I visited my grandma yesterday and came away with old travel brochures and postcards. I’m so excited, I can barely sit still.
After my uncle reached for this menu, casually propped against a few books on a shelf, he peeked inside.
“This is from their first trip,” he told me.
Wow. My mom wasn’t 7 yet and my uncle was 5. The kids stayed with relatives while their parents sailed the Queen Mary across the Atlantic, from New York to Southampton.
Before this trip, my grandparents had traveled as far away as Canada. This trip to England would mark the beginning of 50 years of international travel.
The menu seems so progressive for 1948. I love how they offer a vegetarian option toward the top and mention other dietary restrictions at the bottom.
The following decade, my grandparents took my mom on a similar jaunt across the Atlantic, when she was 12. For decades afterward, my mom swore off cruises, saying there was nothing to do but eat. Looking at this menu, I can see how she came to that conclusion. (She has since retracted her no-cruise rule.)
Besides this menu, I found postcards from Afghanistan, luggage tags from the South Pacific, a do-not-disturb sign from Kenya, and countless other travel souvenirs. I’ll post them in the days to come.
what a fantastic trip, glad the menu survived – the options sound delightful! ships are diabolical for over feeding passengers. a month on board with nowhere to really exercise actually does pile on the weight. full breakfast, ice-cream snack mid morning, full lunch, tea time with a never-ending supply of delicious biscuits and pastries, full dinner – occasionally followed by a midnight feast of left-over biscuits and fruit removed from the dinner table….
That sounds like normal life in the US! Eating all day and traveling from place to place in a car, without getting much exercise!
Susan- How cool is this!?
btw.. I refuse to eat salmon unless I can have a DARNE of salmon.
Thanks so much!!! Haha, that’s funny!!!