Happy Halloween!

Filling in with some background information during a letter-writing hiatus from October 6 to November 9, 1949, as June recuperates at the hospital from a ruptured appendix…

There was a new sheriff in town.

June as a western gunfighter for Halloween,
circa 1944.

Trick or Treat!

Countdown:  Correspondence resumes in 9 days.

© 2010 Lee Price

Groceries and Art School

After completing his Navy service in 1947, Art returned to Southampton and life in his parent’s house.  He found a job working at Roulston’s grocery store, which was managed by Rodney Pierson, a distant relative.  Art was a dependable hard worker.  He

Pencil sketch of a dog by Art Price.
Note grade of B+ above name.

handled all chores that needed to be done at the store including waiting on customers, butchering, mopping and cleaning, and stocking the shelves.



Art enrolled in the Partida School of Arts, located in Southampton at 18 Cameron Street.  Elena Partida founded the school with her husband Allan Harris to teach art, music, and dance.  Known by her students simply as Partida, she served as Art’s teacher as he studied oil painting, watercolor, drawings, composition, and life drawing.  Her husband taught the music and dance classes (which were not of interest to Art).

Once or twice a week, Art would attend his art lessons with Partida, working on his sketching and oil painting skills.  On other nights, he would go to the movies or spend an evening out with the boys.

(On Sunday, Happy Halloween!)

Countdown:  Correspondence resumes in 11 days.

© 2010 Lee Price

First Year at Traphagen (1948-49)

Filling in with some background information during a letter-writing hiatus from October 6 to November 9, 1949, as June recuperates at the hospital from a ruptured appendix…

June finished her year at Pembroke in spring 1948 and never returned.  With her acceptance to the Traphagen School of Fashion, she found an apartment on 96th Street in New York City, going in on it with four roommates, including friends Shirley Stahl and Jane Hastings.  From this apartment, she took the subway to the Traphagen School of Fashion at 1680 Broadway, between 52^nd and 53^rd Streets.

Ethel Traphagen (1882-1963) opened the Traphagen School of Fashion in 1923 to promote fashion ideas that she popularized in books such as Costume Design and Illustration, published in 1918.  The school gained a reputation for its cutting-edge ideas, including the promotion of shorts and slacks as women’s wear. 

June's sketch of
a woman in pants.

In 1948, the school offered courses in fashion drawing, illustration, life drawing, design, forecasting, textile design, fabric analysis, interior decoration, window and counter display, fashion journalism, clothing construction, draping, pattern-making, grading, dressmaking, remodeling, millinery, and glove and bag making.  In her sixties, Ethel Traphagen was still an imposing presence at the school while June was attending. 

June tended to procrastinate on her Traphagen assignments – hardly a surprise considering all the distractions of Manhattan – but she was a good student with real talent.


Sketches by June of women in pants.



(On Friday, Art returns home…)

Countdown:  Correspondence resumes in 12 days.

© 2010 Lee Price

A Gallery of Art's Drawings from his Navy Service

Filling in with some background information during a letter-writing hiatus from October 6 to November 9, 1949, as June recuperates at the hospital from a ruptured appendix…

Art brought his sketch pad with him as he toured the Pacific on Navy minesweepers.  Most of his drawings from this period are rapid sketches, in pencil or charcoal, of his immediate surroundings, including life aboard the ship and life ashore in the Philippines and Shanghai.  These drawings are a small sampling of his work.

Art's drawing of a view from
the minesweeper.



Art's drawing of a juggling entertainer.



Art's drawing of a boy
begging in Shanghai.

At the wheel, a drawing
by Art Price.

(On Thursday, June’s first year at Traphagen…)

Countdown:  Correspondence resumes in 14 days.

© 2010 Lee Price

Service

Art Price, circa 1946.

Filling in with some background information during a letter-writing hiatus from October 6 to November 9, 1949, as June recuperates at the hospital from a ruptured appendix…

High school classes were very fluid during World War II, with the boys frequently disappearing before graduation as they either enlisted or were drafted.  While still in high school, Art attempted to enlist in the Air Force but was rejected because he had had rheumatic fever in his youth.  Following this, he waited to be drafted, graduating on schedule in 1944.

Shortly following graduation, Art was drafted into the Navy.  Performing well on the tests, he was placed into special training to be a quartermaster, the petty officer in charge of day-to-day navigation tasks.  The war ended the week he shipped out, but his appointed work on a minesweeper is just as important (and dangerous) in the time immediately following a war as during.  Unexploded mines pay no heed to treaties.  During his two years of service, Art worked as a quartermaster third class on several small minesweepers in the Pacific Ocean.

From his early teenage years, Art had diligently worked on his art skills, frequently making detailed copies of drawings and photographs in Time magazine.  He took his sketchpad along with him while serving in the Pacific.  At the age of 19, he found himself stationed in Shanghai and the Philippines, drawing the exotic sights and poverty that he saw around him, so different from anything he had ever seen in the Hamptons.

YMS6, one of the Yard Minesweepers
that Art served on.



Art's sketch of the
minesweeper YMS6.













(Tomorrow, a gallery of drawings from Art’s service in the Navy…)

Countdown:  Correspondence resumes in 15 days.

© 2010 Lee Price

The Pembroke Year

June's mother, her brother Teddy, June,
and her father celebrating her
high school graduation.

Filling in with some background information during a letter-writing hiatus from October 6 to November 9, 1949, as June recuperates at the hospital from a ruptured appendix…

June did well in high school, receiving particular praise for her artistic ability.  She graduated in 1947 and was accepted at Pembroke College, the women’s college associated with Brown University (where her father had attended), a prestigious Ivy League college located in Rhode Island.

June attended Pembroke for one year.  Somewhere around this time, she was briefly engaged.  At the end of her year at Pembroke, she applied to – and was accepted at – the Traphagen School of Fashion in New York City.  She had decided to become a fashion illustrator.

Postcard of Brown University, circa 1947.

(On Monday, Art joins the Navy…)

Countdown:  Correspondence resumes in 16 days.

© 2010 Lee Price

Life During Wartime

June’s father owned a 1938 Ford, but he didn’t take it out often during World War II.  Gas was rationed during the war years so driving was reserved for

The Anderson family's 1938 Ford.

emergencies.  It was an easy walk to his phone company job in town and a pleasant evening stroll to the movie theater or to Tepper Brothers for ice cream and the evening paper.

Food was rationed, too, but June’s father knew plenty about growing his own produce from his youth on the family farm in Connecticut.  He planted his

Victory Garden on the back right corner of their property and it provided plenty of fresh vegetables for the family.

The shades of their house were black on the inside to prevent their house from being visible from above at night.  If the Germans launched a blitz against America, as they had against England, they would not see June’s house.

Soon after the war ended, June's family moved to "the big house."  Located just a block and a half down Lincoln Avenue, their handsome new house was a large rambling affair dating back to the 1850s.  A short concrete wall, perfect for balancing upon, ran along the sidewalks of Griffing and Lincoln Avenues.  Behind the house were two massive pine trees ideal for June's tree climbing adventures (not as common now as June was maturing into a proper teenager).

The Anderson family's new "big house" at the corner of
Lincoln and Griffing Avenues.

(Tomorrow, the Pembroke year…)

Countdown:  Correspondence resumes in 17 days.

© 2010 Lee Price