Friday Dec 26

[no entry today]

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In my dream the sun shines and I am old and I walk on the sidewalk with a little boy. He wears strange clothes, short pants and sandals but still he wears a little brown sweater. His sandals are made of rubber, it seems, colored blue and glinting. A woman passes and smiles and asks him how old he is, I am three he tells her.

The little boy holds my hand as we walk, I lean to one side, reach down so as to keep my hand in his. I look down and see the top of his head, a pile of golden curls, he coos and sings and it is as if the voice issues forth from the curls themselves. The neighborhood is unfamiliar to me, the sidewalk is not crowded and doormen in uniforms stand and wave as we walk by. Curls of music, I tell one of them, he nods and smiles and it does not matter if he doesn't understand.

Now I am the little boy too and as I walk I step into a bit of dog dirt on the sidewalk and I stop and pick up my foot and put it back down, I begin to speak but I feel as if I might cry, I do not know what to do next. I look up and see my old self standing over me, a smiling figure with grey hair and glasses and a hat. I become my old self too and I see the little boy's distress, and I take the handkerchief from my pocket I bend down and wipe off his shoe, just a tiny bit of dirt. I fold the handkerchief and think I might discard it but now the little boy is happy again and we are walking in the park and I remember it is spring. The little boy stoops to examine a plant and I bend down to see and I can smell the damp earth and the little boy's hair, soapy and clean from his bath and I touch his curls and my heart is so full I cannot breathe and I whisper to him "It is spring, it is spring my dear one and endings do not matter."

Thursday Dec 25

[no entry today]

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Matt's Notes

No entry from Papa today, but we can picture him taking a good, long look at the morning papers on his day off. The Christmas edition of the New York Times has what seems like an unusually large complement of macabre stories, with tales of a crashed plane, a sunken boat, and a wrecked train accompanying more typical accounts of auto accidents and crimes gone awry. So follow me, if you dare, to look at some of the headlines that might have caught Papa's eye:

• SAMARITAN IS ROBBED.; Stoops to Aid Man Feigning Collapse and Faces Pistol.
• EIGHT PERSONS DIE IN LONDON TO PARIS AIR EXPRESS CRASH; Plane Bursts Into Flames as It Dives to Ground After Leaving Croydon.
• CROWD SEES WIFE STABBED TO DEATH; Woman Attacked on Her Way to Work in Upper Broadway Delicatessen Store. SAY HUSBAND CONFESSED Police Doubt His Story That He Used Fountain Pen -- Couple Had Separated.
• GUN GOES OFF; WOMAN DEAD; Casper Schmidt of Middletown, Conn., Charged With Manslaughter.
• HEARSE BURNS AT HOSPITAL; Auto Backed Against Heat Pipe and Gas Tank Explodes.
• SLAYS THE WOMAN HE TWICE MARRIED; Randolph Man Kills Her After Abduction Charge Following Recent Divorce.
• WHOLE FACULTY DIES WHEN STEAMER SINKS; Twenty-nine Russian University Professors and Their Families Drown Off Odessa.
• HOLIDAY SHOPPER KILLED BY A TAXI; Wife of Theatre Treasurer Is Run Down in Broadway at Eighty-first Street.
• Two Are Crushed and Burned under Train When Auto Skids Through Gates at Crossing

Some of the less gruesome stories of interest to Papa might have been:

• BIG PARADE FOR SMITH.; Over 3,500 State Troops to March at Governor's Inauguration. - Papa admired New York Governor Al Smith's pro-labor policies and had rooted for his nomination during the 1924 Democratic Presidential Convention. As an activist in both labor and Zionist causes, Papa took a keen interest in politics even though he was not yet a voting citizen.
• 500,000 GERMAN RADIO FANS.; Only 2,000 a Year Ago -- 100,000 New Ones a Month Now Expected. - Papa was an early radio enthusiast, as we well know by now, so I'm sure he would have have followed any news about the developing broadcast industry with great interest. (This day's paper also carried an account of the first-ever Christmas service broadcast from St. Paul's Chapel in New York over WEAF, one of Papa's favorite stations.) It's odd to think there was a time when I didn't know this about Papa, but it was a real surprise when I discovered it back in January. I suppose it's normal, but I must say I'm getting sentimental about the early days of this project as Papa's diary reaches its final pages.
• NEW YEAR'S WEEK OPERAS.; " Falstaff" Revival and "Meistersinger" Among Ten Performances. - Papa had attended performances at the Met quite frequently toward the end of 1924, and there's no reason to think he didn't keep it up for the rest of the opera season. Some of the productions mentioned in this article that he might have been looking forward to include "Falstaff," "Mesitersinger," "Parsifal," "Fedora" and "Aida."
• RUSH TO SEE 'THE MIRACLE.'; Police Halt Stampede in Cleveland -- Seat Sale Over $250,000. - This article refers to the road tour of a high-profile theatrical extravaganza that Papa caught at the Century Theatre earlier in the year. (He called it "the most stupendous production I've ever seen" at the time.) The Times article likens the "stampede for the box office" to "the scene...which takes place prior to the initial struggle of the baseball world's series."
• UNIONS TO SPEND $1,000,000 ON HOMES; Needle Trade Organizations Plan to Erect Block of Model Apartment Buildings. - Though Papa has written mostly about his Zionist activism in his diary, he was an equally enthusiastic labor activist and would likely have known about this story -- a planned low-rent housing complex in the Bronx for members of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, the Furriers' Union and the Cap Makers' Union -- before it appeared in the paper. In case you're wondering, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. eventually took over this project, and the results was a low-cost cooperative called Thomas Garden Apartments at 840 Mott Avenue (now called Grand Concourse) at 158th Street.
• ROBINSON UNDERGOES A SECOND OPERATION; Manager of Brooklyn Robins Is Reported in Good Condition at Baltimore Hospital. - Papa was a big baseball fan and seemed equally fond of all three New York teams (though I am reluctant to acknowledge the statistical evidence that hints at his preference for the Yankees in 1924). I'm sure any scrap of baseball news would have been welcome on this cold and snowy day, even an account of Wilbert Robinson's pleurisy surgery.

Sunday October 12

[no entry]

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In my dream I am in Prospect Park and I sit on the ground beneath a tree. In front of me I see an electric fan much like the one I own. It has no plug or wire yet still it turns, the grass in front of it blows and bends. To my delight a rabbit turns up and stands in front of the fan. It is a curious creature, it does not look like a real rabbit it is more like something from the humorous cartoons I see at the movies. It hops up and down in front of the fan and smiles. It makes no sound and I am so happy just to watch. "This is what it's like to have a rabbit of your own," I tell it. I have a book in my hand and I open it and point to a page, I hold it out to the rabbit but of course it is too young to read.

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Note: Papa accidentally wrote his entry for October 19 on the October 12 page of his diary; this is why the thumbnail image for this post shows handwriting even though there is no entry from Papa.

Sunday Sept 7

Empty

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Matt's Notes

Papa feels his lowest when he's alone or unoccupied. I suppose he sat home on this strangely cool Sunday evening and surrounded himself with dreamy images of a life not his own: a wife near at hand, a child standing by his chair, asking him questions and trusting his answers, the room bright and warm and filled with the trappings of a life well-lived, ever changing, evolving, surprising. In this daydream he is very much like his departed father, a gentle, steady presence who has survived his days of loneliness and boredom and doubt and now wonders: Did that really happen? I cannot be so happy now when once, not long ago, I sat alone with my radio headphones and newspapers and plate and cup, surrounded by ghosts of what might never be, ghosts who seemed more alive than I, bragging ghosts who flaunted what I did not have, noisy, distracting, so brilliant in their spite I was unable to mark my diary with anything but a single word: Empty.

It really happened, but still, Papa, this was you:

Friday Sept 5

When Papa says nothing it is because he thinks his day was worth nothing. He goes to work, he comes home to his radio, he thinks about his father, he feels no closer to whatever should happen next than he did ten years before. He is flooded by the past, he can barely stay afloat, he is so tired from the effort he cannot lift his eyes and make for what's ahead. He becomes a ghost in his own body, a guest so courteous he remains unseen, too polite to even mark a page. Some days I wish I understood him better; some days I wish I didn't understand him so well.

Yet:

Thursday Sept 4

[no entry]

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No entry from Papa usually means he's unhappy with his life and feels like nothing is worth reporting. I think this is the case today; yesterday's entry signaled a darkening mood even though he'd been on a mild upswing before the Labor Day holiday.

I would assume he stayed home and listened to the radio and read the newspaper. Here are some New York Times headlines that might have caught his eye:

• MEMOIRS PLANNED BY FRANKS SLAYER; Leopold Makes His Will on Jail Paper -- Is Prepared to Live or Die.
• Flies From Boston to New York in 58 Minutes; Round Trip Made in 2 Hours and 12 Minutes
• THREE TO DIE FOR POGROMS.; Red Court in Ukraine Sentences Dereschtschik and His Aids.
• SAYS HYLAN TRICKS PUBLIC ON CONCERTS; People Pay for Music for Which Mayor Takes Credit, Harriet Blair Williams Asserts.
• TEXAN PLANK NAMES KLAN.; Democratic Convention Adopts a Resolution Condemning Order.
• RADIO PLANE CONTROL GAINS; Secret British Tests Include Launching of Winged Bombs.
• ASSURE COOLIDGE OF BIG MAJORITY; Party Leaders Report Bright Prospects in All Sections of the Country.
• DEMOCRATS ELATED BY REPORTS IN WEST; National Leaders Confer Here on Having Davis Continue His Trip to the Coast.
• YANKS GAIN IN RACE BY BEATING RED SOX; Take Final Contest of Series, 11-6, and Advance Half a Game on the Senators.
• Child Is Born With Two Heads.

Wednesday Aug 27

[no entry]

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Nothing from Papa today, so I thought I'd share this photo of him, in which he seems to be a little older than in his photos from the early 1920's. It looks like it was taken in a photo booth, perhaps on the Coney Island boardwalk, some time around 1930. Had he already met my grandmother? Had he, at this point, finally overcome the forces of stasis and dispatched the unfulfilled longing he suffered from and wrote about in 1924?



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And here are some notable New York Times headlines that might have caught Papa's eye on this day:

• Henry Ford Defends Klan As a Body of Patriots
  
  
• Ohio Democrats Denounce the Ku Klux Klan, Putting Davis's Statement Into Their Platform
  
  
• COOLIDGE STUDIES KU KLUX KLAN ISSUE; President Reads Many Letters to Him Giving Various Views on the Klan.
  
  
• Flier Going 105 Miles an Hour Broadcasts to Nassau County -- Looks like radio communication from a moving airplane was still a novelty in 1924.
  
  
• RADIO CONFERENCE CALLED BY HOOVER; Better Regulation of Wireless to Be Discussed -- Public to Be Represented. -- The explosive popularity of radio, and the crowding of the airwaves, demanded some kind of government action. Herbert Hoover, then Secretary of Commerce and a friend of big business (as was his boss, President Coolidge) was loathe to regulate anything but called a bunch of conferences to ask broadcasters, many of them large corporations, how they'd like to regulate themselves. Not surprisingly and despite Hoover's occasional rhetoric to the contrary, commercialism and the influence of corporations dictated the development of the broadcasting industry during this period.
  
  
• ASSAILS ALIENISTS OF FRANKS SLAYERS; Prosecutor, in Last Argument, Scores 'Twaddle' of the 'Three Wise Men of the East.' -- The Leopold and Loeb trial was wrapping up. In his summation, defense attorney Clarence Darrow had made an eloquent plea to save his clients from the death penalty. Prosecuting attorney Robert E. Crowe now attempted to counter Darrow's arguments, and ridicule the psychologists who helped support them, in a strident, passionate speech. Darrow prevailed, and Leopold and Loeb were sentenced to life in prison plus 99 years.

Thursday Aug 21

Nothing from Papa today. Perhaps he's exhausted from all the attention he's been getting from women over the past couple of days. If he had enough energy to look at the papers, here's what might have caught his eye in the New York Times:

POLITICS NEVER POLITE. -- Remember, there was a Presidential campaign underway in 1924. Even though the Democratic nominee, John W. Davis, had no real chance after his party's contentious convention back in July, he was still out there campaigning. This editorial takes the Republicans to task for complaining about Davis' tough language on the stump.

ARGUE FOR HANGING OF FRANKS SLAYERS; State Prosecutors Call Leopold and Loeb Fiends, While the Youths Listen Unmoved. -- I admit this might be more interesting to me than to Papa since I just finished Compulsion, Meyer Levin's excellent, thinly fictionalized account of the Leopold and Loeb saga. Still, the trial was a national sensation, so perhaps Papa was following along.

MOVIE OPERATORS VOTE TO STRIKE; Union to Collect Defense Fund of $200,000 for Strife to Begin Sept. -- As a labor activist and movie lover, Papa must have been intrigued by the prospect of a movie operators' strike (I think projectionists called themselves movie operators in those days). Negotiations broke off a week later, but theater owners apparently had no problem finding operators from outside The Motion Picture Operators' Union, Local 306.

Today's Radio Program - The Times radio listings (they appear to be a new innovation in August 1924, but I need to figure out when they first started appearing) show that Papa might have heard some of the following if he spent the evening at home with his headphones:

• WEAF: Vladimir Karapepoff, Piano; "Modern Children's Crusade," by Jackie Coogan
• WNYC: Jascha Gurewich, saxophone; Sam Perry and Herbert Clair, piano duets; "Physical Examination of Food Handlers by the Occupational Clinic," by Dr. Rudolph Rapp; Police alarms, stolen automobiles, missing persons, weather forecasts.
• WJZ: Gotham Hotel Orchestra; French lesson; Waldorf-Astoria Orchestra

Friday Aug 15

?

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Matt's Notes

Like yesterday and the day before, Papa finds nothing interesting to report about his day and, with a single question mark, asks whether his life is worth discussing at all.

Slowly, slowly, in the coming years he would realize his life mattered. But on this day he had only a vague sense that it should, but not how it would.

Thursday Aug 14

?

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Matt's Notes

It's late summer and the year is moving along, and Papa's diary entries are starting to feel increasingly precious. I'm hungry for any shred of information about what he did on even the most ordinary day. But as he did yesterday, Papa looks at his life and questions whether there's really anything worth reporting. Each day without monumental change feels uninteresting to him, adds to his sense of stasis, and therefore qualifies only for a quick, resigned shake of the head and a helpless-looking question mark on a page.

[posted from Mexico]

Wednesday Aug 13

?

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Matt's Notes

For Papa to write nothing but a question mark obviously means more than if he left a page blank or wrote something simple like "nothing of significance" or even "dull." It's as if we've asked him how his life is going and he's responded with a sad little shrug.

Thursday July 31

[no entry]

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No word from Papa today, but here's what was going on in the world:

ALL-DAY FIGHT OPENS MOVE TO GAIN MERCY FOR FRANKS SLAYERS; Defense Seeks to Show Mitigating Mental Disease by Testimony of Experts. [Clarence Darrow opened his defense in the Leopold and Loeb trial, though he would eventually advise his clients to plead guilty. Eventually spared the death penalty, Loeb would be murdered in prison while Leopold was paroled after 33 years.]

CROWDS GREET DAVIS ON WAY TO NEW YORK; Candidate, Warmly Welcomed at Rockland and Bath, Makes Brief Speeches. [Democratic Presidential candidate John W. Davis, back from an eleven-day vacation in Maine, began his campaign in earnest.]

Rye Bread Cost Rises in Vienna. [I figure Papa might have been interested in the price of bread in Vienna since he was Austro-Hungarian. Rye bread was, according to the Times, "the people's (sic) staple diet it Austria."]

THOMAS HITS DAVIS FOR STAND ON LABOR; Socialist Nominee for Governor Says Democratic Leader Has Never Acted for People. [As a union activist, Papa would probably have read anything about John W. Davis's relationship with labor.]

GOMPERS OPPOSES ENDORSING PARTIES; Declares Federation Executive Won't Pick Any Candidates at Atlantic City Meeting. [After some well-publicized consideration, Samuel Gompers decided not to throw the support of the American Federation of Labor behind any Presidential candidate, saying "...the one hope for the wage earners on the political field lies in being partisan to principles and not to political organizations."]

AIR MAIL MAKES GOOD; And New York-San Francisco Service Will Be Continued. [After a thirty-day trail of transcontinental airmail, the Postal Service decided to make the New York-San Francisco run permanent. According to airmailpioneers.org, "The schedule required departure from the initial termini in the morning and arrival at the end of the route late in the afternoon of the next day." Night flying, only a two-year-old practice among Postal Service pilots, made this schedule possible.]

Tuesday July 29

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Matt's Notes

Ever since his father died back in May, Papa has shown a tendency to leave his diary pages blank when he's feeling especially low. He's shown a pronounced shift into such a mood over the last week or so, though I'm not sure whether something specific triggered it or whether it's just part of the ebb and flow of mourning. (It does seem to have roughly coincided with his return to work after a forced three-week break, so even though he's happy to be making money again, perhaps the monotony of factory work has given him a sense of inertia.)

Tuesday May 27

[no entry]

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Matt's Notes

This isn't the first time Papa has left a page of his diary blank, but under the current circumstances -- he's still mourning his father, has a forced week off from work due to the slack summer season, and is generally prone to depression when idle -- his silence seems more loaded.

Still, I'm sure he read the papers that day, so here are a couple of headlines that might have caught his eye:

• CONFIDENT SMITH WILL BE NOMINATED; F.D. Roosevelt Says West Is Turning to Governor as a Real Leader.
• M'ADOO, IF BEATEN, EXPECTED TO SWING HIS VOTES TO GLASS; Virginia Senator Now Looms as Important "Dark Horse" for Democratic Nomination.

These were the only two articles in New York Times that day about the upcoming Presidential election, even though 1924 was an election year and the Democratic National Convention was coming to New York in a month. Quite different from the amount of campaign coverage we see in May 2007, even though the election is over a year away.

Some other items of interest for Papa would have included a blurb on the installation of new officers at the American Jewish Historical Society (a group that's been helpful to this project, by the way) baseball coverage about a Giants win and Yankee and Dodger losses, and reviews of the films Cytherea and the now-legendary Sherlock, Jr. with Buster Keaton.

Thursday Apr 17

[no entry]

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Matt's Notes

This is the third day in a row without an entry from Papa. I'm worried that I haven't heard from him, as if he were alive.

I don't think he was too busy to write in his diary, since he usually reported a full day's events even if he got home late. Maybe he just went to work and spent the evening listening to the radio and reading the paper.



Some New York Times headlines that might have caught his eye that day included:

• FLOOD OF MESSAGES POURS IN ON SMITH; Congratulations and Wishes of Good Luck Follow Action on Candidacy - This refers to New York Governor Al Smith, who officially became a Presidential candidate after his nomination at the Democratic State Convention.
• TWO HOMERS HELP GIANTS BEAT ROBINS - The results of the opening day, 7-1 victory for the New York Giants over the Brooklyn Robins (a.k.a. Dodgers)
• YANKS' RALLY FAILS AND RED SOX WIN, 9-6 - The defending champion Yankees lost their opening day game (on their way to a second place finish).
• RUSSIANS PREFER 'TARZAN' TO MARX; Also Scrap Red Propaganda for O. Henry, Wells, Jack London and Conan Doyle. - The Times quotes a Russian newspaper story in which a "Soviet poet is shocked" at the popularity of Western writers in his country. "We publish books and pamphlets about Marxism and our great revolution. We encourage young authors to interpret its spirit and inspire the masses. We even issue cheap editions of the Russian classics. But the public reads -- what? -- 'Tarzan'".

Wednesday Apr 16

[no entry]

Matt's Notes

Since there's no entry today, I figured I'd share this picture of me and Papa from around 1968. This must be in my family's Manhattan apartment, where we lived until I was around three.

Note how he keeps a tight grip on that length of string, lest my plastic lamb attain an unsafe rate of speed.



If you're just getting started with Papa's Diary Project, here are a few good topics to jump into:

• B'nai Zion
• The 20th Century Girl
• Sniatyn
• Papa's Father's Injury

And please don't ignore my Cry For Help.

Tuesday Apr 15

[No entry today]

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Matt's Notes

Here's what might have intrigued Papa in the papers on this day:

• New York City received approval for a planned municipal broadcasting station called CONY.
• Baseball season opened with the Yankees up in Boston and the Dodgers and Giants playing each other at the Polo Grounds
• Young slugger Lou Gehrig, the pride of Columbia University, was sent to the Yankees' minor league team in Hartford
• "Danzig Welcomes Jews": "Plans are being perfected by the leaders of Jewish societies for the establishment in the Free City of Danzig of a special university for Jewish students discriminated against in the universities of Eastern Europe."
• A Wesleyan Professor who knew Woodrow Wilson attested to Wilson's "Profound Faith in God." (Papa was a great admirer of President Wilson.)
  
• "Urges American Jews to Be More Jewish": "To keep the American Jew Jewish was the determination stirring delegates of the American Union of Hebrew Congregations at its conference which closed today, according to David A. Brown of Detroit, who was made Chairman of a committee created to prepare a financing program."