Shortly before Europe was plunged into the Second World War, my young mother and her family traveled from their home in New York to France. This is a true story based on my grandmother's diaries, which document her daughter's early symptoms of men...
Again I'm going to have to spend more than I counted on. I can't apartment-hunt today. All of Bruxelles is closed as tight as a drum. Barb & I looked at one in the morning just off Ave. Louise. Very nice, no one there. Polly went to Catholic Church by herself. In the afternoon Mary Ann [Middler] came over and helped us with directions, customs, words. We really learned a lot that way. Later Barb went skating by herself. Mary Ann, Polly, & I walked to the Port Louise and had chocolate at a darling little place. The pastry is marvelous but quite expensive. Dinner in the Pension—very nice. It's really a lovely place. Barb ordered breakfast for 7 a.m. so that she could go to Mary Ann's to practice [piano]. Then we went to see Laurie skating.
From this very first entry, Barb begins to distance herself from Elsie and Polly.
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Mon, Oct 11, 1937: Pension a' Bruxelles
After Barb had kept us awake all night being ill, our breakfast arrived at 7:30. We weren't so glad to see it. About nine Polly and I set out on an apartment hunt. What a jaunt in a foreign land, foreign tongue. We got along remarkably well. We first went to the American Consulate where we got no help what-so-ever tho the girl tried to be nice. Then we looked at dozens of apts. and walked miles. We know part of the town very well already. Such a darling quaint little town. After dinner we discovered a cousin in the salon—Helen Booth. It certainly makes the world seem small.
1937-10-11 Bruxelles. Apartment hunting. Learning the city.
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