William Horberg

Loss of Innocence

The process of transcribing the "vernacular letters" from the huge cache of one family's correspondence dating back to the 1870's that I found in an old box at a flea market has mostly been one of reclaiming the innocence of the lost art of epistolary writing, as Janet wrote in her last comment.

The letters themselves, handwritten, often focused on mundane or prosaic details of everyday life, or on the writer or readers dependence on getting and sending letters as a way to connect, often seem like the very artifacts of innocence.

Today's letter is dated from April 1951, and is written from Houston, Texas by Rosena, and her casual approving reference to her new country club's policy of not admitting Jews, while hardly startling coming from that part of the country and that time and place, certainly jumped out at me as I was deciphering her text. There was something so throwaway about the remark, something that made it seem so utterly unremarkable for the writer to write or the reader to read in the comfortable honesty of this private correspondence, that it had an impact on me, a loss of innocence.

And of course made me question my own moral complicity, or loss of innocence, in making this old private correspondence public and airing this unflattering bit of prejudice.

                                                                                            April 27, 1951

 Dear Mother and Margie,

          We always start worrying enough to write on the same day and our letters cross. I didn’t mean to let it go so long either.

          We have had wonderful cool weather up to now and are just getting into summer cottons and shorts. I packed the blankets away twice and had to drag them out but guess they are away now till next December.

          We would love to have you both come down to visit any time you can – it will be hot as you know and we probably won’t have as much free time as we used to but this summer we belong to a lovely club with a swimming pool so maybe that would make up for the heat, etc. We hope to spend a lot of time there – weekends anyway, and we know you would enjoy that. We will doubtless have our noses to the grindstone all summer.

          Last night we had a truck stolen and last week the warehouse was broken into and robbed – it was a mess. We are so tired of all of this trouble – it will almost have to end soon because just about everything that could happen – has happened. Some days we just don’t know what to worry about first – we have such a wide choice!

          The girls are fine and so is the Little Colonel. School is out in six weeks.

          I don’t know what Chloe wants for her birthday. She is very much a little girl and likes most everything. She is doing real well in school – gets much better marks than Susan did – all B’s with a few A’s.

          Sue is going to a boy and girl party Saturday night at 7:30 and they are going to waltz. Sue says “Aren’t they going to do anything else?” She is mostly interested in baseball, hopscotch and her precious dolls right now.

          We have gone out a few times lately, mostly to the dances at the club, but we can’t seem to get our old carefree attitude back when we are supposed to be having fun. We are going to a dinner dance this coming Friday so I have been concocting a summer dance dress – white organdy skirt, black linen top. It may be real snappy. Elaine and I bought the skirts last summer on sale and I never got around to wearing mine mostly because it had to be shortened and have a full stiff half-step under it. All the stores have been having sales this week so I spent my birthday money on a beautiful big black straw cartwheel to go with my one snazzy outfit for the season – a two piece black linen dress. Now everything I have is black. But with the black skirt I’m going to wear that beautiful tucked natural linen blouse I got last summer. I also got natural linen shoes + hat so I’m all fixed in linen and then some. The rest of the time I wear shorts & go barefooted as you know.

          Have you seen Helen? Have had a letter or two from her but haven’t written.

          Ronnie just flew back from Police Dept. + found our truck had been stolen by three boys who used it to rob a grocery store of a safe containing $4,000. Police picked up the boys + our truck at 1 a.m. and we didn’t even know it had been stolen until 7 a.m. this morning so they had the thieves and truck when Ronnie called this a.m. However it has to be repaired, glass broken, etc.

         Do hope you can both come down – if you feel summer is impossible, th fall is lovely. The heat doesn’t bother me too much any more and with the pool to look forward to anytime we want to go it won’t seem quite so bad.

          We are awfully happy with our club – it is new – started about a year ago with a lovely building, beautiful pool – all new and very nice people – family club + no Jews. Our doctor and one of Ronnie’s River Oaks fraternity brothers proposed our names + we were taken in last fall shortly before “The Mess” started so we have not felt like nor had time to be out there much though there is something to do all the time. They have a fine dining room, so whenever we go out for dinner it is usually there, but we sure haven’t done much of that lately either.

          This is a long letter for me. Promised the family strawberry short cake tonight so have to do the Friday shopping early.

          I was supposed to have the week off from the office to get our summer clothes in shape, clean closets, put stuff in mothballs and I haven’t done a darn thing except get all the cottons out + pack the woolies away – took a day because it all has to be done at once – no room for both sets anyplace. I haven’t ever got my Jungle planted. I did my shopping though.

          Let us know when you are coming!

                                                                          Lots of love,

                                                                          Rosena

Her description of the club scene, her daughter's waltz parties, and the great detail in which she describes her winter and summer wardrobe for some reason evoked a mental image for me of the country club that Rock Hudson, Lauren Bacall, Robert Stack and Dorothy Maguire attend in Douglas Sirk's Texas-set 1950's masterpiece "Written on the Wind".

I wonder if those characters were given a chance to be honest in the context of that melodrama, what they would have said about allowing Jews in their club?

Of course upon further reflection, today there is so much bigotry right out in the open on proud public display that perhaps this letter and that remark seem quaint, if not innocent, after all?

What do you think?

william

 

Ecclesiastes Goes To The Movies

What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which one can say, "Look! This is something new"? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time. There is no remembrance of men of old, and even those who are yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow.

Man, was this cat Ecclesiastes the head of marketing at a major studio?

Enjoy!

william

A Simply Wonderfully Boy

It was fun to discover this letter from The Box which turns out to have been written just a few days before I was born in 1959.

In this case, the writer talks about coming of age (although whether she is sixteen or eighteen is a bit unclear to me), her "eye-popping" new sweater, and gossips about the various boys she has been dating, and about her relationship with poor Don with whom she has broken up and is still pining for her, but "has no God to believe in" which the writer believes to be at the root of all of his shiftless problems.                                                                                               

 

                                                                                           Feb. 26, 1959

                                                                                           Thursday

Dear Dantie,

I really made it. I’m finally of age - - for just about anything now, the funny thing is though, I don’t feel one bit different.

As usual you hit the nail right on the head. I can’t think of a thing this pin won’t do wonders for. It’s gorgeous. Mother says it is an awful lot like the one you gave her several years ago. Oh, I love it so much. I bet I’m still wearing it 60 years from now, its just that kind of thing. Thank you so much.

I’ll bet you think a lot of me. I was the one that was going to write so often – remember (I hope you didn’t). Things have been awfully busy around here though. The night we left you at the train I had a blind date. Boy was he darling. We went out to dinner to a real nice restaurant. By the time we had finished all the shows were closed so we went over to a girl’s house and listened to her Hi-Fi. It was really fabulous. Also during the holidays I met a simply wonderfully boy. His name is Frank S---- and he goes to San Marco Military Academy, a Baptist school in San Antonio. He took me out several times before he had to go back to school. He was just visiting a friend here in Houston during the Christmas holidays but said he would come over if he got to come back for Easter. Frank had moved from Cal. to Arabia when he was seven and lived there for the past eight years. His life had really been exciting, living in Sweden, Rome, England, Switzerland and Arabia. His parents still live there and he goes back every summer to see them for three months. One night we went to the International Club (Shamrock Hilton, I think you’ve been there) and we had a fabulous steak dinner and wonderful floor show with J.P. Morgan. Also there has been the football banquet, school dance, and dates with other boys. I have been out with Leslie too. He is really lots of fun.

Now, there is a lot to say about Don. I really hope I’m not boring you with all this. The first day back at school I wore my new ski sweater and everyone went wild over it. I’m not exaggerating either. If you could have seen some of those boys, some I hadn’t even known before complimented me on it – and Don, his eyes nearly popped out but he still didn’t speak to me. But that didn’t last too long. He has asked me out several times, the latest being last weekend but I came right out and told him NO. He called Sun. nite and talked for quite a while. I was perfectly frank with him and maybe a little too blunt but I think it might have helped. He told me that he knew that he wasn’t a very good example for anyone too follow and that he wasn’t getting much of anyplace the way he conducted himself. He is sick. He always feels tired and can’t seem to get enough energy to do anything. Like the rest of the Srs. he is just drifting along waiting for the last three months to drag by and these 12 years will be behind us. Although he calls and tells me that he realizes his many mistakes and is going to try and correct them, he will turn right around the next day and fall back into the same old ways. I have truthfull gotten over all feelings for him except those of a friend who would be willing to help him if he wanted me. Don is also a good friend I can count on.

He’s very interested in the boys I date and wants to make sure they are all of good character. He has never told me this but Paul did, and I can trust Paul. I’m sure that Don will come out of this someday, and then he will be a very fine person. His trouble point blank is that he has no God to believe in.

Now for the last boy in my life. Just six weeks ago I met Rex R-----. He sings in the choir at First Baptist Church, downtown right next to Sackowitz, and oh what a voice. Dantie it’s simply marvelous – deep, low, smoothe. His family lives in Oklahoma, he lives in an apartment here in town, works downtown and is 22. I’ve been going to Church with him every Sunday and to fellowship every evening. He is very handsome, well mannered and oh so nice. We get along just beautifully. Now I must speak of him in the past tense. Rex just got drafted! I can see that this is going to be the first of my troubles with that terrible Draft Board. Rex and I really might have gone some place, but that’s just life.

Finals came up not too long ago. I made “B” or better on all of them, of which I am very proud.

I also spent two weeks at Auntie Vada’s. It was simply wonderful. We sat around and really got to know each other. My, she’s wonderful and she thinks the world of you. Vada said you and she had known each other for a long, long, time. Teddy and Vada just left our house and she said to be sure and send her love. She was so pleased to think that you thought enough of her to come and spend a night over there.

Oddly, since the envelope and the seven neatly written and folded pages inside are all intact, the letter abruptly ends here, so we don't have the benefit of knowing the name of the author, nor the ability to connect this letter to the other correspondence and lives in the box.

Perhaps further investigation will yield clues that can lead us to make a safe guess?

Enjoy!

william

Wanda

You've never seen a character in American film quite like Barbara Loden's "Wanda Goransky".

Written and directed and starring Loden, an actress who was married to Elia Kazan and had small but interesting roles in his films "Wild River" and "Splendor in the Grass" as well as a well-regarded turn on Broadway in Arthur Miller's "After The Fall", Loden struck out on her own to make one of the seminal but little-seen independent films in American cinema with her 1970 feature "Wanda", which was restored and presented this past weekend at UCLA's festival of preservation.

As a portrait of a divorced and unemployed woman living a rootless life without meaning in and around Scranton and the coal country of Pennsylvania, Loden manages to subvert her natural beauty in a naked, uninflected portrayal of a woman on such a downward trajectory that by the final freeze frame of her, barely conscious in yet another roadside bar amongst strangers, the power of her vision is complete and unrelenting, yet somehow also tender and beautiful.

Photographed and edited by her collaborator and filmmaking parter Nick Proferes, a colleague of D.A. Pennebaker in the 60's cinema verite movement, it has been described as a film that has the faded look of "24 Polaroids a second". Shot in 16mm on Kodak Ektachrome stock, it also has a wonderful eye for composition and for finding the true moments and imagery to convey Wanda's external journey and inner state of mind.

Co-starring Michael Higgins as a hard man she meets while he is robbing the bar she has stumbled into to use the rest room and try to cadge a free drink and some bar food, Wanda and "Mr. Dennis" go on a local road trip of petty crime culminating in a poorly conceived and ultimately failed attempted bank robbery. Loden was apparently offered and turned down the Fay Dunaway role in "Bonnie and Clyde", and I read that she conceived of "Wanda' in some ways as a rebuke to what she felt was the romanticized approach that Arthur Penn and his cast took to the depiction of those characters and their world.

Wanda was inspired by Loden reading a newspaper article about a woman thanking a judge for sentencing her to twenty years in prison, and although Wanda Goransky never goes to jail in the movie, you can't help but wonder what kind of release is possible for her from her dour daily existence?

A must see!

william

In Old Chicago (redux)

Well, I couldn't find a matchbook from The Cart, but I did find this vintage photo of the bar inside the restaurant (from John Chuckman's great website of Chicago imagery).

Situated at Harrison and Wabash, The Cart was just down the street from another long time Chicago institution that fascinated me in my youth, the Universal Bowling Store, with its glittering array of polished bowling balls displayed on metal "trees" that made the windows of the store look like some multi-colored seasonal celebration from The Jetsons.

Chuckman's site also offered up this image of another Chicago "theme" restaurant, this one far from the wood paneled walls and old world flavor of The Cart.

I never ate at the Sky-Hi nor do I have any memory of it. It was located on the far West side near Cicero. Our family's most frequented restaurant for many years was Hoe Kow; part of a weekly Sunday night ritual of Jewish families out on the town eating Chinese Food.

 

I could only find this old matchbook but it does bring back lots of memories of my grandmother and egg rolls and charcoal barbequed meats and fortune cookies and getting dressed up for dinner so we could see and be seen by other aspitational middle-class Jewish families.

If Old Chicago was a Monopoly board, Hoe Kow Restaurant might be my Baltic Avenue, a bit low rent, but with all of the memories associated with it, one of my most coveted properties!

Enjoy!

william

The Talking Forest

 

Shhhhhhhhh.

Enjoy!

william

Our Schools

Sometimes pictures just don't tell the story.

There was something just too adorable about the early morning sight of the parents and children at Natalie's elementary school gathered along Melrose Avenue with their homemade signs for what surely was the first civic protest of most of their young lives.

The smiling faces and infectious energy of youth added to the positive spirit of the event, but felt somehow too divorced from the grim reality of the LAUSD and our crumbling public education system; our mismanaged resources and our misplaced priorities as a society.

Like schools all across the state and country, Natalie's school is being hit hard by budget cuts. Four beloved teachers are getting pink slips and already overcrowded classrooms will bulge even further. Teacher to student ratios that would have been unheard of a generation ago are now the norm and getting worse.

Custodial staff, medical assistance, special needs classes, and of course any arts-based curriculum are all among the hardest hit and first to go in the new reality.

It was nice to see a community pull together and organize and speak out in protest, but without any media attention and only the encouraging honks of passing cars to demonstrate solidarity with our cause, it felt insufficient to even begin to stem the tide of losses that are affecting the real lives and futures of both teachers and students.

There is so much money in this economy - how is it possible that we spend trillions of dollars in Iraq and Afghanistan, bail out banks so they can dole out mega-bonuses, and can't afford to pay the meager salary of a second grade teacher.

Should education only be a privilege for those who can afford it?

Shame on us!

william

P.S. I know I promised one of Natalie's original picture books in my last post, but I had to get this online now to get the message out. The "bookmaker" will return with her creation on Friday!

The Bookmaker

My daughter is a "bookie".

Yes, some parents might not take pride in that fact, but where I come from its no shame.

No, I'm not talking about some teeny tot calculating the over/under at Saratoga Springs, the Sky Masterson of the second grade, the oddest oddsmaker since Titanic Thompson.

Natalie is definitely into "making book", but in her case, she is literally into making books, and she is quite literary about it as well!

Here is her instructive primer for any of you out there inspired to join in:

So, how many books would a bookmaker make if a bookmaker could make books?

Natalie's homemade printing press is churning out new editions by the day!

Next, one of Natalie's original publications for your reading pleasure. Odds are, you're going to like it!

Enjoy!

william

In Old Chicago

Excuse my esoteric bent today but I found these old matchbooks from a few vintage Chicago businesses and had to share them with you as an homage to the lost world of my youth. For those of you out there who grew up around Belmont Avenue and Sheridan Road in the Lincoln Park neighborhood in the 60's, this first one is a trip down memory lane.

I'm sure I remember this dude Jack's face from around the neighborhood.

I never worked at the Barry, but I did have a job as a delivery boy for Pinsky's pharmacy which was located in the former Belmont Hotel just around the corner. It was kind of a creepy gig as the hotel was a faded transient pile of bricks that noir poet Cornell Woolrich would have been at home living in and writing about, had he not been dying of gangrene in New York City at the time. 

 

The Club Alabam was really before my time, although North Rush Street was still the home for the tail end of the jazz chanteuse music scene that seems to be promised by this enticement.

 

But the Como Inn was one of my longtime favorite spots and was still going strong serving thousands of patrons every weekend to heaping plates of pasta and glasses of Chianti or the kind of marbleized giant steaks pictured above.

There was also a place downtown called The Cart which took the business of beef quite seriously and used to come to the table with this giant metal rolling trolley housing a huge side of beef and a waiter dressed in a white robe and chef's hat holding a huge carving knife so the patron could make his selection of cut and size. The blood stains on the front of his apron just added to the overall effect of carnivorous bacchanalia.

If anyone finds a match book from The Cart, I'll post it here!

Enjoy!

william

Texas Celebrates Thanksgiving

Could it possibly be true that in 1956 the state of Texas celebrated Thanksgiving a week later than the rest of the country?

So says "Tot" in her letter here to "Marge". But perhaps in jest?

                                                                                    Wed. Dec. 5 – 56

Dear Marge. Its only eight a.m. The last of the four to leave a few minutes ago was Susan. Ro and Ron left at 6:30 – Chloe about 7:30 & then in a cloud of dust. Susan. I’m a wreck every morning just keeping out of the way – till they are all gone.     Marge the weather is just beautiful here now. Up to 75 to 78 during the day. About 65 at night. All day yesterday I watched the Cowan children play around barefooted. Lois pops in a couple of times a day & she was barefooted too. Our children never are – except occasionally in the house.

Chloe and I have been making out our Christmas lists. Don’t know whether I will get down town or not – but am planning along the theory that I will. Am still quite bad off & tho the actual misplacements are corrected there are still torn and weak ligaments to heal. Well to the Christmas list which may help you. From all I hear the Nelsons think they should keep Christmas simple – at least that is the talk I hear – you & I are sure it should be so lets plan from there: I thought you and I could give Ro & Ron together a Universal Coffee-Maker. That is the percolater type which is what they want. I can get it I think here for around $15.00 – the 8-10 cup size. (They still need wastebaskets, mirrors, a card table, etc.) I use a paper bag in my room. Have not seen myself below the neck & would love a card table to write or play a game of Solitaire on.

For the girls – They have no hand mirrors – so both borrow mine which is out of my train case and sooner or later you know what will happen to it. So I think a simple mirror each with short handle would be awfully nice for them. Then they need slips – both wear regular sizes & lengths – like Ro would wear – Chloe size 32 – Sue 34. They want them pretty & lacy & either pink or white. Must be slips not half. Ro said last night to tell you to just come for Christmas & forget shopping. Jessica and Bob were here less than a week when they found an apt. They came for Thanksgiving dinner which by the way was delicious. I don’t know yet how I did it but I got everything ready the day before so we had only the turkey to roast – potatoes to cook & gravy to make. Ro & I got up at 5 o’clock to pop the bird in the oven. A 22 lb. beauty. Really never tasted such an elegant one. We had dinner about 3 o’clock after Ro had the Barbours over or cocktails at one. We were all asked there for the evening but I was completely grounded by then & had to go to bed. You know Texas celebrates Thanksgiving a week later than the rest of the nation!

Our TV is on the blink – sound but no picture – the girls say it will stay that way for a long time as Daddy never attends to anything right away. Wish he knew how much it means to me – alone day after day. Everyone goes to bed immediately after dinner. They need to. I really am concerned very much about Rosena working so hard – Ronald too. I wonder what good so many earthly & material possessions do where there is not time to enjoy anything.

So sorry you were ill after the Thanksgiving festivities. I wrote a long letter to Em a few days ago & now want to do the same to Bud. But its 3 wks. since I have written him.

Can’t you come soon Marge & be here at least 3 weeks? In fact come now for there just isn’t going to be any one to whip up a Christmas if you & I don’t. I can’t alone – unless I recover pronto. The girlies are so darling but both are doing so much in school, baby-sitting & house work that I can’t bear to have them let down.

Think I know now what Mrs. Wilcox meant when she said she didn’t want to come to Texas to be alone all winter. That isn’t my attitude at all for if I am able nothing I enjoy more that doing the things around here to make it easier for Rosena.

Must get up now & into some clothes. Am also hungry. Much love & remember me to Murphy.

                                                                                                 Tot

I really enjoy reading the voice and hearing the perspective of an older woman, the hardships of her lonely life, the sacrifices she makes for her family, and the small acts of both kindness and carelessness that make up the fabric of her daily existence.

The voices in these letters are so real and the concerns are timeless, even if buying a Universal Percolating Coffee Maker for $15.00 is not.

Enjoy!

william