Monday, January 2, 1922

Cold, windy, bright day. 4 below ZERO. Arose 9 A.M. Chored around. To Uncle John's in Kissel Kar. Ed & Leila also there. Excellent dinner. Uncle John not very well.  Took H.H. to trolley on way to Boston. Home 5:30. To Church to movies, "Fairy & Waif." Talked. To bed 10:30 P.M.

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Ed & Leila are Stanford's cousin and his wife. They were introduced in Datebook 1919 in this post. Uncle John is Stanford's great uncle; he was introduced in this 1919 post.

The Kissel Kar, as you may recall from the last entry in the 1921 diary, was acquired in a trade for the Hudson. Here is a video from YouTube about the Kissel:

Hanford is off to Boston because he is a graduate student at Boston University's School of Theology. He graduates in 1924, a year ahead of Stanford.

The Fairy and the Waif was a 1915 silent film.  See TCM's website here for an overview.

Sunday, January 1, 1922

Ushered in New Year in Peacock Coffee Shoppe with Ellen Neilsen, H.H., Marion B., Ruth & Mark Sawyer. Cold clear day. Arose 9:30 A.M. * To Church & S.S. Dinner. Took nap. To E.L. social hour & meeting.  H.H. Lead [sic]. To church. Ran sterioptican [sic]. Pageant "Lighting N.Y. Candles." Home with JESSIE SILVERNAIL. TO BED 3:30 A.M.

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So, Stanford is back at his journal with no explanation as to why he quit for seven months. He is not in school, so he is most likely working with his father at his butter and egg business. There are two new names in the list of friends: Ellen Neilsen, and Jesse Silvernail. And the old friends remain: Hanford's Marion and Ruth's Mark.  Both siblings will marry their beaus: Ruth on December 30 of this year, and Hanford in June of 1924.

Searching for Ellen Neilsen, I found a possible match: in the 1920 census, an Ellen Nielson is living in Schenectady with her parents, Charles and Mary Nielson. She is 18, working as a stenographer for General Electric. This is probably the girl. Jessie Silvernail is a 19-year-old college student in 1920, living in Schenectady with her parents. I'm not sure what college women could attend during that time, but it was not Union, which was all male. Her father worked for GE also, though, as a clerk, so that may be her connection to Ellen.

Taken from http://halboor.com/stereopticon

A stereopticon is a 3D viewer, usually seen in the hand-held version, but it was also a projector that could show slides or even moving pictures on a screen for group viewing. This is a picture of one used for film in 1922.

The film they saw, "Lighting N.Y. Candles," was probably taken at a Christmas candle lighting pageant in New York City that year.  Here is a newspaper article from the Dec 23, 1922 Brooklyn Daily Eagle that advertises such a Christmas eve service:

1922 - An Important Year for Stanford Closson

The year 1922 was an important one for Stanford Closson. Not only did he start graduate school at Boston University, where he eventually studied to be a minister, but Boston is where he met his future wife, Mary Leah Yant. General Electric had a big year, too. Thomas Edison visited for the last time in 1922, important technologies were invented, and in December, the city had a major fire that destroyed part of the downtown area.

Below is a photograph of Thomas Edison and William D. Coolidge, who, according to the Edison Tech Center website,

"was one of the most important innovators of the 20th century in his field. Coolidge developed the ductile tungsten filament used in lightbulbs, fluorescent lamps, car ignitions and vacuum tubes. He worked on transformers and cathode ray tubes, high vacuum tubes and he was one of the early leaders at the General Electric Research Lab. He had a remarkable understanding of physics and made improvements to many technologies."

I'm looking forward to starting Stanford's 1922 diary in just five days! I hope you will join me.