大象传媒

THREE WEEKS IN THE U.S.A.
Next day, December 22nd, we were awoken at 0530, and disembarked onto the jetty at 0715, where we shivered until 0815, when we boarded a train of three coaches, arriving in Providence at 1000. We beheld a snowy landscape with copses of small trees. Moisture condensed and froze on the inside of the carriage-windows, but I managed by diligent wiping to preserve a small clear circle, and saw that our second stop was Westerly, Rhode Island, and our third New Haven, where we were given a very good box-meal plus coffee. We crossed into Connecticut, and passed Greenwich and Marramoneck. On arrival in New York we went to the U.S.N. Barracks at Pier 92, 12th Avenue, 52nd Street. For my 拢6 Sterling I received $23_15, plus $10 cost-of-living allowance.
On the Saturday five of us took a cab to Fifth Avenue Maple-Leaf Club, where we had a big meal. On entering these clubs, servicemen were pressed to accept a meal, cigarettes, free tickets for cinemas and shows, including audience-participation in radio-shows, and invitations to private parties, sometimes being collected in private cars. During my three days in New York I never paid for any meal, drink, fruit, cinema or show; only for postage, fares, and beds. I received a ticket to the Hollywood Cinema, to see Bogart in To Have and Have Not. I booked a bed for 50c at the Red Shield (Salvation Army) Club in 46th Street, and was given an invitation to dinner at 1900 on Christmas Day with Mrs Nilsen, 130 Morningside Drive, and a ticket to attend a Sorority Party (a sort of college-girls club) at Roosevelt House, 76th street, Fifth Avenue. These Sororities seemed to be designated by three Greek letters, and this one was the Lamda Gamma Phi. I went at 2000, and had plenty of food, my first drink of apple-juice, gorgeous female company, and a pleasant evening. I then found myself in the Catholic Cathedral Canteen, where I played a Novachord. It was very strange to us of course to be in a city with no black-out, street and car-lights blazing, and neon-signs everywhere. I turned in about 0030, rose at 0600, and took a cab back to Pier 92.
On Christmas Eve I telephoned Mrs Nilsen to thank her and ask what time to arrive, and she was most appreciative. I went ashore at 1200, booked a bed at the Red Shield again, and went to the Maple Leaf Club. They gave me a ticket for Radio City Music Hall, telling me that it was the biggest place of its kind in the world. There I saw the film National Velvet, followed by the huge stage-show, with the famous chorus-girls, The Rockettes - 36 in one line across the stage. I had tea and a hamburger at a Catholic Canteen, and went to a Christmas Party at a large hotel called The Dauphin on Broadway and 67th Street. It turned out to be mostly dancing, but I had a long chat with a girl (goil) from Brooklyn. I left about midnight, rode on the Subway, and slept in a very nice bed at the Red Shield which I was sorry to leave at 0600 on Christmas Day. I had been told that every serviceman would receive a Christmas Present next morning and, judging by the ubiquitous generosity already experienced, I rather expected something special, but found nobody about at that hour, and was somewhat disappointed. I arrived at the Barracks at 0700. Dinner was always served there on a rectangular stainless-steel tray with three triangular and three trapezoid sections pressed into it, and my six sections were duly and simultaneously loaded with turkey, white potatoes, sweet potatoes, celery, peas, stuffing, seasoning, sausagemeat, greens, ice-cream, cake, cranberry sauce, coffee, an orange, and a pack of cigarettes. There was always an abundance of food at the Barracks, - more than one could eat, - an orange at every breakfast, ice-cream at every lunch, and unlimited apples.
I went ashore at 1200, went by 'bus to the Maple-Leaf Club, and received a ticket to the Roxy, another huge cinema, and saw Winged Victory (another world-premiere) and a stage-show, and the organist played carols and songs, including Santa Claus is Coming To Town, to words on the screen, and everybody sang. Afterwards I had pie and ice-cream and cake, and the gift of a box of candy, at the Cathedral Canteen. After a glass of milk at the Maple-Leaf I caught a number 4 Ten-Cent 'bus to 122nd Street and walked up Morningside Drive to number 130.
This was a tenement. In the entrance-hall the negro porter in the elevator said, Good evenin' Sah! Where you wan' go, Sah? Miss' Nilsen Sah? Step right in, sah! So sah stepped right in, and was taken up to the 2nd floor and shewn the door. I suppose it was my first encounter with a domestic dwelling with central-heating and a refrigerator. Mrs. Nilsen, an immigrant from Norway, was a teacher of mathematics. I met one of her daughters, and a very nice 20-year-old girl called Whitney. The other daughter was ill in bed. I went out with Whitney to the drug store and other shops, and when we returned I played their piano to her for a while. I gave them my box of candy, two packs of cigarettes, and a book of matches towards the party. Others began to arrive, - two Canadian soldiers, and two stepsisters. One was Audrey Staub, born and bred until seven years old in Kentish Town, then to school in Paris, and her mother wrote a book about their escape to the U.S.A. We had a fine dinner, in which two chickens were demolished. Afterwards eight more girls and four boys arrived, and we had a jolly party, and plenty of songs around the piano, i.e., around me. In the midst of all this light and gaiety a-plenty I thought of course of my dear folk at home, in the blackout, perhaps under air-attack, and unsure whether they would have been able to acquire a turkey, even with my father's influence in the firm. (My mother wrote later to say they had a goose, and my father wrote Jolly Old Ten was still intact when I left on Monday. [to return to Valence] The big bomps eased a bit during Christmas but have been pretty regular since.) I was sorry to have to leave at 2345, and Audrey accompanied me to Broadway, where a cab took me to Pier 92 for $1.
Throughout my time in New York I had the desire to visit the Statue of Liberty, but whenever I asked at the Clubs I was always put off. Why do you want to go there? they asked incredulously. It is a cold dismal ride across the Harbor on a dilapidated ferry-boat, if it is running, and when you reach the island you will find it scruffy and deserted. I have always wished that I had been more resolute. Perhaps one day I shall see it in all its new-furbished splendour.
On Boxing-Day we packed ready to leave New York, loafed about until lunch, and again until dinner, and finally left on a coach to Pennsylvania Station. Obviously we owed our stay in New York to the fact that all the seats on the trains had been filled by U.S. servicemen and civilians going home for Christmas, whilst we had no such priority. We had discovered by then that we were on a special advance-party draft to travel by air and to work on the staff of F.O.N.A.P. (Flag Officer Naval Air Stations Pacific), and were joined by our five officers. We had two Pullman coaches between us with double-glazed windows, a grand dining-car, and a well-appointed toilet-room. We had Sam, a negro porter to look after us. Every night he prepared the wide two-tier bunks with clean sheets, and we travelled like lords. During that night we crossed the Canadian border, passed Buffalo and Niagara, and Lake Ontario at about 1000 on the 27th. Breakfast was bacon & eggs and coffee preceded by delicious fruit-juice. Either our coaches were occasionally coupled to other trains, or other coaches were occasionally coupled to or uncoupled from ours, because we kept finding ourselves conducted to a different dining-car. Once we discovered a fine observation-car with large swivelling bucket-armchair seats and windows down to our knees, and we enjoyed grand views for an hour or two, but next time we went along to enjoy more we found it had gone. We put our clocks back in Chicago at 2100, and regularly thereafter, as we journeyed westwards. On the 28th we were in Iowa, and disembarked for lunch in Omaha, Nebraska. On the 29th, passing through mountainous scenery with snow-covered Christmas-trees, we passed Ogden, and on through Wyoming and Nevada. We crossed the Great Salt Lake via a 23-mile causeway and a 12-mile bridge, and for most of that time I stood on the open platform at the back of the rear coach. Approaching Reno we saw a gorgeous sunset and the rise of the full moon.
On Saturday 30th a second locomotive was coupled onto the front of our train and we crossed the Rocky Mountains at 7,000', above the clouds, where the air was noticeably thinner and caused our eardrums to pop and our breathing-rate to increase. Thus in an hour or two we passed from a snow-covered landscape to one of green grass, tropical trees, colourful houses, blue skies, and warm sunshine. The Union-Pacific locomotives were colossal. I saw one with sixteen driving-wheels plus a four-wheeled bogie fore and aft, - a 4-16-4 in railway parlance. Our next stop was Sacramento, and finally we reached San Francisco. The railway lines ran down the middle of the main street, with no platforms, so our train, its bell clanging to warn the motor-traffic, arrived like a huge panting giant, towering over the scene. Sam told us that we would be able to see Alcatraz, the West Coast State Penitentiary - Sing-Sing being its Eastern counterpart. Man, he said, You gotta be a big shot to get in there! - the minimum sentence being thirty years. We all gave him a tip in gratitude for his services, and amazed him by shaking his hand.
I am sure we twelve were the only British Servicemen in the City. We seemed to have confused the authorities, because we were first shipped over to Fort MacDowell, the U.S.Base on Angel Island, known to the troops as Alcatraz II. The mistake discovered, we were shipped back past Alcatraz I to San Francisco and were billeted and the Harbor Club near the Embarcadero on Market Street. Some of these details figure in my story The San Francisco Tea-Party. We went ashore and within half an hour saw two fights - one involving knives and a man who had lost a hand, using his hook - a car-smash, and an armed hold-up, the Police-cars arriving as a man, freeing himself from the neckties with which he had been bound, staggered out from the front doors of his shop. They caught two men and took guns off both.
We were constrained to wait for our Air Priority to arrive from Washington, so we spent the next eleven days in exploring the City, skating, swimming, cinema-going, and calling in at the Royal Navy Office in the Federal Buildings occasionally to draw allowances of $20 subsistence-money. By New Year's Eve I had lost my voice, and later came to connect this phenomenon with the circumstance of a rapid change from very cold weather to warmer weather, because it happened to me on certain similar occasions during the subsequent years, so that I began to be able to predict it. In this speechless condition I attended a party at 1246 41st Street, which I enjoyed in spite of my handicap, and returned to my bed at 0130 next day.

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