Topic starter
26/09/2011 10:05 am
A long and two shorts of the whistle today in tribute to the natal day observance of JUDY PATSCH, also known as the "Steamboat Cookie Lady" of the Upper Mississippi River - and sometimes as "Miss Streckfus".
Hooked by the call of the calliope on the Str. AVALON during her UMR visits in the 1950's, Judy became a steamboat buffette extraordinaire, maintains a fabulous collection of 'steamboat stuff', has served many years as a crew member aboard the Str. NATCHEZ and is well known to grateful steamboat crews for providing taxi/ambulance/courier service for those in need during stops in the Quad Cities - and at other points along the big river. Only God knows the actual number of chocolate chip cookies that have been handed over the rail at Lock & Dam 15 (and elsewhere!) to appreciative crew members of the DELTA QUEEN, MISSISSIPPI QUEEN and AMERICAN QUEEN, as well as several other vessels. With the return to the river of the AQ next year, you can bet that Judy will be 'waiting on the waterfront' to resume her cookie distribution and courtesy cab! Currently the president of the Midwest Riverboat Buffs, Judy is not only an authority on the history of the Streckfus Steamboat Line, but also a LIFE member of the Howard Steamboat Museum and always ready to pitch in and help with our events -- even after making the seven hour drive to Jeffersonville -- of course, bringing a cargo of cookies! She is truly dedicated to the cause!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY to a great river lady who is 'happy to give' and a good friend who has done much to promote and preserve river & steamboat history! Long may she keep rollin' on the river!
26/09/2011 10:34 am
*Happy B-Day Judy*
If it wasn't for Keith keeping 'the sternline' wet, we'd miss a lot about doings, people, events. HAPPY B-DAY Judy and many more! Your UMR and New Orleans pictures, memories, stories a different world from here in 'Ragtown.'
R. Dale Flick
Coal Haven Landing, Ohio River, Cincinnati.
26/09/2011 11:36 am
Happy Birthday, Judy, and many happy returns!!
Carmen, Franz and Enkelin
26/09/2011 12:19 pm
Happy Birthday! Have fun on your day!
26/09/2011 3:20 pm
Salutations on the observance of your Natal Day! With a little selubrious astonishment I post this greeting to you for said purpose.
Hope you had a safe drive home from the Museum Saturday night....wish you'd stayed and rode the BELLE with us!
26/09/2011 4:05 pm
Judy: Donno where Travis caught the selubrious astonishment, but it sounds contageous! Somehow we got it here too at the shipyard, marina and general store. We and will remain closed in celebration of your natal day. Best wishes for the day and as Dale sez, "and many more". Cap'n Walnut.
26/09/2011 4:35 pm
Happy Birthday Judy!!! We have had many fun times over the past few years, and I have to say that those chocolate chips cookies are the best I've ever had! I can still remember on the NATCHEZ in 2008 when you would come down to the wharf with a container of them in hand and we would all get so excited. I don't think those cookies ever saw a trip since they were usually gone by the time we got underway! I hope that today treats you well, and I look forward to our next run-in, wherever that may be.
26/09/2011 4:51 pm
I don't see how y'all can git INNY work done at that yard, as much as you close up for folks!
26/09/2011 4:58 pm
Happy Birthday!!! Hope you have a great and relaxing day.
26/09/2011 6:18 pm
Judy,
Best wishes for a great birthday from a fellow river rat on the UMR. Although it seems the years slip by faster with every turn of the calendar page, those treasured memories, adventures and misadventures of decades of steamboating are ever fresh and keep us young in heart and spirit. A long whistle salute, and a steamy calliope medley of "South", "Running Wild", "Avalon" and "Happy Birthday" to you from your friend upstream. May you celebrate many, many more!
David
26/09/2011 10:39 pm
Happy Birthday Judy. Hope you're enjoying it all day long doing just what you want to do!
26/09/2011 10:56 pm
Well, bye God, I should try to bake another cake, but you left a birthday cake sittin' on the BELLE last Saturday, and it was better than anything I could mix up. So I'll just wish you a very happy Birthday and many more to come.
26/09/2011 11:01 pm
Yeah, Bob, that was a problem til we got to workin' thru the lunch hour on the daze we wuzzent here. Cap'n Wanut
27/09/2011 1:30 am
Medicare Malaise
Just the thought of being Medicare age would be enough, but this weekend of driving to and from Jeffersonville, helping out at the Howard, and then helping at a surprise 90th birthday party at church(which turned out to have the surprise on us, 100 were expected, 180 showed, the old fish and loaves of bread parable worked again) caused me to want nothing but rest today. Enough celebrating! But I did buy a cake for my bingo buddies at the nursing home this afternoon, rather than baking them cookies. Thanks for your good thoughts, and Travis, hope you can shake that exotic illness soon! Here is the reason(4, actually) I'm resting in my chair rather than on my bed:
27/09/2011 2:20 am
Happy Birthday Judy! -Jim and JoAnn Herron
27/09/2011 2:54 am
Happy B-Day Judy---boy, these things sure sneak up ya, huh!
I see the cats have no respect for your new age 🙂
Hope it was a good one!
S'
David D.
27/09/2011 5:05 pm
Cookies anyone?
Yew need a bigger bed...or, fewer cats. I am now counting the months to Medicare. Just a little trivia question: There was another cookie lady, lest we forget, although she was no match for your cookie delivery methods. Remember who that was? C W Stoll had a name for her, "Miss Friendly Cookies".
27/09/2011 5:22 pm
Did Mary Bill bring cookies???
27/09/2011 5:25 pm
The chocolate chips made the small chamber at lock 15 bearable! Happy B Day!
28/09/2011 3:27 pm
Miss Friendly Cookies
"Miss Friendly Cookies" was Pat Sullivan who delivered when the DQ was in Cincinnati. Crew motto: Never turn down a cookie, or a chance to eat, sleep, or go to town.
28/09/2011 7:12 pm
I b'lieve I'll second that!