Labor Day
After a motor trip
around the country with friend
Shapiro, we met C. at the
R.R., station, from where we
went home together.
Home from the brief
vacation I found myself
still tired, but glad to be
home.
Called up Miss S.S.
and dated her up for
Friday night.
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As we’ve mentioned before, a motor trip around the country in 1924 probably looked something like this:
And if Papa had been behind the wheel of the car, he looked like he did in this studio photo (if, that is, he considered it appropriate to wear a white straw boater on Labor Day):
Since Papa’s recent discussions of “C.”, a.k.a. Clara II, have led me to think the worst of her, I can only assume she cajoled Papa into tending to her equipage at the train station as she did in the city a few days earlier when she first left for Spring Valley.
Papa says he was tired when he got home, and it’s no wonder in light of how unrelaxed he felt around Clara, and not just because she did not return his romantic affection; if my speculation from yesterday was correct, she served as a manifestation of his deepest and most difficult internal struggles. His efforts to quash his attraction to Clara II continued in full force on this day, too, as evidenced by the rather unusual, slangy way he concludes this passage. To mention “S.S.” and how he “dated her up” on the heels of spending the day with Clara II seems like a deliberate, purposeful way to assert Clara II’s unimportance and point out how many other women he had to choose from.
—————
Additional Note:
As noted on August 30, Papa probably got to Spring Valley by getting on the H&M from the Hudson Tubes at Chambers Street, taking that to Jersey City, and then jumping on the Erie Railroad to Spring Valley. His return trip presumably traced this path in reverse.