"Kris" Christine (Szerejko) Shenette Aboard the Steamship Keewatin |
Once again I am dipping into my mom's vacation photo album from the 1940s. Three years ago I found my mom's vacation album, and I've posted her vacation photos annually since. Her photos from her Canada trip will make this the fourth year running. I have to admit, I look forward to writing my annual vacation post--it's my favorite post of the year! I guess it's kind of like going on vacation. You wait for it for so long, and then it's over in the blink of an eye.
After going to the Tumbleweed Guest Ranch in the Catskills for three years in a row--1943, 1944, 1945--my mom, Christine (Szerejko) Shenette, and her sister, Helene (Szerejko) Dingle, decided to branch out and and take a cruise through the Great Lakes to Canada on the Canadian Pacific steamship Keewatin with a couple of friends.
The back of a lunch menu from the steamship Keewatin |
"The 'Kee' " |
According to Wikipedia, the Keewatin was launched 6 July 1906, ran almost continuously for 60 seasons and was retired in 1966. For the last 20 years of her existence the Kee ran under strict regulations for wooden cabin steamships. In 1949 (three years after my mother's trip on the Keewatin) another ship on the line, the Noronic, burned, resulting in the loss of 118 lives. You can read the Wikipedia article on the Noronic disaster here. My mother saved a souvenir booklet from her trip that shows the other ships on the line--the S.S. Huronic, the S.S. Assiniboia (the Keewatin's sister ship), the S.S. Manitoba, and the S.S. Noronic.
Luncheon Menu from the Keewatin, 1946 |
"Dining Saloon ss. Keewatin" |
"Formal Gardens Niagra (sic) Falls Ontario" |
The photo looks to have been taken at Oaks Garden Theatre. There is a lovely contemporary shot here.
"Our favorite crew 'nautical but nice' " |
The ship set sail every Wednesday and Saturday from early June through mid September. I know my mom took her vacation 1946, but I didn't exactly know when, but now I know it was probably sometime between June and mid September. Given the clothes that she and her traveling companions were wearing it was kind of hard to tell. I figured it could have been any time from spring through early fall. Return trips left Fort William on Saturdays and Tuesdays and arrived back in Port McNicoll early on Mondays and Thursdays.
"K. {Kakabeka] Falls Helene + Kris." |
"Shuffle board (or a reasonable facsimile thereof)" |
"Up -- for a sniff of fresh air." |
"Kris, Laura, Helene, Phyl. at the 'sharp end' of the boat" |
"Kris. 'Miss North Pole of 1946' " |
"Ve yust come over" |
The photo above kind of cracks me up, but also makes me a bit sad. Given that it was 1946 I bet they saw way too many people coming to the States from the old country. My aunt Helen Bulak worked with an organization to help Polish refugees once they got to Worcester, so I bet my mom and her sister saw way too many people, especially women wearing babushkas, saying, "Ve yust come over."
"Jerry + Helen (Gerald Allen Fullerton)" |
"Bill + Kris (William Murry Doyle)" |
"Smoke stack Lou Lou (I don't want to set the world on fire, I just want to set a flame in your heart)" |
It's been a long journey across the lakes, and time to say goodbye for now. The boat train is waiting at the station, and I'm ready to go home,
Bon Voyage, until next year!
Other Posts You Might Like:
Tumbleweed Guest Ranch, 1945
Tumbleweed Guest Ranch, 1944
Tumbleweed Guest Ranch, August 1943
An Interview with My Grandmother