You won't believe what turned up the other day at a garage sale. In the middle of nowhere, miles from the next grocery store in the quaint and remote countryside of upstate NY. Where the cars are big and the houses are small.
There it was. Small and beat up lying between a barbie doll and some rusty nails was "The Complete Pocket Guide to Europe" from 1900. Looking for a new home for anyone willing to pay 50 cents. And after a very short and pleasant transaction (I didn't talk it down) it was MINE!
I love travel books. Old ones, new ones, scrap books, you name it, but this one is a real gem. My favorite part is the beginning where it instructs you how to go about your transatlantic journey with a steam boat; how much it costs (around 150$ from NY to Liverpool) and what luggage to bring.
It has a nice section on advice for the "masculine traveler". Here's a taste: "It is a mistake to say that a man is known by the company he keeps; he is known by his hat and shoes,"...You see, I always knew that! And it continues: "Travelling suits for gentlemen should be modest in color; black clothes are handy when one arrives at a fashionable watering-place or a large town, and evening dress is highly necessary in London in the season, and in long stops in other cities it is of course frequently required."
Oh, of course! My mind wonders what a "fashionable watering-place" is... I've never heard the term before. Is it the place where all the fashionable men show up for a beverage? Like lions at a watering hole on the African savanna? Or is it a fancy beach resort like Biarritz?
(Darn, my dreams were all just shattered when my sleepy husband woke up and explained the watering place is a bar or tavern. Oh, well...)
Oh, of course! My mind wonders what a "fashionable watering-place" is... I've never heard the term before. Is it the place where all the fashionable men show up for a beverage? Like lions at a watering hole on the African savanna? Or is it a fancy beach resort like Biarritz?
(Darn, my dreams were all just shattered when my sleepy husband woke up and explained the watering place is a bar or tavern. Oh, well...)
Google digitized the whole thing, so you don't have to wait for your garage sale copy to show up. Don't miss out on the telegraphic code at the end.
All of this has absolutely nothing to do with my next project which involves a used army laundry bag, some scissors, needle and thread. When I'm done, it'll be right here for you.
Oh but you are right too: it *is* also an old term for a spa or a seaside resort.
ReplyDeleteThis is Charles Dickens:
'n the Autumn-time of the year, when the great metropolis is so much hotter, so much noisier, so much more dusty or so much more water-carted, so much more crowded, so much more disturbing and distracting in all respects, than it usually is, a quiet sea-beach becomes indeed a blessed spot. Half awake and half asleep, this idle morning in our sunny window on the edge of a chalk-cliff in the old-fashioned watering-place to which we are a faithful resorter, we feel a lazy inclination to sketch its picture.(...)'
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Our_English_Watering-Place
What a great find, your guide!!
Wo ist denn mein Kommentar hinverschwunden? Er ging ungefähr so:
ReplyDeleteNice find, much better than just a scan. Vielleicht ist das Buch ja tatsächlich über den Ozean gereist und hat in einem watering place aus der Tasche eines schwarzen Anzugs geschaut. Oder aber es ist über die Armlehne eines Sessels nie hinausgekommen, beides schön.
What a treasure! That's how my in-laws traveled (50+ years past the book date) after their wedding - ship from London to New York. My MIL couldn't believe there wasn't a shrine or monument or at least a plaque in Hoboken, NJ at Frank Sinatra's home.
ReplyDeleteThe comments from earlier today disappeared into the blog-o-sphere. But fortunately made it back. They seem to be working now.
ReplyDelete@kampinga: Thanks so much for your link and the Dickens quote. It's 99 degrees and I'm melting. Could use a fashionable watering place right now.
@suschna: Ich hatte auch schon Fantasien, wie dieses Buch wohl hier oben gelandet ist. Ich liebe die Idee, das es aus einem fashionable schwarzen Anzug herausgeschaut hat....
@Vicki: We were married in New York City. Our cruise was to Staten Island where we had french fries. And then back. Really!
oh my goodness! what a fun find! just this weekend i was reading a very old cook book my grandmother got with rumford baking powder...it not only teaches how to feed the "ill and ailing" but also how to kill poultry...in detail! fun reading....i am more likely to kill poultry then travel to europe by steamship (or any other way!) so we'll each enjoy our finds!
ReplyDeleteYepp, your dh just hasn't been reading his Georgette Heyer...a watering-place is a fancy spa kind of place, where you go to see and be seen. :p
ReplyDeleteI happened to be sorting the lifetime belongings of an elderly woman today, and stumbled on her My Trip to Europe journal from 1973(complete with retro blue and green 60's print fabric cover :p )..the wide-eyed wonder conveyed in her writing seemed so, so different to how someone would be writing today. Fascinating! :D
And, have your comments that you received during the downtime returned?? They haven't done so on mine, and it's very annoying. :(