Titanic steerage supper

RMS Titanic

The Titanic was a British passenger liner that sank after colliding with an iceberg on April 15,1912 at 2:20 am on her way from Southampton, UK to New York, US. There were 2,224 passengers and crew aboard the ship, more than 1,500 died. There were not enough lifeboats to hold their total of passengers and the lifeboats that were available on the ship were not filled to maximum capacity. The Titanic sent out distress signals, the Californian saw the flares, but failed to assist and any other ship at sea were too far to reach her in time. The Carpathia, however did respond to the Titanic distress calls, but did not reach the Titanic until 4am, by then only 710 passengers were rescued from their lifeboats. The survivors were then taken to New York. It would be weeks before family members were given full information on their loved ones whereabouts.

I knew about the Titanic, read a couple of books and had seen the many movies made about it, so when I read about the Titanic Steerage supper at the Midway Village Museum I thought it would another unique way to learn about it.

Front entrance display

On March 19, 2011 my husband and I attended the Midway Village Museum 'Titanic Steerage Supper'. This was the first big event we had ever attended at the museum. We were a little nervous, we didn't know anyone there, but we were excited to meet new people and learn more about the Titanic.

The museum did a fine job in making it an interesting & fun learning experience. As you entered the building they would check you in by stamping your tickets and then asked some questions that would've been asked at the time. "Do you have lice"? I was taken aback, I didn't expect him to ask that. I hesitated for awhile and then wondered if he would let me in for taking my time answering him. He laughed that he had caught me off guard and then went on to explain what other things that would have been asked or done at the time before boarding. Thank goodness, I didn't scratch my head! Doesn't everyone itch at the mere mention of the word? The power of suggestion.

Inside the dinning room there so many beautifully dressed people. Some outfits were grand and others were simple, but they were all wonderful to look at and they really set the scene for the rest of the night. There were several tables with a variety of flags to represent the passengers heritage, a menu, a mini quiz, a listing with the passsengers names and background. They served dinner, had historic presentations and then ended the evening with dancing to Celtic music.

I didn't find out about the dinner till 1 week before, so I didn't have time to sew anything. I went to the thrift shop and bought my skirt, blouse and my husbands vest. I already had the flat cap, shawl, boots and vintage cameo.

Titanic boarding tickets

Dinner menu

My husband in our kitchen.

My husbands "Ugh, she's going to make me dance" face.

Last minute outfits

Made friends with sweet and very knowledgable ladies.

Water Street Bridge Band

Beautifully dressed couple

Dancing

Loved their outfits

My Photos

I enjoy taking photos of anything that catches my eye. I take them everywhere I go, when my husband is driving, walking the dog, picnics with the kids, antiquing, etc.. I try to notice every detail in everything I come across no matter what it is. My father would always tell me "Look at something, take it apart in your mind, then go back and look at it again as a whole. Your going to realize how much you missed". 

Chicago building

Honeycomb house

Spider Art

Gorgeous green

Downtown bridge

Chicago rooftop

Vintage memories

Unicorn in the sky

Squirrel!

Spinning Christmas lights

 

First year review

Well, it's been a year since I began writing my blog and even though I knew it wasn't going to be easy and it wasn't, I still went ahead with it. My family and friends pushed me to start blogging and even though I had no computer skills at all, I was curious to see if I could do it. Then I read about Pinterest, Instagram, Gmails and everything else that went along with blogging and I worried some more. Was it a bad idea? Maybe, but I wanted to learn something new and maybe this older Hispanic vintage gal could bring a little something to the blogger world., and so began every vintage gals chant "Yes, we can"...um, maybe.

The "Maybe this was a bad idea" moments.

• The first time I opened Blogger, I realized how little I knew about computers & what I little I knew was not going to be enough. It truly wasn't as easy as changing my music on my old MP3, so said the little voice in my head(I have an iPhone now. Wow, those skinny little things hold a ton of music). I had stayed away from many modern items and the computer was one of them, but I never thought that I would try to enter the blogging world. It took months before I could download my pictures or even post something without my yelling for my husband or daughter for help. I was afraid of hitting the wrong button and destroying some important file.
• I learned that my thoughts didn't easily translate to what I wrote. My finger was constantly hitting delete, write, delete and write again....Delete! I spent so much time trying to get the perfect blog post, that I ended up with no posts. I'm surprised I posted anything at all. A whole year, less than forty posts and the reason some of those made it..I ended with stitches after hurting my finger when moving firewood I had just chopped. No delete button!
• It felt like a bad idea when half the year had gone by and I had not added any blogging buttons, no daily posts, or tutorials. I froze, chills every time I sat before my computer. I even drank a glass of Champagne to loosen up, another glass, then for some reason the bottle was empty. Tiny bottles.

The "I can do it"  moments.

• I needed a photographer & it ended being my 11 year old daughter. We not only found out that she liked taking photos, but she was great and calmed my nerves about how I looked in the photos. We've had some funny moments..my almost falling over a log as I backed up or she almost ending in the pond looking for the right angle. I don't fear the camera anymore just falling.
• I learned that I have a great support system. My family & friends listened when I need to vent about computers. The owners of the shops I frequent, were always read to help out with anything I needed and offered any advice on any topic they could.
• I learned that I can do it when one night I stayed up late to write a post and the tried to link it. No one was up at 3am, so I went for it and...I threw my arms up in the air. Yay! I had done it all on my own, not once or twice, but five times. 
• I can do it! When my link helped my Facebook page go up to 20 likes, strangely enough my blog stayed at 5. Add them together and that's pretty cool.

Well, there you have it, my own review on the first year of my blog. I know it needs work and having less than 40 posts in a whole year is not much, but it's more than I thought I would have. This blog may not have the best this or that, it's not perfect and neither am I. As someone that takes things out of the trash and sees some beauty in it to repurpose, it's because I look beyond it and see it's imperfections, the crooked lines or the odd way it feels, but it's an original. There is probably not another one like it and how cool is that. This something that I have to learn to apply to my blogging.
My blog is odd, quirky, strange, missing cute little buttons and pretty little background, but I will get there. Can I do it? Yes, she can!