Letters to "Masters Paul and Tommy Kemp" 1934

Tommy & Paul Jr. 1934

In 1934, Frances and Paul Sr. took a trip to San Francisco which included a visit to Paul Sr.'s brother, Clare. Frances and Paul each wrote a letter to the boys. Frances addresses hers to "Paul and Tommy" and Paul Sr. addresses his to "Pete and Tom." So fun to see their different perspectives and writing styles. Frances talks about the weather and Paul Sr. talks about the train engine. When Frances says that Paul Sr. feels "like a million dollars," I realized how many times we heard that phrase from him!  

Paul Sr. mentions "Uncle Cheats" (at least I think that's what he wrote).  Hopefully Paul Jr. will explain.

Paul Jr. would be 6 years old and Tommy 4. Jack and Dick hadn't appeared on the scene yet.

You can click on any of the images to enlarge it. To go to the next picture, click on the enlarged picture. Be sure to return to this post, however, so you don't miss Paul Jr.'s commentary later on in the post! To return to the post, click on the black border OR the ESC button on your computer OR the X in the upper right corner of the screen.

Here are Frances and Paul Sr. (circa 1933)

Frances and Paul Sr.

Below is a letter Paul Jr. wrote a letter to his mother. I think it dates from a couple of years later, due to the fact that it's in cursive.  (Not sure what it is he asks about in the last sentence. Paul, can you translate?)

TRANSCRIPT:

Dear Mother,

I hope I can see you soon.  We will be at the front door waiting for you.  I hope you liked the [????].  

With much love, mother,

Paul

When I was looking for photos to accompany this post, I found this (above) from about 1934 or '35.  It's a closeup of Tommy and Paul Jr. Below is the complete photo. I sent it to Paul Jr. to confirm that was indeed him.  He confirmed, and then gave some amazing background. This group is the "Gang" that also shows up in other neighborhood photos around that time period.  Here are Paul's recollections, followed by more photos of the "Gang."

FROM PAUL JR:

"From left to right, Betty Smith (Grabe’s sister), unknown, your Dad, me, Grabe Smith (lived 2 doors up from us), Henry Knudsen (de facto leader, lived about 6 houses up on the opposite side of the street), Jim Geary (neighborhood bad-boy mother wanted us to stay clear of), unknown girl, George Bermant (Josephine’s oldest, dear friend of Mother’s) lived 3 doors up from us on Plymouth at first, and as their father’s success skyrocketed moved a block over on Beachwood in a “higher rent district”).

It was Jim Geary who put the cherry bomb under the cement water meter cap in about 1936 or 7 and destroyed the meter and also the street light up above when it soared through the air. Parents of all of us had to fork over quite a few dollars to pay the city for the repairs since we were all watching and enjoying. He had already caught hell from his next door neighbor for blowing a big hole in their palm tree with a another cherry bomb.........now very illegal and then forbidden to most of us.

Behind your Dad’s head is our 1926 Hupmobile, the car whose gas tank I had earlier filled with grass clippings because I was “filling it with gas.” Had to be towed away and the entire fuel system had to be purged and reinstalled. Dad explained this to me years later and both Mother and Dad used to laugh about it but Dad said he didn’t laugh at the time because money was so tight.

Around 1932 or so Dad took me up to the corner gas station at Plymouth and Melrose and showed me how you pump gas up into the glass jar at the top of the pump structure for 5 or 10 gallons at a time and then put the hose nozzle in the car’s gas tank opening and drain the glass tank by gravity into the car. I got to pump the gas and help with the nozzle and was fascinated......hence at home later my filling of the gas tank with grass clippings..........how cute!...........Aaaarrgh said Dad.

Anne, almost all the pictures of us in the neighborhood will show these same kids in one pose or another. We were so creative in playing it was amazing. Nowadays kids are on their little electronic games and stuff where we would use our wagons to make a locomotive or dress up as Arabs or use our flexy sleds as race cars and on and on. All outdoors and healthy play and always in a gang.

In the summers, one of 4 mothers would drive us to the beach at Santa Monica or Venice almost every week day and there are dozens of little vignettes about these summer days but I’ll not tax your patience with these now."

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And here are photos of the "gang"...  

Paul Jr (on horse)

Paul Jr (on horse)

Paul Jr on far left (partly cut off), Tommy second from left

Paul Jr. and Tommy

Paul Jr. front right

Paul Jr. front right

Tommy center (with helmet strap in mouth)
 and Paul Jr. to the right of Tommy

Paul Jr in center to left of center balloon.
Tommy is behind the center balloon.

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And, to close, because it's one of my all-time favorite photos of Paul Jr and dad, here is "Cowboys" (circa 1933).  

The cowboys - Paul Jr. and Tommy

Jack's letter to his mom - May 15, 1950

Here's a letter dated May 15, 1950 from 13 year old Jack to his mom. At the time, "Dickie" was 10, and "Tommy" 19.  Paul Jr., 21, might have moved out by then, I suspect. (It's only a month and a half before Paul was to be married!)

So, Frances is away on a trip, Paul Sr. is home, and the house is a mess. It's a pretty funny letter, and gives a great sense of 13 year old Jack's personality and sense of humor. You'll get a kick out of it!  Paul Jr.'s comments on the letter are included at the end of this post.

[To enlarge, click on the image.  To go to page two, click on the enlarged image.  To return to the blog, click on the black border or ESC or the X in the upper right of the pop-up window.]

TRANSCRIPT (with a little cleaning up of spelling and punctuation):

Monday May 15, 50

Dear Mom

Thank you for the postcards.  I think Dickie is too lazy to write so he, along side of me sends his greeting to you.  The house is a mess, and Tommy hasn’t made his bed since you left.  Daddy is fine and we hope you are having a good time.  The weather stinks.  Overcast and balmy but we will live I’m sure. 

How are all the folks back there?  I don’t’ know who they are but how are they anyway?  

I made my letter and am going to buy a letterman sweater and also was elected to Colonial Council.  I’m over at the Bermant’s house now and boy is the food great.  Mrs. B. has fed and treated us all like kings, so we are going to buy her a box of candy. 

Margie left for New York all flutter flutter like most girls.  The way she was acting I thought she was going to take off and fly back (birdy like).  My Spanish grade is going so low it sounds like Chinese (get it?).

The way I interpret your letter it sounds as you’re going to take a dog sled through Wyoming and hitchhike the rest of the way home.  I hope you’re having fun because we are.  Why don’t you have the Judy's take you to some ball games so you can bring me a program back.  I was just kidding about my grades.  They’re fine.

Until I write or you write again, I’ll be seeing you.

Love, Jack

P.S.  Seriously, we can’t get by without you



3/19/12 UPDATE FROM PAUL JR:

I was not aware that Mom took a trip without Dad but at the time in 1950 I was living at USC in the fraternity house and was totally focused on campus life to the exclusion of all else.

Mother had cousins or some kind of family connection in Saint Louis. The family name was Judy, and I kind of remember a woman who visited us a couple of times called Betty Judy. We were always amused by that last name.

I suspect Mother was in Saint Louis which is why Jack probably asked for a program book. He was at the time a baseball nut and Saint Louis was home to the famous Cardinals.

Jack’s letter is hilarious to me. He’s over on Beachwood St., the next street over from Plymouth, with the Bermants.  Josephine Bermant was mother’s closest friend all through the 30’s and 40’s. She passed away shortly after this period and mother was devastated for days and days.

There were two Bermant kids, Gordon who was Jack’s age and his much older brother George who was a year or so older than me. I paled around with George a lot and we used to go to concerts and ballets together. George was an extremely bright guy and became a very successful lawyer in LA.

Paul Kemp Sr's 30th Birthday Trip - 1926

When Paul Sr. turned 30, his uncle, J. Rollin French, took him on a train trip around the country. As Paul describes it, "my fondest dreams and hopes came peeping over the horizon - an invitation to Chicago!" Uncle "Rol," as he was called, was one of Paul's mother's two brothers, and a well-known doctor in the Los Angeles area. He was one of the founders of the Golden State Hospital in L.A.

Here's a photo of Rol in later years.  [NOTE:  Click on any image to enlarge it.  To move to the next image in the pop-up window, click on the enlarged image.  To return to this post, click in the black space, OR the X in the upper right, OR the ESC button to return to this post.  Make sure you keep returning to this post as there's a lot (and I mean a lot) of explanation that will help put everything in context.]

J. Rollin French (Elva's brother)

Fortunately for us, Paul typed up a marvelous account of the trip. The copy we have is in blue type, so I suspect that it was a carbon-copy, and the original was sent as a thank you to Rol. (For those of you who never had to wrestle with carbon paper - and you can be glad of that! - it was a sheet of blue paper that you'd put in between two sheets of typing paper, so that when you'd type on the top sheet, a copy would be made in blue on the sheet below.  Unfortunately, it also meant that every mistake you made would also be copied on the sheet below.)

It is a wonderful document. It shows his love of trains, his excitement at seeing Chicago, his visit to the Henderson Motorcycle Factory, surprise visits to Neillsville, WI, Philadelphia, Washington DC, New York City, and Montreal. But the thread that runs through it all is his unabashed enthusiasm for travel, as well as his love and appreciation of his uncle. He calls his uncle Rol, "a real relative, a real friend, and a real pal."

Here are some photos of Paul from around the time of the big adventure - 1926. He's standing in front of the Aggeler & Musser Seed Co. truck. He'd started working for A & M around 1916 and then rejoined the company around 1925. No idea who the gal is.  Love the length of his tie.  Love the hat.

Paul Kemp Sr.

Flashback about 10 years.  Below is the front and back of an envelope to Paul from the Aggeler & Musser Seed Co., dated 1916. The letter inside appears to be in response to Paul asking about a position with the company. Paul would have been around 20 at the time.

Flash forward a few years. After his service in the Navy during WWI, Paul comes back to the Aggeler & Musser company.  Here are some congratulatory sales reports from the first half of 1925. These must have meant the world to him...

Below are some A & M seed catalogues from 1919 to 1927.  So beautiful!

Below are a couple of photos of the Aggeler & Musser Seed Co. Paul is in the center of the first photo, barely seen behind a box. And he's on the left in the second photo.

Aggeler & Musser Seed Co.

On the internet I found some newsletters from Aggeler and Musser.  And on the following, under "Our Market Branch Store," you'll see a variation on a now familiar photo and an even more familiar face!  Look for the short tie. (Until I saw this ad, I had no idea that the picture we had was from a company photo shoot.  I love the internet.) Sorry the zoomed-in image is so fuzzy.

Now, here is the big treat - the letter Paul wrote about his trip with Rol. It's long, but it's beautifully written and full of fun. You'll love his description of the Broadway shows they saw together. You'll feel like you're on the trip with him.  I've broken each page into two parts to make it easier to read.

And, amazingly, we also have two letters written to Paul in Chicago by his mother, Elva. She seems reluctant to use much punctuation, and crosses her t's a few letters past the t. But I especially love the description of her feelings as she watched Paul leave on the train. And I also love her advice to him to pin his cash in four different pockets, presumably so if someone picked a pocket, he'd still have three pockets of cash left!  

The letters mention a lot of different places and people, so here's a brief summary of what's what and who's who:

Neillsville, Wisconsin - where the French family was from

The Sturdevants - Paul's cousin, Elizabeth Youmans, married Clarence Sturdevant

Imogene and Marian (aka "Mimi") - two of Paul's sisters

"Pat and Billy" - Pat (Boone) and Billy Kemp, daughter and son of Willard Kemp (Paul's brother)

The Dinsdales - the family of Pat and Billy's mother, Nellie Dinsdale Kemp, who passed away when they were young. Pat and Billy were then primarily raised in Elva's home.  

Here are some photos.  First, Elva.  

Elva French Kemp

And here's Elva in a more relaxed pose, with Paul in the background. It was taken circa 1927, not too long after the big trip.

Elva and Paul Sr.

Here is a photo of Willard and an unidentified woman.

Willard Kemp

Next, Willard with his children, Billy and Pat.

Willard, Billy, and Pat (Boone)

And here's Pat and Billy. (Pat told me that she was mortified by that haircut!)

Pat (Boone) and her brother Billy Kemp

I've also included transcripts of both of Elva's letters. There are parts I can't quite make out, so if any of you can figure out the words I can't figure out, be sure to let me know! I would love to know what store she is talking about in the second letter. Note: I added some much-needed punctuation to make it easier to follow. 

Enjoy these little bits of Kemp history.  Very sweet...

TRANSCRIPT:

My dear son,

I presume by this time you are seeing the sights of Chicago. I do not know when I have ever been so happy as when I saw you walk away that morning at the depot. You did look so wonderful in your new suit.  Anyway, you are wonderful even in an old suit. I am more proud of you every day.  If you go to Neillsville try and call on the Marshes, Shusters, O’Neills, Sturdevants, Robert [?], Mrs. Celia [Benerdick?].

We are all just fine here. Louise, Imogene, Jack and I road to Ventura and had picnic lunch, then home by the way of Saugus. Our street is all fussed up and a nice big mud hole for the children to play in. I had [Monroe?] and family over for dinner last night. We had a good time.  Pat and Billy are going to spend Saturday and Sunday at the Dinsdales. They are happy to go and Mrs. D said “Now we will be getting ready for you.”

Have a good time but take time to send us a card at least every other day. Take those safety pins and divide up your cash and pin it in four different pockets. Now mind.

Worlds of love, Mother

Oct 12^th  [1926]

TRANSCRIPT:

My Dear Son,

How glad I shall be when you are here. Not that I want you to hurry. Only your smiling face is missed very much. But we all are so happy over your having this nice trip. We are anxious to hear your plans for the balance of trip. [Jimmy?] has not written a word to Robert. The little fellow never fails to ask when he comes from school, “Did I get a letter from my Daddy?”  He was so pleased to get your card.

Jack took Mary Alice, Marian, and I to San Diego. We had a lovely time and a good rest for me as I was not on my feet but very little. My knee has bothered me considerable but is much better today. I am going to see Miss Carrington. It is so foolish to put off going and doing the work I know will heal.  It is because we all do the material things first.

We have had lovely weather and things seem to be in very good shape at the store for all. They say the rainy weather brings more work. They sold two [violins?] yesterday. Pat and Bill went to the Dinsdales Friday afternoon. Pat was not feeling very well so Saturday AM I felt I could not go away without knowing just how she was. So M- and I drove down there. When Bill saw Mimi he put his arms around her neck and said “Take me home.  I cried for you last night.”  I said “Here, Bill, is a nickel and some pennies.” He said “I want a $1.00” so I gave him one and he stayed. They did not let him spend it and Pat brought it back.  I must get this in the mail box.

Worlds of love,

Mother

October 19^th  [1926]