The New Neo posted on the Great Fires and the Forgetting. We do forget very quickly after most tragedies unless there is some political or cultural reason to hold on. Texas is still recovering from Hurricane whats-its-name, but even most of them have moved on except for the broken things right near them that need to be fixed.
The comment section made reference to Tom Lehrer implying that a disaster isn't remembered unless a song is written about it. Or a movie made or a book written, I suppose. I had never heard of the Edmund Fitzgerald until the song came out. Stories don't live on their own, someone must build them from the scraps lying around.
We are likely programmed to move on. Those who respond by taking in the full weight of a tragedy, the death and suffering, become unable to function. Those who can go on are those who can forget in the service of getting the tasks of survival done. We had friends at Camp Calumet years ago, the husband and daughter killed in a motor vehicle accident in Maine. Speaking to the wife the next summer she said the only thing keeping her alive and functioning was having to get up to make breakfast for the son. After he left fro school every day she had at least started moving, started do, was able to push through the rest of the day.
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.
ReplyDeleteI 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.
ReplyDeleteJust like the 1906 Galveston hurricane, few remembered and fewer take action to avoide recurrenc
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.
ReplyDeleteImportant 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.
ReplyDeleteNo, 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.
ReplyDeleteA 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.
ReplyDeleteI 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.
ReplyDeletePopulation 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.
ReplyDelete