Sunbathing on the DQ

Sandy, there USED to be, nad people used to sunbathe all the time. Maybe someoine else can come in and confirm or deny the presence of chaise longues now.

I guess I will pack our suits...hope someone else confirms this?

Sandy

Sandy, even though its called the "Sundeck" there is really no room to sunbathe on the DQ. When I worked on the AQ and MQ there was ample room to sunbathe. However, you have to use caution as when the stacks are down you get a lot of fumes and soot blowing over the deck. On kite flying day you'll have a bunch of folks stepping over you and kite string all over the place. On any of the boats you don't want to be too close to the steam whistle(mounted high and forward) when it blows. It will scare the heck out of you if your're not ready for it! I was within 15 ft. of the whistle on the AQ taking pictures when it went off. It's been three years and I'm still shakin'!

John

John, I beg to differ with you. On my 41 DQ cruises, I always stretched out on a lounge chair on the Sundeck with no problem. I parked on the stern in one of the corners. Other than the kite flying day which you mentioned, there was never any problem with congestion. Sometimes we'd have 5 or 6 people stretched out back there. And if you choose to sit on the side, most people put their chair parallel to the railing so as to allow people to pass, again without problem. Over the years, they blow the whistle less and less, so that isn't a 'problem' - it was a goosebump joy for me anyway. The only thing about the Sundeck is the soot possibility, but with that new taller stack I think that problem is almost completely eliminated. And if you get through a whole trip on the DQ without a speck of soot, you haven't had the full steamboating experience.

LOL...Pack the suits.....and make sure I pack eye wash and drops.

Sandy

Judy, I loved those lounge chairs they used to have on the stern of the DQ. They were light and comfy and I used to haul them wherever I wanted to be, then packed myself in with pillows, a particularly wonderful situation when we were underway in the evening or at night. Regrettably, they took them off a number of years ago. I still miss them. In the last couple of years, they have only had two not particularly comfortable metal ones, on the bow of the Texas deck, sometimes with cushions, sometimes not, depending on how late in the season it is. (You need the cushions or the metal weave on the chair leaves lovely little waffle patterns on your bare skin.) These chairs are quite heavy, but do have wheels on the back to help move them a short distance, though not very easily. I don't know if they are still on the boat this season or not.

The taller stack still dumps considerable quantities of soot when they take a notion to blow out the tubes. Part of the fun, as you well know. Just got to keep an eye on from whence the breeze is blowing ...

Steamboating colleagues:
Interesting thread as Judy, Lil and others really jolted some old memories of the canvas folding deck chairs once on the DELTA QUEEN. As Lil says, they were convenient, comfy and folded up. I 'think' they had white painted frames and the canvas may have been either a dark blue or green. I've not taken trips much after the 1970s; so only know about the cast metal tables and chairs. One trip in the early 1960s the boat was headed for Kentucky Lake. A station wagon pulled in the big wharfboat unloading a party of about six men and women. Luggage was handed over and then six of those then new aluminum deck recliners with the multi-colored webbing. The party settled in their rooms, hauled their own deck recliners out, plunked down with a beverage as one man intoned, "Oh, captain, my captain, let the trip begin!"

Back in those days Mrs. Letha Greene was on the boat here usually before each trip left. She made her presence known to the passengers--and crew--in a discreet way. You'd hear some of the boys on the lower deck look and say, "Heah' comes Mrs. Greene...look lively." As she reached the top of the stair her eyes carefully swept around checking all out before walking the cabin to the stern, then down to the dining room and back. If something would be found out of place, a hand smudge on a window, dining table not dressed properly, she would politely summon a waiter or porter, "Would you mind tending to this at your earliest free moment?" Mary Greene-Stewart played a big part with the company then. Mary would at times be seated adjacent to the souvenir stand to accept reservations for the canvas deck chairs if you wished. Can't recall now but the cost was minimal...a couple of dollars? There may have also been a little tag attached with your name on it. On many trips the crew drove Mrs. Greene's auto over the stage on the bow as she would ride the boat down to Louisville the first night to meet passengers at dinner and extend a warm welcome in the dining room before the first night's entertainment. It was a ritual she and other family members carried on the entire time the boat was under the GREENE LINE stewardship.

On some mid summer trips it was dreadfully hot on the lower Ohio River. A number of nights passengers would drag their chairs in a group with a pillow to sit outside in what breezes were whafting along. I recall a number of passengers sleeping on deck all night. It was fun and the conversation never ended. Also those nice metal chairs painted either green or contrasting tones of beize and light brown you could sit in and 'bob' as the boat steamed on. The decks were all stretched canvas then painted deck gray and kept immaculate. Soot from the stack? Never bothered me. The sound of the whistle was marvelous. One evening Mrs. Greene and cousins of the Becker family branch sat on the bow in the evening. We talked until the whistle gave a long sonorous sound which died away in echoes again and again. Mrs. Greene was just a 'hooked' as any of us. She paused, turned and said, "Listen to that whistle. Gives me chills and I never tire of it."

Cheers and thanks for the memories,
R. Dale Flick

Rooster & Johnson

Red Rooster and "Cap'n" Ernest Johnson tended those rental deck chairs, in the late 60's. Each chair was tagged, and these veteran DELTA QUEEN deckhands assured that each chair was by the room where they belonged, should they stray. They kept the chairs relative clean and free of that oft-mentioned soot. And at the conclusion of the trip, Rooster and Johnson made sure the chairs were returned to where they were to be returned. For their efforts, the men expected a modest tip, and so they jealously guarded the deckchairs as they would their own grandchildren.

Dale and Shipyard are talking about chairs a generation ahead of my time, but it sounds like it was a good deal. My first couple of years there were lounge chairs about the Sundeck and then the heavy 'waffle' indentation ones directly in front of the Texas Bar. About my third or fourth year of cruising, they replaced the movable lounge chairs with captain's chairs, not very good for stretching out all day. My solution was to buy a lounge chair and bring it with me. I left it stored in the officers' quarters against the smokestack, and crew used it throughout the year when I wasn't aboard. I think it lasted for 6 or 7 years, and then they reinstated some lounge chairs on the decks.

I could not remember where the chairs were placed when we saw the DQ on Saturday, but just talked with a passenger who confirmed that the two lounge chairs (without cushions) are on the Texas bow along with most, or all, of the metal tables and chairs. The rocking chairs are along the port and starboard sides of the Texas and Sun Decks. There are no tables in front of the cabins on this trip.

No tables in front of the cabins?!? Good grief, Suzanne, whose bright idea was that? Those tables are everyone's Mecca, a place to put your roll and coffee late breakfast while you watch the shore go by in the morning, or a beer, hot dog from the Texas Lounge and supplies while you sit and work on a cross stitch, or a cup of tea or a drink while you write a note home or read. My family lives at those tables. A pox on their house if the powers that be have removed them. I guess we will have to take one from the bow and allow it to migrate down the port side till it reaches our cabins.

Steamboating colleagues:
Lil, Judy, Shipyard Sam and others to numerous to mention on this thread have us on a 'roll' with incredible memories that enriches the experiences of DQ passengers past and present. Shipyard was correct on his mention of the 'tips' for the men who tended the deck chairs and I was negligent in recalling that. Judy's 'stowing' the deck chair is a classic. It's the little memories we all share that add up in telling a fascinating story. Not much at the time but worth telling now in 2007.

Tables on the deck? I apologize for resurrecting an ancedote posted a couple of years ago on this web. May be interesting to new posters/'lurkers' who've joined the ranks. Back from 1960-1962 +, Capt. Donald T. Wright and wife Pear of the WATERWAYS JOURNAL, St. Louis, made many trips. He was real 'river royalty' and at my age then took it all in soaking up the talk of boats and the river.

During some of the trips when them aboard Donald would 'host' a party on the deck outside of their cabin. Waiters and bar tenders would haul up tables, clothes, ice, drinks with mixes along with pretzels, chips etc. Passengers passing were invited to stop for a drink and chat. It was magic to say the least. Naturally, Donald made a bit pitch for the WATERWAYS JOURNAL and left the boat with a fat envelope in new subscriptions. Pear Wright was a lady--a real southern lady of great charm and class.

Cheers and thanks to you all,
R. Dale Flick

Lil- What are they thinking? I can't imagine those tables not being there. Even if I cursed trying to balance extra stuff on a tray to get below decks, I still would want those tables in place. If I was a passenger, everything would be done at that table.

I sure hope the past passengers on the trips prior to mine...make a stink and the tables will be there before my cruise in 36 days...

Sandy