So, y'know one of the main excuses reasons for our quick trip to Arizona was because Rusty's brother found more old photos, documents, and scrapbooks.
Rusty's mother was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, raised in Providence, Rhode Island, and lived most of her life in California. For a few years in the '30s, in her late teens and early twenties, she apparently went back and forth between the east & west coasts at least a few times, including Florida (as the boys recall, though no photographic evidence), working at resorts. From the looks of it, she had a lot of friends and a lot of fun, too!
The Wianno Club is in Osterville, MA, on Nantucket Sound. We have a couple of small serving bowls from the Wianno Club, ca. 1937, I guess, with their logo on them.
Midwick View Riding Academy sounded "east coast" to us, so we were happy to find the photo above clearly identifying it as a place in California… possibly part of Midwick View Estates.
There are a few curious things about all this…
One being that this was all during The Great Depression. Yacht races, riding academies, and multiple cross-country trips… these are not things that normally come to mind when one thinks of The Depression.
Another is that I'm fairly certain the travel would have taken place on land rather than by air, but there's not a single photo of anything between the coasts.
I believe Rusty's mother's parents were very well off… but there was a scandal involving his grandfather, which disgraced the whole family, and ultimately resulted in their divorce by 1941 (and bad enough that his son & namesake legally changed his name!). And maybe, at least for some of this time, Rusty's mother was just away at these places… sent to camp, or whatever, to protect her from the scandal, and not actually working? I mean, they sure seemed to have fun (and a lot of free time) at work… There are SO MANY casual/fun photos at these places, with one or two friends, or in big groups… at the beach, on the dock, poolside, in cars, with dogs, snow skiing, horseback riding, hugging, smiling, laughing, sightseeing…
It's all so curious!!