Perry L. Gardner: Private Journal #11
Wednesday, May 4, 1988
A lot has happened since I last wrote in this journal. Maxine’s 80th birthday party was a good day, and the day after at Mystic Seaport was another good day. The genealogy bug is back in action and ties much of it together—even to the extent of rereading the Winthrop Woman, which was a book my father introduced me to.
Little bits and pieces of the genealogy puzzle have been coming my way because I have been looking. By focusing on my father, the near-term chronology is falling into place. If I can’t put together my story and my father’s story while there is something near at hand, how much harder is it to work 100 or 200 years ago? Again it reminds me of Roots and The Adams Chronicles. I guess I am working on the Gardner Chronicles, although the Perrys or the Meekers or the Lockwoods might be just as interesting.
Today, I found some old family photos of Mom and me, and some of the kids. I also found some old stuff I’d saved from Dad. There is a good newspaper article from when he went to the Fairhaven, N.J., boatyard circa 1931, and it tells about some of the record-breaking boats he designed, with names and dates. There are also small blueprints of Gardner Tri-Plane boats, including one for the “Silver Bullet”. I must have saved them from Scotia days in the late 1930s.
At Mystic, at the “Baby Bootlegger” exhibit, I found another magazine article that mentioned Dad at Albany Boat Corp., where he took over when John L. Hacker left in 1916. It was in Motor Boating magazine of January 1940. There are magazine files at Mystic that I can look into for more info. He wrote articles for Rudder and Motor Boating.
At the party, Maxine filled me in on a few facts, like when she married Dad—on her 21st birthday, April 30, 1929. Aunt Esther told me she was born in Meriden, not New Canaan as I had supposed—so also her mother died in Meriden but was buried at Greenfield Hill. So gradually the past is becoming more clear—even my own memory of things wasn’t that good. It shows the importance of documents.
So what is to be done? For one thing, we need a neat, secure, organized way to save the pictures and papers. An archive. Another thing is to use the Epson to outline some chronologies, working from now to then. From Gramps in 1861, to Dad in 1892, to me in 1920, to the kids, and now grandchildren.
But the early history is intriguing too. The Winthrop Woman may be it, or close to it. It should be an interesting project.
Dad’s boats:
- “Marjo”—Cruiser world speed record, 1917-1921.
- “Arab IV”—3rd Mile-a-Minute Racing Boat, 1919.
- “Tarpon”—1921 Displacement Boat Speed Record.
- “Aphrodite”—V-Bottom High-Speed Cruiser, 35 mph.
- 1st Forward Cockpit Runabout—With John Hacker, Vincent Astor & Woodrow Wilson, 1947
- “Dragon Fly”—3-Point Suspension Hull, ~1928
- “Silver Bullet”—1936 Hydroplane 225 Racer
- “Gray Goose”—3-Point 225 Racer
- Steelweld—Welded Steel Runabouts
I also have old photo of me in the 8-ft. pram Dad built for me in 1927-1928.
What is this fascination with history?