“The Mississippi River is at a historic low—so low that we can clean the garbage that was once underwater around the Memphis Yacht Club. I have pulled out barbeque grills, umbrellas from tables, and a fire extinguisher. Some of the boats here have been stuck in the mud. The river finally became news a few weeks ago and I have been interviewed by CNN, The Weather Channel, and the New York Times about it.
With the river this low, people are finding dinosaur bones and civil war relics. It also gives a glimpse of all the trash and plastic bottles in the river. Plastic never dies.
We had a fire at the marina two years ago. It started with a space heater and spread from boat to boat. One of the boats sank and this is the time to get it out. I am going into the water this afternoon to put straps around the bottom of the boat so we can lift it out. I tried this once, holding my breath and feeling my way around, but we didn’t get it. This time I have a rebreather mask. It is too dark to see in that water, so I feel my way around and hope I don’t get cut on something.
The water is getting lower and colder. It was about 72 degrees the last time I went in. The temperature is probably 62 today. Pulling up boats was not part of my job description to manage the marina, but the sunken boat is holding up reconstruction from the fire.
The owner was on that boat the day of the fire. He had some pretty good burns. His dog started barking, and they woke everyone else up. I was also on my boat, and we saved all of the boats we could.
I worked for a printing company in Chicago. Managing the marina is supposed to be my retirement job, but it is teaching me new skills. When I started working here, we put in about 60,000 screws replacing all of the dock boards. We must have burned out 15 drills.
When we moved to Memphis, I bought Silky’s boat. He had owned Silky O’Sullivan’s restaurant on Beale Street. I traded the camper I had in the driveway for a second boat. My wife says I am a hoarder.
We are trying to bring families back to the marina to spend weekends on boats and have birthday parties and celebrations here again. People take out their boats for dinner cruises to watch the sunset on the bridge.
I started decorating my two boats for Christmas, and some of the other owners got mad because their wives wanted Christmas lights, too. We now sell lights in the marina store.
I love working with folks out here. If you need us, call us, and we will come to get you. It happens all of the time.”
Joe
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