What was different about her visit in the summer of 1936?

After dating Peter for some time, Ruth realized that her period was late, and soon understood that it wasn't coming at all. The year was 1936, and she was scared Peter would be killed. Some of Peter's friends knew about the pregnancy and were scared too. She asked Peter to marry her, but he said it wasn't possible. They argued outside the house about what to do, and Ruth dropped her gold chain bracelet. When she went back to look for it, it was gone. A couple of days later, Mameh gave it back to her and quietly suggested that she go to New York in the summertime to visit her grandmother. This was the wisest choice. Black men were lynched and hanged for "race crimes" in the southern United States. Ruth needed to get away from the stresses of her orthodox, rater unsympathetic family, and deal with her pregnancy. New York also offered Ruth an amount of freedom that she never had.