The Edmund Fitzgerald

I was going through a bunch of old pictures and happened upon these two. So, why, you ask--or maybe you didn't--would I be interested in the Edmund Fitzgerald? It's probably because I grew up in Michigan, the Great Lakes State. I lived just a few miles from Lake Huron and learned to swim there. I have vacationed on all five lakes, Lake Erie, Lake Huron, Lake Superior, Lake Ontario and Lake Michigan. The lakes have a fascinating history with all of the lighthouses, storms, shipwrecks, Native Americans etc. When my children were about 8 and 10, we took a trip to the Upper Penninsula of Michigan and took a boat trip through the Soo Locks at Sault Saint Marie, Michigan. While going through the locks, I of course took lots of pictures. About a year later, the awful news came that the Edmund Fitzgerald had sunk in Lake Superior. At the time the name sounded familiar but I didn't know why. I was very interested because many of the men who were on the ship were from nearby Toledo, Ohio and from other Ohio towns and cities. And who can forget Gordon Lightfoot's beautiful song about the Edmund Fitzgerald.

Years later, my daughter was going through our old slides and came to me with several and said, "Does this say what I think it says?" I held it up to the light and there was a picture of the kids and me sitting on our tour boat going through the Locks and in the background was another ship----the Edmund Fitzgerald!!! There were also 3 other pictures of the ship--front, back, and the whole ship. Unfortunately, the slide of the 3 of us has disappeared but I did manage to keep the other 3 safe. For Christmas one year, I had the three pictures blown up and framed for our son who was really fascinated with the EF.

So, for no other reason than I love these pictures, I'm posting the two that I have on my computer here on my blog. Enjoy.