Poplar Springs– “That Great Pile of Rocks”

  On this exciting September afternoon the Calverton train was likely met by Rose and Randolph Hicks’s farm manager in their Ford Model T or their Locomobile. He may have picked up a few provisions at the Calverton Market and filled his tank at W.H. Spicer’s gas station. It was a crowded car as they all five headed…

Debutante Distractions in 1933

In light of all the current crises affecting Americans, who would believe that during the fall and winter season the tradition of holding debutante balls still continues in major cities?  Yet look how many of us loved immersing in the pageantry of Downton Abbey. The practice of presenting marriageable daughters to eligible young men from…

“Old ladies and old gentlemen are my weakness . . .”

  Daysie Hall’s will made her sister “Mrs. Randolph Hicks of New York” the custodian of her two children “with full power of attorney to take care of their interests in the way she deems best.” In June 1930 Rose and her 60-year-old husband prepared to become parents for the first time. One thing was clear,…

“I’m caught in the mesh of the desert’s grip. . .”

They were devastated and lay awake for hours night after night listening to the sound of ocean waves breaking less than half a mile away. How could they possibly be orphans? And yet the resilience mustered by 15-year-old Jane Hall and her 18-year-old brother Dick would prove extraordinary. Both were about to leave behind their…

“With you, my heart and soul have flown . . .”

“An American Paper for the American People – The Great Newspaper of the Great Southwest—The Paper for People Who Think.” The Los Angeles Examiner was bold in its claims and, on February 18, 1930, for the Hall family, it was  also the paper to read. On the front page of Section Two a short article proclaimed:…