Topic starter
24/02/2008 6:21 pm
Doc Hawley arrived here 11:30 PM Thursday and departed Saturday at 11 AM. During that time, he had a whirlwind tour of brunches and lunches and meeting and greeting. As has been previously posted, Doc came up here to be the speaker at the annual Henry Farnam dinner, an event sponsored by several local nonprofits which commemorates the original dinner with Mr. Farnam when the first railroad bridge over the Mississippi was built(he designed it). The previous dinners have had fairly local speakers but Michael Blaser convinced the committee to invite Doc this year, and I'm sure the committee is very grateful for that suggestion. 313 attended the dinner, most of them being local citizens involved in historic preservation or other historical endeavors. We did have several .orgers/buffs from out of town in attendance: Pete Sisak from the headwaters of the Rock River, David Tschiggfrie from Dubuque, John Kuster from Dixon, Vi and Bill Foley from Andalusia, Chuck and Anne Pietscher from Keokuk, Mark Decker from Burlington, Tom Dunn from St. Louis, and the winner of a Big River subscription for traveling the farthest: Pat Traynor of Marco Island Fl. Unfortunately an ice storm kept several other St. Louisans from attending.
After brunching with the Blasers, lunching with the Farnam committee, and going down memory lane here at the MUMR, Doc gave his usual entertaining talk - there were two stories I had never heard before, and I believe David heard some new ones too. After breakfast Saturday morning, we whisked him to the MLI International Airport so Doc could thaw out in NOLA that afternoon.
During the cocktail hour David and Pat were able to gather several dozen signatures on a DQ petition, and 10 blank petitions were taken home to be fillied out. Since we had the mayor of Rock Island sitting at our table, we had planned to talk to him about the city doing a resolution. However, his introductory remarks prior to his toast stopped that, and caused our mouths to drop open: that afternoon about 10 blocks from the hotel he and a local committee working to get Amtrak service back here, and funding for a new I-74 bridge, had just met with... Rep. James Oberstar! Obviously they are not going to do anything to upset him and knock us out of the funding battle.
Other than that little bombshell, it was a great evening and weekend. Kudos to Curt and Libby Roseman, the dinner chairmen; and to Michael Blaser for organizing all the "Doc" details.
Of course here are some pictures from the occasion:
1) Although I cancelled the open house, Doc and Dave dropped by for a while and Pat was my houseguest. Between Doc and Dave is part of a DQ bucketboard broken off in the Rock Island Rapids. That bookcase houses my postcard collection.
2) Doc is looking at the "Captains' Wall", in particular the pix of Capt. Wagner, which I took on the DQ in Dubuque in 1978 on his last trip.
3) David Tschiggfrie and Pat Traynor manning the DQ petition table. Dave gave a DVD to each person who took a petition to fill out.
Topic starter
24/02/2008 6:28 pm
3 more Doc dinner pix
1) Tom Dunn and Doc enjoying a light moment. Behind Doc is Curt Roseman, the chairman of the dinner. He is a retired geography prof from USC... how he ended up in Moline I don't know.
2) Part of our table: Mayor Mark Schwiebert of RI, Tom Dunn, Dave Tschiggfrie, Pat Traynor. Note the 3 x5 blowup of the AVALON at Marietta in 1954 behind the podium - it is now behind my futon in my TV room (Note to prospective collectors: never turn anything down because you don't know if it will fit into your car, or where you'll put it in the house - it WILL fit, and you'll find a spot!)
3) Not a good pix, but the only one I took during Doc's talk.
24/02/2008 11:51 pm
It was an honor to be at the Patsch/Mayoral table!!!
Pat Welsh kept introducing me to folks as the "explorer of the Rock River headwaters!" Those poor Quad Citians...Pat brought several people to hear my "story"!!!!
John Kuster is pictured at the next table on the second post middle pic!
Of course, I forgot my camera for the weekend...but the Farnum Dinner was a great sucess!
It was terribly great to see & visit with the Pat Welsh, the Piechers, finally meeting the Guses, Mrs Foley & Bill, Dave Tschiggfrie, John Kuster & Pat Traynor...
I didn't get to chat with Doc much, but the dinner & talk was fun!!!
I did get to meet several others there including Mike Blaser & his wife...
It was well worth the trip down south!
25/02/2008 2:52 pm
Glad to hear that a good time was had by all despite the mounds of snow and ice in Rock Island. The Middle Upper Mississippi River Museum certainly had some distinguished visitors and I'm sure the river talk was at "flood stage"! Here's a close up of the poignant picture (taken by Judy aboard the DQ at Dubuque on September 26, 1978) of Capt. Ernie Wagner. He passed away in October, 1979.
Topic starter
25/02/2008 3:30 pm
That was the ONLY time I ever asked to lockhop on the DQ... it was my birthday, and we knew that the circumstances were such that this was probably going to be Captain Wagner's last UMR DQ trip. Dave also lockhopped that evening. I just thought it was a wonderful pose that was being presented at that moment, and I'm so glad I thought to take that picture. For those who came around after the less stringent days, 'lockhopping' = a person or persons at a lock would be offered a ride by the Captain up/down to the next lock, usually a 3 or 4 hour ride. To do this, one needed a driver to get your vehicle to the next lock - both Dave and I had fathers who readily did this for us. The gates in the railings on the Cabin and Texas deck were used to hop on and off at the locks. Occasionally a portable stage would be needed, but most of the time one could just jump from the boat to the lock wall or vice versa. While on board, lockhoppers often spent time in the pilothouse or out on decks, staying out of the way of the paying passengers. Lockhoppers were loyal passengers, who just got a little "lagniappe" on these trips. There was a legion of lockhoppers on both the UMR and the Ohio and it was quite a privilege to be one of them back in the days before Liability became a common word, and when the Captain was truly in charge of the boat. Here's a picture of David's wife Debbie boarding at probably L&D 12 in Bellevue. That's Dave's dad Joe on the lock wall helping her, and that is probably Dave's hand reaching out from the Cabin Deck.
25/02/2008 7:19 pm
Keith Norrington;9820 wrote: Glad to hear that a good time was had by all despite the mounds of snow and ice in Rock Island.
The Quad Cities, even Dubuque has nothing as compared to the Rock headwaters!!!
At least the arterials are clear there!
2 to 6 inches forecast for tomorrow
25/02/2008 9:37 pm
One of those PRICELESS moments!!!!
Topic starter
25/02/2008 10:11 pm
Yes, RI has one of the best street departments around. I'm awaiting 4 to 6 inches of blessed white stuff tonight, but so far the freezing rain preceeding it hasn't arrived... and Doc and Pat are back in their sunny warm climes...
25/02/2008 11:17 pm
Oh, Judy, that brings back several memories for me, but one in particular stands out: First Mate David Rainbolt was quite the ladies man, and literally had a "girl in every port". Once he had one girlfriend on board lock-hopping, and at the lock where she was to disembark, ANOTHER lady friend of his was getting on. He enlisted me to help one while he engaged the other to keep them from getting wise to his scheme. Those were the days!!!
25/02/2008 11:54 pm
I absolutely love hearing these stories! At the risk of being annoying, I venture to say that it's fun to have vicarious experiences that would never fly in today's restrictions-regulated world.
25/02/2008 11:57 pm
Snow!!!!!!!!!! You want SNOW ?? Come to Wisconsin's Lake Michigan shore. The only shortage of white stuff is road salt!!! Snowfall so far for the season is 75 inches, 36 inches of it since Feb. 1. Our normal for the whole season is about 40 inches. Still is not so bad.......'78-'79 season everyone had a 6 foot whip with a flag on top clamped to the rear bumper of their cars so one could tell if another car was approaching at an intersection. Those snowbanks were twice as high as they were so far this year. Guess what more snow tonight!!!!! but I'm sure we'll see grass by the 4th of July, in which some years it's been over 100 degrees! THINK GREEN!!!!! Matt Sisak
Topic starter
26/02/2008 2:29 am
Yes, I'm so thankful I rode the DQ in the less restrictive, smaller company-down home days, and I'm betting I would have liked the Greene days of the '50s even better! Of course you realize that some of the prime players in this lockhopping bit were your parents and grandparents, and Bert!