Greetings all and a continuous wish for
health and prosperity to you and yours. Hope this stat finds your
day going well and that tomorrow will be even better. Have some
"Inside" time as the weather outside is not that great. It is even
trying to snow with a snowflake or two being spotted. Now, this
gives me some "Keyboard" time. Will get the old fingers moving and
in tune with the old brain and try to type out something that makes
sense. Just hope that it will be worth reading and that there will
be a few that will stay tuned until the end. Hope to give each
reader a chance to go back in time to a more tranquil and peaceful
time, namely the late thirties. I have not researched any of this
material and all of it is just what I recall being told. Will get a
few names and dates incorrect and feel free to come on back at me to
inform me of such. I will probably leave out some pertinent parts
and maybe even a name of two. Have tolerance with me here and
correct me if you so desire.
Please remember that pictures
that were taken back in the thirties, for the most part, were not
the best of quality. Also, be advised that any picture that I will
use will have to be scanned and converted to a digital image, thus
some quality will be lost in this process.
It does not look like
much, does it? The picture, above, is an old photograph, taken
almost seventy years ago. It was copied and then the copy was copied
and then I changed it to a digital image. Let me see if I can make
some sense of it. The black "Glob" in the middle is the old Rockport
Ferry. You can even see some water below the ferry. On the left is
the "Left Bank" of the Green River at Rockport and where US Hwy. 62
entered the ferry. You can pick out a man tying off the ferry so
that the cars can be offloaded. Well, where is the River? In the
background and on the right is the river. It is frozen over. Ice is
continually being broken, for a path, so that the ferry can still
run. Picture appears to have been taken from the Railroad Bridge.
Ah, now the situation may look a little better. More pictures to
follow with an explanation at I see it.
Would you
look at this? Notice the two black lines in the center of the
picture. That is tire marks from automobile tires that have left the
ferry and heading into Rockport and maybe on to Beaver Dam and
Louisville. Notice the I C Railroad Bridge on the left. The
photographer is probably on the Muhlenberg County side of the river,
either on the bank or on the river ice with the camera pointed
toward Rockport. Look to the left and toward the front of the ferry.
It looks like a black Ford and maybe a 1937 model. Yes, of all
colors, it appears to be black. Picture taken in 1939. To the right
and upriver is the Green River that is frozen over and I am thinking
to a depth of some seventeen inches or more.
Maybe it's true that life begins at fifty.
But
everything else starts to
wear out, fall out, or spread
out.
More pictures to follow. I am thinking that all of the
pictures in this stat were taken in 1939. Again, trying to take a
picture, even now days, of a subject with a white background is a
difficult manner. The "White" tends to fool the camera lens and the
results, for an amateur photographer, are not the best of quality.
My hat is off the person/persons that took these
pictures.......
Again, this picture would be difficult
to make out unless you had some prior experience. Now, with your
experience, I am sure that you see a ferry just to the right of
center. The object just upriver from the ferry may be a "Spare"
ferry boat. I am just guessing, but it was not unheard of for the
"Ferry Operator" to have a spare. The machinery, in those days, was
not very reliable and required lots of maintenance. The Ferry
Operator seems to be in the process of offloading his
cargo to the Muhlenberg County side of the Green River. Again,
notice the black lines in the snow where traffic, and maybe with the
help of the ferryman, have a path through the snow. Now, how would
you like to drive a 1937 Ford down that hill and toward the
river when the ferry was on the opposite side of the river? Picture
was probably taken from the railroad bridge and view is looking at
the "Old Ferry Road" on the Muhlenberg side of the river.
One
evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a
battle
that goes on inside people. He said, "My son, the battle
is
between two wolves inside us all.
One is Evil. It is
anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed,
arrogance,
self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies,
false
pride, superiority, and ego.
The other is Good. It
is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility,
kindness,
benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion
and
faith."
The grandson thought about it for a minute and
then asked his
grandfather: "Which wolf
wins?"
The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you
feed."
Coming if for a landing! With the old
ferry loaded, it appears to be coming in for a landing and for
offloading. I would not venture to try to name the two men on the
front of the ferry. Try if you like! There seems to be a third man
behind the man on the left. He may be the ferry operator. At one
time Chester Williams owned and operated the ferry. My grandfather
worked on the ferry during the winter of 1939 and one of the men may
be him. One may be Chester Williams. Others also worked for the
ferry. I just can't put a name with either.
It appears that Green River is completely
frozen over at this point and the ferry does not have a path to
operate. The "Trail", up the hill, and on US Hwy. 62 seems to
be open on the Rockport side for automobile traffic. Where is the
ferry? I would venture to say that the ferry is on the
Muhlenberg County side and maybe has paused for a "Picture Taking"
session. Suspect that a path still exists for the ferry operation.
It may just be hid due to the position of the camera operator. Would
you care to try and place a name on the person standing on the river
ice? I have no idea.
Same
time frame as the previous picture. Note the puddle of water on the
left. That is why I think that a path still exist for the ferry.
This picture seems to be of a man, other than the one in
the above picture. I think the previous cameraman is now the
subject. Name this person? If I had to guess, I would have said H.
T. Kennedy, but the picture was probably taken in 1939 and I don't
think that H. T. would have been that old. I just don't have another
guess.
If you have reached this point, I would like to thank
you for looking. Also want to thank Hilma for supplying the
pictures. Most of us have, at one time of the other, heard
that the Green River did freeze over and people could walk from the
Ohio County side to the Muhlenberg County side. From the looks
of these pictures, that was a possibility. Not only
that, a person could probably have walked from Rochester to
Livermore on the same river. I have walked and skated on ice,
on the backwaters of the river, but have never seen an ice covering
of the river. I have also fallen through the ice into chest
deep water. Once, I tried to cover up the mishap by going to
my grandmothers and drying out, all to no avail. When the
water of the Old Green gets into your clothes, you and your clothes
have been marked. The person that does the laundry will
instantly know that you have been in the water-winter or
summer. You have been caught. It is not nice to fool
Mother Nature and if you try to fool your mother, you will most
assuredly be caught.
See
you.......
jrd
|