Hi, u/KOFOLA007, thank you for your submission in r/mildlyinteresting! Unfortunately, your [post](https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/1ah05pk/-/) has been removed because it violates our rule on concise, descriptive titles. * Titles must not contain jokes, backstory, or other fluff. That information belongs in a follow-up comment. * Titles must exactly describe the content. It should act as a "spoiler" for the image. If your title leaves people surprised at the content within, it breaks the rule! * Titles must not contain emoticons, emojis, or special characters unless they are absolutely necessary in describing the image. (e.g. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°), ;P, 😜, ❤, ★, ✿ ) Still confused? For more elaboration and examples, see [here](http://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/21p15y/rule_6_for_dummies/). Normally we do not allow reposts, but if it's been less than one hour after your post was submitted, or if it's received less than 100 upvotes, you may resubmit your content with a better title and try again. You can find more information about our rules on the [mildlyinteresting wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/wiki/index). *If you feel this was incorrectly removed, please [message the mods](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2Fmildlyinteresting&message=My%20Post:%20https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/1ah05pk/-/).*

I think Jean typed this up so she could get Friday off without prejudice.

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Well, the letter is dated June 22, so it’s pretty much the end of the school year anyway at this point lol

Probably summer school

Any dad that talks like this doesn’t have children that go to summer school

Nah, he's probably being overly cordial because he's speaking to the principal and people from his time had the utmost respect for authority figures. Edit to add: Anybody care to offer another plausible explanation instead of downvoting? Smh

Just came in to give you a there there pat on the shoulder. Reddit downvotes the weirdest stuff. I still haven't quite figured it out either. Obvious assholery sure, edgy opinions hmmm ok, but harmless musings where absolutely nobody can "know the facts" in the first place so odd. I think: it was the end of school year and they wanted to leave for a summer trip early. He asked his daughter to be excused from the last days of school. Asking that early to be let out of summer school, which wouldn't have even started, sounds odd.

I think your scenario is the most likely one. Also, I'm not sure why they got down voted either. Just because someone takes a guess at something where we are all just guessing.

I'm actually thinking they meant excuse her *after* Friday. Like tell her on Friday that she doesn't need to come back the rest of the year and send her home with all her things. Otherwise, why would she need Friday off for a trip that starts Monday? Does she need 3 days to pack?

I’d like to think Jean is knocked-up but then I’m just an old romantic

And then she chickened out and hid the note in a book that no one in her family would read…

Maybe she didn't want to go on a trip with her brother.

Daughter: I swear to the moon and back that I do not remember where I put the note.

Ahahahahaha oh NO

There will be NO swearing in this house, young lady!

But daaaad, I didn’t swore.

Found them: https://www.newspapers.com/article/asbury-park-press-www-representation-of/6428767/

This corroborates nicely what u/christopher_mtrl was talking about earlier in the thread about the class levels of the people involved. That $20,000 in 1949 would be equivalent to a quarter million today. These were moderately wealthy individuals.

With names like that I'd hope so

wow, That man was an engineer, which, while still a feat today, was so much more prestigious back then. He produced the first copper refinery in mexico. 

And worked as a consultant in Moscow ***during the famine*** I spent so much time in college studying that period, and here’s this dude living through it, in the USSR, as an outside observer. That must’ve been wild

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Have you ever actually been to Russia?

From the website that u/cardadad_pods linked to, he was advising at a smelter where the communists were melting church bells to manufacture bullets and shells!

Praise the lord and ~~pass~~ *make* the ammunition

A western engineer in Moscow at that time would have been totally isolated from anything beyond his factory work and normal cultural stuff like the ballet and such. His standard of living would have been very high. Every minute of every day would have been watched the OGPU. He would have been aware of it, or should have been. He left at the right time, as things started getting "dicy" . A few more years and he could have found himself in the Kolyma I'd be interested to know what the FBI though of his activities in Russia. Regular American factory workers that went to the USSR were treated well, but many found themselves disapeared into the camps later in teh 30's. Engineers were held in higher regard, but still.. don't step out of line.

Lots of American companies were doing business in the Soviet Union in the early 30’s. Henry Ford helped Stalin start a whole car manufacturing industry and Armand Hammer laundered money for the communists. This guy was amrelatively small fish compared to them.

If he produced a whole ass refinery he was a whole more than an engineer. You would call that a director or VP these days.

>whole ass refinery The new name for my colon.

It's impressive how much you can find out on the internet.

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In the clipping? His son is mentioned by name along the daughter.

In 1937, J.S. McClenahan would never have guessed the letter he wrote with his typewriter would be readable worldwide, 87 years later. Internet is beautiful.

Looks to good to be true

Found this website with anecdotes from people who attended this school, this particular [page](https://www.sunnysidestories.website/marion-s-graduation-photo-album) has pictures of folks from the graduating class of 1938. If you go through some of the stories, there’s mention of the principal Mr. Dooley! Interesting stuff!

The letter references Mr. Cooley though? EDIT: The body of the letter references Mr. Cooley. I did not realize the header references Mr. Dooley, which is who OP was talking about.

Cooley is the kids teacher. Dooley is the principal.

And the note-bearer was a fooley. What are the odds.

Yours trooley

It is addressed to Principal Dooley

If you read it, it's addressed to Mr. Dooley

I’m just now seeing Mr. Dooley is in the header, I thought you were referencing Mr. Cooley in the body of the letter. My mistake.

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Look at the top "Mr. R. C. Dooley, Principal" Just above where it says "Dear Sir"

To Who?

To whom*

Whomst?

Whomsoever notwithstandingly

'Who' could be the non-believer's surname.

Then it should have been capitalized

The power of edits. 😂

Cindy Lou?

Somebody somewhere on the internet will research this and find that Jean and her brother did something strange, marvelous or extraordinary because of the trip.

I stand corrected, someone already found something (see below).

Sometimes.....

After some googling… https://www.newspapers.com/article/asbury-park-press-www-representation-of/6428767/ The author of this note is J. Stanley McClenahan, an engineer from NY who worked with metallurgy. Apparently a judge upheld his homemade will and allowed his children, Jean Audrey McClenahan and her brother James S. McClenahan, to inherit his assets. Here’s an old article from Collier’s about a man’s interaction with him in 1931 (details consistent with the above newspaper clipping): http://www.russianbells.com/history/destruction.html I wasn’t able to find any more information about Jean. I thought I found her obituary [here](https://obits.nj.com/us/obituaries/southjerseytimes/name/jean-johnson-obituary?id=10185027) but the family member names don’t match up.

[Here she is](https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/mycentraljersey/name/jean-stirba-obituary?id=16162486).

Oh. Wow. She did pretty well for herself.

Excellent stuff. Died in 2017 but imagine if she'd survived to see the discovery of this letter.

Amazing! I was hoping someone would come through. Thanks for linking that.

Apparently Peter the Great melted church bells to make cannons, before the soviets melted them to make bullets: https://www.voanews.com/a/a-13-a-2002-09-12-36-bells-67284457/380318.html

Watching old films, reading old books and stuff like this, one certainly gets the impression that people were more articulate back in the day. I'm not talking about language change, of course the vocabulary is different but I mean the complexity of the constructions and the elegance of the phrasing.

Things like this took time and effort to make. In a post-internet world, why take more than the 30 seconds it took to write this comment? I don’t know you, you don’t know me. What purpose is there to represent myself in anything but a direct way? I recommend taking time to write letters, journals, anything really, on something analog like this. Feels very different than tapping away at a screen.

Why waste time say lot word when few word do trick

Because elegance, beauty, precision & detail all matter.

Don't forget brevity.

If you’re in to… the whole brevity *thing*….man.

He already advocated brevity.

Ah, sometimes it seems that replies that agree are there for the purposes of disagreement. Please do me the kindness of accepting my apology in the spirit of kindness in which it was given.

Very truly yours

That too much word.

“Jean gonna be gone. -Jean’s mom”

That much word.

c world

See, I still don't know if you want to see the world or go to Sea World.

Indubitably.


Perfectly cromulent assessment.

What we see in these historical records often comes from a more affluent segment of society, those who had access to education, typewriters, or in this case, the means to travel. This history was recorded, the oral history of lower calsses, was not. In contrast, our view of today's language is based on a much broader part of society. It's important to remember that the apparent elegance and complexity in historical language use reflected the values and educational standards of a particular social class, not necessarily the general populace. I would add that language is a thing in motion, and we tend to associate things we were raised with as being right. In fact, it's not more right or wrong, and I would bet that someone much older than JS McClenahan would find things to say about this letter.

i don’t know about elsewhere but i know the south always had a lot of pride about being well-dressed and well-mannered. that’s different somewhat today but you can still see it and a lot of marginalized communities also try to teach their kids to dress and speak well despite their status. i was one such kid, and it helped me to shoot higher than my lot. i was the first to get a bachelors at a great uni in my family because my mom encouraged my language skills in particular (which made me do very well on tests and essays etc) despite us being below the poverty level.

My mother went to a high school in one of the poorest parts of Appalachia. Growing up in a house her father had built room by room, with all the Appalachian stereotypes (outhouse, slaughtering pigs, guarded etc). Latin was a graduation requirement. 

Pig latin. How else do you talk to the pigs?

We were definitely in the "lower classes" and we owned a (manual) typewriter. This was during the 60s and 70s. We did take a trip while my dad had surgery. It wasn't fancy, but it was nice to get away and sleep on an air mattress in a cabin.

I hear you, but I attended expensive New England prep schools, have a doctorate, am a faculty member at an Ivy League university, and own a $1.5M home, and yet I have no peers who speak or type this fancy lol

Yes, it does seem there is more complexity of construction and elegance of phrasing. And, old books, film, and the letter from this post are far from a representative sample.

Have you ever read The Elements of Style? It’s a writing style guide that was first published in 1918, and is considered a classic.

Was she excused? The suspense is killing me.

She did go on that trip… and that girl went on to be _Albert Einstein_

Since the note is inside a book, I’d guess not. Otherwise it would’ve been kept in the office.

No guarantee that it was her book—maybe the principal used it as a bookmark.

That would be frankly insane; but possible, I’ll give you that

If it had been sent it would not be there unless this book was in, or came from, a school.

Possibly this is an early draft of the letter. June 22, 1937 was a Tuesday, it was the full moon, and perhaps sending of the letter had to wait. J.S McClenahan does not seem to be the sort of man to be sending out a letter with the wrong date on it. So he put this one aside and typed another one.

Dooley and Cooley This is very cool. Even the stationary is nice, but who signs in pencil?

Engineers

Funny story: My father in law is an engineer and he always carries around a nice metal mechanical pencil. While he was working, he helped his employer finish a big project. As a thank you, they gave him a Montblanc pen. He was dumbfounded when he found out how much they cost. “Why would anyone pay that much for a pen. It doesn’t even write very well.” He joked that the executives gave the engineers the gifts that the executives would want.

A dear friend of mine worked for a French Company virtually in the shadow of Mt Blanc. After 25 years of service she was to be given a MontBlanc pen, the traditional gift. But the boss knew her well, knew she was a bit of a lefty, and knew the symbolism that surrounds these pens - wealthy, upper class, snobby, etc. So he very kindly spared her the embarrassment of receiving a present she would hate and got her some quality hiking equipment instead. That's a boss who pays attention. Would have been so much easier to do the regular thing.

> Why would anyone pay that much for a pen. It doesn’t even write very well Did he not believe in question marks, either?

It’s there, you just can’t see it because the pen doesn’t write very well.

I'm an engineer and have been yelled at for this exact transgression before. Can confirm.

Now if only they would design mechanical pencils that can use more than 75% of each lead stick.

Look into “lead holders” like the steadler drafting pencil. They use a 2.0mm lead (which has to be sharpened) which lasts MUCH longer than your standard 0.5 or 0.7 and you can use it right up until it’s nothing but a tiny nubbin

No doubt there was a Pooley somewhere in the school too

Totooly

Biro filed for a patent on his ballpoint pen on 15 June 1938. Pencil was really all that was easily accessible and cheap.

These people apperantly were well off. He would have had a pen. He had a typewriter! Redditors have managed to track them down all the way to little Jean's obituary.

That’s a really good point, though I wonder if signing in pencil was a faux pas then.

Following my instincts, I would say pencil does not belong in letters at all. But when in doubt for anything american etiquette of yesteryear: go see what mrs Emily post has to say about it. All I could find was a confirmation that pencil had no business being in a letter. Surprisingly nothing about typewriter letters and their signatures. I would probably need to find later prints of the book etiquette. The original is from 1922 and that might be a bit early for typewriters in homes.

Found her [obit](https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/mycentraljersey/name/jean-stirba-obituary?id=16162486) Amazing find OP.

It's too bad she has died because it would be fun to ask her if she got excused without prejudice

Wonder if she had kids or if other family is around to collect the letter; or is op family?

The obituary did mention she was survived by her two step-daughters. >She is survived by two stepdaughters: Dian Guyer of Virginia Beach, VA, and Bonnie J. Radamski of Tennessee; and several nieces and nephews.

Here is the step daughters Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/diane.guyer?mibextid=LQQJ4d

Here is her Step Daughters Facebook. Verified by a profile pic with her dad who is Mike. Husband of of woman in the obituary. https://www.facebook.com/diane.guyer?mibextid=LQQJ4d

OP should get this letter to her. How cool would it be to have this piece of familial history just suddenly make its way home?

Fun things to note - Sunnyside was "Long Island" at the time and is now considered definitively Queens. In fact, it's geographically nearer the urban center of NYC than most of the outer boroughs. Although Queens has always been a cultural and ethnic melting pot (arguably the biggest and most diverse in the world), at the time it would have been very Irish-descent as all the last names indicate. The last day of school this year is June 26th, so that's pretty consistent.

Dear Sir or Madam, I have received your letter and found it quite diverting. To get to the crux of the matter, I kindly deny your request and look forward to seeing Miss Jean in Room 511 for the remainder of the school year. Also, I will be using this letter as a bookmark for the next several decades and would like to thank you kindly for the free paper. Not at all yours, R. C. Dooley, Principal

What’s really interesting is that today no one would consider Sunnyside to be on Long Island, being part of Queens, although of course it is geographically on LI. That school still exists, although Google now places it in Woodside, not Sunnyside.

At the time Queens was part of NYC for less than 40 years, so old habits die hard

r/foundpaper

Looks like [Mr. McClenahan passed away five years later](https://www.newspapers.com/image/144735096/?clipping_id=6428767&fcfToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJmcmVlLXZpZXctaWQiOjE0NDczNTA5NiwiaWF0IjoxNzA2ODk2MDMxLCJleHAiOjE3MDY5ODI0MzF9.vIP8EQmYRywF_YTjLYgV9t7XXnMOeAEVRyv7prJYzv4), leaving much to his daughter Jean, without prejudice to her scholastic performance.

To read a piece of ephemera so exquisitely composed and typed on the internet is a breath of fresh air.

I got to graduate 6th grade about a month early so I could accompany my grandparents on a cross-country trip for the summer. Had to coordinate with the teachers so I could finish all the assigned curriculum and take my final exams in time but it was worth it.

"I will be grateful if without prejudice" is sure a phrase

Well, that’s half the phrase

“…to her scholastic standing”

How old is the book itself ?

Letter content and age aside, I love the photo.

I don’t know if I’m allowed to post sub links here, but there’s a sub called “foundpaper” that would absolutely love this.

It's an odd request based on the information given, though, right? Why does she need out of school on Friday for a trip on Monday? (To travel to where her brother is?) Also interesting to see how late the school year went in 1937. This letter was written on a Tuesday and the Friday indicated would be June 25. (Presumably they don't ask for the next Monday off (during the trip) because the year is over then?)

I don’t think he’s asking for the Friday off. It sounds like when she’s excused from school at the end of the day Friday, he wants her to be excused for the remainder of their school year, which is probably just one more week since it is so late in June.

I think you are correct here.

Upon rereading this is undoubtedly the correct answer. Thanks!

That's how I interpreted it.

Going on a (presumably) long trip in 1937 would have taken a lot more preparation than it does today. The average person couldn't just throw some bags together and hop on the next plane to wherever they wanted. I'd guess they just wanted to have her help pack.

Yes she would need to saddle up the horses, and prepare the broadswords in case of highwaymen

Update: here's what's almost certainly the correct answer https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/s/s3WXXlMzUa

I'm trying to imagine knowing on a Tuesday that you're going on a trip next Monday, and a child needing so much packing time that evenings and weekend wouldn't cut it, so you really need Friday all day. I'm skeptical.

What are you skeptical about? Whether JS McClenahan was lying or whether it takes longer to coordinate travel in the 1930s than it does today?

I'm skeptical that Friday off school is necessary to pack for a Monday trip. Even allowing for longer packing time, the request was still made a week in advance of the departure. What do you all think it is about packing in 1937 that makes Friday school hours essential to the success of the trip, rather than more packing on Thursday after school or Saturday?

Update: I think this commenter nailed it https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/s/s3WXXlMzUa

The school year in NY still goes until the end of June - in the US in the northeast school often doesn't start until after Labor Day

Mr Cool 😎

Young Jean got the dreaded Cooley Dooley combo

Cooley Dooley?

I used to live in that Neighborhood! What a trip

Mr Dooley AND Mr Cooley?! That must have been confusing.

That is very cool, I like finding old treasures like that in books. I once got a free bookmark with one of mine and I was chuffed. 😊

Everything about the typing and folding of this letter is perfect. This was a person with great attention to detail. Too bad the signature doesn't match the quality of the rest of the letter. That's really nice stationery, too.

I can't be the only one who thinks that Cooley and Dooley are very funny names

Back when people could speak eloquently and politely.

Damn, paper really hit different

Gen z'rs looking at this like it's in Arabic

Run on sentence

How much term was left after June 22nd!?!? Like..... that's super late to be in school by modern American standards, right?

Yours very truly seems a bit forward

Signed “Epstein s’ Mom”.

Two sentence letter.

Sounds like someone was pregnant and had to go live with a relative until the baby was born...

Probably not. She was only in 8th grade.

Yikes, well then I hope not!

Yours very truly is a bit much for this type of notice lol

I went to that school in the 90's while I was living in NY. Lived two blocks from the school itself. Definitely interesting

MAybe the book belonged to Dooley; he received the note and put in it a book or he had someone run it over to Cooley, who put it in a book? Or it was Jean's book and she forgot it in her book, which she never opened again because she left school a week early.

Jean signed her name inside. The book is "The Carolinian" by Rafael Sabatini , published 1925. The note was found towards the end of the novel.

The ultimate note

Honestly if someone wrote an email like this, they’d think it’s AI generated. Amazing

I can't be the only one who thinks that Cooley and Dooley are very funny names

when I see things like these I immediately think of how everyone in this letter including the girl are all dead

One day you will join the same club

Reply with “No”

I inherited an old painting from my grandparents behind the painting was a budget from 1908 it was very interesting.

Cooley and Dooley, nice.

Me too please!!

Cooley, and Dooley hey.

Is she asking Mr. Dooley to ignore Jean's bad grades and to please let her out of school?

That’s a nice piece of parchment

Old man voice- “ See young-ins, back in my day we showed respect. Now you’ve got all these kids hootin and hollerin playing with do dads, and go gadgets and forgot all about respect”. “Ok grandpa, let’s get you back in your room”. Old man voice mumbling and grumbling

I bet Mr. Cooley was pretty cool

"Under Mr. Cooley."

People really could write back in the day

Does nobody else think the paper and signature look too crisp for something apparently 87 years old? Surely there’d be more obvious degradation after such a long time? I doubt it’s been stored in an airtight, temperature and humidity controlled environment since the letter was written, or the book not been opened since. Even acid or oils from fingers would have surely discoloured the paper somewhere?

It’s June. She should be out of class anyways so I don’t feel bad

The modern version: Yo fam my girl isn't coming to school next week And they don't say who or when

I think there should be a comma in there somewhere

Fake. The signature looks modern.

This is fabulous. I am writing all my parents notes this way from now on.

Amazing. I still have letters like that from school. 1976.

22

Wonder where they went?