I lived about a quarter mile from Lake Michigan when I heard about the Edmund Fitzgerald. I was nine years old and just recently made the transition from snap tight models to models that needed glue and paint.
I had completed about six or seven models in 1975. Half of them were boats of some kind. A couple battleships from WWII and a Great Lakes Freight Ship. It was a grain boat that looked similar to “The Pride of the American Side.”
WGN was on in the kitchen reporting the news of the 29 members that lost their lives. The next day I walked over to the beach near our house with my grain freighter in a paper bag from Jewels.
It was the middle of the week and school was closed for Veterans Day. It was cold and overcast in Chicago and the gray water of Lake Michigan was throwing strong waves along the beach.
I imagined that I would be a hero if any of the crew washed up on my beach. I could give them my model ship in front of Mayor Daley and our Alderman.
I didn’t take it into consideration that the “Mighty Fitz” sank in frigid waters 360 miles away from Chicago. I just remember hearing the newsman on WGN say the ship sank about 17 miles from shore.
A lifeboat could float on shore at the tip of Lake Michigan on Veterans Day in 1975… easily
No sign of any lifeboats, so I took my model boat out of the Jewels bag and placed it on top of the cold waves. It turned on its side immediately and disappeared under the break. I said a couple of “Our Fathers” and walked back into the neighborhood.
I went into the diner and had a cheeseburger and a pop. A couple kids from my class were having lunch as well. They told me that a bunch of kids were going over to the football field later to play “Smear the Queer.”
I hurried home to get my football stuff and tell my Ma that I didn’t rescue any of the seamen that perished from the Edmund Fitzgerald. I can remember how hopeful she pretended to be when I told her of my quest.
Before I left for the football field, she told me how proud she was that I took the time to search for those men and pray for them.
I met up with the kids from school. We sang the National Anthem in honor of Armistice Day and we began kicking the crap out of each other.
We played until it starting getting dark. When we were walking home, we talked about the ship that sank on Lake Superior. I didn’t tell my buddies about my morning tribute and how I sank a model ship at the beach. They would have busted my balls for wasting a model.
Forty-nine years have passed since that day off in forth grade. A few years later, the remaining models that I still collected met their fate. An older kid gave me a pack of firecrackers and I blew up my tanks, battleships and fighter planes.
The markets are open tomorrow and I have to go to work. It would have been nice to stroll along the Lakefront, go to the diner for a burger and then get together with a bunch of fifty year old guys and play “Smear the Queer.”
Well, maybe we better call it something else. Maybe we skip the football all together. The only thing we would be calling is an ambulance.
I popped a smile on the sun this morning. Enjoy this beautiful November Sunday.
Don’t forget to listen to Gordon Lightfoot today
