination contest, MacArthur was not a candidate and instead endorsed Senator Robert Taft of Ohio;[41] rumors were rife Taft offered the vice presidential nomination to MacArthur. Taft did persuade MacArthur to be the keynote speaker at the 1952 Republican National Convention. The speech was not well received. Taft lost the nomination to Eisenhower; MacArthur was silent during the campaign, which Eisenhower won by a landslide. Once elected, Eisenhower consulted with MacArthur and adopted his suggestion of threatening the use of nuclear weapons to end the war.

September-

Walt got a $20. raise with $5. raise for cost of living per month. His weekly salary was $92.30 in 1950. They blow it by buying Walt’s desk and Jean’s sewing machine.

Oh, the rise and fall of poor Scootsy…now unused, rusty and up for sale.

October The baby boom is in full swing and at one coffee get together there are 3 pregnant women and six little kids. Everybody’s ‘doin’ it’, Jean writes.

What a change in living conditions for the Wyatt’s! From a one room tourist cabin to owning their own home, a child and soon to be another. Life was good, Christmas was coming. Dec 29, 1952 Telegram Change . Telegram A telegraph message sent by a telegraph operator (or telegrapher) using Morse code was known as a telegram or cablegram, often shortened to a cable or a wire message. The famous telegram sent by Samuel F. B. Morse from the Capitol in Washington to Alfred Vail in Baltimore in 1844: "What hath God wrought"

Most telegraph companies charged by the word, so customers had good reason to be as brief as possible. This gave telegram prose a snappy, brisk style, and the frequent omission of pronouns and articles often became almost poetically ambiguous. Telegrams were almost always brief, pointed, and momentous in a way unmatched by any other form of communication.

Despite the best efforts of Western Union and other telegraph companies, the days of the telegram were

numbered. By the end of World War II, when improvements in telephone technology made direct dialing commonplace and long-distance service inexpensive, the golden age of the telegram was over.

People continued to send telegrams for important personal occasions and urgent business throughout the 1950s, but telegraph use dropped off steadily. It is claimed that the last commercial Morse code message in North America was transmitted from a Globe Wireless station south of San Francisco on July 12, 1999.

E-mail displaces telegraphy On Monday, July 12, 1999, a final telegram was sent from the National Liberty Ship Memorial, the SS Jeremiah O'Brien, in San Francisco Bay to Bill Clinton in the White House. Sent from its wireless station at Half Moon Bay, California, the sign-off message was a repeat of Samuel F. B. Morse's message 155 years earlier, "What hath God wrought?"[ December Flood In December, Jean and Walt visited Glendale and were informed somehow that their house had flooded. They traveled over the snowy grapevine, (what a ride that must have been) and discovered that a pipe in their water heater had broken. Jean and Walt sent a telegram to reassure the Ellisons that they were all right. In conclusion

Why no phone call… that December night, we don’t know, but I find it very interesting that this story of these letters begins with a Morse code message and ends with a telegram.

We do know that Jean and Walt lived in Palo Alto for a few more months until August of 1953 when Jean, who is pregnant with me, writes that they are moving down to Southern California, and Walt is ‘on the list’ for Douglas. He did go to work for them and the family lived in Glendale with Marion and Warren for 7 months, until April 1954 when we all (I had been born) moved into our house in Garden Grove. How glad they must have been to have their daughter move within an hours drive!

More of our family’s history, and some of its mystery, will become clearer as we compile letters, photos scrapbooks and other ephemera. ‘Ephemera are transitory written and printed matter not intended to be retained or preserved. The word derives from the Greek, meaning things lasting no more than a day.’

I certainly hope you believe these letters are worth keeping.

All the images in these notes, besides photos from our albums and slides, have come from Google images. The reference material has been credited with hyperlinks whenever it seemed necessary. Special thanks to Ken for helping by scanning some of Walt and Jean’s slides. They answered a few questions and really added to the complete project.

Jean & Walt’s daughters Karen and Sue

'Dear Folks’ Letters 1948-1953 by Jean Wyatt-Part 3

Documents

Transcript of 'Dear Folks’ Letters 1948-1953 by Jean Wyatt-Part 3