I’ve written before about my great-great-grandmother’s sister, Carrie Paak Waruf, and her husband Henry Waruf: Who Was Hank Waruf, Kalamazoo Gunsmith, Tennyson’s Words for Henry Waruf’s Funeral, and All the Peek Girls (note that Paak can be spelled Peek, Paake, etc.).
The other day I received one of those little Ancesty leaves on Carrie’s profile. The leaf led me to a Florida Passenger List for 1931. It shows that Carrie and “Harry” Waruf traveled on the S. S. North Land from Havana, Cuba, to Key West, Florida. They arrived on February 15, 1931.
I started thinking about this trip. Undoubtedly this means that they vacationed in Cuba, to get away from the Michigan winter. Beginning in the late 1920s (or earlier), the twenty-seven-year-old 3,282-ton North Land, owned by Eastern Steamship Corporation, ran between Key West and Havana in the winter (and Boston and Yarmouth NS by summer). The North Land was a steamship and just short (in overall size) of the new luxury cruise ship that had recently become available (over 3,700 tons) that shipped out of Miami.
I wonder how long they vacationed in Cuba, where they stayed, and what they did there.
In 1930 the brand new Hotel Nacional de Cuba was built, so it’s very likely that they stayed there.
Poolside . . . . Trying to imagine Carrie and Henry/Hank/Harry by the pool with rum drinks.
This is what the Paseo de Prado looked like in the Warufs’ time:
Did Henry Waruf bring back boxes of cigars when they sailed into the Port at Key West?
This photo is how they would have seen Key West in those days. Did they pay a duty on the cigars? Was there a limit on how many he could bring home? Remember that this was barely a year after the Stock Market Crash. Cigar factories were hurting in Cuba, just as companies and workers were hurting everywhere.
Did Henry and Carrie sneak back rum? It was still Prohibition when the Warufs traveled to Cuba!
It’s hard to imagine what an exciting place Cuba must have been for a couple from Kalamazoo in 1931.
The Family Kalamazoo 