Helen Richardson Espy, c. 1908
My grandmother had the most wonderful way of expressing herself. I am inordinately grateful that so much of her writing – especially her letters – have survived. I’d like to think that various family members kept her correspondence precisely because of her writing but, truth to tell, they kept everything by everybody, well written or not. But, it is my grandmother’s writing that I especially admire.
On October 2, 1914, she wrote from home in Oysterville to her oldest daughter in school at Portland Academy that she was planning a trip to see the doctor: I will probably leave here a week from today arriving in Portland Saturday morning. I plan to stay at the Arthur and will probably take both Dale and Willard. Of course, these intentions are liable to change but will let you know definitely. My suit skirt is at the Bend being cleaned so I pretty nearly have to stay in bed until it returns…
Days passed. No skirt. Plans were postponed. More letters were exchanged. On October 9th she wrote: You don’t know how disgusted and disappointed I am not to get off this morning. Everything is ready, even the suit case fully packed and clothes laid out to wear, but my skirt has not come. You know I have no substitute so here I am. Papa has urged my wearing a cotton housedress, but imagine landing in Portland thus. I can’t say when to look for me, but I shall certainly go immediately when the skirt comes so presume it will be any day soon…
Transportation on Willapa Bay, Early 1900s
Finally, on October 11th she wrote: I have heard from my skirt and now am planning to leave here Wednesday. I will leave on the boat at seven in the morning.
“I have heard from my skirt…” I love that! And, I love all the other information the letters convey! For starters, it was apparently unnecessary to make an appointment ahead of time to see the doctor. (That you could just ‘drop in’ is corroborated by other family correspondence of that time period.) And that South Bend was referred to as “the Bend” (much as Ocean Park was referred to as “the Park” in those days) and was where most ‘local business’ took place.
Transportation to Portland, Early 1900s
It helps to know, of course, that a hundred years ago transportation to and from the Peninsula was mostly by water and that getting to South Bend was far easier than getting to Ilwaco or to Astoria – the two commercial centers to the south. As for traveling to Portland, there was a train from Astoria, as well as the boat. However, my grandmother always said that it was easier to go by boat if she was taking the children with her; it went at night and she could put the youngsters to bed, which made for an easier trip. The fact that she planned to leave at seven in the morning, according to her October 11th letter makes me wonder if she took my mother Dale (aged 2) and Willard (aged 3) after all.
So much conveyed in those old letters! And it didn’t hurt a bit that my grandmother had a great sense of the ridiculous and had mastered the art of hyperbole! Sad to think that letter-writing is becoming a lost art.
Nowadays we would just go down the store and buy a skirt, but not back then. I guess we are lucky, sometimes not sure about that.