A Year In The Life Of Lee Fisher, Part 2: Summer In The City

November 12, 2008 by missheather
Filed under: Area 51

For those of you who have not been following I recently acquired a penny diary dating from 1917 that belonged to one Lee Fisher who hailed from Grand Street. From the best I can deduce he worked in a dry goods store on the Lower East Side (and seemed not to like it very much). In this installment (which covers early May through August) he does his best to beat the heat by checking out Central Park, sleeping on the roof, doing a little a lot of bathing in Coney and taking a vacation. Enjoy!

May 30, 1917

No work to day. “Decoration Day”. Walked thru Central Park with Belle. Visited Aunt Sherry at Hospital, Saw movies at night with B. Came home. To bed.

(You can read his diary entries for May 4 – June 2 by clicking here.)

June 13, 1917

All dressed up with no place to go. Went downtown bought 2 Liberty Bonds. Visited Tanty Shiny. Saw a vaud.(ville) show. Read. To bed.

(You can read his diary entries for June 3 – July 2 by clicking here.)

July 11 & August 1, 1917

In store until 7 P.M. Played craps during the day, lost $6.00. Met Miss Harlowe, in store. Put one over.* Had a Chinese dinner with her. Moe and I then repeated. To bed at 1 o’clock

In store until 7 P.M. Hot supper. Saw a vaud show. Talked with the boys. Was so hot I slept on the Roof.

(You can read his diary entries for July 3 – August 1 by clicking here.)

August 30, 1917

After breakfast went to Coney. Found Joe & Fannie & their first babe, a little girl. Home at 8:30. Went to bed.

(You can read his diary entries for August 2 – August 31 by clicking here.)

Autumn will prove to be an interesting month for Mr. Fisher. Not only does he quit his job but he travels to the south. Stay tuned. In the meantime you can see some nifty old pix of Central Park by clicking here.

Miss Heather

*For those of you who are not in the know this is parlance for ripping someone off.

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Comments

3 Comments on A Year In The Life Of Lee Fisher, Part 2: Summer In The City

SB on Wed, 12th Nov 2008 11:02 am

I don’t know if it means that he ripped someone off. “Putting one over” can refer to having sex. “Putting your leg over.” “Get a leg over.” It’s still a commonly used phrase in Ireland!

it would make more sense that he got it on with Miss Harlowe & then rewarded her efforts with Chinese food.

amandabee on Wed, 12th Nov 2008 11:48 am

And it makes more sense that she’d be willing to repeat after dinner.

Altho: now I’m wondering about the etymology of “fucked” because it is not inconceivable that we could have the same confusion had he “fucked” Miss Harlow. And … in 1917 was “put one over” as crass as the Eff word which I can’t bring myself to use a third time here?

rowan on Thu, 13th Nov 2008 11:17 am

i’m inclined to agree with the above commenters: this guy seems to be going steady with Belle but has dalliances with other women. tho i believe Moe is a guy – not sure what it means that he and Moe repeated: repeated what? or is it a euphemism for having gas.

the etymology of fucked comes from a very old English word to do with copulating and the penis.
from dictionary.com: Origin:
1495â€“1505; akin to MD fokken to thrust, copulate with, Sw dial. focka to copulate with, strike, push, fock penis

a quick search of the word fuck yields quite a bit of ancient word history. (yes i’m a word geek) enjoy!

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