Muddy Water (A Mississippi Moan)

Dixie moonlight, Swanee shore
Headed homebound just once more
To my Mississippi delta home
Southland has that grand garden spot
Although you believe or not
I hear those breeze a-whispering
'Come on back to me"
Muddy water 'round my feet
Muddy water in the street
Just God don't shelter
Down on the delta
Muddy water in my shoes
Reeling and rocking to them lowdown blues
They live in ease and comfort down there
I do declare
Been away a year today
To wander and roam
I don't care it's muddy there
But see it is my home
Got my toes turned Dixie way
'Round the delta let me lay
My heart cries out for muddy water

(Song written by P. DeRose, Harry Richman, Jo Trent)

This sentimental song, performed by jazz singer Bessie Smith, about the flooding of the Mississippi delta, was written on March 2, 1927.  The Mississippi had been pummelled by rain the previous summer.  The following spring, more rain followed.  Within weeks of the composition of "Muddy Waters", the Mississippi burst its levees in 145 different places in 10 different states including Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Loiuisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee, Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas.  The escaped water flooded an area 80 kilometres wide and 160 kilometres long; the depth of the water was up to 10 metres.  The river actually flowed north rather than south for several days due to the swelling.  Below Memphis, Tennessee, the Mississippi swelled to 97 kilometres wide in May of 1927.  The Great Mississippi Flood, the largest in the United States' history, killed 246 people and caused over $400 million in damages.

Eventually the flood waters started to recede, but not before racial tensions rose:  some blacks were forced to build new levees at gunpoint; others starved in refugee camps; still others had to fend for themselves while their white counterparts were rescued.  Some families were displaced for up to six months.  Consequently, tens of thousands of blacks decided to migrate north, particularly to places like Chicago, as part of the Great Migration. 

In the 1970's Led Zeppelin performed "When the Levee Breaks", a song written by Kansas Joe McCoy and Memphis Minnie's about the Mississippi Flood.  In the 1930's, William Faulkner, a Mississippi native, had a short story published called "Old Man" based on a prison break from Parchman Penitentiary during the flood.  And in the 1920's, Bessie Smith moaned for the muddy water of the Mississippi.

Photo courtesy www.brettonthewater.com.

The Story of the Easter Robin

Tonight I read a library book to my daughter Jacqueline that I had reserved a week ago, but didn't arrive in time for Easter.  Nonetheless, it was well worth reading, even though Easter has passed.
The Story of the Easter Robin, by Dandi Daley Mackall, is a story about a little girl Tressa who is visiting her Grandma.  As the twosome decorate eggs a Robin's egg blue, they watch the drama unfold outside the kitchen window.  A robin has built a nest which has one perfectly shaped egg sitting in it.  Tressa is concerned because she sees raccoon tracks nearby and a blue jay eyeing the nest.  "Gran, how are we going to keep the egg safe" she asks.  Gran answers:  "We'll have to leave that one to the Creator." 

In the meantime, Gran tells Tressa an old Pennsylvania Dutch tale about how the robin got its red breast.  A brown robin was flying above Jerusalem the day that Jesus was crucified.  As Jesus struggled to carry the cross on his back, and as the crown of thorns dug into his head, the robin pulled out one of the longest thorns to spare Jesus some pain; as he did so, a drop of Jesus' blood landed on the robin's breast.  Forever after, robins were red-breasted. 

The next day, the eggs in the nest (more had joined the original egg) hatched and healthy baby robins appeared.  Tressa knew who to thank for keeping the baby birds safe. 

Image courtesy http://1.bp.blogspot.com.

William's Wife's Watch

I walked along the platform of the Southampton dock littered with men in bowler hats carrying their suitcases and carting their trunks.  Women dressed in gowns and feathered hats were toting their hat boxes and securing their valuables, as they prepared to board the ship.  I could smell the seagull droppings on the pier competing with the odour of the fresh fish that the fishermen had brought in early that morning.  Time was of the essence as I only had an hour to make my purchase and get back to the dock.  I politely asked one of the crew where I might find a jewellery shop in town and he directed me towards Queen Street.  Walking as fast as my legs could carry me, I rubbed shoulders with the eager passengers, and eventually the crowd thinned.  Walking down the cobblestone streets, I passed a fishmarket, a blacksmith, a cooper -- but no jewellery shop.  The heavy fog made it hard to read the lettering, but finally I came upon what looked like a jewellery store.  I opened the heavy wooden door and enterd the shop, greeted by an elderly gentleman with spectacles hugging his nose.  "Do you have any gold watches" I asked.  "Not just any watch -- it has to be special.  I've come all the way from America, just to purchase a watch for my wife."  "Yes, of course"  said the jeweller.  I lingered over the fine watch pieces, making certain that I made the right choice.  All of a sudden, I realized the time, hastily picked out a watch, paid the jeweller, and raced out of the shop, brushing past shoppers with perplexed looks on their faces.  I rushed back to the dock, only to see the waves that the ship had left in its wake and hear the seagulls squawk overhead.  NO!  In my hand was my ticket dated April 10, 1912 for the S. S. Titanic.*

*Based on the life of veterinarian William M. Maraz, who, on a bet, sailed from New York to England to find a gold watch for his wife, intending to return home on the Titanic, but missing its maiden voyage while searching for a jeweller. 

N.B. Today is the 100th anniversary of the collision of the Titanic with an iceberg off the coast of Newfoundland, on April 14, 1912.  It sunk in the wee hours of the morning on April 15, 1912.  This post is dedicated to the 1500 lives lost on that night.

Photo of Titanic at Southampton dock on April 10, 1912 courtesy http://onpoint.wbur.org/files.

Abandoned House on Talbot Trail

The abandoned farmhouse on the Talbot Trail, which hugs the north shore of Lake Erie, looks like it was taken off the cover of a Nancy Drew mystery.  Constructed entirely of wood, the two-storey structure is about 150 years old.  If only its walls could talk, the tales they would tell.  The house appears to have been built in two sections:  the first piece contains a front door graced by two windows on either side.  The right hand window has what looks to be a homemade window to its right, added later on.  Above the front door is a large window frame, but the window is missing.  A peaked roof above the window has a red gable which give the house a stately air.  The second piece of the house, to the left, runs perpendicular to the first piece, jutting out at the front.  A large two-storey bay window graces the front with four vertical windows on each storey, missing their glass.  Below the peaked roof is another red gable.  The side wall has two vertical windows, also missing their glass.  A hole in the front wall has been hastily boarded up; one almost expects the Onceler from Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax to peek out from it.  The bottom half of the side wall has what appears to be aluminum siding rather than wooden boards, as if it was damaged by a storm at one point and then replaced.  The roof is covered with shingles, originally grey but now in varying shades, peeling like a week-old sunburn.  Two red brick chimneys poke out of the roof where smoke puffed out from an iron stove in winters past.  The front entrance is now overgrown with weeds tall enough to be cut down by a scythe, some flattened now by the elements or by cast aside junk.  The last remnants of snow cling to the short grass surrounding the weeds.  A towering tree stands in the background behind the homestead, likely planted by the farmer when he built the house.  Another large tree sits in the distance, its crown bare of leaves, waiting to bud at the first sign of spring.  Cirrus clouds sail through the azure sky above.  The house sits empty, waiting to be reclaimed, waiting to be restored to its former glory.  But for now it will have to be content with the occasional visit from a stray cat or a wild bird off Lake Erie’s shore.  Next summer, I will take a trip along Talbot Trail a la Nancy Drew, to view the abandoned house. 

 

Photo courtesy www.kpepphotography.com.

Hungry Hans Stole a Ham

A 19 year old German soldier serving near Normandy, France after D-Day hadn't eaten for two days and was so hungry that he stole a ham from a French farmer's wife, something quite common during wartime.  The part of the story that isn't common is that 55 years later, the German soldier bought a ham and travelled to the village of Argences, France to return it to its righful owner.

Hans Kupperfahrenberg belonged to the 21st Panzer Division of the Wehrmacht which sought refuge in a farmhouse near Argences, France.  Even though her cupboards were almost bare, the French farmer's wife, named Louise Marie, gave the soldiers milk and eggs.  While the soldiers used the donated eggs to cook an omelette on the fire, something fell out of the chimney into the hearth -- it was a ham that Louise's father had hidden so it would not be stolen.  Hans grabbed it and kept it for himself.  Hans left the farmhouse and went on to fight other battles including one where he was injured in the chest by a grenade and he was sent back to Germany.  Once he healed, he returned to active duty in Italy.  After the war, he worked for the railroad.

Hans never forgot how hungry he had been in Normandy during the German retreat.  He raised more than 1 million dollars to feed Africa's children and the elderly.  He also never forgot the ham that he had stolen from the French farmer's wife.  In 1999, he returned to France, this time with a Black Forest Ham in his arms.  However, in Normandy he couldn't remember where Louise's farmhouse was located and ended up giving the ham to a local nursing home.  In the meantime, he did find out how to get to the French farmhouse and returned with not one but two hams:  a German one and a French one to represent the improved Franco-German relations.  It's never too late to do the right thing.

Drawing of French farmhouse courtesy www.history.navy.mil.

Houston, We Have A Problem

Photo of Apollo 13 launch on April 11, 1970, courtesy www.awesomestories.com.

"Houston, we've had a problem here" spoke Captain James Lovell to Mission Control.  It was April 13, 1970 and Apollo 13 was about to reach the moon to land at the Frau Mauro Highlands.  The astronauts heard a boom; they were stuck in space with a burst oxygen tank.  How would they survive long enough to return to Earth?

On April 11, 1970, Apollo 13 had blasted off from Cape Canavaral with everything intact.  With the success of Apollo 11 and 12, everyone thought this would be a routine mission; in fact, the press hadn't even planned on televising the launch.  However, with the spacecraft disabled, all of a sudden the worldwide media saw a front page story and scrambled to get interviews with the astronaut's families. 

Photo of Italian newspapers with Apollo 13 headlines courtesy http://er.jsc.nasa.gov.

In the meantime, Captain Lovell spotted gas venting from the Command Module and realized that they would not survive in the capsule, ordering it to be shutdown.  James Lovell, Jack Swigert and Fred Haise would have to use the Lunar Module as their lifeboat for the bulk of their journey.  The mission would have to be aborted and the focus would turn to saving their lives.  How would they survive in the Lunar Module which was built for two astronauts to live in for only 45 hours when they needed room for three astronauts for 90 hours? 

The astronauts cut their water rations back to one-fifth the normal supply.  However, how would they get rid of the carbon dioxide in the capsule given that they only had square shaped filters when they needed a round shaped one?  This is where the engineers at NASA came into play.  They spent hours trying to figure out how the astronauts could build a filter using materials already on boar the spacecraft?  They set to work brainstorming.

In the meantime, the three astronauts huddled together at temperatures barely above the freezing mark, trying to preserve power.  Fred Haize contracted the flu.  As he looked out the window at the green and blue ball below, he wondered how his wife was coping, eight months pregnant with their child.

Photo of Earth's surface courtesy http://space.about.com.

The engineers radioed up to Apollo 13 crew, instructing them as to how to make the carbon dioxide filter using a sock, a plastic bag, a flight manual cover and lots of duct tape.  Miraculously, the homemade contraption seemed to work.  The astronauts passed through another major hurdle when they had a successful engine burn on the far side of the moon, preparing their spacecraft to return to Earth.  It was bittersweet for the threesome to stare out the window, with that white crater-filled ball so close that they could almost touch it, but yet so far away:  they would not be landing on its surface on this mission. 

Photo of moon's surface courtesy http://static.ddmcdn.com.  

On April 17, Captain Lovell and his crew returned to the Command Module (they could not re-enter the earth's atmosphere in the LM).  Lovell was a pilot in the Air Force during World War II, landing bombers on the decks of aircraft carriers during the dead of night.  Once he had to land without any instrumentation to help him and he relied on the glow coming from the reefs under the ocean's surface.  During the Apollo 13 crisis, his wartime experience not only helped him command his spacecraft but also his nerves.

NASA's Mission Control members held their breath as they waited for Apollo 13 to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere.  Four minutes passed:  had the CM been damaged so much that it could not endure the exhorbitant temperatures?  Finally the three parachutes were spotted hovering above the Pacific Ocean.  Hallelujah!  Apollo 13's crew made a safe landing and the world breathed a collective sigh of relief. 

Photo of Apollo 13 crew courtesy http://medoffj.edublogs.org.

Top Ten Canadian Landmarks

These are the top ten Canadian landmarks according to www.toptenz.net.



10.  Confederation Bridge (P.E.I.)

9.  West Edmonton Mall (Alberta)

8.  Hopewell Rocks (Bay of Fundy, New Brunswick)

7.  St. Joseph's Oratory (Montreal, Quebec)

6.  Chateau Lake Louise (Alberta)

5.  Parliament Hill (Ottawa, Ontario)

4.  Rocky Mountains (British Columbia/Alberta)

3.  CN Tower (Toronto, Ontario)

2.  Chateau Frontenac (Quebec)

1.  Niagara Falls (Ontario)