Somewhere in my basement (I hope), separated from my other photos and slides, are two that I took while riding the mv. Valvoline in 1988. One was taken out on the tow as we passed under Huntington's East End bridge one morning shortly after sunrise. You see the front of the boat, some barges, the cables of the bridge and, I think, the sun, too. It was a glorious photo.
The second photo is of three guys mopping (souging) the deck between the smokestacks. The photo was taken from pilothouse level.
Somehow, someday, I want to ride a boat again -- a working towboat pushing loaded coal barges. I want to get shoot deckhands as they work the wires and as they souge. I want to get a silhouette photo of a pilot as he guides his tow through locks. I want to get nighttime shots of men working out on the barges. And I want to get a shot from the barges looking back at the boat as it goes under a bridge.
Preferably, that would be a distinctive bridge such as the old suspension bridge at Maysville KY, the U.S. Grant Bridge at Portsmouth OH, Huntington's East End bridge or the Blennerhassett Bridge below Parkersburg WV. Or, any of the old railroad bridges between Wheeling and Pittsburgh. It's been almost 20 years since I was up that way, but I remember many of those bridges, and seeing them from the river with a boat in the foreground would be terrific, eh?
So as I enjoy that fantasy, I'll settle for photos like this one.
This was taken at Henderson WV, near the CSX railroad bridge that crosses the Kanawha River to Point Pleasant. The boat is the Buckeye State of AEP.
Hmm. Maybe I need to list my fantasy photos, or places along the river I really want to add to my bucket list. Who knows what doors would open.
1 comment:
True story, here.
In 1964 I was 18 yrs old. My oldest brother worked for Ashland Oil in the retail marketing division. He had started on the Ashland boats in WWII when he was 16 (he lied about his age and they were short men because of the war and didn't check that closely). By then he was fairly high up in management. My other brother also worked for Ashland having just started a few years back thanks to our oldest brother.
I wanted a job with Ashland, also. So he found me one on the boats. I only had to wait until April of '65 to start. It was December of '64. I got tired of waiting and joined the Air Force in Feb '65 and did 21 years before retiring.
Now, whenever I'm driving or riding our bikes along the river and see a tow I just about always do a, "What if?" :-)
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