[LMB] "Long Blue River"

[Lois Aleta Fundis]

Mary Piero Carey wrote:
> I know this is late, but I'm just getting dug out from a trip, so bear
> with me...
>
> Someone said:
>   
>> I rather liked "The Long Blue River" or words to that effect, it...
>>     
>
> and:
>   
>> I sort of like "The Long Blue River" ... 
>>     
>
> While I rather like the sound of those titles too, there is the problem
> that in 50 years, I've NEVER seen the Ohio River look ANY shade of blue.
> Green, yes.  Gray, yes.  Greeny-brown, yes. Brown, oh h3ll yes. Blue,
> nope.  WAY too much sediment, anytime I've been near it.  So, as the
> Grace is modeled on the Ohio, I very much doubt blue applies, even
> assuming a far lower erosion load from a vastly lowered human population
> washing dirt into it. 
>   
Maybe you've seen a different part of the river. I live less than two 
miles from the Ohio River, and drive along or over it fairly often. (It 
forms one of the boundaries of our city, Weirton, W.Va., across the 
river from Steubenville..) When I was in college I worked part-time in 
downtown Pittsburgh, about a mile from the Point where the river begins, 
and would walk down there on my lunch break if the weather was nice.  In 
my experience, sometimes on a sunny day, it's sort of blue, at least a 
bluish gray, and sparkly. (More so at the Point,  because there's more 
expanse of water to pick up the color from the sky.)  Most of the rest 
of the time its pretty much just gray, but that's largely because we 
don't have a lot of sunny days in our region. (According to some weather 
experts, Pittsburgh has fewer sunny days than Seattle.)

"Ohio" is said to come from an American Indian word that the French, who 
were the first Europeans in the area, translated as "La Belle Riviere," 
"The Beautiful River." It still is in places, and would be more so if it 
weren't for all the industrial stuff along the river banks.

> Too bad, really.  The Long Blue River and The Wide Green World would
> make a nice pair.
>   
I agree with that. Maybe it's bluer in their world than ours. Or their 
part of the valley gets more sunny days.

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Lois Fundis	lfundis at weir.net or lfundis at verizon.net