The Autobiography of Ruth Tagg Caley

somebody got up and shut them. We used to go to the kitchen and watch them. We asked howthey made bread. One man said we mix it in that trough with our feet. We sure laughed. Theywould give us a large bowl of jello and tell us to go to the tables and sit and eat it. I think mostlyto get rid of us. We always went to the kitchen every afternoon and told them we were hungry.We didn't have time to get hungry, as they served 3 good meals a day, also after 7:30 p.m. theyhad cheese and sea biscuits on the table.Those sea biscuits were sure hard to eat. In the mornings they served prunes or otherfruit, one woman complained they didn't give her enough in her dish. They said you are lucky asthey have laxative in them. Sometimes they put medicine in the food for sea sickness. I was seasick only three times and each time my nose bled. They had to call a doctor and by the time theyfound him I was OK but he was feeling at his best with his drinking.The sensation of the ship made me feel the ceiling was coming down to mash me to thefloor, then the floor seemed to rise to the ceiling. Eva stood the ocean voyage very wellconsidering she had not been up out of bed very long. She kept well after that and never did haveanother bad spell that I can remember. There was only one thing I didn't like about third class,that was no bath tub. I asked the big fat captain if there was a tub. He said as he licked hisfingers after putting it on my face, "you taste fresh and sweet to me, but if you insist on having abath you will have to use the laundry tub." I remember my sisters helped me. One of them helda large towel up to hide me, while the other one did the scrubbing down. Our cabin consisted offour single beds, two on each side of the cabin, one above the other, with a wash basin in themiddle of the wall, there was a space above the top bunk bed about eighteen inches between twocabins and one electricity light for two families.There were other children on the ship and we really had a gay old time for two weeks.We saw nothing but ocean, sea gulls, waves and sky. The waves soaked the deck and they tied arope across one side to keep people away. We saw sharks, and through binoculars we sawicebergs and polar bears. We played shuffle board on deck, and watched the sailors make rope.One day my father found a sailor walking up and down the deck with my sister Winnie, he soonput a stop to that. My sisters were still innocent and were never allowed to associate, or go withboys as we had been in segregated schools. In those days a young girl was chaperoned until shewas of age about 20 years or 21.Our two weeks came to a close only too quickly. We had made new friends and now wemust leave them. We landed at St. Johns, Halifax Eastern Canada. We bade good-by toeverybody on board and the big fat caption said "some day we may meet again, who knows."We still had five days of traveling to do before we reached our destination. Coming offthe ship we felt wobbly legs. We were taken down the Lawrence River in a small boat toQuebec, and down to Montreal. We had time in Montreal to look around before our train wasdue.Ruth Tagg Caley pg 12