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| The Cloister Hotel, Sea Island, Georgia, Near Brunswick - 21 |
Pub. by Ward New Co., Brunswick, GA - Made in U.S.A.
To: Herr Gustav Samuelson, Storegården, Fristad, Sweden
From: Gerda (Brunswick, Jan 26, 1937)
Jekyll Island d. 24-1 [1937]
Käre bror! Detta är närmaste stad. Den är ej stor, man måste dit med båt. Här är varmt och skönt nu, alldeles som om sommaren hemma. Man kan bada saltbad, jag har varit och solat mig lite på stranden. Hoppas att du mår bra. Vi mår alla bra. Kära hälsningar, syster Gerda.
(På framsidan: Tack för brevet. Det är bäst att skriva adr. till Pleasantville.)
Jekull Island, Jan 24 [1937]
Dear brother, This is the nearest town. It's not big, you have to take a boat there. It's nice and warm here now, just like in summer at home. One can bathe in the sea, and I've been to the beach to sunbathe. I hope you're feeling well. We're all well. Love, sister Gerda.
(On the front of the card: Thanks for the letter. It's best to write to Pleasantville.)
The ink Gerda used to write this card has faded a lot, but using some photo editing I think I've managed to clarify and decipher the message. In my post last week she and the Bernadottes were on their way by ship to the USA again, in December 1936 - in all likelihood to spend Christmas with Estelle's parents in Pleasantville, N.Y. Now they've gone on a holiday from there to Jekyll Island, off the coast of Georgia, near Brunswick. (They were there for about six weeks - I know, because there are a couple of more cards from there to follow. I'll save those for another post, though, as I'm already late in preparing this one.)
linking to Sepia Saturday 632
Bläcket som Gerda använde för att skriva detta kort har bleknat genom åren, men med hjälp av digital redigering tror jag att jag lyckats klarlägga och dechiffrera texten. I mitt förra inlägg var Gerda och familjen Bernadotte på väg till USA igen, i december 1936, sannolikt för att fira julen hos Estelles föräldrar i Pleansantville, New York. Nu har de därifrån åkt på semester till Jekyll Island i delstaten Georgia, nära Brunswick. (De tillbringade ca sex veckor där, vet jag eftersom det följer ytterligare ett par kort därifrån. Men dessa sparar jag till en annan gång, eftersom jag redan är sen med den här veckans inlägg till Sepia Saturday 632.)
Wow, this is very exciting because I've been to the Cloisters Hotel! Many years ago my wife and I lived in Savannah, Georgia, about 90 miles up on the barrier island coast, and have several times visited both Sea Island where the Cloisters is located and the larger Jekyll Island. Today America's Atlantic coast development is a one continuous chain of golf courses, but in the 1930s these two beautiful isolated islands were luxury resorts catering to wealthy celebrities and elite upper class families.
ReplyDeleteOriginally all of the islands were accessible only by boat and the tangled waterways were a haunt of pirates in the 17th century. In the 18th and early 19th century they became rice and cotton plantations until the Civil War abolished slavery. By the 1880s the islands were largely abandoned and considered of little value until a group of New York investors began buying islands to create a wintertime resort destination when traveling to Florida on their yachts. Until the advent of air conditioning, no one visited the sea islands in the summer. Even though the hotel was still recovering from the Great Depression, in 1937 Gerda would have encountered an American high class life very different from the European elite society she knew. I wonder who she might have met.
Thanks for that background about the islands, Mike. Knowing the background of Gerda's employers, I'm not surprised to learn they were staying at a luxury resort - and by 1937, Gerda probably knew quite a bit about American hight class life as well. (I'd say she probably learned a bit about it already when working as a maid in Chicago back in her youth.) As for who she might have met while staying with her employers in various luxury hotels, that's something she never gave away on postcards, though!
DeleteGreat to see another luxury hotel and message from the Sea Island Hotel. I've only been to one GA barrier island, Cumberland Island, which still is reached only by ferry. It has some camping in a national park, and a ruin of a Carnegie mansion... speaks of the days when the islands attracted the rich and famous that you mentioned.
ReplyDeleteIt certainly looks like a lovely place to be.
ReplyDelete