Show OLD P PILOT 11 0 T HAPPY nick durand has big store of pleasant memories his HI recollections recollection cover thirty three years of splendid service on the ohio river ferries with the nosed old ferry tied up dp to ewalt lbs doom the planks ot of the rotting wharf drifting wearily out with the cume canent lit nick durand aid to eloping couples and for thirby thirty three years on one after another of the ohio river craft Is left once moro more without a vessel nessel at theotime the time lie he shipped on the in IM 1888 the river surged with steamboats bound for cincinnati with mississippi molasses or nosing their way downstream to vicksburg loaded with butter and caudle candle wicks that was the tim time when ewhen the ferry boat plied piled to and fro with white decks and the tops i of the wheelhouses wheel houses painted blue carrying every one fr from om fuzzy whisk ered farmers to nurse girls in pink dotted sunbonnets sun bonnets for there was no bridge and the alie only crossing to be had i was as by byway way of the dock apron and the gangplank names of vessels scarcely remembered along the hie river slip from the pilots tongue as lie recounts wes tales gathered from thousands of trips he be has made the rainbow the lie gray aeugle tb the e Dr ueland in nil all that time he boasts although lie he lins has beaten his 1113 way back and forth through wind alil fog and ice clogged uter no serious occident ident lias is occurred with a chuckle lie he tells of the couples that have made their way down thy the arher front hand in hand and often coming aboard oblivious of 0 passengers and staring forgetting to pay their fare as they passed tic the little counter at the dock lor yes theres been a plenty of them lie he smiles wagging ills his chin you can tell em ein every time they come down all eyes for each other and none tor for abbody an body else usually they get gel on off and gut get it over with nith as soon as possible and when nhen the they come back they or ars more loving thau than ever then they SIMI over in a corner unrolling the certificate to look at how many I 1 tell I 1 expect some of them are famous by now but I 1 could never keela kee track of any during the years that nick durand has shipped on ohio steamers he has seen the lie aher change from a heavily traveled thoroughfare to a mere alley way elicie an all occasional paddle Is seen before the building of the big four bridge at louisville the ferries came bobbing daintily across at 15 minute Inte internals rials but after its construction st the fa banners and nurse girls drifted nay away and tor for a time the ferry stanch of bull but drowsy frowsy of rigging came caine hobbling bobbling by like it a ragged old woman shaggy broad and will skirts tucked in but durand will not be long without a boat lie he has already heen hec n engaged as pilot of the which was inas retained by the owners and Is now being fitted out for slow lingering sapphire days up the river louisville courier journal |