Aunt Delores Memories

Aunt Delores will be 92 this year. She doesn't seem old at all.

 I stopped to see her this weekend and she shared a story from 1938 when she and my mama's youngest brother were sweethearts.

Delores and Bill loved to sing and, along with other family, were members of a choir at a considerably large Seattle church.  When the choir raised money for a private cruise up to Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, there were no objections for lack of chaperones and they looked forward to a romantic trip.

She didn't remember why, but the ship acquired for the trip was an old wooden sub-chaser. It must have been decommissioned and purchased by the private company.    Although the trip today can be made in several hours in one of the modern fast speed ferries, back then it was a much longer voyage.  It became very apparent when they set sail that the small warship, already a bucking bronco, was not equipped to be graceful in the stormy swells and would reek revenge on most of the passengers breakfasts, and be especially cruel to Delores.  She stayed close to the rail and watched the horizon dip and roll along with her sensitive constitution.

She composed herself upon arrival.  Even with the hangover effect of the trip, Delores was able to join Bill and enjoy the planned tour of Butchart Gardens and other popular destinations on Vancouver Island, where the city of Victoria still reigns in regal beauty.  But when the choir gathered to sing at a pre-scheduled activity, Delores couldn't climb up to her position on the risers for fear that her spinning head would topple her backwards.

 

After the concert, she chose to go back to the dock and rest while Bill and most of the others decided to take in a few more sights. Bill had a beautiful singing voice, and would be described as an Irish Tenor.It is possible that Bill may have started singing along the way, because when he returned to the ship, there was a group of people following him. Someone had asked, "Is that Bing Crosby?" and the word spread through the tourist crowd. (Photo from the actual trip: Bill and his niece Dorothy in the hat behind him to the left)

  
The return night trip through The Straights of Juan De Fuca, and through Puget Sound was even worse than
the early morning journey.  She never left the deck and spent the night watching the horizon go up and down; dark water, then dark sky, dark water, then dark sky.  It also meant that their traveling time home was doubled.

The ship reached Seattle during the morning rush hour.  This meant that the bridge would have to draw open and traffic halted in order for them to pass through it.  Then the ship would navigate the locks into Lake Union. 
The Captain announced that the bridge master communicated that they would not open until later in the morning and the ship could not pass.  However, he told the passengers, "We are only just barely too tall to clear the high point of the bridge."  Then he asked if they were willing to follow his instructions to the "T" so that he could make adjustments that would allow him to clear the bridge.  The response was unanimous -  "we will!"

The Captain then ordered "every last" passengers to gather on one side of the small ship near the rails.  The result was the old sub chaser leaned heavily starboard causing the sail to lower considerably .  Then the engines roared and the Captain maneuvered the vessel safely through the clearing.

Bill and Delores married within several months and never went on another cruise.