Meandering Marine Musical Memories...

Herrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrre's Johnny!

Don't know Johnny Powers, but here is John Ramon in 1978 in the Texas Lounge.

Thanks, Judy!
-Jim Herron

This surely is one terrific thread - thanks a plenty, Judy !!!

I enjoyed giving tours of the steamboats. However, now that I learn that the visitors' entrance fees paid for that loud and obnoxious TV in the Crew Mess, I regret my guilt in the affair and apologize to my fellow crewmembers. I would like to see that TV removed from the Crew Mess so that the crew can eat in peace, enjoying conversation again. I pray that the new company is hiring crew with a level of maturity that exceeds the slum mentality from 2006.

Was that late-night stop in Muscatine in October in 1978? I remember stopping in some town in Iowa in October of 1978. I was a Deckhand on the DQ. The boat had some problem, forcing us to make an unscheduled stop. The local firefighters were very helpful in hooking up our water hoses to supply us with drinking water. That was the only occasion where the firefighters or anyone showed so much enthusiasm for a visit by the DQ by taking the hoses out of our hands; I was thankful. By next morning, there was a line of visitors along the length of the boat and continued toward town. As I search my memory back 28 years, I decked on both steamboats in 1978; it could have been the the DQ or the MQ. Help!

Yes, it was in October of '78, but we remained at Muscatine only long enough to take on water. As I recall, Mate Bob Reynolds and I "knocked off" a can of Judy's cookies down on the bow -- might have been the can designated for the purser's office!!!! Sorry Ted! After we departed upriver, we ascended to the pilothouse and enjoyed more cookies, with good hot coffee, as we steamed up the Mississippi that chilly autumn night!

No apology necessary Keith. I was guilty of the same thing once in the Purser’s Office. I felt guilty at the time, and still do, but just a little bit. But I did not stop eating. When you are hungry for a home baked cookie, you are hungry for a home baked cookie!

Thanks Ted! Confession is good for the soul and now, nearly three decades after the fact, we finally have disclosed our dark secrets! Those cookies were so GOOD that Bob and I just couldn't help it! And we were thin youngsters in those days and could stand it!

One of the WONDERFUL things, and there were MANY, about life on the DELTA QUEEN in the good old days, is that there were NO blaring televisions and NO cell phones loudly ringing with obnoxious people yelling on them. It truly was a delightfully peaceful existence and I loved every minute of it!

Thanks to Pete Sisak, we now have a picture of the missing calliopist, Col. Vic Tooker. Pete took this shot on one of his 1979 DQ trips.

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Second Manual on Calliope

The pictures of the second manual on the calliope make it look like a small organ, which in a way it is.

It seems we have discussed the purpose of the second manual on some calliopes before on the old board. It seems to my memory that it was used for playing some tuned percussions, such as a tuned set of bells or tuned bars and that it was next to impossible to keep the whistles in tune with them. I can see this being the case using steam to blow the whistles. This topic bears repeating for benefit of our newer members.

[QUOTE=Judy Patsch;3197]...and three more calliope players on the DQ. As you can see, we had several capable and willing players, and there weren't any union restrictions as to who was allowed to play the calliope.

The second keyboard was for the uniphon. long since removed.

The word "uniphon" is not showing up in a search. Is it that tuned percussion instrument I mentioned earlier?

Judy Patsch;4415 wrote: The second keyboard was for the uniphon. long since removed.

Richard, try the spelling "unafon". Don't know if it's right or not, but that's how they would spell it in the "Calliope" newsletters the company used to send out in the 1970's.

The word "Unafon" still doesn't return anything on a search. My main question is if it is the tuned percussion instrument that I believe it is.

Bob Reynolds;4418 wrote: Richard, try the spelling "unafon". Don't know if it's right or not, but that's how they would spell it in the "Calliope" newsletters the company used to send out in the 1970's.

I have answered my own question through a websearch. I believe you might find this interesting.
http://mmd.foxtail.com/Archives/Digests/199803/1998.03.18.12.html

QUOTE=Richard Weisenberger;4430]The word "Unafon" still doesn't return anything on a search. My main question is if it is the tuned percussion instrument that I believe it is.

Try UNIPHONE and you'll find it.

I actually found it in a websearch for "unaphon". They were made by Deagan. See my last post.

Keith Norrington;4435 wrote: Try UNIPHONE and you'll find it.

Whoever made them, I'm glad they are GONE from the DQ! I thought them too circus like and "degrading" to her ladyship!