It’s a bad day when the cook can’t feed ya
I thought of the song and this day coming about a week ago...and the lyric line “The witch of November comes stealing”.
I remember when the news broke on local television about the disaster. South Bend-Elkhart is a couple hours away from the lake, but we had updates about it.
That song about it came out when I was freshman in college. I came to really hate that song.
IIRC, the radar operator at Whitefish Bay said the Edmund Fitz’s blip looked normal on one sweep, and on the next sweep ten seconds later it was gone.
Everytime that song is on the radio I stop to listen and think of those lost that day. I find it to be a haunting song, it’s a eulogy to those men. Being from Wisconsin probably makes me care more than some might. Maybe they play it on radio here more than other states.
That date also happens to be my grandfather’s birthday, and the date that a hurricane low tore down a building on my farm about 15 years ago. The low pressure system that plagued us for over 24 hours caused sustained winds near 60mph or more.
We are used to gust fronts and tornadoes that cause quick damage. The sustained hurricane low pressure system was devastating since the wind just continued to blow. It was tearing the gutters off my house, in addition to the destruction it caused to one of our buildings. Seems like the wind took 48 hours to calm down to normal levels. The weathermen at that time referenced the Edmund Fitzgerald and said how similar the low pressures were for both weather events and they occurred on the same date.
Tell J, for his map..
So tragic and brought to life by the great Gordon Lightfoot song........very sad.....
The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. Few songs paint such a vivid picture in the mind and take you there emotionally. Haunting, indeed.
The day before she went down I was hitch-hiking from the Upper Peninsula south to Detroit. The two days before had been beautiful, sunny, and unseasonably warm. I was backpacking and camped in a tent near a small lake Friday and Saturday. Sunday morning the clouds moved in and it started to blow and spit rain. I caught a ride and crossed the Mackinaw Bridge about 1400 and it was swaying a little. Two hours later the bridge was closed because it was swaying A LOT. As I traveled south the rains came. I arrived in Detroit about 2000 and called my Dad from a pay phone to come and get me. By then it was storming pretty good. The next morning came the news that the Edmond Fitzgerald was missing. Everyone know the rest.
May God have mercy on the souls of the poor sailors who lost their lives that day.