Memories

The summer after my high school graduation I worked on a towboat (the SS Chippewa) (but I never found out why they call it a towboat instead of a pushboat), catching it in Louisville and going to Pittsburgh on the Ohio River, then all the way back down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to New Orleans, then back up to Chicago and made three runs between Chicago and St. Louis. It was a real adventure for an 18 year old boy. As a deckhand, we worked every other 6 hours, seven days a week. For every day we worked we were paid 1 1/2 days wages, so I worked for 3 months and got paid for 4 1/2. It was hard, hot,and sometimes dangerous work.Once when we were in Chicago, another barge was unloading nearby and reforming its string of barges when a cable broke and decapitated the deckhand. We had a small closet we shared between two of us and it was so hot and noisy, I would go out to the front of the barges with a pillow and sleep on the top of the barge -- very quiet, but still hot. The towing company, L.C. Jones Towing out of New Orleans, was composed of mostly Cajun guys and did we eat well! It was my introduction to Cajun food and I love it to this day. One memory was of a night when the fog was like a wall and the captain finally pulled into the bank to tie up until daybreak. He nosed the head of the tow into the bank and we put a ladder down into the muddy, murky water and I had to climb down into the water carrying a large rope, then scramble up the muddy bank and tie us off on a large tree. We carried crude oil and when we would get to a refinery and pump it out then I had to don a rubber suit, boots, and mask and climb down into the barges -- literally pitch dark, and turn valves and shut doors. I suffered heat exhaustion in New Roads, Louisiana, and was in the hospital for about 4 days there (had the cutest nurse, but that's another story). When I got out, I hitchhiked to New Orleans and had to find the boat at a refinery. 'Had to catch a bus from downtown but couldn't find anyone who spoke English for directions so I finally used a couple of years of high school French to be understood. I got to the refinery about 11:00 pm -- ever been in a refinery in the middle of the night with NO ONE around and not knowing where to go? But I made it. The camaraderie was great. I think it paid about $800 a month which was good money at the time. It helped me buy my first car and pay some upcoming college expenses. The picture here is not the boat I was on but was similar except this one is much larger. It is locking through at Watts Bar Dam on the Tennessee River.