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Nov. 10, 1975 - The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

Re: Nov. 10, 1975 - The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

LynahFan said:
FWIW, as someone who grew up in the south, I'd never even heard of it, and I could have probably listed at least 20 other shipwrecks. I can't say for sure, but this board may very well be the first place I heard of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
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You must not have been within hearing distance of a radio between 1976 and 1981. Those of us who were envied the crew.
 
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Kepler said:
You must not have been within hearing distance of a radio between 1976 and 1981. Those of us who were envied the crew.
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Mercifully, I was only 9 in 1981, and even if Radio Disney had existed, I doubt that song would have been too prominent in their rotation. :)

Point being, for much of the country, the wreck was an event localized in both time and place - not really a "Kennedy" or "Challenger" touchstone moment. By the time I was old enough to have heard about it, nobody was talking about it.
 
Re: Nov. 10, 1975 - The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

LynahFan said:
Mercifully, I was only 9 in 1981, and even if Radio Disney had existed, I doubt that song would have been too prominent in their rotation. :)

Point being, for much of the country, the wreck was an event localized in both time and place - not really a "Kennedy" or "Challenger" touchstone moment. By the time I was old enough to have heard about it, nobody was talking about it.
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I don't think anybody outside of the UP ever knew about it, let alone talked about it, until the song came out. In all honesty I had no idea the song was based on a real event for a long time. But the song itself was so ubiquitous on AM soft rock that is became something of a flagship joke, like Stairway was for FM concept rock.
 
Re: Nov. 10, 1975 - The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

burd said:
Stating the obvious here, but Gordon Lightfoot had a lot to do with the Edmund Fitzgerald achieving country-wide fame. Without the song, most people, even in the GL region, would have no memory of it.
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Yeah. I think its regional. But it runs very deep in the area for some reason. It was something that came up almost every time we went up north.
 
Re: Nov. 10, 1975 - The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

5mn_Major said:
Yeah. I think its regional. But it runs very deep in the area for some reason. It was something that came up almost every time we went up north.
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Very regional, the more I think about and see other people's opinions on this more I see that.
burd said:
Stating the obvious here, but Gordon Lightfoot had a lot to do with the Edmund Fitzgerald achieving country-wide fame. Without the song, most people, even in the GL region, would have no memory of it.
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Absolutely.

XYZ said:
Ah, got it. Based on the wording I was thinking you meant it was #2 in terms of wrecks that have occurred in the region, as opposed to #2 overall in the minds of people in the region.
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Yep, it wasn't very good wording on my part.
 
Re: Nov. 10, 1975 - The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

LynahFan said:
Point being, for much of the country, the wreck was an event localized in both time and place - not really a "Kennedy" or "Challenger" touchstone moment. By the time I was old enough to have heard about it, nobody was talking about it.
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Well, I was living in MN in 1981, and it was a touchstone moment for me. Not at the level of the President being shot or the September 11th attacks. But I'm glad you mentioned the Challenger tragedy; that was a comparable moment from my perspective.

Having now lived in Ohio for decades, I've met a good number of life-long Ohioans who experienced it as a touchstone moment as well. Admittedly those people tend to be from the northern part of the state, near Lake Erie.

Kepler said:
I don't think anybody outside of the UP ever knew about it, let alone talked about it, until the song came out. In all honesty I had no idea the song was based on a real event for a long time...
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Not doubting your honest perception, but the UP-only thing just isn't true. See above.

And just in case: Neil Young's "Let's Roll" was also based on a real event.;) Of course that song didn't have quite the same staying power...
 
Re: Nov. 10, 1975 - The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

pgb-ohio said:
Not doubting your honest perception, but the UP-only thing just isn't true. See above.
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I'm including MN in my definition of the UP. :)

Seriously -- all you White Walkers up there -- UP, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, the North Country -- it's all just identical shooting locations for Fargo to me. :D

Any place that makes Ithaca look warm is terrifying to contemplate.
 
Re: Nov. 10, 1975 - The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

Kepler said:
I'm including MN in my definition of the UP. :)

Seriously -- all you White Walkers up there -- UP, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, the North Country -- it's all just identical shooting locations for Fargo to me. :D

Any place that makes Ithaca look warm is terrifying to contemplate.
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My daughter, born in Nodak and raised in Wisconsin, made an early-April visit to Ithaca on a school tour several years ago. It was wintry, and I don't know how people keep from killing themselves on that hill when it freezes up. The jungles of Manhattan seemed safer.
 
Re: Nov. 10, 1975 - The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

burd said:
My daughter, born in Nodak and raised in Wisconsin, made an early-April visit to Ithaca on a school tour several years ago. It was wintry, and I don't know how people keep from killing themselves on that hill when it freezes up.
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They put ropes out on Libe slope after ice storms. Nabokov liked Ithaca because "it reminds me of home." He was from Sibersky, Russia which looks like this. In May.
 
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Re: Nov. 10, 1975 - The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

Kepler said:
They put ropes out on Libe slope after ice storms. Nabokov liked Ithaca because "it reminds me of home." He was from Sibersky, Russia which looks like this. In May.
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What's with the open water? Can't play pond hockey on that. Climate must be too mild.:)

Yes, I'm painfully aware of our short to non-existent outdoor skating season here in Columbus. Some years maybe a month; some years nothing at all. I've actually grown to like the milder winters. But I do miss playing hockey outdoors.
 
Re: Nov. 10, 1975 - The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

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John U Bacon has a new book out on the tragedy "- haven't read it, but apparently he talked to a lot of the families.

I know there isn't any new info about the crash- as there just isn't anything new. And, quite frankly, it's been 50 year- it doesn't matter anymore- it's still a tragedy no matter what. And it will haunt mariners of the Great Lakes for a long time- since this ship was really modern at the time.
 
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