Topic starter
28/03/2009 5:56 am
Greetings From New Orleans ,
I would dare say that anyone that has either read , posted or both , on this web page , has certainly at one time , Had The River Call Their Name ! The only question that has yet to be answered , is did YOU answer ?
Smooth Sailing !
Ted Davisson
01/04/2009 4:54 pm
Capt. Ted,
I think John Hartford may have said it best during the shooting of the video "Banjo's Fiddles and Riverboats" when he said something to the affect that I couldn't wait to get off the boat for a couple weeks, and a couple weeks would go by and I couldn't wait to get back out on the river. He also commented that when he was away from the river it was a similar feeling to neglecting a Wife. It's a strange bound we share with the river. She can be our best friend one minute and your worst enemy the next, but the respect for her never wains.
01/04/2009 6:40 pm
Loudly!!!
When we would visit family in IN and cross the Ohio. I wondered who worked on "Those boats" with the barges. At age 9 I toured the D.Q. in Madison, IN and realized that while a "Special Breed", it was just people who worked on that boat and maybe someday I could. Time and adventures past and after much hasseling of the Cincinnati D.Q. office, I was hired to work on the D.Q. Calling answered but little did I realize that the conversation and education was just starting. I left the river in 1988 only to hear her screaming at me for the next 20 years.
The river for me is just like a woman, can't live with them, can't live without them. I have done many things in my life but I will always consider myself, first and foremost, a River Rat.
Currently trying to get back into the industry with little success. Maybe the H/R people don't understand, Once you have done it, once you have been there, your age don't mean a damn thing. If your breathing, your a River Rat and only truly fit or happy one place.
You still hear the calling, regardless of how long or short of time you spent out there. Regardless of how long you have tried to stay away.
Anyone who works out there and says different, most likely should find another way of life because their wasting theirs's and taking space for a job I would like to have back.
03/04/2009 6:17 pm
Rope Round My Neck
I can't say I actually heard the siren's call, but whenever I've left the river something always snapped my neck and jerked me back. I work on a boat for a living, and I then spend my free time on my own boat for pleasure.
Go figure. Wadda ya think?
Willie and Buster's Whirlwind Tour of the World - YWB 1041