Sentimental Sunday: Mom's Trip to Europe, 1953: Gala Dinner

Gala Dinner, August 10, 1953, SS United States.  From right:  Geraldine Guokas, Joye Murphy, Huguette Linn.

From Mom's Europe trip diary, in the "INCIDENTS" section:

Last night on board Ted gave us wine for dinner. That night helped Dixie Oliver drink her bottle of imported champagne.

Some of the people Mom, Sylvia, and Joye met on board ship (from the "PEOPLE MET" section of the trip diary) were:

• Audrey Barbour - from Virginia
• Ted Ricci - from Boston
• Erna Roessle - from Philadelphia
• Huguette Linn - from New Jersey
• Dixie Oliver - from New York

Mom said Huguette was a Frenchwoman who had married an American soldier and moved to New Jersey.  She was on the ship headed to France to visit her family.  I think Ted Ricci must be the lucky guy at this table full of women.

The picture at left of the tourist class dining room is from a brochure advertising the ship.  Steven Ujifusa, a historian and author of A Man and His Ship (which is about naval architect William Francis Gibbs and the building of the SS United States), wrote in his blog that "The tourist class dining room, located forward on A deck, was, like the rest of tourist class, very spartan and somewhat cramped. The walls were decorated with 18th century sailing/nautical motifs."

This is the fifth in a series of posts about my mother's 1953 Europe Trip.

© Amanda Pape - 2014 - click here to e-mail me.