1938

 

On Sept. 21, 1938, a hurricane struck parts of New York and New England, causing widespread damage and claiming more than 600 lives.  This was in this a.m.’s New York Times, and with hurricanes on all of our minds, it caught my eye.  

 

1938:

 

• Hitler appoints himself War Minister; marches into Austria;  meets with Mussolini; pogroms in Germany
• Eden resigns in protest of Chamerlain’s policy ; Winston Churchhill leads country’s outcry
• Roosevelt  recalls American ambassador to Germany; Hitler recalls theirs
• U.S. Superme Court rules that University of Missouri Law School must admit Negroes because of lack of other facilities in area
• Literature:   Hemingway: "To Have and Have Not,"  Odets:  "Golden Boy"
• Arts:   Picasso:  "Guernica," Klee: "Revolutions of the Viaducts,"  surrelaistic painting;  Miro:  "Still Life with Old Shoe"
• Films:  "Snow White," "Camille," "Life of Emile Zola," (Academy Award)
• Popular songs:  Bei Mir bist Du Schoen,  The Lady is a Tramp, Whistle While You Work; Harbor Lights; I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm
• Science;  Insulin used to control diabetes;  Crystalline vitamin A and vitamin K concentrates are first obtained, carothers patents nylon for the DuPont Company, Roosevelt dedicates Bonnevill Dam on the Columbia River in OR
• Amelia Earheart lost in Pacific
• French armament factories nationalized
• Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, opens
• Duke of Windsor marries Mrs. Simpson
• Joe Louis wins world heavyweight boxing title
• "War Admiral" wins Belmont, Preakness, and Kentucky Derby
• Pittsburg wins Rose Bowl

What a dreadful year.  Hatred and prejudice were rampant, and we know how all the HItler business worked out, making it even more frightening to read these things.    I hadn’t realized integration of colleges had begun that early in the USA, but good for the Supreme Court!

As always, of course, the good is juxtaposed with the hideous:  The Golden Gate Bridge…still there, still gorgeous;  "Snow White" has never lost popularity.  Indeed, there were a few weeks recently when my two-yr-old granddaughter would wear only her Snow White Costume, day and night.  

Everyone, or so I’ve heard,  followed the saga of the Duke of Windsor and Wallis Simpson closely;  War Admiral was an amazing horse.  Did you see the movie "Sea Bisuit"?  It depicts the race between Sea Biscuit and War Admiral, and the film catches the excitement that swept our country for that even.   As for boxing, who hasn’t heard of Joe Louis?

All the coverage of and interest in these social and sports events now seem like so much ‘head in the sand" behavior.  It was, perhaps, too awful to contemplate what was happening in Nazi Germany;  too awful to even think about what was happening to the Jews; too awful to imagine Hitler taking over all of Europe.   So, being human, it would seem meant over-attention to horses, bridges, boxers.    Understandable, but so very sad.

I find myself wishing the USA had involved itself in the European War much earlier, but we can’t go back; and the Allies did win.   The Jews have their own State now, Israel, although I’m not sure how much safer they are there with all the hostility surrounding them.   One can hope, one can pray. 

As we must do now for our own 2008 country.   An unwanted war;  a nasty presidential race;  the banks and Wall Street collapsing all around us.   And hurricane Ike knocking Texas for a loop…one more time.  

But now, right this very minutue, I have a million things to do, so "Hi ho, hi ho, it’s off to work I go."