Trip Home

I got back in January of ‘53. So, I ‘d Christmas on, I had Christmas dinner on the boat, the General Hugh Gaffey. We came back in Christmas of . . . so it would be Jan-, early January ‘53. Like, everybody was seasick. Most of the people were seas-. Even Merchant Navy guys were seasick. So, it was a rough trip. We had to go 500 miles further away to get away from the storm, and we were outside Hawaii. They wouldn't let us off in Hawaii because they'd never find us again, I guess. So, then we got into Seattle in January, bit after New Year's. And we took trains into Vancouver. Then they put us in different . . . said guys going to Prince Edward Island, or guys going to New Brunswick, to go into different cars. So, I just got off and my dad and my sister were there. Well, no bands, no bugle, no nothing. A free pack of cigarettes. That was it.