For three months, Grace and Jim traveled, from Edinburgh to Vienna, Paris to Rome. By tube, by Métro, train and boat, they took in opera, theater, ballet, museums, castles and mountaintops — as well as hot cross buns, gateaux and crusty baguettes. (How could they afford it all?!)
When it was over, Jim headed to Basel for studies in theology and philosophy with the likes of Karl Barth, Karl Jaspers, Martin Heidegger. Grace headed home to pick up the children and move in with her mother.
Throughout the summer, the three of us kids lived with Jim’s parents. Tales of those months live on: We played under a live electric line felled by a storm. We ran barefoot across wet tar. One morning, my brother poured my “Grapenuts.” They tasted funny: Gaines Meal, our grandmother determined (with the aid of their dog, Lady). There were many long drives in the country, with the classic backseat squabbles — sometimes followed by switchings from our grandfather.
Meanwhile…
June 8, 1951, shipboard letter: “Dear Big and Little O’s, Mother, Family and Kind Friends: “This is our last day in the big, wide endless ocean, for they tell us that late tomorrow afternoon, we shall see first the French, and then the English coasts. There are many Germans on board the SS Homeland, as few ships go to Germany now. We have nice table mates, two from Hamburg (now living in Staten Island), one from Austria (Hartford, Conn.), and one from Bremerhaven (Iowa). It makes one’s heart sick to hear how many are going back to Germany, hoping, by some good fortune, to get to see their relatives in the Russian Zone. Our tablemate from Austria is hoping to buy his mother out of the Sudetenland.
“There is much going on in the way of singing, eating, dancing at night, movies when the weather permits, meeting and talking with people from all over the U.S. lying in our deck chairs watching the sea when the boat dips down and back.
“There are many different ‘characters’ on this boat. About 120 students are going to Paris to study and some are quite Bohemian in dress and action. Lots of entertainment, too. Last night, a Spanish girl and an Indian (complete with turban, tunic, etc.) did a Balinese dance. I know the three little lambs will be interested in hearing this: there is a New Yorker who is quite a good dancer and singer. I had danced with him several times and found his dancing easy to follow and quite exciting. Imagine my surprise last night when he, after being asked to sing and receiving an encore request, announced: ‘Now, if my favorite dancing partner will do me the favor, I would like to dance my encore.’ And then he came to me. Jim insisted I accept, and we danced before the whole crowd — several hundred people! It was quite an experience, I can tell you.” (Jim was not – yet – a dancer.)
“There is a surprisingly large number of children on board. They make me miss our own three sweet ones. I look at your pictures and think of you every day. We miss you but know you are happy and having a good time, as we are. We seem far away from America and yet very close to our family and dear friends in Greenwood. Thank you and everyone for helping to make this trip possible. Love to all — Grace (Jim, too)”
June 16, 1951, Waldorf Hotel, Aldwych, London: “London is the most interesting place I’ve ever seen. The British Museum alone is so staggering that it leaves you wondering for hours about the long history of civilization. They have dug all over the world and preserved things from almost all civilizations known. And the concerts, ballet and plays! We saw Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier in the Festival production of ‘Caesar and Cleopatra’ and tomorrow we hear the Royal Philharmonic with Sir Thomas Beecham. Monday we see ‘Parsifal’ with Kirsten Flagstad. And we saw Danilova dance Thursday.
Note to Big and Little O’s: “In London there are so many things to remind us of you. We saw London Bridge and the Tower of London yesterday. Yesterday we saw the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace and Whitehall — a most colorful ceremony with men on black horses, the men all dressed in red uniforms with polished breastplates and waving plumes. Daddy said he meant to tell you that the pennies here are as big as our half dollars! It costs three pennies (threepence, they say) to ride the bus (coach, they say), and the subway (tube, they call it) costs the same except for long distances. Some day you all can come here and marvel at it all.” (Imagine if she could have known then that her son would spend a postdoc year here.)
“You are having a good time. Please mind Grandmommy and Granddaddy so they will find things easier. We are grateful to them for helping us make this trip by taking care of you 3 little hullabaloos. Mother loves you all three so much. Wish I could hug you right now.”
July 5, 1951, Hotel Oxford & Cambridge, rue d’Alger, Paris (a 10-minute walk from where I was to live a quarter century later, where our older daughter, Laura Grace, was born — one of many grandchildren whom she would never know). “Paris — ah! It is indescribably beautiful. The buildings, the statues, the parks, trees, flowers, symmetry and again lack of it in boulevards and ‘places’– all of it is equal to all you read. We’re glad we chose to stay here 2 weeks. We have gone constantly, day and night, for 4 days and have just touched the surface. We are just at the Tuileries Gardens, and our Métro (subway) station is at this garden. It is hard not to understand French. But we can read it all right. Jim is out now exploring the Sorbonne and will end up at the Seine bookstalls. Yesterday we spent in the Louvre. I’ll go back again at 2 because I didn’t see all I wished. The Venus de Milo, Mona Lisa, Winged Victory are all there — not to mention other art treasures. Tonight we go to the Casino de Paris — a Folies Bergère type of musical revue, and tomorrow we have tickets for a gala night at the opera to see an Italian ballet corps and Naples Orchestra in ‘Romeo and Juliet’ and ‘Giselle.’
“The French women strolling on the Champs Elysées Sunday afternoon were indeed the most fashionably dressed I’ve ever seen. They have a definite flair and a chic all their own. This goes down to much less wealthy areas. The materials are most beautiful. I’d love to buy a lot of clothes from them. Ah! for a lot of money!
“We’re pleased you 3 little lambs are doing so well. Love and kisses to all of you in our dear families, Grace and Jim”
Bastille Day: ”You should see how we devour your letters — while we sit at a sidewalk café and drink citron pressé (lemonade) or at a restaurant table where we eat delicious fish, grilled meats, cold melons, fresh fraises (strawberries), gateaux (cakes) or wonderful patisseries (French pastries). Once we went to the Tuileries Gardens which are right across the Rue de Rivoli from us and ate cheese and crusty bread and cakes and read our mail.
“We leave Monday for Germany and then Switzerland. Tonight we shall go out to see the Bastille Day celebrations, dancing in the streets, lights, fireworks, etc. Tomorrow we shall go to services at another reformed church and then to see the Versailles Palace in the afternoon. There are museums of every kind and we’ve seen 4 different art museums alone. We saw ballet at the magnificent Opéra, which must be the most beautiful building inside in the world. And a Bach Organ Concert at St. Eustache Church was outstanding.
“We love you all and are more grateful every day for your making this trip possible for us. You are all wonderful!“
This is the last letter from Europe in the file; their travels continued through Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Italy, with postcards from each. In Naples, in late August, Grace boarded the Saturnia for New York City. The trip home was a downer.
Grace would not see Europe again.