Tramp Steamer???

My husband, Scott, does tend to embellish when telling stories. He was given the opportunity this past week when my grandniece, Dori, came to help us paint his recording studio.
 

I had taught my first Memoir Writing class at the Puyallup Senior Center the Friday before, which led to a discussion with Dori of my mid-twenties Australian adventure. (I was in my mid-twenties; it wasn't the 1920's!)

June 28th, 1969, my best friend, Pam, (shown with her parents) and I left Vancouver, BC bound for Australia via Hawaii, Fiji, and New Zealand. Our plan was to work in Australia and then continue our adventures in other parts of the world. The memoir I'm working on tells more of what really happened versus the letters I wrote home to my parents.

But, the story of our leaving Vancouver, according to my husband was, "Bonnie worked her way across the Pacific on a tramp steamer." In all innocence, Dori looked at me quizzically and asked, "Is that like a floating brothel?" Scott and I thought we were going to have convulsions, we laughed so hard. I may have done some wild and crazy things in my youth, but working on a floating brothel was NOT one of them. We explained to Dori our understanding of a tramp steamer, a ship that doesn't have a fixed schedule or ports of call. People can travel cheaply and see the world.

The photo shows my mom, dad, and younger brother, Jim, who was 12 at the time. My family and Pam's had taken us to Vancouver to see us off. It was a fun, on-board celebration until they had to disembark. We all said goodbye with the tears flowing, not knowing how long it would be before we saw each other again.

The picture of mom and me swaddled in plastic, (is that hat a fashion statement or what! I think it was more "or what?") shows the British P&O Liner, Orsova, in the background - not a tramp steamer.

It was the beginning of a wonderful adventure. BonnieKingPhotography.com