Jerry D, Thank you for the beautiful memories of life between the rivers in Pike Co. I wondered why they called Illinois "the PRAIRIE State," growing up there. I miss mushroom hunting in the spring, finding geodes in the creek beds & arrowheads in the river bottom fields, and looking over the world from the top of the river bluffs. My father, Robert Chappell, once swam across the Mississippi and back, without resting, & (nearly exhausted) got caught in a whirlpool and almost didn't make it back, while the family watched. Grandma Myrtle (Ervin) Chappell fainted before the uncles got him on shore. Does anyone in Pike remember the Ervin's? Will share great photos, not sure who they are. Jan Chappell Tuttle, OK (Tornado Alley) In a message dated 02/16/2000 4:49:27 AM Central Standard Time, ILPIKE-D-request@rootsweb.com writes: > I got caught in Louisiana, MO for a week by the flood in '72/3. There was > no where to cross the river from St Louis to Rock Island, and most of the > creeks to the river were flooding out bridges, too. In those days part of > 3rd Street in Louisiana seemed to flood every year. > An uncle and a brother spent a month on the levee in '93, along with A LOT > of other people, fighting that flood. > GGreat Grandpa Davis left the Mississippi River bottoms for the hills in the > early 1900s, with his team pulling the wagon through flood waters. Great > Grandpa Tuttle did the same thing in the Illinois River bottoms in the > 1920s. GGGUncle Ap Davis died of pneumonia after taking a sick man across > the river in his boat one cold wet rainy night, so that the man could see > the doctor. This was back when a bridge was nothing but a fantasy in the > heads of some crazy people. > To me floods on the Mississippi are like hurricanes in Florida and snow > avalanches in Colorado, a fact of life. Every once in awhile God and Mother > Nature show who is in charge. If you want to enjoy the great benefits of > living in these great places a person has to live with those facts of life. > > The fun and the peace, that Mark Twain put into true words, of living near > the river is well worth it. > > Just some thoughts from a home sick river rat far from the river. > > Jerry D >