The flooding along the Mississippi River, as devastating as it is,
brings back memories of conversations while fishing with my father
when I was a young boy.

My dad grew up along the Ohio river in southern Indiana during the
first quarter of the 20th century.

This was during the period when many of the levees had not yet been
built and yearly flooding was to be expected.

Dad had some interesting stories to tell about the big floods of 1927
& 1937.

During WWII, there was some rather extensive flooding in NE Ohio which
provided some unique fishing opportunities.

One of the many fishing tricks I learned during this period from my
dad was how to "gig" frogs using just a fly rod and a fly.

No muss, no fuss, no gigs, just lots of frogs.

Strange the things you remember from your youth.

Lew

"Lew Hodgett" wrote in message
b.com...
The flooding along the Mississippi River, as devastating as it is, brings
back memories of conversations while fishing with my father when I was a
young boy.

My dad grew up along the Ohio river in southern Indiana during the first
quarter of the 20th century.

This was during the period when many of the levees had not yet been built
and yearly flooding was to be expected.

Dad had some interesting stories to tell about the big floods of 1927 &
1937.

During WWII, there was some rather extensive flooding in NE Ohio which
provided some unique fishing opportunities.

One of the many fishing tricks I learned during this period from my dad
was how to "gig" frogs using just a fly rod and a fly.

No muss, no fuss, no gigs, just lots of frogs.

Strange the things you remember from your youth.

Lew




Whereabouts in Indiana. Spent some vacation time down around French Lick.


--
"I'm the man who broke the bank at Monte Carlo ..."

On 5/12/2011 4:24 AM, Lobby Dosser wrote:
"Lew Hodgett" wrote in message
b.com...
The flooding along the Mississippi River, as devastating as it is,
brings back memories of conversations while fishing with my father
when I was a young boy.

My dad grew up along the Ohio river in southern Indiana during the
first quarter of the 20th century.

This was during the period when many of the levees had not yet been
built and yearly flooding was to be expected.

Dad had some interesting stories to tell about the big floods of 1927
& 1937.

During WWII, there was some rather extensive flooding in NE Ohio which
provided some unique fishing opportunities.

One of the many fishing tricks I learned during this period from my
dad was how to "gig" frogs using just a fly rod and a fly.

No muss, no fuss, no gigs, just lots of frogs.

Strange the things you remember from your youth.

Lew




Whereabouts in Indiana. Spent some vacation time down around French Lick.




Same question but for NE Ohio. I grew up in the Warren/Howland area.

One of the many fishing tricks I learned during this period from my dad
was how to "gig" frogs using just a fly rod and a fly.

No muss, no fuss, no gigs, just lots of frogs.

We used to do that here in NJ too. ...Haven't taught my kids how to do that
yet though we did wrestle a huge snapping turtle together yesterday.

Check out the photo:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pi...&id=1206911267

Yes, that's my ugly face.

Regards,
Joe Agro, Jr.
(800) 871-5022
01.908.542.0244
Automatic / Pneumatic Drills: http://www.AutoDrill.com
Multiple Spindle Drills: http://www.Multi-Drill.com
Production Tapping: http://Production-Tapping-Equipment.com/
Flagship Site: http://www.Drill-HQ.com
VIDEOS: http://www.youtube.com/user/AutoDrill
TWITTER: http://twitter.com/AutoDrill
FACEBOOK: http://www.facebook.com/AutoDrill

V8013-R

On Wed, 11 May 2011 20:21:34 -0700, Lew Hodgett wrote:

My dad grew up along the Ohio river in southern Indiana during the first
quarter of the 20th century.

This was during the period when many of the levees had not yet been
built and yearly flooding was to be expected.

Dad had some interesting stories to tell about the big floods of 1927 &
1937.

I was born in 1937 and grew up in Louisville from 1940 on. Stories about
the '37 flood were heard frequently. My favorite was told by the local
druggist, Mr. Hardesty. He and his family were trapped in the second
floor of their home. The Red Cross came by in boats and distributed
supplies. They even included a bottle of bourbon - this was Kentucky
after all :-).
Mr. Hardesty thought that was mighty mice of them until he spotted the
price tag on the bourbon - it was from his store! They had confiscated
his entire stock. He did eventually get paid for most of it, but it took
several years.

On a less happy note, my father owned a weekly newspaper in Ironton Ohio,
also on the river. He had just bought new presses and had no insurance
on them yet. The flood ruined them and put him out of business. He
spent the rest of his working life as a linotype operator.

--
Intelligence is an experiment that failed - G. B. Shaw

On Thu, 12 May 2011 17:22:34 +0000 (UTC), Larry Blanchard
wrote:

On Wed, 11 May 2011 20:21:34 -0700, Lew Hodgett wrote:

My dad grew up along the Ohio river in southern Indiana during the first
quarter of the 20th century.

This was during the period when many of the levees had not yet been
built and yearly flooding was to be expected.

Dad had some interesting stories to tell about the big floods of 1927 &
1937.

I was born in 1937 and grew up in Louisville from 1940 on. Stories about
the '37 flood were heard frequently. My favorite was told by the local
druggist, Mr. Hardesty. He and his family were trapped in the second
floor of their home. The Red Cross came by in boats and distributed
supplies. They even included a bottle of bourbon - this was Kentucky
after all :-).
Mr. Hardesty thought that was mighty mice of them until he spotted the
price tag on the bourbon - it was from his store! They had confiscated
his entire stock. He did eventually get paid for most of it, but it took
several years.

Wow!


On a less happy note, my father owned a weekly newspaper in Ironton Ohio,
also on the river. He had just bought new presses and had no insurance
on them yet. The flood ruined them and put him out of business. He
spent the rest of his working life as a linotype operator.

That sucks.


Wouldn't it be cheaper to strip the river edges of homes and move them
out of harm's way, then put up wider, taller, competent levees?

Flooding tens of tousands of acres of vital farmland so some ****y
little town doesn't get flooded (until the next week) is just so far
out of my sense of decency that it's not funny.

The gov't shouldn't be involved and our tax dollars shouldn't be
wasted on keeping people in dangerous flood areas. This same ****
happens every year.

--
If we attend continually and promptly to the little that
we can do, we shall ere long be surprised to find how
little remains that we cannot do. -- Samuel Butler

On 2011-05-11 23:21:34 -0400, "Lew Hodgett" said:

My dad grew up along the Ohio river in southern Indiana during the
first quarter of the 20th century.

This was during the period when many of the levees had not yet been
built and yearly flooding was to be expected.

Dad had some interesting stories to tell about the big floods of 1927 & 1937.

Here's an intersting photo by Russell Lee of the U.S. Farm Service
Administration from the 1937 flood -- don't know where your father was
in Southern Indiana, but this is from Mt Vernon, near Evansville.

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/fsa.8c51155/

Plenty more he http://www.loc.gov/pictures/search/?...201937%20flood

And so we're on topic, ruined furnitu
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/fsa.8b30162/

On 2011-05-12 14:31:57 -0400, "Lew Hodgett" said:

Nearest civilazation would have been Magnet, IN.

Well, there's a bar or two there and you can find a good breaded
tenderlion, so that MAY qualify it for "civilization"...

Wonder if there's any persimmon pudding? "cause if there are any dishes
that rank as true Hoosier soul fool, it's 1.) breaded tenderloin, and
2.) persimmon pudding. Runner-up medal for real, honest-to-God
Sassafras tea!

On Thu, 12 May 2011 16:51:12 -0700, Larry Jaques wrote:

Wouldn't it be cheaper to strip the river edges of homes and move them
out of harm's way, then put up wider, taller, competent levees?

Flooding tens of tousands of acres of vital farmland so some ****y
little town doesn't get flooded (until the next week) is just so far out
of my sense of decency that it's not funny.

It's been said that things were better without any levees. At least the
pain was spread evenly. Once the levees started going in, every town had
to have one in self defense. Louisville didn't have any when I was
young, but put them in at some point before I grew up. The first flood
after that they had a comedy of errors. Some of the pumps worked the
wrong way around and some of the floodwall gates were stored on the
outside of the levee and a diver had to go underwater to hook them up to
the crane so it could set them in place.

We were about 1/2 mile from the Ohio and I remember every spring my
father moved everything out of the basement as a standard precaution :-).

--
Intelligence is an experiment that failed - G. B. Shaw