In The Navy!

The best thing to find sometimes is a complete package.  There are many paper items out there that, alone, are appealing.  When you can show more of the story, it's better.  In a box of old papers at an estate sale in Southbury, I got somewhat of a complete picture...almost.

What I really want from the paper I find is to know what the owner was thinking, when they got this, and why they kept it. Did they enter the Navy, did a relative? Why keep it? Not knowing is painful, but I have to take what I can get and make up the rest.

I have to guess that the appeal of the navy around the time this collection was printed (late 20's early 30's), the Navy might be looking pretty good.

I think I may have the order of these reversed.  With the country in deep economic doo-doo and in the midst of minor unrest in the world, consideration for a career in the Navy didn't look to bad.

Look at those trades! One thing the military has always seemed to be good at is marketing.  I don't know which of these trades would seem like gems in the early 20th century, but if it was anything like when I walked into the recruiter on Mammaronek Avenue in White Plains, NY in 1980. Those cool jobs were not exactly guaranteed.  Hats off to those recruiters who could have lied to sign a couple of gullible High Schoolers, but instead gave us enough factual information so we could figure it out for ourselves.

The sales pitch for this 1930's promotion keeps coming at you, how could they have turnned down such a temping offer?

Click on the page for a readable version, but don't get too close.  They throw so much into the offer, you can't say "no" right away.

I have more to share from this box, which has a very Italian immigrant flair to it.  Look for my next post to search for someone that can translate a page of handwritten Italian (or at least I think it's Italian).