The Edmund Fitzgerald: A True Story about Mortality and Mother Nature.

Lake Michigan, on a cold November morning.

I once had a friend from another country who looked upon Lake Michigan, and said "That's not a Lake, it's a Sea!". 

Of course, they were right! People of the Great Lakes region already know that. Everyone from Minnesota to Montreal knows that. 

We love our fresh-water Seas, and most of the time, those Seas love us back. 

From beaches on the metropolitan skylines of Toronto and Chicago, to fishing off of Little Bailey's Harbor on the finger-tip of Wisconsin, the Lakes are a gift from Mother Nature to us. 

From fishing, casual boating, swimming, and importantly transportation, the Lakes bring us not only joy, but wealth. The Midwestern United States, and its neighbors in Canada, would not have been able to build the great industrial society we live in today if it were not for the Lakes. Freighters from all corners of the Midwest, forged by the best ship-builders, and manned by the toughest of men and women, moved taconite (commonly known as iron ore), grains, and other raw materials across the Lakes commercially. And they still do this for us today. Regardless of where you live in the world, it's very possible that you've eaten bread sourced from grain that once traveled on a Great Lakes freighter, or used a tool or item made with steel forged from the taconite that those freighters shipped. 

Taconite documented with other samples of materials shipped on The Great Lakes

Even, all-the-way in Hamburg, Germany, they have an exhibit commemorating the famous ships and crews of the Great Lakes at the International Maritime Museum.  

Models of Great Lakes ships in Hamburg

But, no matter how much ingenuity and technology we humble humans invest into our endeavors, Mother Nature reminds us that it can all be gone in an instant. In Ohio, we have tornadoes that can rip though a small town in seconds. Along the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys, rivers can flood and destroy entire communities. In California, an earthquake can hit at any time and create unimaginable terror an chaos.      

And on a windy November evening in 1975, a similar natural disaster struck the SS Edmund Fitzgerald as it was on a routine journey to move taconite from from a supplier in Superior, Wisconsin to Detroit.

In a cold windstorm, the SS Edmund Fitzgerald sank in heavy waves along with all 29 men on her crew. 

The story was big at the time. In 1975, we had modern Radar, and ways to predict weather. Not only that, no one expected for anything terrible to happen to such a big vessel on such a small fresh-water Lake.

Even, the Edmund Fitzgerald itself was a bit of a local celebrity. It was the largest ship on the Great Lakes when it launched, and people would bring their kids to the ports of Duluth and Superior just to see giant ships like her enter and exist. 

The late Captain of the Fitzgerald, Ernest M. McSorley, was known for delighting the small crowds by honking the ship's horn, and waving a friendly "Ahoy!" to everyone who stopped to watch the great ship pull into port. 

There's a famous song about what happened after that Gargantuan, modern, metal-hauling ship set sail for the last time. Many of us remember the lyrics by heart... 

But, Mother Nature and the Great Lakes humbled all of our ingenuity and technology. 

The winds of Lake Superior created waves strong enough to flood and sink that ship. As Gordon Lightfoot sang in his famous song, "The Gales of November Came Early." And the The Edmund Fitzgerald, and her 29-man crew were doomed. 

I was not alive to remember the actual ship's sinking. 

I was born more than a decade later. But, even I knew about that horrible disaster. To this day, it lives on in memory and song. 

To me, the story of the Edmond Fitzgerald is a story about both the labor and the hard-work that workers do, and the risks they take each day when they go to work. 

It is also a story about the fury of Mother Nature. 

The 29 sailors on that ship may not have known it, but they risked life and limb everyday, for nothing but a humble wage... just enough to feed the family, and keep a house over their head. If they were feeling sick or depressed, they didn't call-off work, they boarded the ship just the same. Because, at that time, that was what was expected of them. 

But, no one expected them to drown in the freezing ice-cold seas of Lake Superior. No one expected that Wives, Sons, and Daughters would have to hear from the US Coast Guard that their loved-one is not only, not coming home, but has perished in a terrible storm. 

That portion of the story speaks of not only the sailors, but also the truck drivers, machine workers, warehouse workers and constructions workers, etc. who on every continent, and take risks every day to bring home a tiny, rice-grain, fraction, of what billionaires hoard for themselves every minute. At any point, at anytime, a work accident can happen, and a life could be erased from this earth- at no fault of the worker. 

One day you're here, the next day you're gone.  

The story of Mother Nature is much simpler. AT BEST, we humble humans can prepare for or avoid Mother Nature. But we cannot defeat her. 

When the winds blow, and the rivers rise, it's best to just get out of her way. We have a beautiful planet, with fresh water-lakes, seas trees, and animals... but it's important to realize that a hurricane, tornado, earthquake or cold November storm is always on the horizon. We need educated, trained, professionals to keep us safe. And, to help navigate us safely into port. But even the most experienced navigator knows, Mother Nature can strike at any time.   

Captain Paul Berger and Relief Captain Vince Hagman command a ship similar to the Edmond Fitzgerald (Photo credit to GreatLakesNow.org).

Around this time of year, I listen to Gordon Lightfoot's famous song about the Edmond Fitzgerald. And, it's both beautiful and sad. 

It's sometimes important to reflect on sad things. 

I suppose it's why I hum Gordon Lightfoot's "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" at this time of year. 

It's not just a tragedy, but a true story about 29 talented, hard-working men, that made an honest day's wage, and also made little kids happy when they sounded their great ship's horn in little Lake towns like Cleveland, Conneaut, and Erie.

There is not one single memorial or fund to honor the SS Endumd Fitzgerald and her crew. But if you're moved enough to look into the story, and learn about the ship and it's crew, visit WashburnHeritage.org.    

A full list of the crew can be found here.               

Street Music: Let them play!

Chicago is a city known for its music, Jazz, Blues, the Lyric Opera and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. And, every now and then, if you're visiting Chicago or commuting to work you get a little taste of that musical tradition. I can recall a xylophone player on the corner Randolph and Michigan Avenues that you could hear on the 11th floor balcony of the Prudential Center building, a block away -the perfect serenade for the end of a hard week in a cubicle typing out numbers. There was also a great band of retirees who played nearby. These guys could play everything from Glenn Miller to Kenny Loggins! (Just name a song, and they'll play it!). And, of course there are the Bucket Boys who spice any Chicago evening up with their loud, but lively, drumming.

A talented string duet in Mexico City

I had long thought that Chicago was the home of street music, but after a short trip to Mexico City, I learned Chicago may be falling behind in that category. Mexico City has amazing musicians everywhere you could look! It wasn't simply one busy corner, or one busy subway stop, it was all up-and-down every street! 

When you think of Mexico, you might think of Mariachi or Mexican Folk Music, and there was a lot of that; but, the breadth of musical talent in Mexico was astounding. I heard American Jazz, ragtime Jazz, Baroque Classical and John Philip Sousa marches in one walk down Calle Fancisco Madero. Of course, I stopped to watch, and gave the performers some Pesos for their effort, but no one seemed to care about the money. They did it for the love of music, and the love of performing. It made my trip so much more wonderful! 

One of the coolest things Mexico City had was amateur marching bands; groups of young adults who came in to town on the weekends and made little parades. In the morning they were tuning their instruments, and marching. In the afternoon, they were hanging out by the food vendors, chilling and socializing with their band-mates. Sounds like a fun time to me!   

But that said, Chicago, even with it's beautiful musical tradition, kind of disappointed me after I got back from Mexico. We do have awesome music clubs, The Green Mill, Kingston Mines, Buddy Guy's and the whole House scene to name a few. However, it's rare on the normal workday to hear such good music on the street while you're walking to work. Of course, I've mentioned that we do have some great outdoor street musicians, but the cacophony of tunes in Chicago pales in comparison to those of Mexico, and other countries around the world. Chicagoans: We've got a lot of catching up to do!

 

Hinech Yafa, "Light in Babylon", Street Performance in Istanbul. Youtube Video, Five Minutes and Ten Seconds.

The Joys of Music Continued: One of the Orginal Coding Systems

As I continue to write and practice on my trumpet, I wanted to provide yet another "random thought." I had learned to read music as a teen in the wonderful Theodore Roosevelt marching band and symphony, but I didn't think about it much -I simply learned and played... and then all the band members got to hang-out and have a fun time together. 

Image of New York sheet music makers. 

But, as an adult, I now realize that music is a bit like computer code! And it was invented and produced centuries ago. Have you heard of Bach, Mozart?... Those guys put their music on paper, so we, in the Twenty-First century could still hear it, and it could still be played by expert musicians. 

As I wrote in a previous post, I recently went to a workshop at Google Cloud to play around with their codes and programing. Also, I took a linguistics course in grad school at DePaul. And, now, I'm re-learning to read sheet music. All of these forms of communication are meant to assist us humans in making something happen: maybe it's playing a fun song on your instrument, perhaps it's speaking to a lovely Italian woman you just met, maybe it's something as simple as programing your software system to know there is going be an outage today at 5 PM sharp, and you better log-out and save your work before then!

Glen Miller's, "In the Mood".

But, either way, music is like code. It's a language we read and understand to make cool, and fun, music! In fact, before most people even knew what a computer was, there was a big "coding" industry in New York City, and likely other cities across the United States. The most famous sellers of sheet music were in Manhattan, in a neighborhood called "Tin-Pan Alley." People waited in lines to get sheet music. With the middle-class growing, and the ability for normal (non-millionaires) to buy instruments, such as violins, trumpets, pianos, etc... Everyone needed sheet music to play from. Everyone wanted fun music!

This is something fun, and helpful, that all Americans took part in. Whites, Blacks, Native Americans, and everyone else took part in making the US a very musical place! And, they basically memorized code, because sheet music is basically code for a song. And other countries, outside of the US, were making music themselves! 

I'll end by saying on quick anecdote... I signed-up a talented young woman for medical school at the Pritzker School of Medicine at the University of Chicago. This is one of the best-of-the-best institutions in the world for science and medicine. Her undergraduate degree was in music... and, I know she went on to the best doctor and scientist! And knowing music helped ;)   

The Joys of Music

Once upon a time, in a galaxy far, far away, I was a trumpeter. My parents paid for a very nice second-hand b-flat trumpet and music lessons. These private lessons were supported by free music instruction, and even band-camp by the wonderful school district in Kent, Ohio. In the Fall, we were in the "Rough Rider" marching band of Kent Roosevelt High School, and in the Winter we were in the beautifully named "Wind Symphony." 

My chromatic scale for the b-flat trumpet

I can't write any further without giving a few thank-yous to my elementary school music teacher, and band directors who spent their days patiently working with me, and a few other hooligans from the neighborhood, as I blasted my out-of-tune horn loudly. I hope they're enjoying a quiet retirement, and have seen an ear doctor. I must have done a lot of hearing damage! 

However, recently, I decided to pick-up the art of music again. I truly enjoy playing my trumpet, and decided to get a new one for myself. I ordered a silver lacquer b-flat trumpet from Yamaha; it was shipped from Busan, Korea of all places! But it was a great purchase for a truly perfect musical instrument. It came in perfect condition, both the valves and slide were oiled and greased when I pulled it out of the case. I barely had to tune it, before playing it. 

My Yamaha Trumpet

The problem was that I had pretty much completely forgot the music and fingerings. I could blow a C-natural or a B-flat note, but I don't remember even my basic scales form high school. I honestly can't believe I used to march around a football field and play songs like "Come Sail Away" by Styx from memory, with no music in front of me. What an achievement!        

A little tuner!

Anyway, I'm re-learning the trumpet. I slowly forgot the fingerings and music writing over-time, but I have confidence that I'll re-gain that knowledge. I've even re-memorized the Chromatic scale! And, what's really brilliant is the availability of sheet music and helpful apps on the Internet to assist novice musicians, like myself. I even got a beautiful little tuner on Amazon to make sure my sound is always perfect. 

Maybe, one day, I'll be in a Mariachi or a Mexican (or Tex-Mex) folk music band! I'd love to learn music from Glenn Miller (and his orchestra), and perhaps, I might get a BIG SMOOCH on the cheek form a lovely French woman! Ladies love the musicians ;)

But, of course, I'm kidding, I have a lot a practice to do before I can play in front of a crowd. When I hear professional, classical and jazz trumpeters, I'm stuck in awe of just how good they really are at the music, and just how much I'd need to do to master this craft of music.