Saturday, January 14, 1922

Beautiful, bright, cool day. Arose 8:30 A.M. Did errands. Down town. Took shower at Y. Dinner. Practised[sic] typewriting. Father, Mother & I to Uncle John's in Kissel Kar. Good track in road. Home in evening. To bed 9 P.M.

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I guess the roads have improved from Friday's slow going!

Friday, January 13, 1922

Pleasant, cool, clear day. Arose 8 A.M. Out on business most of day. Hard going for automobiles. Stuck twice. Supper. Watched church league bowl. To Strand with Russell & Merlin. Talked. To bed 11:30 P.M.

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Since it snowed all day on Wednesday, and with temperatures "cool" on Thursday and Friday, no doubt there was still quite a bit of snow on the roads. Stanford's comment that travel was "hard going for automobiles" is echoed in the below editorial, published in the January 10, 1922 edition of the Schenectady Gazette.

As the article notes, in previous years, automobiles were put away for the winter because the roads were often impassable. But the increasing use of cars meant that roads had to be cleared. But as is apparent from Stanford's comment, the roads were not kept as open as the writer of this editorial presumes.
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Stanford doesn't tell what he and his friends saw at the Strand movie theater, but the Wednesday Schenectady Gazette showed that the silent film Uncharted Seas, starring Rudolph Valentino, was to be playing on Thursday-Saturday. Below is the ad:

I was unfamiliar with this movie, so I looked it up. The following information comes from the website allmovie.com. The synopsis was written by Janiss Garza.

Uncharted Seas (1921) - While he was working as a supporting character in this film, Rudolph Valentino had no idea that stardom was imminent. Alice Lake stars here as Lucretia Eastman, who is married to Tom, a drunken womanizer (Carl Gerard). Lucretia's attempts to reform him are futile, and finally she turns to explorer Frank Underwood (Valentino), who has always loved her. Tom's father, Old Jim Eastman (Charles Mailes), gives him one last chance to straighten up by sending him on a trek to the frozen North to locate a treasure ship. Lucretia accompanies him, but his cowardice disgusts her. They run into Underwood, who is on the same mission. Eastman goes home, while Lucretia continues on with Underwood. Eastman claims that Lucretia has been unfaithful and divorces her. She and Underwood hold back their passion, even though they wind up locked in the ice with the ship for several months. They struggle to make it back home and discover that they are now free to legally unite.

Thursday, January 12, 1922

Bright, cool, clear, still day. Arose 7:45 A.M. Shoveled walk, yard and alley. Fixed up & shipped egg cases. Chored around. Russell, Clifford & I went skating on Pleasant Valley. Light refreshments at his house. To bed 11:30 P.M.

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So, Stanford is shipping eggs and probably used a container like the one shown on the left (mentioned in an earlier post).

Clifford is Marion Benedict's brother. He was first mentioned in the 1919 diary, at this post. He was five years younger than Marion, and apparently lived all his life in the Schenectady area. In 1930 he worked as a car salesman, but by 1940 he was listed as a "new worker." At that time he was 33 and still living at home, unmarried. He died in 1977 at the age of 70, about a year after Marion.

By Pleasant Valley, Stanford may have meant Pleasant Valley Park.  Below are two pictures of the park. The top photo is early, showing, as it says, the Brandywine Mill Creek where Stanford and his friends may have been skating. The bottom photo shows the same park years later, when a road cut through the peaceful setting. Later still, that road became the interstate (I-890) pictured in the modern satellite photo.

Taken from Images of America: Schenectady, Ed. Susan Rosenthal

Taken from Google Maps

Wednesday, January 11, 1922

Cold, windy. Snow all day. Arose 8:30 A.M. Breakfast. Out on business. Bro't cases from hospital. Fixed up eggs cases to ship etc. Up to school after Ruth. Shoveled walk. Supper. To High School to evening course in Typewriting. Bowled. To bed 10:30 P.M.

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So I guess Stanford is shipping eggs after all--perhaps by Postal Service?  Notice the snow doesn't cancel the Typing class (as it would today, no doubt).

I discovered an interesting follow-up to the "market gone to smash" story of yesterday. The stores buying the eggs at low prices had a different opinion of the downturn; they were thrilled and passed their savings on to their customers, as the below ad from January 10th indicates:

Found through Google News Archive Search

Tuesday, January 10, 1922

Very mild, overcast day. Arose 6:15 A.M. Breakfast. Started for Amsterdam at 8 Bells. Back at 3 P.M. Business very poor. Market gone to smash. Bowled at Morse. Merlin & I out to Reynolds a la Ford. Nice Call. Ran out of gas on way back. Walked about 4 miles. To bed 1:30 A.M.

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The egg market does seem to have taken a bad turn in early January, at least according to the Pacific Dairy Review for January 5, 1922. Below is an article detailing the markets in those commodities for that week.

Notice the article says (in column 3) "The local egg market has continued on the steady down grade that has been in operation for over a month. . . . Eastern markets are also on the decline."  However, it looks like some improvement is on the horizon, at least for the Pacific market, according to the following week's report:

This report states (in column 3) that "The egg market furnished a surprise this week by a rapid recovery from the low prices that were in effect at the close of last week. . . . The low prices greatly stimulated the demand." Hopefully this change eventually translated into improvements for the Clossons as well.

Model T Gas Gauge - taken from LiveAuctioneers.com

Too bad the Ford ran out of gas on the way home! Since the fuel on those cars had to be checked manually with a measuring stick that was similar to an oil dipstick, and since the gas tank was under the seat, one had to stop the car, get out and look under the seat to check the gas level. Needless to say, it was a time-consuming and cumbersome process. Was our young Stanford capable of taking a risk rather than prudently checking the gas gauge? Probably. But since it was a mild day, as he reports, the four-mile walk was probably not too bad.

Monday, January 9, 1922

Very mild, bright, wet day. Arose 7:30 A.M. Breakfast. Out on business all day. Bowled at star 516. Supper. Did up accounts. Up to High School to register for typewriting. Downtown. Home. Talked. To bed 10:30 P.M.

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I'm not sure what the 516 means in this context. Was that his total score at bowling? Hard to say. Star is of course the Star Bowling Lanes, first mentioned in the 1919 diary here.

So Stanford is taking typewriting, eh? That will prove useful in the coming years. His course may have been structured like the one offered in Summer 1922 at the University of California, Berkeley. Here is the description, taken from the 1922 Register:

Below is a picture of the kind of typewriter Stanford may have been using. This 1922 machine is listed for sale on E-Bay.

Sunday, January 8, 1922

Mild, clear, bright day. Arose 9:30 A.M. To Church & Sunday School. Dinner. Father, Mother & Ruth to Uncle John's. I out walking with Merlin & Russell. To Epworth League. Mr. Bird led. Up to Jessie Silvernails. Russell, Mildred & 2 others there. To bed 2 A.M.

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Mildred is, I think, Mildred Swart. I provide some information about her at this 1921 post: April 1. Merlin is of course Merlin Finch, friends with Stanford since 1919. Russell is Russell Norris, who's identified in this 1919 post: Nov 2. I'm not sure who Mr. Bird is, as I have not encountered his name before.