1941 - What?!?!? Is that all there is?!?!

 Sunday, June 1, 1941.  "I went over to Rita's in the afternoon. Tommy Donlan & Chuckie Ryan were there. We played cards all afternoon. John Manning came after supper & the five of us went down to Nantasket. We got caught in the rain & had a wild time. After we went up to Howard Johnsons."

                                 "SWELL TIME"

I don't know who Tommy and Chuck were - they must have been from that part of town. I wonder if Tommy Donlan was related through my grandmother?

We talked before how Hull and Nantasket Beach were the premier summer destination vacation spots in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Hull boasted the largest summer hotel in the nation plus a boardwalk and wide sandy beaches in the late 1800s. By the late 1950s as more families owned automobiles, Cape Cod became the preferred beach vacation destination, but Nantasket's Paragon Park still offered close-by family entertainment and summer vacation fun.

Postcard from ebay.com of Nantasket Beach in the 1940s.

Thursday, June 5, 1941.  "Went to the show up at the Paramount in the pouring rain."

Friday, June 6, 1941.  "John Manning came about 8:15. We stayed in & played some records, etc. We had loads of fun. He's a swell kid."

Saturday, June 7, 1941.  "Frances & I went over to Riverview. We had a lot of fun. We saw Joe there. I almost died when I saw him. He came home with us & we went into Brady's Diner & had something to eat. We raised cain & had a lot of fun. Got in about 2 & Frances stayed over."

I presume that Frances is my mother's first cousin Frances Keohane - Tom Keohane's daughter.

I tried to find some information on Riverside - it sounds familiar, but I couldn't find anything. I did find Brady's Diner in the 1942 Watertown Directory. It was located at 39 Mount Auburn Street - it has been called the New York Diner since a change of ownership in 1976. 

Sunday, June 8, 1941.  "Went to Revere Beach with Madeline. We went on all the amusements, etc & got home about 6 o'clock.

John Manning came about 6:30 & we went for a ride. We ended up at the Blue Hills. We walked around for a while - had some tonic & popcorn & looked at the moon. Had a swell time - got home about 11:30."

I think we talked about Revere Beach before - my grandmother used to take my mother and the other kids on the trolley to Revere Beach in the 1930s. I had a picture of Ma and John Keohane in old fashioned bathing suits at Revere Beach in the 1920s but that disappeared when someone borrowed my mother's scrapbook. 

The caption on the picture below - from the Boston Globe - says: "Revere Beach during a hot afternoon in August 1935. Seen in the background is the new Ocean Pier constructed in 1911 and the Pier Dancing Pavilion. In its heyday, more than 250,000 bathers would relax along Revere Beach's shores on hot summer days." The picture probably hadn't changed much in 1941 when my mother and Madeline were there.

I remember going to Revere Beach when I was in high school or college - we went on some of the rides that were left.

And that is it!! I can't believe that there are no other diary entries for 1941!! Just after my mother met my father!! Isn't that what we are dying to know about?

The diary resumes in 1943, but there are some pictures from 1941 and 1942 so that will be the next post.