Traveling With Grace: En Route to Sweden, 1950
This week we embark on a new journey with Grace Hecht. This particular 1950 trip takes us across the Atlantic! Special thanks go to JMM volunteer Harold Toppall for his transcriptions of Grace’s travel diary.
To read more of Grace’s travels, click here.
June 6, 1950
Left Balto. 8:15. Stopped at Grace Bloudheim’s for her Baedecker. Arrived in N.Y. 1:15. Stopped at the Hargrave but Rebecca was out. Called Uncle Eli before boarding the Gripsholm. Got up the gang plank by myself. Personnel very courteous & pleasant. David came in our cabin at 4:30 with lovely basked filled with candies from Baron’s. We were all resting in our bunks & he said he felt like he was visiting his harem. He stayed for supper & we were the only guests in the dining room. Watched the freight come aboard including many cars.
After supper we went on deck where it was nice & cool & watched the sunset back of the famous skyline. Later Rebecca & Harold came to visit us after sparring for quite a while with the officials for a visitor’s pass. We spent a pleasant evening with them & Harold made a good impression.
June 7. It was fun watching the passengers arrive. Also slews of visitors including a troop of girl scouts. Aunt Fannie & Lou arrived at 10. Brought me a lovely orchid & set of summer jewelry (ear-rings & necklace) & a big box of candies from Aunt Blanche and Uncle Eli. Then Esther Silverman came to see Helene & me & brought us each a hand-make handkerchief. Charles Holley & wife arrived late. Bertha Aaronson came too. There was lot of excitement & the band played too. Every visitor had to leave at 12 & we all stood at the rail & waived to the crowds on the pier. It was quite a sight as we pulled out seeing all those people squeezed in like sardines to the very end of the pier. After lunch we were very busy opening our stack of cards, telegrams & letters. Also received exquisite flowers from The Md. Trust Co. & Flo Suprick.
This afternoon we met the ship’s hostess, Mrs. Carroll from Lynchburg, Va. a charming lady. Our table companion is Miss Johnson from N.Y. very pleasant.
3rd day out. Sighted an iceberg, air quite cold. The meals are yummy. They also serve mid-morning snacks, afternoon tea with Danish pastries & a marvelous “smorgesbord” on deck each night. The orchestra plays 3 times a day. Dancing at night. Sometimes we watch the swimmers in the pool. At certain hours the women bathe (nude) & the men ditto at other hours, while mixed bathing is at still another time, with suits of course. The children are beautiful, mostly blond & there are many handsome couples.
We had fire drills the 2nd day out. Everyone put on life preservers & went to their boat stations. One night we saw the new movie “Annie Get Your Gun”, an afternoon they showed gorgeous travel pictures of Norway, Sweden & Denmark in technicolor. The next afternoon we played bridge with a man from Cleveland & that night we saw the lovely Walt Disney film “Cinderella”. Next morning we saw the picture “East Side, West Side” starring Barbara Stanwyck, James Mason & Van Heflin after which we enjoyed “smorgesbord”.
Everyone looks glamorous. The ladies rece[ive]d beautiful paper hats that looked like real Lily Dache’ models, each one different. The men sailor caps. Special menus & dinner super including pheasant, gorgeous ices and cakes. Later we had a floor show. A lovely young girl of 12 did some intricate acrobatic dances, some of the boat’s personnel danced peasant dances in native costumes, a passenger with an excellent baritone sang the Lord’s Prayer & and few other songs, another played the accordion, & the crowd danced rhumbas, sambas, waltzes, etc. It was a gala evening. We drank Swedish punch and had beer with the smorgasbord, which was especially elaborate.
Thanks for reading “Traveling with Grace,” a series where we’re sharing (and annotating) posts from the travel diaries of Grace Amelia Hecht, native Baltimorean, b. 1897 and d. 1955. As mentioned in my introductory post transcription errors sometimes occur and I’ve made my best guesses where possible, denoted by [brackets]. – Rachel Kassman, marketing manager