Musings on again becoming a SDM...

[BruinSteve]

Ahhh...yet again I am a "Single Digit Midget"...I fly out a week from Friday for San Juan to board the Summit on the 27th of March...

I realize just how fortunate I am, especially at a time when not all are doing so well financially, to be able to afford to cruise several times a year...

I sometimes think back to my grandparents...who only took one "cruise" in their lives...
My maternal Grandfather, Meier "Max" Moscowitz, left his family in Czestachowa, Poland at the end of WWI still a teenager and boarded his cruise in 1920 on a ship called the Rotterdam from Rotterdam, Holland bound for New York...

The girl destined to become his wife, my maternal Grandmother, Helen (the ship's manifest had her listed as "Chaja Likier"), had taken her "cruise" only a couple of weeks earlier, also from Rotterdam, on the "Noordam"...

Here's the fun part, Cruise Addicts, the Rotterdam and the Noordam (names sound familiar?) were operated by a company called "Nederlandsch-Amerikaansche Stoomvaart Maatschappij"...translated as the "Dutch-America Steamship Company" which later moved its headquarters to Seattle, Washington and changed its name to..."Holland America Line"...We all know them well today...

...and THAT is how my grandparents became the first in our family ever to take a "cruise"!!!

Of course, their "cruise" on HAL was nothing like the ones we might take today...They were crowded onto lower decks with other poor immigrants...there was no formal dinners in the main dining room, no nightly entertainment, no pool and Jacuzzi for their enjoyment...They made no stops at islands to get off the ship and snorkel and swim and tour the local sights...

And we complain about the hassles of disembarkation today? They got off the ship to long lines and uncertainty at Ellis Island...they were questioned and examined and poked and prodded...they had their names changed, their motives questioned...sometimes, it took days just to get through the process...

Now, once in America, the streets were not exactly "paved with gold"...
Young Max, in a fit of patriotism toward his new home, enlisted in the US Army and was sent off to Washington State...After his discharge, he returned to New York City and married Helen and the pair settled down in the Bronx...Maier took the subway into Manhattan six days a week and worked in the sweatshops in the Garment District as a tailor and furrier...and Helen gave birth to my Mother in 1926 and, a few years later, to my uncle...and, of course, then the Great Depression hit hard...

It is not as though the young immigrants had it all that good before, but, suddenly, things got tougher...Luckily, My grandfather was always able to find just enough work to pay the rent and feed his family...but luxuries, like vacations, were not even a remote consideration...

After the Depression, Europe was in a state of war...the rest of my Grandfather's family that remained in Poland was wiped out in the Holocaust as were a number of my Grandmother's relatives...

My mother, now grown, got married and moved to California. My grandparents continued to live in the Bronx and my Grandfather continued to work behind a sewing machine in the Garment District until he retired in the mid 1960s...then my Grandparents finally moved out to California.

My Zayde Maier passed away 40 years ago now...in 1970. My Grandmother moved in with my parents and lived with them until her death in 1985.

After that initial HAL "cruise" in 1920, they never took another cruise in their lives. After my Grandfather's death, in 1974, my Grandmother did take her only trip back to Europe, accompanying my parents and visiting her cousins in Liege, Belgium--who she hadn't seen since she left Liege as a young girl in 1920.

My Grandparents struggled their entire lives. What little money they had after paying for necessities went toward educating their children...making sure the next generation had a better and easier life than they did.

My parents did a whole lot better...and never realized for most of their lives just how well off they really were. They were "Children of the Depression" and always lived expecting financial disaster. It was hard for them to part with large sums of money for a pleasure so transient as a vacation or a cruise. It was not until their later years, with the house paid for and the kids educated and independent, that they finally started enjoying cruises.

And so, today, I really appreciate just how fortunate I am...

...fortunate that my Grandparents had the foresight to leave Europe, to leave their homes and their families and to come to America... Fortunate that we escaped the terror of Europe in the last century...Fortunate that they worked hard all their lives, and selflessly, to see that their children and their grandchildren and their great-grandchildren have a much better life than they ever dreamed of...

And I am fortunate that I can cruise in relative luxury two or three times a year with no expectation other than to get away, relax, see the world and be treated like a king...

Often I fantasize about what it would be like if I could travel in time and pluck the young Maier Moscowitz from the Rotterdam in May of 1920 and transport him to 2010 on a cruise with me. What would I tell him? See, Zayde, you did the right thing...Be proud of everything your kids and your grandkids and your great grandkids have done and know that it was all because of you...and your bold decision almost a century ago to embark on that one little cruise on the Rotterdam...

Thank you, Zayde Maier...We're all doing alright...

[red stripe]

thanks for the cruising history lesson.

I started 'cruising" after WW twice... mostly going with my Aunt and Uncle over to Europe for heavens knows what.
The ships and events are fuzzy, as I was very young. But I do know that it was nothing like what cruising is now.
although I ahve to admit that the cabins were a whole lot bigger... at least the ones that my aunt and uncle booked.
But even so, they most certainly did not have the amenities that we take for granted these days.

[Jeanie]

Thanks for the wonderful story

[Cruizer]

Ahhh...yet again I am a "Single Digit Midget"...I fly out a week from Friday for San Juan to board the Summit on the 27th of March...

I realize just how fortunate I am, especially at a time when not all are doing so well financially, to be able to afford to cruise several times a year...

I sometimes think back to my grandparents...who only took one "cruise" in their lives...
My maternal Grandfather, Meier "Max" Moscowitz, left his family in Czestachowa, Poland at the end of WWI still a teenager and boarded his cruise in 1920 on a ship called the Rotterdam from Rotterdam, Holland bound for New York...

The girl destined to become his wife, my maternal Grandmother, Helen (the ship's manifest had her listed as "Chaja Likier"), had taken her "cruise" only a couple of weeks earlier, also from Rotterdam, on the "Noordam"...

Here's the fun part, Cruise Addicts, the Rotterdam and the Noordam (names sound familiar?) were operated by a company called "Nederlandsch-Amerikaansche Stoomvaart Maatschappij"...translated as the "Dutch-America Steamship Company" which later moved its headquarters to Seattle, Washington and changed its name to..."Holland America Line"...We all know them well today...

...and THAT is how my grandparents became the first in our family ever to take a "cruise"!!!

Of course, their "cruise" on HAL was nothing like the ones we might take today...They were crowded onto lower decks with other poor immigrants...there was no formal dinners in the main dining room, no nightly entertainment, no pool and Jacuzzi for their enjoyment...They made no stops at islands to get off the ship and snorkel and swim and tour the local sights...

And we complain about the hassles of disembarkation today? They got off the ship to long lines and uncertainty at Ellis Island...they were questioned and examined and poked and prodded...they had their names changed, their motives questioned...sometimes, it took days just to get through the process...

Now, once in America, the streets were not exactly "paved with gold"...
Young Max, in a fit of patriotism toward his new home, enlisted in the US Army and was sent off to Washington State...After his discharge, he returned to New York City and married Helen and the pair settled down in the Bronx...Maier took the subway into Manhattan six days a week and worked in the sweatshops in the Garment District as a tailor and furrier...and Helen gave birth to my Mother in 1926 and, a few years later, to my uncle...and, of course, then the Great Depression hit hard...

It is not as though the young immigrants had it all that good before, but, suddenly, things got tougher...Luckily, My grandfather was always able to find just enough work to pay the rent and feed his family...but luxuries, like vacations, were not even a remote consideration...

After the Depression, Europe was in a state of war...the rest of my Grandfather's family that remained in Poland was wiped out in the Holocaust as were a number of my Grandmother's relatives...

My mother, now grown, got married and moved to California. My grandparents continued to live in the Bronx and my Grandfather continued to work behind a sewing machine in the Garment District until he retired in the mid 1960s...then my Grandparents finally moved out to California.

My Zayde Maier passed away 40 years ago now...in 1970. My Grandmother moved in with my parents and lived with them until her death in 1985.

After that initial HAL "cruise" in 1920, they never took another cruise in their lives. After my Grandfather's death, in 1974, my Grandmother did take her only trip back to Europe, accompanying my parents and visiting her cousins in Liege, Belgium--who she hadn't seen since she left Liege as a young girl in 1920.

My Grandparents struggled their entire lives. What little money they had after paying for necessities went toward educating their children...making sure the next generation had a better and easier life than they did.

My parents did a whole lot better...and never realized for most of their lives just how well off they really were. They were "Children of the Depression" and always lived expecting financial disaster. It was hard for them to part with large sums of money for a pleasure so transient as a vacation or a cruise. It was not until their later years, with the house paid for and the kids educated and independent, that they finally started enjoying cruises.

And so, today, I really appreciate just how fortunate I am...

...fortunate that my Grandparents had the foresight to leave Europe, to leave their homes and their families and to come to America... Fortunate that we escaped the terror of Europe in the last century...Fortunate that they worked hard all their lives, and selflessly, to see that their children and their grandchildren and their great-grandchildren have a much better life than they ever dreamed of...

And I am fortunate that I can cruise in relative luxury two or three times a year with no expectation other than to get away, relax, see the world and be treated like a king...

Often I fantasize about what it would be like if I could travel in time and pluck the young Maier Moscowitz from the Rotterdam in May of 1920 and transport him to 2010 on a cruise with me. What would I tell him? See, Zayde, you did the right thing...Be proud of everything your kids and your grandkids and your great grandkids have done and know that it was all because of you...and your bold decision almost a century ago to embark on that one little cruise on the Rotterdam...

Thank you, Zayde Maier...We're all doing alright...

Steve - that was great. Thank you for sharing that story.

[BSeabob]

A great story Steve and just another bit of history that I can use in my thoughts for today.... I keep telling my kids that "THESE are the good old days"
They truly are.

[Beryl]

Steve...that was a wonderful read...thank you for sharing with all of us the story of your family. I have always felt that my generation truly "won the lottery"....this is an example of just how we came to win it!

[Corky]

BruinSteve - I'm sitting here with tears welling up in my eyes. Thank you for such a wonderful story.

[Karry]

I,too have tears in my eyes. Thank you for sharing that history with us. I am going to forward it to a very old and dear friend of mine who sounds just like your grandparents. May they rest in peace and may you enjoy your cruise countdown and your cruise. Go out on your balcony at night and look at the stars~your grandparents are up there smiling down on you.