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Story One

What was one of your favorite family vacations as a child?

I'm afraid you are about to have more information that you can possibly want, but my father (Pop) gave Mimi and me several wonderful trips and I'll have to give some thought to my answer. To begin with I should say that my parents, Louis and Dorothy or Pop and Dot as I will refer to them, loved to travel and every year in the summer we drove the day-long trip from Salem (my hometown) to Louisville (their hometown) where we stayed at Pop's family home which was on a long parkway which overlooked a golf course that bordered the Ohio River and on the other shore was Indiana farmland.

We had several great ones and I will list them in case you'd like to hear more. Of course, California in 1946 was the huge one and wonderful, but we had also been to Virginia Beach one summer with side trips to Williamsburg (just beginning restoration) and Washington. I spent three summers at camp in Wisconsin and Mimi had four more later and they made a big part of summer, but in 1939 we toured eastern Canada before heading south through New England to the World's Fair. Granny (Mother's mother) was along for that trip as an unofficial sitter and she added a lot of fun. We also, over the years, had several wonderful long stays at the Edgewater Beach Hotel on the Lake Michigan shore just north of Chicago. Does that tell you anything interesting? I loved all our trips; we had a lot of fun and it's been fun revisiting.

The nice thing about all our trips was how comfortable they were. My parents had two cars, a small two-door coupe Father drove to the factory he ran and "Dot's car" which by the time we took real trips was always a Cadillac sedan. Of course Mimi and I sat in the back and on the first day of one of our big trips Mother usually packed a fabulous picnic lunch which added to the fun. I remember on the trip to Virginia Beach we stopped in a woodsy place for our picnic and Mother left a jar of pickles we hadn't finished on a big rock. She meant it as a joke, but we no sooner got back on the road than she began to worry that some other travelers might find the remains of our picnic turned to poison because of heavy sunlight. That worry stayed with her for the day, but by the time we got to the Cavalier Hotel Mother had pretty much dismissed it and we all settled down to a lovely vacation at the beach with side trips to interesting spots in Virginia.

With love always...

The 1939 World's Fair She Saw

Vintage photographs from the fair Nancy visited

1939 World's Fair Administration Building

Administration Building for the 1939-1940 New York World's Fair
Margaret Bourke-White / The LIFE Picture Collection / Shutterstock

Construction workers preparing for 1939 World's Fair

Craftsmen work on a huge diorama prior to the opening of the 1939 Worlds Fair
Margaret Bourke-White / The LIFE Picture Collection / Shutterstock

Preparing for the 1939 World's Fair

Preparing for the 1939 World's Fair, New York
Alfred Eisenstaedt / The LIFE Picture Collection / Shutterstock

1939 New York World's Fair crowds

Crowds at the 1939 New York World's Fair
NYC Municipal Archives

Her Childhood Travels

The routes and destinations from her favorite family vacations

Annual Salem to Louisville Trip
Virginia Beach Vacation
1939 Canada & World's Fair Trip
Edgewater Beach Hotel, Chicago

Exploring Her Memories

Historical context and places from her story

The 1939 New York World's Fair

The fair opened on April 30, 1939, coinciding with the 150th anniversary of George Washington's first inauguration. Themed "Building the World of Tomorrow," it featured the iconic 700-foot Trylon obelisk and 200-foot Perisphere sphere. Nearly 45 million people visited over two seasons to see exhibitions from 62 nations and innovations like television, nylon stockings, and color film.

Edgewater Beach Hotel, Chicago

The Edgewater Beach Hotel opened in 1916 as a unique urban resort with its own 1,200-foot private beach on Lake Michigan. Painted "sunrise yellow" and designed by Benjamin Marshall in Spanish Revival style, it featured an Olympic-size pool, gardens, and even its own radio station. Celebrities like Babe Ruth, Marilyn Monroe, and Frank Sinatra stayed there. The hotel's heyday lasted from the 1920s through the 1940s until Lake Shore Drive was extended in the 1950s, separating it from its beach. It was demolished in 1971.

Colonial Williamsburg Restoration

When your grandmother visited in the 1940s, Colonial Williamsburg was indeed "just beginning restoration." Reverend W.A.R. Goodwin approached John D. Rockefeller Jr. in 1926, who then secretly purchased properties throughout the town. The restoration was publicly announced in 1928 and construction began transforming the former colonial capital. President Franklin D. Roosevelt visited in 1934 to dedicate Duke of Gloucester Street, proclaiming it "the most historic avenue in America." By the 1940s, major buildings like the Capitol and Governor's Palace had been reconstructed on their original foundations.

The Cavalier Hotel, Virginia Beach

Built in 1927 during the Roaring Twenties, the Cavalier Hotel was Virginia's "Grand Dame of the Shore." Its architecture was inspired by Thomas Jefferson's Monticello, with ornate plaster columns and expansive lawns. The hotel featured luxuries unheard of at the time: every room had a private bathroom, and an indoor pool was filled with fresh ocean water. In 1942, it was commandeered by the U.S. Navy as a radar training center during World War II, exactly when Nancy would have visited. After the war, it returned to civilian use but never fully recovered its pre-war glamour until a major restoration in 2018.

The Great California Adventure — July 1946

In July 1946, when Nancy was sixteen and fresh out of her sophomore year at St. Paul School, the family embarked on an epic cross-country journey to California. This wasn't just a vacation — it was a grand American road trip through the postwar West, complete with natural wonders, big-city sophistication, and the kind of experiences that defined the optimistic spirit of mid-1940s America.

The adventure began in Colorado, where they visited the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs — those stunning red rock formations that rise dramatically against the backdrop of Pikes Peak. Then it was on to Rocky Mountain National Park, where Louis, Dorothy, Nancy, and young Mimi (age eleven) played in snowballs in July at high elevation, a magical experience that Nancy's photo album captured for posterity.

From the Rockies, the family headed west to San Francisco. They climbed Telegraph Hill (Louis and Dorothy returned there for a second photo — clearly a favorite spot), taking in the views of the bay before the famous Coit Tower was built. One evening, they experienced the exotic glamour of the Tonga Room at the Fairmont Hotel — a tiki-themed restaurant and bar that had just opened in 1945, complete with tropical rainstorms, floating bandstands, and elaborate Polynesian decor. It was peak 1940s sophistication.

No California trip would be complete without Yosemite National Park, and the family made the pilgrimage to see those towering granite cliffs and waterfalls. Then it was south along the coast to Los Angeles, where they stayed at the Chapman Park Hotel and spent time as a family group in Santa Monica. One evening stands out in Nancy's album: "an evening with R.E. Crane at Venice-on-the-Sea Amusement Park" — perhaps a family friend or business connection, but clearly someone important enough to merit a special notation.

The Venice Pier amusement park in 1946 was still in its glory days, with roller coasters, the famous "Race Thru the Clouds" ride, fun houses, and all the carnival atmosphere of the classic American boardwalk. It wouldn't survive much longer — by the 1950s, the pier began its decline — but in 1946, it was still a magical place where teenagers like Nancy could experience the thrill of the California coast.

July 1946 California Itinerary
Colorado: Garden of the Gods (Colorado Springs), Rocky Mountain National Park
San Francisco: Telegraph Hill, Tonga Room at the Fairmont Hotel
Yosemite: National Park
Los Angeles: Chapman Park Hotel, Venice-on-the-Sea Amusement Park (with R.E. Crane), Santa Monica
"The Tonga Room opened in 1945, transforming the Fairmont Hotel's swimming pool into an exotic South Pacific paradise. Tropical rainstorms occurred every 30 minutes, complete with thunder and lightning, while a band played from a floating bandstand."
— Fairmont Hotel history
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