Born and raised in the show-me state of Missouri, I was schooled by the big rivers of the meandering Missouri and the muddy Mississippi in St. Louis. As a result, my experiences on the Hudson River are colored by those formative years at the confluence of two of the continent’s great waterways. If I allude to Mark Twain when talking about the Hudson, it is not out of ignorance in geography but rather a symptom of my childhood mythology. This was reinforced by a recent visit from my good friend from St. Louis Steve Smith aka Ironskillet. He’s a bit of a city-slicker but has enough survival sense to get along just about anywhere in the world, including the Hudson River. Without any hints from me, Skillet adopted the bare-foot rolled-up pants leg style that is so necessary for living close to the water. Given our roots, it didn’t take us long to fall into “Tom & Huck” banter, which Skillet talks about in his blog: Huck Finn & Tom Sawyer hit the big city. I think he felt at home aboard the lighthouse supply barge, the raft-like Yuck Finn.
Historic Landmark on the Hudson River