stomach churned. Then she passed a beauty parlor with a sign in the window “Bobs, 35 cents. Tuesday only.” Grant’s Hardware offered a special on shovels. Juggling the suitcase and her pack made her feel conspicuous and uneasy.
She turned right on Court Street and found the Municipal Building . The big clock outside chimed eleven times. Needing to take stock, Gracie went inside. Relieved to find the ladies’ washroom empty, she quickly repacked her belongings into the red suitcase.
Returning to the building plaza, she settled down next to one of the two huge stone lions out front for security, pulled out her sandwich and munched on it while she watched the people go by. The women here were very stylish with skirts and hair shorter than Gracie’s mother allowed. Feeling dowdy, she did a mental inventory of her money, afraid to take it out of her purse. She had spent $3.25 at the second hand store. She had only $12 left and she knew her ticket would be about half that.
She craved a fresh image for her new life. Should she do it? She tucked that decision away for a few minutes.
An hour later, unruly blonde curls lay on the floor. Gracie peered at her new image from the beauty shop chair. Green eyes, wider and more open to receive the world, gazed back at her. A fashionable bob cut just below her ears, not straight or crimped but bouncy, framed her face.
“It’s the best I could do for the price. Crimping is another 15 cents,” apologized the salon girl as she dusted stray hairs off the back of Gracie’s neck with a big powder brush.
Gracie leaned into the mirror and tipped her head from one side to the other watching her hair bounce. She flashed a delighted smile. “It’s perfect.”
She felt younger and definitely more self-assured.
En route to Eagles Mere
1925
People buzzed around the Allentown train station the next day , stopping only to check departure times or to collect their children and suitcases. Gracie bought her ticket, hurriedly counting the rest of the money in her purse. Selecting a magazine called Time from the newsstand next to the ticket counter, she leafed through it, lingering over an article about President Coolidge.
“Watch it, Missy,” growled a man pushing a huge steamer trunk on a dolly. She jumped out of the way and hastily handed the vendor the money for the magazine and a Milky Way candy bar. Thinking she might feel less overwhelmed outside the station, she checked the board for the departing platform for the Wilkes-Barre train and dodged her way out of the terminal.
On the platform, people were crammed into each available seat, but quickly rose to board when the train to Philadelphia was announced. Gracie sat down alone, set her red suitcase between her legs, and wolfed down the candy bar. She glanced distractedly at the cover of the magazine, realizing she hated the news and politics, but instructed herself to read it on the train to Wilkes-Barre so she could be better informed.
Ducking her head nervously when people filtered in to catch the next train, Gracie spied a book someone had abandoned called Sister Carrie. Quickly, she snatched if off the bench and browsed through it. The main character was a girl who wanted to go to Chicago and be a famous actress. Excited now that she had a friend with a similar goal to keep her company; she put it in her suitcase just as the conductor called “All aboard!” Nervously climbing the steep steps onto the train, she settled into a brown leather seat and opened the Time magazine. She tried to read, but remorse gnawed at her concentration like a woodpecker hammering her skull.
“Ne-e- xt stop, Wilkes Ba -a-are.” Clutching her red suitcase, Gracie stepped off the train with an unsettling combination of anticipation and fear. After consulting a man in a maroon uniform with a name tag on his breast pocket, she found the east entrance of the train station where she was to meet the Crestmont car. The clock on the
She turned right on Court Street and found the Municipal Building . The big clock outside chimed eleven times. Needing to take stock, Gracie went inside. Relieved to find the ladies’ washroom empty, she quickly repacked her belongings into the red suitcase.
Returning to the building plaza, she settled down next to one of the two huge stone lions out front for security, pulled out her sandwich and munched on it while she watched the people go by. The women here were very stylish with skirts and hair shorter than Gracie’s mother allowed. Feeling dowdy, she did a mental inventory of her money, afraid to take it out of her purse. She had spent $3.25 at the second hand store. She had only $12 left and she knew her ticket would be about half that.
She craved a fresh image for her new life. Should she do it? She tucked that decision away for a few minutes.
An hour later, unruly blonde curls lay on the floor. Gracie peered at her new image from the beauty shop chair. Green eyes, wider and more open to receive the world, gazed back at her. A fashionable bob cut just below her ears, not straight or crimped but bouncy, framed her face.
“It’s the best I could do for the price. Crimping is another 15 cents,” apologized the salon girl as she dusted stray hairs off the back of Gracie’s neck with a big powder brush.
Gracie leaned into the mirror and tipped her head from one side to the other watching her hair bounce. She flashed a delighted smile. “It’s perfect.”
She felt younger and definitely more self-assured.
En route to Eagles Mere
1925
People buzzed around the Allentown train station the next day , stopping only to check departure times or to collect their children and suitcases. Gracie bought her ticket, hurriedly counting the rest of the money in her purse. Selecting a magazine called Time from the newsstand next to the ticket counter, she leafed through it, lingering over an article about President Coolidge.
“Watch it, Missy,” growled a man pushing a huge steamer trunk on a dolly. She jumped out of the way and hastily handed the vendor the money for the magazine and a Milky Way candy bar. Thinking she might feel less overwhelmed outside the station, she checked the board for the departing platform for the Wilkes-Barre train and dodged her way out of the terminal.
On the platform, people were crammed into each available seat, but quickly rose to board when the train to Philadelphia was announced. Gracie sat down alone, set her red suitcase between her legs, and wolfed down the candy bar. She glanced distractedly at the cover of the magazine, realizing she hated the news and politics, but instructed herself to read it on the train to Wilkes-Barre so she could be better informed.
Ducking her head nervously when people filtered in to catch the next train, Gracie spied a book someone had abandoned called Sister Carrie. Quickly, she snatched if off the bench and browsed through it. The main character was a girl who wanted to go to Chicago and be a famous actress. Excited now that she had a friend with a similar goal to keep her company; she put it in her suitcase just as the conductor called “All aboard!” Nervously climbing the steep steps onto the train, she settled into a brown leather seat and opened the Time magazine. She tried to read, but remorse gnawed at her concentration like a woodpecker hammering her skull.
“Ne-e- xt stop, Wilkes Ba -a-are.” Clutching her red suitcase, Gracie stepped off the train with an unsettling combination of anticipation and fear. After consulting a man in a maroon uniform with a name tag on his breast pocket, she found the east entrance of the train station where she was to meet the Crestmont car. The clock on the
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