1929

We resume with the second half of W.B. "Barney" McCray' s letter titled "Spring Break 1927":

"The following day we went to Philadelphia. We found an old fleabag called The Green Hotel, which seemed fitting. Also $1 per night. While walking around to see the many historical points, we passed an old run-down theater with all the appearance of a burlesque and numbers we had never heard of, so we passed it up for a movie. Two weeks later it opened on Broadway and was the biggest hit of the season: Vincent Youmann's Hit the Deck. The next day we headed for Washington. I wish I could describe to you the Philadelphia cop, with a hand-operated semaphore, in the middle of Broad Street telling us just how to get on the road to Washington, while traffic waited. Following his instructions, we found our way out of Philadelphia. By late afternoon we were in Washington, and it was warm. We checked in at the almost brand-new Annapolis at $2.50 each, per day.

"There was so much to see, we just hit the high spots, but I think we saw more of Washington in two days than the average tourist would in a week. As in New York, we parked the T on the street, but just around the corner from the hotel entrance.

"We did most of our eating at Child's or Thompson's—'Eat on the arm of your chair.' But the second evening we went to the Oriental. It was a great restaurant then, and I think it still is.

"Of our sightseeing, I am sure the Smithsonian was the top attraction. We spent more than half a day there and could have stayed many more hours. In the 75 years since I still find it the most captivating attraction in Washington.

"After the third day we were running out of both time and money, so we decided to make the trip back without any layovers. We went north through New Jersey and the Catskills, crossing over into Vermont at Bennington. Going north from Brattleboro, by this time it was late at night, and as we crested one of those long hills, the headlights played on a sign that said, 'Buicks made this hill in high. What gear are you in now?'

"We were tired and broke, but we felt we had made the most of Spring Break. Quite different from todays version.

"Sully and I kept in touch throughout the rest of our lives until his death. My last visit was in September 1979. He had an extensive correspondence with Hookey Fukuda, both before and after the war. I wish now I had made copies of it at the time. I fully intended to ask Margaret to do that for me, but somehow or other, never got around to it. (Like so many other things!)

"Maybe this letter will ring some other bells!"

Rip writes: "We don't pretend to run the College, But we know that we belong, We've piled up lots of hard-earned knowledge, And we're 60,000 strong."

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