Here’s her excerpt:

“There’s a new blog on the Century of Progress Exhibition, but with a wonderful twist. While “snooping through a closet at my grandmother’s house” about 10 years ago, Kelly Cook found a treasure. It was an almost daily account, written by a family friend, of her then 12-year old grandmother’s journey from a small town in South Dakota and her visit to the 1933-34 Chicago World’s Fair. The letters are charming and filled with detail. You’ll enjoy Chicago 1934: A Trip to the Fair. Love them primary resources!”

We also have a link on her list of links, under “Century of Progress”. Thanks, Sharon!

Chicago World's Fair poster

In 1934, when my grandmother was 12, she traveled by train from her small South Dakota town to the Chicago World’s Fair. This is her adventure, told through letters written by Glen E. Shears, the family friend who saved change in a coffee can for two years to make her trip happen.

Sometime in the mid to late 1920s, when Mr. Shears was a teenager, his parents thought he was running with a bad crowd in Chicago and that “roughing it” on my great-grandparents’ ranch in South Dakota would help get him back on the straight and narrow (they were friends with relatives of my grandmother’s in Chicago). My great-grandparents’ names were Gene and Linnet. My grandmother was about five or six when he visited the ranch. These summers with my great-grandparents seem to have had a great impact on Mr. Shears. Several years later, in 1934, he invited my grandmother to the fair to repay them for their kindness. He wrote about his preparations for her journey, sent gifts and letters for her to open on the train so that she wouldn’t get bored, and even wrote and illustrated a charming little book to teach my grandmother all about riding in a Pullman car.

During the summer my grandmother stayed with Glen and his mother in Chicago, he wrote almost daily letters to my great-grandparents to keep them updated on their activities. I plan to eventually publish all the letters on this site. There are a bunch, so it’s going to take a while!

I found these letters about 10 years ago while snooping through a closet at my grandmother’s house. I hope you enjoy them as much as I have. 

If you have any information about Glen E. Shears, please leave a comment or contact me at kc74112 (at) cox (dot) net. I believe he passed away in February 1985. Through reading his letters, I almost feel like I know him. I would love to find out more about his life.

Thanks,

Kelly