Wednesday September 17, 1930

Tonight was the traditional Captain’s Farewell Dinner. Tonight’s dinner was just as elaborate as Captain Randall’s Farewell Dinner the night of Monday, August 25, aboard the SS George Washington en route to Europe.

The menu was just as enticing as the one on the SS George Washington. Popular with the pilgrims on tonight’s menu was the roast young Vermont turkey. Mrs. Fine herself reported “I had never eaten such turkey in my life. I suppose I have though.”

The Chef de Cuisine was A. Frankel.

As at the Farewell Dinner on the SS George Washington, there was a musical program. Selections included:

March, “Stars and Stripes Forever” by Sousa
Overture, “Light Calvary” by Suppe
Selection, “The Sunny South,” by Lampe
Popular Melodies:
“Valencia”
“Old Timers Waltz”
Selection from “My Maryland” by Romberg
March, “American Legion” by Barry
Long, Long, Trail Auld Lange Syne

The SS America Orchestra was under the direction of Rudolf Hulten.

Did the pilgrims get sentimental when hearing the songs, “Long, Long Trail” and “Auld Lange Syne”?

“There’s a Long, Long Trail” was a popular song of World War I.

The chorus:
There’s a long, long trail a-winding
Into the land of my dreams,
Where the nightingales are singing
And a white moon beams.
There’s a long, long night of waiting
Until my dreams all come true;
Til the day when I’ll be going down
That long, long trail with you.

Auld Lange Syne is traditionally sung to bid farewell to the old year at the stroke of midnight. By extension, it is also sung at funerals, graduations, and as a farewell or ending to other occasions. The song’s rhetorical question as to whether it is right that old times be forgotten is generally interpreted as a call to remember long-standing friendships.

Tonight the playing and singing of Auld Lange Syne symbolized endings and beginnings. Party R’s Gold Star Mothers and Widows Pilgrimage was coming to an end. New friendships had been created, hopefully to be continued after the voyage was over.

Josephine and the other mothers and widows could go home contented: they had achieved the goal of the pilgrimage. They had seen the graves of their loved ones and they were assured that the cemeteries where their loved ones were buried would always be beautifully kept.

Josephine would never say a final goodbye to Buddy in her heart. Her memories of Buddy would be with her always. But perhaps now she could grieve a little less and experience happy times with Joseph, her children, and her grandchildren.




Source: written by Carolyn Ourso