Domain of the Golden Dragon: Crossing the Two Main Longitudes Part 1

Part 1

My father's Golden Dragon Card which he received on our trip
to the Philippines. This is smaller than the official document. 

My father, Stanley G. Cooper, served in the US Navy from 1941-1967. He served across the United States & in the Pacific in two foreign countries, the Philippines from 1957-1960 & Japan from 1964-1965. 

During WWII, he served on several ships in the Pacific crossing the International Dateline & the Equator. Ten years later with his wife, Martha, & children, Gib & Mary, Lieutenant Cooper obtained passports to travel to his first duty station overseas at the U. S. Naval Station Sangley Point in Cavite City, south of Manila, on the Philippine Islands. 

His job title was the “assistant War Plans Officer, Logistics Planning Officer and a few other things” as he described to his parents.

SAILING TO MANILLA, PHILIPPINE ISLANDS  17 December 1957 - 4 January 1958

On the 17th of December 1957 with the proper paperwork, the family boarded the MSTS (Military Sea & Transportation Service) GENERAL DANIEL I. SULTON in San Francisco.

I will be quoting through letters my parents wrote to their parents sharing of their personal experiences. 

We boarded the ship at noon & sailed at 3 p.m. I was very pleased to find the ship was more luxurious than I had expected. They kept us very busy with various volunteer activities. I worked in the game & book check-out room which was across from our cabin. We had bingo parties, dances, movies, card tournaments, etc. I won an electric razor & Stan won a portable steam iron at Bingo.

We had a roomy cabin with 4 bunks & a crib, plus a small bath with shower.

The children were kept occupied at all times with planned & regular activities.

The dining room was attractive & had table seating from 6-8 people. The food was very good.

We arrived in Honolulu, Hawaii, on December 22. We spent the day with friends & a short time to tour the city. By 6 PM we were back on the ship. 

We missed the International Dateline Ceremony as we crossed on Christmas Day. The Ship’s Master decreed that Christmas should be celebrated. Stan & I were presented with our “Golden Dragon” certificates at the end of the cruise. They had religious services, Christmas trees, & we picked Santa Claus up on a buoy at 5 a.m. when all little children are asleep. They had a nice party for the children & gave out gifts. 

Stan holds Mary as she visits with Santa to receive her gift from him.

Mary stood the trip very well, & was no problem. Everyone did their utmost to make it a pleasant & comfortable trip for her. (Mary had a body cast on for her hip dysplasia.)  Of course, Gib & I (Martha) were miserable with ‘mal de mer’ the first few days out. Stan was a little & Mary not at all. 

Stan is being kept busy. He has been assigned as Unit Commander of all military personal including the troops aboard. He’s also troop mess & sanitation officer. He still finds time to spend with us.

We arrived in Guam on Tuesday, 31 December, where most of the passengers debarked & we picked up a lot of inter-island passengers. After taking to the newer passengers, we learned many were unhappy there because of high costs & very little things to do. Gib & I took a bus tour of the island & saw nothing of interest. We left Guam at 6 PM. The rest of the trip was uneventful, but enjoyable, as we behaved very lazily.  

We entered the San Bernardino Straits at 10 AM on Friday, 3 January 1958. Surprisingly, it was very chilly until we reached Manilla Bay the next morning. We passed Samar & a few smaller islands, coming very close at times, giving us a good look at things. We saw a small primitive native village & natives coming toward us in their outrigger canoes (banca boats). We passed Corregidor at about 5 AM. After breakfast, we spent most of our time on deck seeing the sight of the harbor. With a few exceptions, it was now cleared of the sunken Japanese war vessels.

As the ship was tying up, we saw former friends from Chase Field, Texas, with their son waiting to welcome us. The Tourist Association of Manilla had lovely corsages for all the women on board. After we came off-board the MSTS Sultan with our luggage, our friends drove us around Manilla showing us the sights; then off to Cavite City, 30 miles away.

Two years later, my family returns to the United States from the Philippines. I will relate that adventure in my following post.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun for 4 April 2020 - My Oldest Family Photos

I have decided to accept Randy Seaver's challenge of posting about the oldest family photos I have in my collection.

1) This is a photo of my great grandparents, Andrew Gabuzda (1843-1917) with Maria Szabol (1857-1926) of Raslavice, Austria Hungary (now Slovakia). I love that this was taken in a studio of them dressed in national clothing. Four of their 8 children came to the United States from 1899-1908.

2) This is an unknown ancestor, but my family & I guess that he is from my Piña line, my paternal grandmother's grandfather or my 2nd great grandfather. He was either born in Spain & immigrated to Cuba; or was born in Cuba. He looks to have served for the Spanish military. I will have to research more about this uniform. This photo, also, looks to be taken in a studio.

3) This photo of Elizabeth Gibson Cooper (1828-1905), my 2nd great-grandmother, was taken in Dublin, Ireland, in 1883 after the deaths of her husband, Austin Cooper, & her son, Henry Cooper. She is in mourning when this was taken at the E. & J. Lauder Photographic Studio on 22 Westmoreland St. of Dublin, Ireland. She came to the United States the following year, & settled in South Dakota with one of her daughters by 1900.

Family Trunks - Trunk #3 - Part 2

As stated in my last post, when I got the two "treasure chests" or "time capsules" down from the upper loft in my mother's garage, I saw another larger "old steamer" trunk in the back. I tried a couple times with help to get it down but was unable to find enough muscled men to complete the task for me.

I have been busy going through my mother's documents, letters, notes, journals & other papers. I found these notes about this mysterious trunk. 

My mother & I loved Reminense magazine. She responded to a question asked in the Jul/Aug 2001 issue. A reader asked if anyone knew what a certain wooden item was that looked like an anchor, which she found in a vacant house. My mother wrote a personal letter explaining what the piece was. She wrote, "This item is a clothes hanger from a wardrobe trunk. To be more specific: the trunk was about 4 feet high & about 2 feet square & opened up from the front into two equal sides." 

As seen above, she drew out what the interior of the trunk looked like with the interior types of hangers & drawers. Drawing the anchor-shaped form hanger she explained how it was used to keep dresses and suits from getting wrinkled during transit. "This particular hanger was for long formal evening dresses with the hanger held upside down, the dress was hung on the curved part of the hanger then flipped over to fold the long skirt over the horizontal piece then hung on the telescoped bars that have been pulled forward on the left side of the trunk."

"The hangers for day dresses had a very short vertical piece. My older sister, Irene, attended college in the early 1930s when the very strong and sturdy trunk was purchased for her for $30. Eventually, it became mine [my mother]. Because I was a Navy nurse during World War II & later married a Naval officer, this wardrobe trunk has been all over the world & now occupies a place in the loft of our garage. This style trunk today is worth about $300-$400 to collectors.” [as of 2001] What would be its value now in 2020?

After my mother's death, her estate sale & taking the items I wanted to keep; I made arrangements for the remaining items to be donated to a local charity to be sold. Unfortunately, I was not present when the house was cleaned out. This breaks my heart as I will never find out what could have been in that larger trunk.

I found these photos of other old steamer trunks via Pinterest. These best show mother's descriptions of her trunk.