Saturday August 23, 1930

The weather was beautiful today – lots of sunshine. On pretty days like this one, many passengers enjoy watching the sea gulls flying after the ship.

Josephine’s routine continued. She walked a mile in the morning. Part of the afternoon was reserved for picture taking (1):

"we had our picture taken this afternoon in group - there are 81 Missouri mothers and widows - only eleven Louisiana

dance again tonite - am tired - going to bed"

After dinner, there was community singing, probably before the dance. Since Josephine reported in her note for today that she was tired, I am not sure if she participated in the community singing or not.

According to a newspaper report from Mrs. Fannie Fine, all assembled in the Social Hall to sing war songs. Mrs. Fine reported that she could not sing so she went to the library to write notes. According to Mrs. Fine, two passengers came in, and one asked her why she was not singing to which the other passenger replied, “That trash? Those trashy songs are all they know.” Mrs. Fine reported that she wheeled around and when she did they fled. She reported that she was going to ask them if that was trash in 1917-18 that kept the Dutch off their necks.

On this day, the ship may have been approximately 1,188 miles out of New York with approximately 1,852 miles to go before reaching Cherbourg.

In regard to the picture mentioned in Josephine’s note, I wish I knew how to obtain a copy of that picture. The National Archives has several boxes of pictures and documents from the many Gold Star Pilgrimages that took place from 1930 through 1933. Not very much of this material is digitized. There is a procedure where one can request the staff of the National Archives to search these pictures/documents for a specific topic. One can submit a request for a search for up to three specific items/subjects per month. Currently, the searches require two to four weeks to be completed, and there is no guarantee that the search will find what you are looking for. Sometime in the future, I plan to ask for a search for any pictures the National Archives may have of Party R. Hopefully, some pictures of Josephine’s pilgrimage can be found.




Source: written by Carolyn Ourso