Posted on

Trella Hemmerly – 1944-04-28

Friday, April 28, 1944
[in New York City]
The little patch I could see out the window was dark when I awoke & I was so disappointed. I had dressed and was almost ready to go out when Wally looked out & up – and the sun was shining & the sky blue.

Mary came in about 10:00 from Hazel’s & we breakfasted at Child’s at 36th St. Then on down to 34th to the Empire State Building. Bought tickets into an elevator to the 68th floor out & in another to the 86th floor 1,050 ft & the observation platform. A wind velocity from 30 to 35 mi an hour kept us inside. View was good but hazy at the edges. Staten Island just a dark lump in the bay. The river & harbor full of shops. No bridges, ships, tunnels or airfields were identified in interest of National Defense. But we could find most everything we wanted to see. Mary says after 3 trips she still sees new things. How that building was built I’ll never understand. Then on up to the 102 story 1,250 feet – 204 ft. higher than any other man-made structure.

At 11:30 decided we’d better hurry on so down we came & got a Broadway bus – Down through the textile district, past Jimmy Harris’, 14th Street, and finally off at 140 Broadway at Nassau to the Guaranty Trust Co.

Wally had an introduction to the Vice President but he was out of town so we were passed over to Mr. Passmore who passed us over to Mr. Jim Bennett who had worked for the company for 43 yrs. starting when they had 30 employees against their 3,600 now. The bank is really several banks & the main room contains only desks for officers & secretaries. The tellers are in a small room to the south, having about 25 cages. We took the elevator to the top floor & worked our way down through the Accounting Dept., mailing room, foreign, collections, clearing, trust custody, etc. The 8th floor was for personnel morale. Two cafeterias serving even midnight lunch, club rooms for men & women. “P4” as Mary called it. A complete medical dept. & even then they have employment problems. Then we went to the basement & through 2 locked doors with a corner between & a guard – into the vault department. The doors weigh 45 tons, are watertight & it would take 3 days to drill through it. Inside the vault through another locked door 2 men (they all work in pairs) showed us gov’t bonds in $1,000,000 denominations – 10 of them of Maunufacturers Trust & then another group staring with two $1,000,000 bonds & going on down through $10,000. On the million dollar ones the coupons amount to $20,000 a year. Later we saw girls clipping coupons – the ones for June already – they have so many to do. The head of this department showed us around & he was very interesting in describing the protection taken.
We bid goodbye to all these & got a snack on Broad St. We went into Trinity Church on Broadway at the end of Wall. Several people praying & the church was an oasis of quiet from the hubbub outside.
This is really the canyon section. The really tall buildings are grouped here & Guaranty Trust with 13 stories looks very squatty.
Off Wall on Broad is the New York Stock Exchange. We went in the elevator to the gallery. Such confusion below. The floor littered with torn paper. The men with badges are brokers who buy & sell according to instructions received by telephone on the floor. They are called by number on huge charts at the ends of the room. Girl messengers take their orders. In the center are the men representing the members whose stocks are for sale. Instead of ticker tape there are screens where the price fluctuations move continuously. From these center booths the information is sent out that control the prices. But from where we stood it looked as if everyone were aimlessly chatting at a family reunion.

Stopped in for a few minutes at the Chase National Bank coin collection. Wally didn’t get to see enough of this before we had to go to catch the ferry for “Statue of Liberty”. But found the 3:00 ferry full so went to the other side of Battery Park & took the ferry to Staten Island. The passenger capacity was 2,385 & of course we sat on the upper deck & had a very good view of “Liberty” and of hundreds of ships of all sizes.
Some were loaded with jeeps & seemed to be ready to sail. Barges carried whole freight trains and the crew of a submarine were sunning themselves as it lazied through the water. Gulls abounded – they certainly are powerful looking birds.
We were only on Staten Island for enough to say we had been there & came back on the same boat. Really headed into a stiff breeze this time. The whole trip took about an hour & that boat really traveled – and it cost us 10 cents each – Mary free. 5 cents each way.

Took the 3rd Ave. elevated right off the ferry & it really twisted and turned until it got up a few blocks. Changed to and express at Canal. Got another glimpse of Jennie’s 14th St – passed the antique shops in the 50’s & on & on to 125th St. Walked east to the Tri-borough Bridge passed people of all ages sunning themselves & then back through Harlem – Lennox Ave to 7th Ave. & got a double deck bus. The news stand on the corner featured colored newspapers, a colored “Look” & a colored “Digest”. The movies advertised “All Colored Newsreel” & 95% of the people were colored & some very snazzy.
The bus went over to Fifth Ave. at the north side of Central Park & this part of the Park was filled with colored people. Got glimpses of interesting gardens & trees in the Park & saw several museums I want to go in.
Off at 37th & up to our room to freshen up and call Bertha. Met her at 6th & 39th & started up Broadway to “Iceland Smorgasbord” our first experience with a real night club – floor show, dancing & 30% tax even though we ordered no drinks.
The Smorgasbord was merely a glorified potluck dinner with a variety of about 100 dishes. At least 10 kinds of fish – and tuna salad.
The 9 chorus girls were good especially with their acrobatic dancing & the dance team who first appeared as puppets – did some mighty fine whirling and we would have been much impressed had we not seen the ballet. Three skaters, two singers & a dance band completed the program.
Bertha went back for more smorgasbord but we finished off with an “Iceland Special Sundae” very good – and coffee.
The check nearly floored us, though. We had forgotten the 30% tax – $8.50 or about $2.10 apiece.

[Following from Google Books A Different Drummer by Herb Wasserman:]


Then out onto Broadway again into the multitude of people – past the block girl advertising “Mexican Hayride” – to Penn Station where Mary took the train for Hempstead. Has to be at work at 11:00. Hope she isn’t busy. She needs the sleep.
We then walked Bertha home & stopped in her hotel a minute & then on to our room & a recapitulation & finances. We have spent $90 including our railway fare & will probably spend $50 more according to plans. I have now been writing for an hour & think I’ll quit & go to sleep.