menands | Flying Under the Radar

Helen didn’t have the final version of letters that she sent, but being such a detailed person (with foresight), she had drafted them first and kept the drafts (at least a few of them). And she had received some letters as well. There is one from her father, Frank Skinner, on wafer thin airmail paper, from 1940, about the family:

*A ‘From Whence You Came’ Letter from Helen’s father, Frank Skinner, Sept, 6 1940*

The evolution of Frank’s Skinner line, as he notes, ended with him. I like her father’s non-sequitur self-disparagement about Braintree and a lack of brains on the tree (though it is more a family-disparagement than a self one).

*Frank and Gertrude Skinner, likely Arlington, New Jersey, 1940ish (around when the letter was written)*

Halley’s Comet

The letter below doesn’t indicate to whom it was written or when, but based on the bit about Halley’s comet, it was after 1986, so she was at least 82. This is from Helen to someone who knew of Menands (where she was born, near Albany). To paraphrase:

Only once have I met anyone who knew where MENANDS NY is located.... My parents, Gertrude and Frank Skinner, took their daughter Helen to live in New York City when I was six months old.... One summer in the early thirties I drove through Menands on the way to somewhere else. So much for one’s old home town.

Side note: Somewhat strange that they moved from a super small town upstate New York to the great big Manhattan with a six month old baby. Perhaps for a job? Family? Regardless, when I picture the little family in NYC, I envision people dressed up in complicated looking long black attire with big hats, scurrying about super fast, like in those old choppy black and white videos.

I have never known where or how long we were in NY but next we moved to Brooklyn. The Skinners occupied the second floor of a house and mother’s brother Jack Bunyan, his wife Jessie and their new baby Betty had the lower floor. Two things I remember: There was a dumbwaiter which could be pulled up or down between the two kitchens and at some point Betty and I rode up and down on it (well supervised) to visit each other; 2) one night I recall mother taking me to the bathroom, closing the toilet lid and standing me up on it so I could look out the window (it was the only window on that side of the house) where the sky was bright as day -- a blazing light. She said to me ‘remember this: you’ve seen Halley’s Comet, and it won’t be back for 75 years.” I regret that while I was still around for the comet’s next appearance, it was performing in the Southern Hemisphere, and I missed it.

Side note: I’m not sure where the dumbwaiter duplex was other than it was in Brooklyn. Haley’s comet made appearances in April 1910 and April 1986. She would have been seven for the first one, 82 for the next. The next next one is in 2061, fwiw. And I love the imagery of the comet ‘performing’ in the Southern Hemisphere, like it was on tour.

The Bunyans and Skinners bought houses next to each other at XXX and XXX Stratford Rd. Our two backyards fenced around the outside made a wonderful playing space. The back of our lots faced on Coney Island Ave where streetcars went to that destination and in summer... Bathing suits were jumper like garments which came just below the knee, elbow length sleeves, black bloomers and black stockings and sneakers.

Side notes: Stratford Road is south of Prospect Park and is now the Flatbush/Kensington neighborhood of Brooklyn. Zillow told me the house remaining (one was an empty lot) was still the original house, so the same one that she (or Betty) lived in.

I went to Kindergarten at PS 139 (rah rah rah the rose and the pine. Long live, long live 139).

Side note: This school exists and operates and is a few blocks north of the house on Stratford Road. Some sleuthing shows it was built in 1902. And I hope that is still their fight song.

The school looks like an old East Coast educational facility, and one that I imagine is purported to be haunted. It was built in 1902 and it looks old, so some of it must be original.

*P.S. 139, Brooklyn, New York, 2021*, *at 11:20am ET*

Draft Letter II – this letter was written by Helen in the late 1970s. The draft letter is five and a half handwritten pages and details family history from early 1800s – 1990s, but only a little is about her childhood and I’ll just include that (for now…). After a quick intro, she starts:

I never had the slightest interest in ancestors until most of the people died who might have helped to fill the family tree... However, if you prefer to have your ear bent, I’ll bring you up to date on the ones I know. In 1916-18 I went to St Paul Minn to stay with my mother’s half-sister Mary Mead Cavert, while I was in my first 2 years of high school. I then returned to Brooklyn to graduate from Erasmus Hall High in 1920.

Side note: This was not a short trip. It’s an 18 hour drive by today’s standards. Erasmus Hall High is still standing.

I don’t know where you dreamed up ‘at college in Missouri’ for I went to Columbia in NYC - I admit I wasn’t home very much, for I lived in a dorm, camp in the summer, I was a counsellor at varsity camps.

Side note: this is the only time she mentioned Columbia, and I still think it’s strange she didn’t brag more about it. She says the family moved to Arlington, New Jersey in 1920, which is when Helen started college and never went back home to live. I’m not sure if the cousin’s family moved with them so they could continue being neighbors.

The letter picks up again in the late 1930s and everyone will have to wait to hear about that.

Online Account – a remembrance of things past

Through Googling, I found a bit more nostalgia about young Helen. The material is from Chapter 6 of a book called The Mead Family, written by Jane Mitchell (the names Mead, Cavert, and Bunyan all appear — all on the mother’s side). Helen contributed to the book, and writes about her time with her cousin and bestie Betty:

Betty was known to her best friends as Lizzie Smellie Onion (her full name was Elizabeth Smeallie Bunyan). We were brought up almost as twins. We would shout between our houses (we didn’t have a phone) “What are you going to wear?’ by way of starting the day. She was in our house as much as in her own. We spent many summers at the Mead farm until I was sent off to St. Paul for 2 years in 1917.¹

Smellie Onion is a very fun nickname (Betty is the girl scowling in the pictures in the last post, but that she allowed her best friends to call her smelly onion indicates she did indeed like fun). The pictures of the kids in the last post were taken at this Mead farm in West Charlton, New York. Betty comes up later in Helen’s story as well, and it seems they stayed very close (not geographically though).

I recommend that you to read the description of the Scotch church in the link above. It paints a picture of a colorful congregation in their Sunday best, crooning away to hymnals in a small old musty house of god, with Helen and Betty pilfering candies and trying not squirm. You can kind of picture it (and smell it).¹

Now we will move onwards and upwards to the 1930s (literally upwards, as there are airplanes).

References

1 – http://charltonnyhs.org/2017_Mary%20Mead%20Cavert.pdf

The Early Years are broken down into two phases — Phase I is the ‘Going through all the documents in order…’ phase.

Exhibit I The Birth Certificate

*Certificate and Record of Birth, Helen Grace Skinner, Born Sept 7, 1903 in Menands, New York*

Helen was born September, 7, 1903 near Albany, New York. As you will see at the bottom of the document, this is a ‘true copy (photostatio)’ – I cannot find the word ‘photostatio’ even in Google, but the document looks to be an official mimeograph, ordered in 1935, with a raised seal and stamp on the back that says in red “New York State, Received 3 Aug 1904, Department of Health.” .

But Menands, noted above, is in Upstate New York near Albany.

The document says, at the time of her birth, her father, Frank Skinner, from Charlton, New York, was a 31 year old Civil Engineer; and her mother, Gertrude Skinner (nee Bunyan), from Saratoga, New York, was 27. Helen was their first child.

The tiny picture that accompanies the birth certificate at the bottom, which had become unglued, must have been part of a photoshoot that also produced the pictures below, as her shirt and hairdo are the same.

Exhibit II: Baby Photos

*Gertrude and Helen Skinner, early 1904. Note Helen’s stylish middle part. It says ‘Age 5 Mo’ in the bottom corner.*

A baby book, titled ‘Baby’s Red Letter Days’, also includes a picture from the same photo shoot along with lists detailing milestones and such.

Exhibit III: Baby’s Red Letter Days

*A page from Helen’s baby book. They lived at the time on Brookside Ave in Menande, NY., very close to Albany (and close to both Charlton and Saratoga, where her parents were from, respectively*)

A look inside the baby book:

*Pages from Helen’s baby book, completed by her mother, Gertrude, 1903-1904*

Some of the notes inside include (with punctuation/spelling intact):

Christmas Has Come – “Went to Ballston to spend the day. Very good girl all day.”
- Side note: It’s hard to be very good all day, even for adults.
Short Clothes – February 24, 1904 – “our Baby dons short cloths”
- Side note: In the baby book, ‘Short Clothes’ has its own page like the ones above, but with illustrations that look like mini adult clothing.
Cute Sayings – “At the age of 19 mos Helen exclaims to the astonishment of Dady and Mother, “Oh, my sakes.'”
- Side note: this is adorable, proper and intelligent, all with a hint of theatrics.

The more juicy stuff is housed in the back of the booklet in a section called ‘Mother’s Notes’:

Feb 15 – First played with rubber ball intelligently
- Side note: my high standards theory, validated
At 7 1/2 months Helen begins to say da-da-da and ma-ma-ma-ma and ba-ba-ba
- Side note: Google says this would give her an A+, age-wise
At 8 months Helen can get around on the floor quite well. She does not creep but hitches along
- Side note: hitching, I learned, means kind of crawling but with one foot on the ground that is pulling the body forward, and it’s something that is corrected today
June 29 – I find my baby standing behind my chair
- Side note: if worth noting it must have been a milestone and/or startling
Helen begins to be very orderly. At age of 14 1/2 mos she picks up her daddys slippers and shoes and puts them in the closet and shuts the door
- Side note: an astrology minded person would say she was a Virgo through and through
18 mos – Helen gets loaf of bread and knife and comes upstairs and says ‘piece’
- Side note: this might also be startling

What was the world like then, outside of Menands, New York? Some highlights: Teddy Roosevelt was president; the Ford Motor Company formed and released the Model A (also known as a horseless carriage); the first silent film was released; and, more apropos to Helen’s future, The Wright Brothers had their first flight on the Kitty Hawk. And refrigeration and electricity were not yet widespread. In other words, it was a long time ago (at least in American terms).

There are two pictures of houses in with the childhood photos.

Phase I, Exhibit III: House Pictures

The back of the picture of states:

*Back of photo of Skinner Homestead, Charlton, N.Y. picture.*

The house above was where her father grew up (and many Skinner generations before him). The Van Dam Hotel in Saratoga, Springs, N.Y. mentioned above, still stands, but under a different name.

The other house picture:

The 2nd house was owned by some combination of different branches of her mother’s side of the family, with names such as Mead, Smeallie, Cavert, and Bunyan. The back of the picture (which is actually an unsent postcard), says “Helen Skinner (and later Mary), and Betty Bunyan spent summers on the farm until it was sold in 1918. Grandma Mead moved to Brooklyn and lived with The Skinner Family.”

Phase I, Exhibit IV: People Pictures

This is the only other baby picture of Helen, and it’s a cutey.

*Back says: Helen Skinner. [This was likely 1904 in Menands, N.Y.*]

Maybe the clothes in the picture above are Short Clothes, even though they are long? That little sweater looks quite sophisticated. I can’t tell what the black thing is to the left of her. I first thought a loom and then perhaps a croquet set stand.

Then jump forward a few years and there are three more pictures. The first one isn’t labeled except for her name, but she looks maybe eight?

I thought the above might be a school uniform, but nixed that idea after some Googling. But what I did find is that it was a sailor dress popular in around 1910, made by the designer Peter Thompson. So she was on trend.

*Pictures of Helen, her sister Mary, cousins, and grandmothers – West Charlton, N.Y., likely 1913*

Both of the above pictures were taken at the 2nd house in West Charlton, NY. The cute little girl with the bowl cut is Helen’s sister. Helen is the taller of the older girls (the one not in stripes). The other girl and little boy are their cousins, Betty and George Bunyan. The two women are Grannie Janie and Grandma Mead (one from each side of the family).

Betty looks unhappy in both pictures, but I was assured they were best of friends and partners in crime for decades.

And that was all I had from the childhood years based on chronology. Later I found a trove of additional detail.

Next up: The Early Years, Phase II.

Flying Under the Radar

The Life of Helen Skinner Shadbolt

Tag / menands

7. The Early Years, Phase II. (And a Moral: Always Look for Letters)

6. Helen – The Socials, The Box, and The Early Years, Phase I