1937 Vintage Road Trip Scrapbook, Part 4 - And They're Off!

(click here for part 1)

And They're Off!

Here's a photo of the Johnsons from the scrapbook. The image below is part of an 8x10 glossy photo taken in Yosemite on July 6th, 1937. Though we haven't gotten that far on the trip, yet, I thought it would be nice to show you what they look like:

From left to right we have Alden, Velma, Joan and Marilyn.

Okay, now let's get on the road! The Johnson family hop in their 1930s LaSalle, packed with luggage and the care packages sent by friends. Alden and Velma sit in the front, sisters Joan and Marilyn in the back. It's the last half of June.

They travel from St. Paul southwest following the Minnesota River along what it now basically highway 169. They caught US Route 14 near Mankato, drove west through the towns of New Ulm, Sleepy Eye, Springfield, then took a turn south on US Route 71, heading into Iowa. 

The first point of interest noted in the scrapbook is the Iowa Great Lakes region, just south of the Iowa/Minnesota border. It was, and still is, a fairy popular summer tourist destination with Lake Okoboji lined with resorts and activities. The adjacent town of Spirit Lake is also infamous for the Spirit Lake Massacre of 1857.

Did the Johnsons stop there on their way? Did they take a lunch break? Hard to say, but after getting back onto 71, they traveled south until hooking up with the historic Lincoln Highway - US Route 30 - at the town of Carroll, Iowa, then traveled west, crossing the Iowa/Nebraska border via the Abraham Lincoln Memorial Bridge, pictured in the above postcard. (It's also known as the Blair Bridge).

Photo of the Abraham Lincoln Memorial/Blair Bridge
taken November, 1986 by Clayton B. Fraser for the Historic
American Engineering Record

Although the above picture was taken in 1986, I'm sure it looked much the same to the Johnsons as they crossed over it into Nebraska. I wonder if they felt a bone rattling rumble as the tires of their LaSalle rolled over that surface.

I'm not sure if they stayed overnight between St. Paul and Grand Island, Nebraska. It would be about a 9 - 10 hour drive if everything went smoothly to Grand Island, which is their first mention of lodging in the scrapbook. Perhaps they broke up that haul in two, but the next page of the scrapbook shows the information for Shady Bend, a combination gas/food/lodging business.

I love the above page of the scrapbook, because now a little personality is coming out. Someone took the time to draw one of the Shady Bend cabins (or more likely two connected cabins, by the looks of it.)  I found the below image of another business card of Shady Bend on the web. Compare the photo on it to the above drawing.

Also, they feature a buffalo herd!

I found a 2011 article about the Shady Bend here, about 'Doc' Woodward's grandson opening the one remaining building up into a restaurant. The place seems to be closed now, however.

I wish the Johnson family sweet dreams as they drift off in a Shady Bend cabin on this perhaps first night of their journey. Soon, they will be heading into Colorado, up into the mountains and points further west.

Until then, good night, sleep tight, and don't let the buffalo bite.

On to Part 5!

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1937 Vintage Road Trip Scrapbook, Part 3 - Getting to Know the 30s

(click here for part 1)

Keeping Up with the Johnsons

1937 - It was the year the Hindenburg exploded, the year Amelia Earhart disappeared, the year Daffy Duck was introduced to the world. Dupont patented Nylon. Frank Zwicky added the word 'supernova' to our lexicon. Margaret Mitchell won the Pulitzer Prize for Gone with the Wind. The Golden Gate Bridge opened to traffic, Hitler busily plotted war. The Hobbit was first published. And my mom and dad were born.

And what about our road-trippers, the Johnsons?

You can learn quite a bit from a census.

According to the 1940 US Federal Census, the Johnson family was fairly well-off for the time. Head of the household Alden was President of Midwest Farmers Inc. located in the Exchange Building in South St. Paul.

The Exchange Building, now known as the Historic Concorde Exchange
Nowadays you can rent it out for weddings, corporate parties, etc.

Alden Johnson's wages are listed at $5,000/year, although I don't think they showed any salaries higher than that (meaning if someone made $10,000/year, it would still show on the census as $5,000/year). In comparison, some others listed on the same census page:

Private maids were making between $400 and $600 per year.

A public school teacher earned a salary of $1,650.

A stenographer at a law firm earned $1,800 per year.

The family lived at 1896 Summit Avenue. the home was built in 1925. At over 5,000-square feet, it was valued at $6,000 in 1940, and sold as recently as 2012 for $695,000. 

Here's a modern view of the house, care of Google Street View:

So it looks like the Johnsons were doing quite well at the time, and well-equipped to take their round-trip journey in 1937.

So that's a little background on the Johnsons, and the times they lived in. We'll get back to the scrapbook itself in Part 4.

To end this entry, here's the top song of 1937, Benny Goodman's version of the Louis Prima song, Sing, Sing, Sing:

Now onto part 4!

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1937 Vintage Road Trip Scrapook, Part 2 - Meet the Johnsons

(for part 1, click here)

Meeting Our Fellow Travelers

So who were the Keepers of the Scrapbook? Whose journey is it that we're about to follow?

Luckily the scrapbook has some clues.

The first page of the scrapbook shows two old postcards:

The top one is titled Aeroplane View of Business Secton, St. Paul, Minn, and the bottom one Aeroplane View Showing Minnesota State Capitol, State Office Building. By itself, that page doesn't necessarily tell me that they're from St. Paul, but I was able to infer it from the map of their trip - the start and end point being St. Paul - and the fact that I found the family listed in St. Paul in the 1940's census. (I'll get to that in a minute).

Flip the above page over, and we're greeted by a magazine cut-out of a LaSalle:

I'm guessing that this was their mode of transportation. I don't know what year model they drove, but since the trip was in the summer of 1937, I'm guessing it was a mid-30's model. Here's a LaSalle touring sedan featured in a 1935 advertisement I found online:

Maybe theirs was black or grey. Maybe it was the green of above. It's impossible to know, but you get the general idea.

The next page of the scrapbook is where we find the names:

The above were taken from care packages sent to them before they left. The top one is addressed to "Alden, Velma, Joan Adel and Marilyn." Someone - perhaps the scrapbooker - added to it "This envelope believe it or not contained many good 'treats' - also fruit."

The middle card is where we find the surname. "Best wishes to the Johnsons for an enjoyable trip from the Four Ericssons." The scrapbooker scribbled on the bottom, "a box of goodies - candy, nuts, apple, etc. - mints.'

On the bottom is an envelope containing a card which reads, "Dear Alden, Velma, Joan Adelle & Marilyn - We're all wishing you a wonderful trip and this little box of 'snacks' we hope will make the miles go faster. Our prayers will go with you and here's wishing you one delightful time! Love, Straty, Alph & James." Written on the envelope is a list of the 'snacks': Brownies, Divinity, Drum (or gum? hard to read. Drum is a type of tobacco, so that could be part of the reason they put the word snacks in quotes) Cigar, Candies.

As you can imagine, there are a lot of Johnsons out there. Luckily, their first names aren't all that usual. I googled "Velma Johnson" + Alden, and one of the first things to pop up were the results of the 1940 census.

Taking their ages from the census and subtracting three years we have their ages at the time of their trip:

Alden - 46
Velma - 41
Joan - 14
Marilyn - 10

So that is our crew, the one whose journey we will follow:

Alden, Velma, Joan and Marilyn Johnson.

One thing to remember; the year was 1937, and the United States was still clawing its way up from the grips of the Great Depression. So how did this family of four afford such a long road trip? Clues are found in that same census, and that's what I'll talk about in the next entry.

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1937 Vintage Road Trip Scrapbook, Part 1 - the Find!

Intro - or - Come Along for the Ride

On April 19th, 2015 my wife and I went to a large antique show/flea market at the Minnesota State Fair Grounds in St. Paul. I usually look for old typewriters (I collect them), while Melissa is more of the not-sure-what-I-want-but-I'll-know-it-when-I-find-it kinda people. So we were wandering around, and at one booth I came across a couple of old scrapbooks/photo albums.

Normally, if you find an old photo album at an antique dealer, the pictures have often been removed, and it's just the album itself for sale. But at this particular booth, they were full of family pictures and other items. These at first caught my attention because according to family lore, my relatives (way back) used to have a cool old photo album full of old family pictures, but this got sold to an antique dealer long ago. So when I see an album like this, I always have to look. Just in case.

I know, I know. Fat chance.

And no, I didn't find it.

But what I did find...

Okay, first another detour in the narrative.

In the first half of the 1990s, before I met my wife and had kids, I worked in Yellowstone National Park for four summers and one winter. (It's a seasonal job). For many who work in Yellowstone, it's bound to stick in your soul for the rest of your life, and I'm no exception to that. I always like to go back whenever I can afford it (which isn't as often as I'd like) and if I come across something related to Yellowstone - whether at an antique show/flea market or not - it gets my attention.

So in that stack of photo albums and scrapbooks, I saw this:

The cover and binding is made of wood with leather string holding the 40-or-so pages inside. In fact, the pages are a little too thick for the wooden binding:

I found the cover and binding quite beautiful, and would have bought it just for that, but when I opened it up, I saw the yellowed pages bulging with vintage postcards, brochures, maps and drawings from a family trip taken in 1937. There was even a marked map inside to show their route:

So of course I bought it!

The family lived in St. Paul, MN, and that is their start and end point. Searching through the scrapbook, I discovered who the family was, many of the places they stayed - even the kind of car they drove.

If you're interested, follow along as I recreate their journey on this blog, using their old scrapbook as a guide!

On to part 2

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