Denver - Ladies who lunch

Friday 14th September 2012.  We have a day off from travelling today, hooray! We all deserve a rest.
Alan and Nick managed to get all the lads to the Forney Museum. They had a great morning, but I will leave Alan to tell you about that!
We ladies got together and walked round the block to The Molly Brown Museum. Margaret Brown was the real life American lady of the "The unsinkable Molly Brown" film. She lived on Pennsylvania Street, Denver. Her name was Margaret or Maggie but that did not rhyme with enough lyrics for the theme tune for the film, so she was forever known as Molly from the film days. When the Titanic hit the iceberg side-on Margaret heard and felt the scrape. She put several layers of clothes on because she thought something was wrong and it was cold on deck. Originally she intended to see what was happenings on the other side of the ship. However, a sailor stopped her, made sure she had a life jacket and threw her on a life boat. Had she gone round the other side she may not have got on a life boat at all. Each life boat had a sailor on board and the sailor on her boat was very afraid and keep saying "We are not going to make it!" She told him to be quiet, and help, or she would throw him overboard. We know she said this to make him pull himself together because she wrote a couple of articles for the Denver newspapers which were printed. It was the only way for the woman survivors to get a voice. The men in charge of the Titanic investigations both sides of the Atantic would not let women give evidence, in those days.
Her home had all the modern comforts of the day, including the new electric lights (as well as back-up candles), plumbing, a cold store, ice deliveries and a manual washing machine; which had a foot pump for the maid to pump for 20 minutes wash and 20 minutes rinse cycles. She regularly scandalised her social set by appearing in the papers, buying inappropriate ornaments(nudes), bringing back things from abroad and generally doing thing ladies should not do. She was a woman before her time, separated from the father of her six children, but supported by him, she raised lots of money for charity; even collecting £10,000 for the steerage passengers, in the three days it took the Carpathia to get the Titanic survivors to New York. When the Carpathia landed she was able to give the poorer passengers a little set-up money.

After seeing the Molly Brown Museum we ladies decided to wander up 16th Street, the Denver shopping Mall. Following each other for half an hour hard yakka and window shopping we felt like a restroom and coffee break. The six of us settled down in the sun at a pizza place. The waiter must, at first, have been delighted to see six of us, but he quickly became disappointed when we only ordered soft drinks and coffee. Having discussed it, we thought we would have time to look at Ross, Dress for Less clothes shop. It is very much like T.K.Maxx back home. A few of us tried tops on and made our purchases. We then ambled up the rest of 16th and saw John waving. A few of the men had returned but Nick, Alan and 4 others were still awaiting and making their way in a taxis. We arranged for a table for 12 at the Cheesecake Factory hoping they would come soon. They arrived 25 minutes later and we all had a little lunch and a large piece of their famous Cheesecake. Yum yum hurts my tum!