River World Field Trip, Alton, IL to Lake Charles, LA and back on a working towboat, 1956

Meanwhile, Miss Emma was talking, or she was bringing up people to be introduced to the author from New York, which left people impressed, if misinformed. The mayor and his wife were among them, and various associates of Mr. Keller at Cities Service, who were craning and staring, until some couldn’t stand it any longer and had to cone and see the woman George was dining with. It was quite a heady experience, all in all.

After luncheon Mr. Keller drove into Lake Charles and showed me the city, where I quite neglected to buy the film I ought to have bought. Lake Charles is a pretty place.  He finally brought me back to the CAPE ZEPHYR, and promised to bring Mrs. Keller in the evening so she could see how a lady towboater lives. He confessed that he had not looked forward to the day — had told his secretary that he had to take “Tugboat Annie” on a tour of the plant, and wished his wife .could come along for moral support. He apparently had as good a time as I did and came away with a different opinion of this Towboat Annie, at least.

Back at the boat, the captains were both out in the yawl to see the SALEM MARINE.  When they came back from this trip, we went up the Calcasieu .River, past the drowned cypresses which apparently met their end when the Lake Charles Ship Canal brought up the water level. Cormorants and water turkeys in the trees – an osprey and some brown pelicans and laughing gulls in the water. We turned up into a bayou, which we later learned was Bayou Contraband. It was bordered with cypresses, and grew wilder and more wonderful as we went farther and farther. We landed on a lovely shore in which were woods which were truly a Louisiana paradise. The insects were not out, we met no snakes, and only the miserable thorns on the almost invisible catbriers in the undergrowth were a menace. Under the cypresses were dozens of exquisite white, fragrant spider lilies, and four kinds of Louisiana irises, with leaves of tuckahoe and thalia, and other things, plus palmetto and rather surprising cat-claw bush, a hint of how close we were to Texas after all (forty miles). Up a little way we came upon large Clematis bells, pale lavender and pale green and silver, and under the pines — masses and carpets of partridge berry in full bloom. The flowers seemed larger and more abundant than in the north. It seemed all wrong to find what I associate with the North Woods down here so close to the Gulf of Mexico, salt marshes,  and subtropical plants.

We took a little walk on a lovely trail, while Carolina chickadees piped, a pileated woodpecker flew over, and parula warblers buzzed in the Spanish moss above our heads.  There were white-throated sparrows, which fit well with the partridge berry. Before we went back to the boat, we picked a large armful of four kinds of irises, ranging in color from dubonnet to ultramarine and lavenders, and spider lilies.  Back at the boat Mrs. Todd found a white canister which made a nice vase for my wonderful bouquet in my room, and we put more flowers on the dining table. It was something quite new and different on this boat, and the crew seemed to like them a lot.

Supper was shrimp, stew, mashed potatoes, celery and olives, lettuce, and pineapple sherbet.