Monthly Archives: December 2017

New Year’s Eve parties can be tough on the toes, even in 1939

When my mother Joan had just turned 16, she wrote a poem on December 31, 1938. It purveys the poignant longing of a teenage girl, yearning for the past and fearful of a future beset by rumblings of war.

Lovely party!

New Year’s Eve 1938          

New Year Moment

Time, time, gather up your skirts for a moment

But do not depart.

Linger a while; I would hold this moment

Always in my heart.

Time, time – I want to steal this moment

Put it in an archive

Far within my heart.  Then you may go out,

Leaving one past, and live.

The Blackhawk Restaurant was in Chicago, thriving just when Joan lived there

A Christmas and New Year’s card sent in Chicago a week before my mother wrote her poem

Children Wait for Santa, Snack, Stockings, by Fern Bisel Peat, 1932

My mother, Joan, wrote this Christmas poem when she had just turned 10.  Merry Christmas from 1932!

Coming through the blue, blue sky,

Swiftly as a bird can fly,

Reindeer pulling o’er the snow,

Children seeing Santa go.

Santa Claus comes through the sky,

Swiftly as a bird can fly,

Reindeer pulling him o’er the snow,

O’er the housetop Santa will go.