tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post4547862357264914421..comments2024-03-27T03:19:11.216-04:00Comments on Assistant Village Idiot: Forgetting TragediesAssistant Village Idiothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-35264817000422419182018-11-26T09:30:44.164-05:002018-11-26T09:30:44.164-05:00Population centers may affect whether the story ge...Population centers may affect whether the story gets remembered. It's not just that the Eastland was working class - though I'm not dismissing that angle - but because the Titanic was going from London to New York. Lot's more people to notice and tell the story. Same thing for Chicago and Peshtigo. At one level we could consider that "everyone considers people from the cities more important," yet at another there are millions of people in Chicago who had the fire happen very near them. The way we place ourselves in events, millions of Londoners or New Yorkers could think "why, I know exactly where that docks," or even "that could have been me," even if they never get on ships.Assistant Village Idiothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-14713009624789822222018-11-25T23:48:59.443-05:002018-11-25T23:48:59.443-05:00I never knew of the EDMOND FITZGERALD until the so...I never knew of the EDMOND FITZGERALD until the song came out because I've never been near the Great Lakes. Lived most of my life inland. Now I've lived near the ocean and seen many large ships, most cargo, some passenger cruise ships.Sam L.https://www.blogger.com/profile/00996809377798862214noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-66350357857012093542018-11-24T23:32:08.422-05:002018-11-24T23:32:08.422-05:00A family friend was witness to a great fire when s...A family friend was witness to a great fire when she was ten years old. The vivid memories have stayed with her for the rest of her life. She has also written about it.RichardJohnsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07490819511630683969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-4694948415340187952018-11-24T13:57:04.641-05:002018-11-24T13:57:04.641-05:00No, but the funny thing is how some tragedies neve...No, but the funny thing is how some tragedies never dim while others are forgotten. They're both equally past. It's not even a question of needing to remember only the ones that are most relevant to immediate safety. Some just settle firmly into the culture. Some argue that the Chicago fire found a home in the collective consciousness not just because it affected a big city but because the mythical but catchy origin story about Mrs. O'Leary's cow.Texan99https://www.blogger.com/profile/10479561573903660086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-11010547486673811782018-11-24T13:04:48.582-05:002018-11-24T13:04:48.582-05:00Important stuff that's past just isn't urg...Important stuff that's past just isn't urgent. My empty stomach is. I don't always remember the important things I have to _do_ in the press of the urgent stuff.jameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01792036361407527304noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-68468910236068715412018-11-24T09:14:05.034-05:002018-11-24T09:14:05.034-05:00I do not talk about the TITANIC unless I'm goi...I do not talk about the TITANIC unless I'm going to talk about the EASTLAND as well. The capsizing of the EASTLAND was the worst Great Lakes disaster in terms of loss of life. It's just that the TITANIC was a colossal ship with the rich and famous on board while the EASTLAND was a smaller excursion steamer with entirely working-class people on board. The reason I always pair them together is because the EASTLAND was a victim of the unintended consequences of the post-TITANIC lifeboat laws. While the TITANIC had a deficiency of lifeboats on deck, the EASTLAND had too many. Being an unstable vessel to being with, the extra lifeboats made her problem even worse. This contributed to her turning turtle in the Chicago Harbor in July of 1915. The Mad Sopranohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06310574598406502941noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-52679518887422676982018-11-24T08:06:20.240-05:002018-11-24T08:06:20.240-05:00I have the book and fires also occurred in Michiga...I have the book and fires also occurred in Michigan as Far East as the Ontario border killing even more. One of the families in Peshtigo buried their dead in a single grave and didn’t put any other notes on the tombstone but the date. They figured no one would forget what happened that day. Interestingly it was a huge disaster and politicians were scrambling to take credit for relief and dodge blame when the relief was bungled. That hasn’t changed at all today. Also there were the first professional weather forcasters just startling up. The Army Signal corps had the precursors of the Weather bureau. Some of them noticed the extreme drought and high winds over the upper Midwest.<br /><br />Just like the 1906 Galveston hurricane, few remembered and fewer take action to avoide recurrencDirtyJobsGuyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05758528269715802477noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-14409700550755733722018-11-24T01:02:41.444-05:002018-11-24T01:02:41.444-05:00I know some men went down in the good Reuben James...I know some men went down in the good Reuben James, but that's all I know about that disaster. Some years back we read a book about the 1871 Peshtigo fire some, which I'm sure I'd never heard of before, though it was a spectacular disaster and a huge loss of life. It happened at the same time as the Chicago Fire and, overshadowed by that smaller but better publicized catastrophe, didn't get a song. The Peshtigo fire burned well over a million acres of forest and killed an unknown number of people, something like 1,200 to 2,500. Its fire tornado tossed houses and railcars into the air.Texan99https://www.blogger.com/profile/10479561573903660086noreply@blogger.com