Stowing Away on the Delta Queen!

Delta and Mississippi Queens moored upriver during Tall Stacks

It's the Friday before Derby Day, and I can't help but be transported back to my life 32 years ago.  Picture a newly-divorced, single parent of 22-month-old little girl.  I was still trying to cautiously navigate the waters of my new phase in life.

My family had a love of the Delta Queen.  After all, it was a historic steamboat whose home port was Cincinnati (at that time).  My youngest brother, Don, worked on the Delta Queen after high school and before college.  He became friends with the Cruise Director, Terry Sevrens. Thus began a long friendship between Terry and our whole family.

Mom (in center waving) and Terry (far right) depart on a Derby Cruise

Terry introduces the calliope player.

Mom and Terry

My mother was widowed and making her way in uncharted territory, too.  She had always loved Derby Day (usually throwing a party to celebrate the blooming azaleas, mint juleps, and, of course, a horse race). This particular year, she decided to indulge herself and book a four-day round trip on the Delta Queen to coincide with the Kentucky Derby.  Terry, who had more than a passing interest in my mother, was sure to provide her with a good time.

Don and Liz on a separate trip

We all went down to the river to see my Mom off on her great adventure.  Just as we were about to leave, Terry asked who was going to "stow away" and use the top bunk in my Mom's cabin. After acknowledging that this was a totally crazy idea, it was decided that I would be the stowaway.  My toddler daughter was handed over to my brother, Don, who agreed to watch her and drive down to Louisville the next day and pick me up. I don't know what we were thinking, as there was no preparation, no diapers, no change of clothes for my daughter, and Terry could jeopardize his job if I got caught.

I WAS IN!!  I can't tell you everything that happened in one post, but I can tell you it was one of the most risk-taking adventures of my life, and one I cherish.

The Delta Queen in 2012


So today is the anniversary of that great adventure.  The Delta Queen is no longer plying the rivers between Cincinnati and New Orleans.  It is docked "permanently" in Memphis, Tennessee. Due to the wooden construction of its superstructure, Congress would not extend its waiver to continue operating as an overnight passenger steamboat. Thus ended an era.

American Queen docked near Showboat Majestic
Port of Cincinnati

I made my way to the riverfront to take in the newly-refurbished American Queen. The boat made its way to Cincinnati last night, following up a steamboat race with the Belle of Louisville and the Belle of Cincinnati. The Belle of Louisville "won."

Port of Cincinnati, Ohio
May 4, 2012

I'll be thinking of Mom, Terry, the Delta Queen and the Derby all weekend. Now all I need is a mint julep.

Just My Luck!

I have a new-found friend, Bryan Phillips, who has a facebook page on Cincinnati's East End, Columbia-Tusculum and Linwood. If you have an interest in this old Cincinnati neighborhood, his site is a gold mine.  Since meeting him I've been able to have a few lunches with other "old" East Enders who have helped me get a better understanding of the neighborhood that defined four generations of my family.

People from the neighborhood are constantly sending Bryan pictures and information for his page.  Bryan knows I have a wish list:

• Locating a picture of my great-grandfather's house on Gladstone.
• Any pictures on Eastern Avenue (Riverside Drive) from the 2200-2500 block.
• Pictures of the old homes on the street that now is Columbia Parkway.
• A picture of the house on the riverbank behind St. Rose Church.

Today he struck gold!  A follower of his page, Gary Sunday, made five more 1937 flood pictures available for the site. A short time later, I got a phone call from Bryan. He knew this picture would get me going.

1937 Flood - Pictured is Highland School
My grandparent's home is to the far right with the chimney in view.
Photo Credit:  Gary Sunday and Bryan Phillips

When I first saw the picture, I thought the house was the building just behind the telephone pole.  My brother, however, recognized an unmistakable pattern in the brick work of the chimney. I still remember being shown the "line" about four inches below the ceiling that marked the crest of the flood.  Paint could never completely cover it. Other pictures that we've seen of the flood show water levels that are not nearly as high.

Gary had some other priceless pictures in his collection.

St. Rose Church and School
My Joneses lived on the river bank BEHIND this church in the 1870s.

At the  height of the flood, the city was no longer able to pump water to the residents.
This building is now surrounded by an unattractive wall 3' higher than the high water level of the '37 flood.

From Torrence Rd. looking west on Eastern Ave.

Looking west with St. Rose steeple on the far left.  All of the houses no longer exist.

There are a few more pictures on my "wish list". Why do I feel so hopeful?  It takes a community.
Thanks Bryan and Gary.

Dad and the River

Dad and his canoe

It's hard to believe, but my Dad, John Thomas Jones, died 34 years ago.  He was only 57 years old.  So I write this at such a disadvantage.

Ramp from behind school to river

We know Dad LOVED the river.  After all, from the time he was nine years old, he lived in a house directly across the street from the river.  It was in full view.  The property for his school, Highlands Elementary, backed up all of the way to the bank of the river. In fact, a couple of decades ago his former school housed an "Inland Waterways" vocational program for high school students who learned the skills necessary to work on the river on barges, tows, etc.  They trained on a barge called the Marilyn McFarland that was moored just behind the school. Every graduate had a job waiting.

Tow and barge from behind St. Rose Church with northern Kentucky in the background

It's hard to imagine the river he knew as a child.  The river is so different today. One of the main differences is that the river pool stage is double what it was then.  During the summer, the river often became too shallow to support navigation.  I remember Dad taking us down to look at a "wicket dam" just before it was to be removed.  (I checked -- the last wicket dam was removed in 1963.  I was in the 8th Grade). Two new dams were opened, Meldahl and Markland, effectively creating a 95 mile navigational reservoir with a much deeper pool stage.

I also remember that Dad was completely intrigued with the river when it flooded.  I still remember being terrified when we drove down to the river's edge to check out a flood.  I was absolutely convinced that the emergency brake on the car would not hold and that we were going to be swept away in the rushing water.

When Dad was a boy, the river was his playground.  He used to talk about taking his canoe out into the river and riding the "rollers" churned up by the passing steamboats and tugboats.  Based on the previous post, I can just imagine that he was afforded a lot of opportunity to do this because of the multiple trips made back and forth to Coney Island each day during the summer.

Dad's canoe was a casualty of becoming a "family man."  When he and Mom were married, he sold his canoe in order to enable her to buy a sewing machine.  Despite his new priorities, his love for the river was not diminished -- just postponed.

The Island Queen and Coney Island

If you were a "Baby Boomer" in Cincinnati and white (I was shocked to find out that African-Americans were kept from the park until the '60s) you went to Coney Island.  It was THE amusement park in this area.  It was located on the banks of the Ohio River, had a nice picnic grove, amusement rides, a man-made lake, and a HUGE swimming pool.  It was the place to go, and our family went once every summer with our Ryan cousins.  Little did I know that not only our parents, but also our grandparents, probably participated in this tradition.

My uncle, Tony Scardina, is pictured eating watermelon in the picnic grove area of Coney Island.
  He later married Margaret Ann Jones, my Dad's sister.
Photo Credit:  East End, Columbia-Tusculum, Linwood Facebook page

Coney Island has an interesting history.  You can read about it by clicking on this link. There were a few facts that really surprised me.  Get it's earliest start as a picnic area in 1886, the land had been purchased by two steamboat captains.  As part of their business model, guests were transported to the park by steamboat.  As the park continued to make a variety of improvements, the first Island Queen steamboat was built at a cost of $80,000 and began transporting passengers in 1896.  The boat could transport 3000 passengers at a time. Unfortunately, the original Island Queen was destroyed by fire moored in Cincinnati when fire spread from another steamboat moored along side her.

Two other steamboats were temporarily placed in service while a new Island Queen was built. This boat, built at a cost of between $300,000 and $400,000.  It was christened in 1925 and served until 1947.  It was on this boat that my parents met. From the picture below, you can see how often the boat was scheduled to make the trip a few miles upriver.

Photo Credit:  Don Prout/ConeyIslandCentral.com
Permission to share on blog requested.

From the Collection of the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County
Note the "lighthouse" at the entrance near the top of the ramp.

This second Island Queen has a place in the memory of almost every resident of Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky between 1925 -1947. Unfortunately, like the first Island Queen, this steamboat also burned.  According to the website coneyislandcentral.com, the fire started when a welder's torch was lit near the oil storage tanks.

The Island Queen burning in 1947 in Pittsburgh.
From the Collection of the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County.

A piece of Cincinnati history, and the personal history of my parents, was lost forever in that fire. Little did they know at the time the role another steamboat, the Delta Queen would play in our Jones family history.

Sources:  
Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County Wiki: https://wiki.cincinnatilibrary.org/index.php/Island_Queen
Coney Island Central:  http://coneyislandcentral.com
White, John H., 1933-. The Island Queen : Cincinnati's excursion steamer / John H. White and Robert J. White. 1st ed. Akron, Ohio : University of Akron Press, 1995.

How Mom and Dad Met

Virginia Ryan and Johnny Jones courting

Setting the Scene: World War II has ended, the "boys" are home, and there is a pent-up demand for finding a husband and starting a family.  My mother used to say that during her prime dating years, the only guys available were married or classified IV-F (men deemed physically, mentally or morally unfit to serve).

So how to find a husband -- Being a "good, Catholic girl" it seemed logical to try to meet men at the Newman Center.  The Newman Center was designed to serve the needs of Catholic students attending non-Catholic Universities. The University of Cincinnati had a vibrant chapter headed by Bob Kroner. Coincidentally, Bob grew up in the East End and was a friend of my father.

One of the popular activities of the time was to take a riverboat ride to Coney Island on the Island Queen.  The boat had a great ballroom and it only cost 25 cents to ride from Cincinnati to Coney, a few miles upriver.

Credit: The Island Queen, Cincinnati's Excursion Steamer, by John and Robert White

The U.C. Newman Club decided to sponsor a dance on the Island Queen. Bob Kroner was President of the Newman Club. He and Dad were great friends and neighbors and Dad tagged along with Bob on a regular basis. Never mind that Dad was neither a U.C. student nor Catholic. Given my family history, it seems only appropriate that my parents would meet on a boat, on the Ohio River, that literally passed by the Jones home on its way upriver to Coney.  Perfect!!!

Well, they must have made an impression on each other because within a couple of years they were married and well on their way to becoming parents of what would become a very large family. Serendipitous? Fate? You tell me.

East End Residences

Click to Enlarge

If there was any doubt that "A River Runs Through Us," click on the map above and trace the Joneses through their homes in the East End.  Beginning in the 1840s, my Jones family gradually moved from the city center, to E. Front St. and settling in Fulton, now the East End. For more than 100 years, the family lived within a one-square mile area of the Ohio River. Here is the route they took:

1) Frame house on the riverbank located 250' southeast of St. Rose Church.

2) Charles Henry and Rachel purchased their two-family home at 2316 Gladstone Ave.

3) Charles "Fred" and Norine (my grandparents) rented from their Uncle Tom and Aunt Ella Jones living at 2269 Columbia Ave.

4) My grandfather purchased what was to become the home where my father and his siblings grew up at 2424 Eastern Ave. (now Riverside).

There were a couple of intermediate homes documented in the earlier pages of this blog, but these were the primary locations.  In addition, Rachel's mother and my gg-grandmother, owned a home on Collins Ave., also discussed in earlier posts.

The East End had (and still has) it's own culture.  It was largely a working-class neighborhood with both white and black residents.  Many of the white residents have Appalachian roots.  Many of the black residents came to the area from southern states as part of the great migration to the north in search of better opportunities.  It's one of those neighborhoods that gets in your bones.

Over the past couple of decades, the neighborhood has been going through a great deal of transition. Many of the homes have been torn down and are gradually being replaced by upscale homes and condominiums.  This trend started in the area closest to downtown and continues to move east.  The name of the street, Eastern Ave., was changed to Riverside Drive to reflect the area's new upscale image.

We were surprised to see that my father's home is now part of a group of homes that will probably be torn down in the next six months.  It's unclear what will happen with the school located across the street. You can see the sign on the porch column placed there by the developer.

But our East End story isn't going to end quite yet.  After all, my Mom and Dad haven't met yet -- and you just know that that is going to have something to do with the river . . .

Dad's Military Records

After a long wait, I finally got copies of Dad's military records.  Most of the records for World War II veterans were destroyed by a fire.  I wrote for them once and got a form letter telling me of this.  Other vets told me I needed to ask for his DD-214.  It is a document produced at the time of a veteran's separation from service that summarized their service.  It took four months, but the records finally arrived. You can click on these images to enlarge.

This document interests me because it verifies certain things I thought I knew.

1. Dad did not complete high school.  It says the last grade completed was 10th Grade.  It also identifies his high school as West Night High School.  The last year of attendance was 1937.  Interestingly, it appears as if he stopped attending in the same year as the 1937 Flood.  Also, we have to remember that these were the years of the Great Depression.  Perhaps he worked during the day and attended school at night.  Tim and I went to the library and looked at the yearbook for West Night High School for 1937.  Dad was not a senior and we could not find him listed, although it is clear that the program was academic in nature.  I remember Dad attended "trade school".  I don't have any specifics on that.
2. Pre-draft, Dad's job was truly that of a laborer.  He assisted in trolley maintenance but also "scrubbed out street cars."  Tom still has a $5.00 bill he kept his entire life that he found while cleaning a street car.
3. He did have training in Colorado.  Dad used to say that when the conditions were right that he could pick up the WLW-T Clear Channel radio station from Cincinnati in Colorado.

Dad received a ribbon with a Bronze Star, a Good Conduct Ribbon and a Distinguished Unit Citation. Although his job was to load bombs on planes and some aircraft maintenance, his unit was responsible for some of the most important battles in Europe.  When he was discharged, he had the rank of "Corporal."  I love seeing his thumb print and that all-too-familiar signature. Below is a document recording his ranks and pay rates.

Sadly, they also sent a copy of the application for Dad's military headstone following his death in 1978.

I was glad to receive a copy of his Honorable Discharge papers.  Dad had a copy of this and I've published it before.  To keep the file complete, I post it again here -- with pride.  He was part of the Greatest Generation.

If you are interested in reading more about the 44th Bomb Group and the Flying Eight Balls, go to this link in the Jones Family Matters blog http://jonesfamilymatters.blogspot.com/2011/11/flying-8-balls-44th-bomb-group.html  Should you want your own copies of these records, just click on the print friendly button and print them out.

Note:  After a comment (see comments) received from John Darby, I decided to do a little research on the Lowry Base in Colorado where Dad was trained.  Here is a link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lowry_Air_Force_Base  There is a lot of additional information on this base which is now used only for administrative functions.  It has an interesting history.