EVERLASTING "LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI"

Uncle Helmer and Aunt Clara had done all the threshing they wanted for awhile. They were loaded with cash from ten years of "bumpers" and decided to head south to see the relatives and do some sight seeing down the Missouri to Cora Island (Clara's aunts namesake) to see it mix in with the great Mississippi.

They left Eden at sunrise and headed due east to pick up old highway 81 to Watertown, South Dakota. They stopped to stock up on store bought provisions for the long trip due south.

They took highway 18 to 20 as they had planned, but the Model "A" kept heating up so bad they were not sure they would ever make it to Confluence State Park for the big family sleep over.

They made a pay phone call ahead to the relatives to warn them they might be late and to ask them to warm up the Hudson dealer in St. Louis with a call. They had a trade in and cash money to purchase a brand new honey colored lacquer coated 2 door coupe.

The Hudson Hornet had the largest most powerful in line six cylinder engine on the planet. It was 308 cubic inches of pure horse power.
It could accelerate to speeds over 100 miles an hour! Of course you wouldn't want to do such a thing since the speedometer was only marked to 90 mph and if you pegged the needle it would twist up the speedometer cable. From then on you would never know for sure your true speed when approaching the speed traps of Louisiana Parrish's.

Any family would be proud to have members that could pony up the $3000.00 for an "auto-mobile" and still have enough left over for a trip all the way down the "Ole Mississip" to the Gulf of Mexico.

Leaving the company of loving relatives Helmer rested his foot against the transmission hump just right into the cut pile of the carpeted floor boards at the foot feed of the new Hornet. He powered the new coupe south down the famous highway 61 where they both made a special effort to spot the bleachers folks had "set out in the sun" to seat the crowds awaiting Satan and the desolation that would follow his appearance.

The Mississippi runs slowly through nearly level farmland for hundreds of miles south. The Hudson with it's low slung center of gravity navigated the meandering turns of the state highway following the river with ease.
They would be at their destination in no time at all. Helmer could never have dreamed that one day he would be driving a machine the likes of this one.

Clara remembered a book she had read in her youth written by a famous river boat pilot. He described how really dark, dark can be, especially at night in and around the river in these parts.
He claimed it was "as dark as the inside of a cow."

Clara stared out the tinted side windows and watched the terns swoop by and the sun glint through the live oak branches. The wind breezed thru the side vent of the new Hudson thru her hair and past her consciousness.
She thought the herd of cows her Aunt and Uncle had just outside of Sisseton. They are called Banded Holsteins. They have dark black shoulders and black haunches to the rear but their midriffs are as white as new fallen snow. She yawned and nearly drifted off to sleep in the warm of the sun as she wondered, in and out, of dreams, if those cows were quite as dark inside.

Tomorrow they would be at their destination at the great delta of the Mississippi where it mixes up with the water of all the worlds oceans.



South of New Orleans there is a county park where you can sleep over in your car and cook outside in the morning while you wait your turn for the swamp tour offered there. Helmer slept on the front bench seat curled up under the afghan his mother had knitted him. Clara folded the armrest up into the backrest and slept, warm as toast, under the quilt she had bought from the friendship club over at the Methodist Church outside of Peever, near Hartford Beach on Big Stone Lake.

Down at the wharf Captain Sid had just moored his boat the "Karma Hardy" The deck hands were already loading tourists up for the excursion. While you waited, you could read up on the attraction in promotional materials, set out here and there on the dock. The brochure contained a little picture of a note hand scratched on to a scrap of paper that read "Captain Sid, the value of the time I have spent on Karma and the waters of the Great Mississippi is unmeasurable."------Samuel Langhorne Clemens.

The South Dakota couple finally boarded Captain Sid's motor boat and noticed right away brass fittings mounting a little piece of plate glass over a faded scrap of paper with the supposed scribbles of Mark Twain.
It was positioned next to a placard with mention of all the necessary license, experience, and insurance coverage the Captain carried to conduct this transcendental tour of the Mississippi swamps.

Captain Sid fired up the "one lunger" of the Karma Hardy and they set off into the bayou. It was a perfect morning. Not too hot or humid for the tour day in Gods green paradise.

The bayou swamp is not really dirty and "swampy' as you might think. The water is not murky, it is just stained brown from the tannins that leech out from the Cypress trees growing there. The bayou has a slight current that runs under a blanket of the loveliest little green flora that blooms the tiniest beautiful little blossoms daily.

The swamp had a vast population of birds and animals, beaver and black bear and blue heron, bitterns, white egrets, muskrats, box and snapping turtles and even bearcats too, but everyone was eager to see the terrifying gaze of man eating alligators!

Captain Sid handed out "marsh melons" to the children on the upper sun deck to throw in the direction of alligators as they presented themselves. The captain claimed that it is the color white that attracts them and not the sweet taste of the sugary campfire treats. No one knows for sure why white does the trick but they jumped clear out of the water for them. The captain disengaged the one lunger on several occasions so he could demonstrate the dangerous tenacity and fury of alligators feeding.

Captain Sid did not seem like someone who had spent a great deal of time in the library or the university at study of the famous works of literature, science, art, philosophy and comparative religion. From his accent and general demeanor one would guess he might very well not even seen much TV or any manner of education. He might have been, in fact, an illiterate Creole or Cajun hermit!"

When he spouted off on something however, you did get the notion that he was a keen observer of nature and had an opinion on just about everything as it related to the great outdoors on the Mississippi and everything else worth knowing in the universe.

The Karma Hardy jugged round another corner of the river and a "copperhead" fell from a tree limb to the water below. Just as quick as I am telling this part of the story the snake was pulled under by an unseen chilling monster of some kind. Everyone figured it was an alligator, for sure. Captain Sid, did you see that, they questioned?
"Modur Natur an da serpent are mor---tal enemies and da serpent, he kno dat!" replied the Captain. "Da snake man, he come into da homes good and send bad seed and eats eggs an what have ya."

Well, that was stirring and thought provoking, even for seasoned travelers like Uncle Helmer and Aunt Clara. They sat back in their hard backed plywood seats and watched the silk spiders weave another web for the day and listened to the drone of the one cylinder diesel motor of the Karma Hardy and pondered just how one does "karma hardy?"

The little craft full of tourists plied the waters back and forth, in and out, of dead end coves, exploring all manner of Gods creation.

A young women suddenly cried out, "my God" Captain Sid, "what is that in the water." Helmer peered out to see the biggest carp he had even seen! This one even bigger than anything up at Lake Travis or anywhere else for that matter. The great fish, for some unknown reason, had turned "belly up"dead. Captain Sid pulled the launch out of gear and coasted up on the motionless fish.

"Well it nutin but a deid fish! Don't you worry now Shar, it won't be deid long"---------- "gators'll get him"

Just then Helmer looked back hard at the placard with The captain's credentials.

Captain Sidney Hartha fleet commander Belle Chase Naval Reserve retired
Doctorate of Letters Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing
Proffesor Hartha University of Florida
National Merit Scholar Environmental Law
Merchant Marine 4oo ton master
Captain and owner of the pleasure craft "Karma Hardy"

and chief cook and bottle washer.

The great fish would not be dead for long!

He would soon be alive again!

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And By "HOT DOG TRAVELLER"

Be first Human for you are the splendid blossoms of Gods paradise.

Yet, the flower is fleeting in the whole of it all.