1938 TRIP TO FRANCE AND SWITZERLAND February 8, 2004 Daddy and Earl Dunn took the train from Paris to Cherbourg, France, to meet up with the R.M.S. Queen Mary that had sailed from Southampton, England on December 10, 1938. When everybody had boarded the Queen Mary in Cherbourg on the same day, she set sail for New York City. After the passengers settled into their assigned cabins or staterooms, they had their first dinner aboard. It didn't surprise me that the dinner menu was just as extravagant as on board the Ile de France. Among the most amazing choices on the menu was the following Dinner Suggestion: Oyster Cocktails Crème Germiny Turbot poche Americaine Partridge en Cocotte Grand-Mere Avocado Pear Salad, French Dressing Meringue Glace Waldorf Note: the meal hours were: Breakfast from 8:00 a.m. Luncheon 1:00 p.m. Dinner 7:30 p.m. Before the passengers had retired for the night they were given the next day's Programme. For Sunday, December 11, 1938. it was as follows: 9:30 a.m. Holy Mass Drawing Room 11:00 a.m. Divine Service (C. of E.) [Church of England] Main Lounge 4:00 p.m. Orchestral Music Main Lounge 4:45 p.m. Cinema, "Room Service" featuring the Marx Brothers Main Lounge *7:50 p.m. News Broadcast from B.B.C., London Tea Dance Room 8:30 p.m. Orchestral Music Main Restaurant 9:30 p.m. Keno Main Lounge 10:30 p.m. Dancing Main Lounge 11:00 p.m. Auction Pool Smoke Room Midnight onwards, Dancing Verandah Grill *Subject to favourable receiving conditions For Sunday's Luncheon, the Chef's Suggestion was a "simple" lunch of Ice Grape Fruit Juice Potage Garbure d'Arblay (Puree of fresh vegetables garnished with julienne of celery ad toasted cheese) (Cold) Split Lobster Mayonnaise Beef a la Mode (Braised in its own juice, and garnished with carrots, onions and calf's feet) French Apple Flan All the other Luncheon and Dinner menus were equally as sumptuous. Each day's Programme was somewhat different than the one before. There were physical exercises in the Gymnasium on the Sun Deck, an ongoing Ping Pong Tournament on the Promenade Deck, Horse Racing in the Main Lounge, a Scavenger Hunt starting in the Shopping Centre on the Promenade Deck, a Special Broadcast of British Prime Minister's speech to the Foreign Press Association in the Tea Dance Room on December 13, 1938, and of course on a daily basis there was the Squash Racquet Court available on the Sun Deck and the massive Swimming Pool on the "C" Deck. Apparently the Horse Races were very popular. There are two rather large ship's photographs of some of the passengers seated around the "race track," the men in their tuxedoes and the women in their formal gowns, some of whom also wore ermine (?) stoles. I can spot Daddy in one of the pictures. It appears that the horse race track consisted of marked off lines like on a football field I suppose, and the horses and jockeys were mounted on three-foot poles. In some fashion the "person in charge" would randomly pick out the positions of the individual horses and their dash to the Finish Line. The passengers were given a list of horses running in each race. Oh what pedigrees those horses had! Some of the horses that ran were: Criminal, by Photograph out of Passport Song Hit, by Boop-a-Doop out of Sax Fables, by Late Hours out of Office Curly, by Shampoo out of Tongs Lasts, by Flavour out of Wrigley's On Wednesday, December 124, at 4:30 p.m. Daddy attended the special concert in aid of the British and American Seamen's Institutions. Featured was the "celebrated young American pianist Ruth Slencznski who very kindly consented to give the recital as her contribution to Seamen's Charities." When I saw her name I only wondered if she was born in Polish. However, when I searched the Internet on her name I was totally amazed! She was born in Sacramento, California, on January 15, 1925!! That means that she was only thirteen years old at the time!! Check out the URL http://www.siue.edu/~tdickma/RuthBiography.html. There are small snapshots of Daddy and Earl playing Ping Pong on the Promenade Deck and other snapshots of the two of them individually on deck. No doubt they had been taken by a Brownie camera one of them had brought along. I'm certain that Daddy and Earl had no time to be bored on their six-day Atlantic crossing and no doubt they had very long business discussions regarding the ferroalloy industry and where it was going.