1960

"The Johnson's big project right now is preparing for a trip to Europe in the spring of 1960. Burt is chairman of the International Standards Organization Working Group on Cotton Fiber Tests, and also on the International Cotton Calibrations Standards Committee, both of which meet consecutively in England in May. Bernice is going along.

At last the day came that we had been planning for for almost a year. Everything was done - Irene had the key to the house, the Rambler, and the freezer so she could check on things.

We got up about six-thirty, I to have a cup of coffee and to read the paper, but instead I sat for a while in the living room to look out at our beautiful garden. It had never looked lovelier. The long cold and dryish spring has been good for the roses and irises, but the rain last week has brought everything out beautifully. Only a few roses are out, and the irises are not quite at their height. The azaleas are almost gone. May is such a lovely month in Memphis, it's too bad to leave -- but springtime in Paris is supposed to be fine, too.

Leaving New York airport - my first flight overseas...at 7:45 New York time (my watch still on Memphis time of 5:45), we heard the motors rev up, and soon we were leaving the ground behind. It is simply amazing to be so close at first and within minutes to be so high up that the cars seem like ants.

When we first saw England through the cloud banks, it was a beautiful sight. Small tidy squares and blocks of green, green fields edged with neat hedges and trees. We could pick out red topped buses, small cars, and motor scooters on the roads, and saw rows and rows of smaller houses, each with its tiny garden, and then later as we crossed the center of town (Manchester), textile mills and older, blacker, more congested type apartment buildings.

About 5:30 Burt came to the hotel for me and we were driven to the home of Mr. Bayes - cotton mill owner or manager. We were served tea by him and his charming daughter who was taking an exam to be a ceramics teacher. We also met an older daughter who has a degree from Duchon College in biology and works as a chemical secretary. His wife, who is active and a member, I believe, of the Hyde City and Cheshire County Councils, was at a meeting, and we didn't meet her.

Burt and I took the bus to Victoria Station, and then a train to Todmorden, where Mr. Charles Crabtree met us. He hadn't known I was coming, but he welcomed me warmly, and invited me to meet his wife. I was embarrassed to drop in on somebody so unexpectedly and so early in the morning, but she was most gracious.

She and her mother were going to watch Princess Margaret's wedding on TV, and I was happy to do that, too. They live in a huge house, part of which was built as early as 1060. It is called Stanfield Hall after a previous owner. In the early part of the 20th Century, it was broken into four separate houses, but you are not conscious, either inside or outside, that there are other people in the house.

Watching the royal wedding, Mrs Crabtree was distressed, as was I, that Queen Elizabeth's hat was so dreadful...They think too much is being made of the wedding.

We had planned to return to Manchester that night, but they asked us to stay the night, and the next day, Saturday. We hesitated, we hadn't brought overnight things, but they seemed so really anxious to have us stay, that we consented.

The next day they took us to York.

The weather was perfect - first real sun we'd had in England. York is about 50 miles from Todmorden and across the Pennines...the stone fence rows are replaced by clipped hawthorne fences. On the higher elevations are the moors and we could see from a distance the church and parsonage where the Bronte sisters lived as children. The setting for Wurthering Heights was all around us. The moors are swampy and peaty although at a high elevation - and little grows there except gorse.

York is a very old city. It was supposed to have been a municipality for 1900 years. There are Roman walls here, and it was a walled city for several hundred years. In the 11th Century, it had 1418 Houses and about 8000 people. In 1801 it had only about double that number - 16,846. In 1946 the population was 102,340.

York Cathedral - it was finished as it is now in the late 16th Century. The priceless stained glass windows were removed during the war, and replaced at a fabulous cost....It is always such an overwhelming thought that there were people so long ago, who could build such tremendous and difficult buildings, and that they have survived the ravages of time.

We had tea in a court of Newby Hall, then drove to Bolton Abbey where they had planned to take us to dinner. However, dinner wasn't served until 7:00, and we had to make a train out of Todmorden at 8:55, so we returned to Todmorden. Elsie prepared a quick lunch, and then we caught our train to Manchester at 8:55. It was a delightful day, and a pleasure to know the Crabtrees.