posted 11-13-2011 11:49 AM ET (US)        

On 11/10/11 I was not really consciously aware that it was the anniversary of the sinking of the EDMUND FITZGERALD, but I must have been sub-consciously alerted. For no particular reason on that Thursday, I left work at lunch time and went for a drive in my car. I picked up some take-out and drove over to the River Rouge area. I drove down to Belanger Park, and sat in my car, parked right at the banks of the river, and ate lunch.

It was a very windy day, with a 25-knot Southwesterly blowing up the river against the current and gusts to 40-knots. Conditions on the river were awful. There were big waves heaped up by the wind blowing against the current. I watched a tug towing a large barge alongside try to come to a dock on the Canadian side. He had to abort the docking and back out against the wind. He backed downriver about an eighth-mile, got squared around, and headed back to try the docking again. As I watched I was thinking what a miserable day this was to be out on open water in the Great Lakes.

Belanger Park is located about a quarter-mile from where the EDMUND FITZGERALD was built and launched. At the moment, it is about the closest you can get to the launch site and stay on public property. The old Great Lakes Engineering Works are just a few hundred yards downstream from Belanger Park. So there I was, sitting almost at the birthplace of the FITZ, and at the time I did not realize it was the anniversary of her tragic sinking. I can still remember the day my father took me (a seven-year-old) to see the launch in 1958.

The wind blew strongly all day. Driving home that night on the interstate the traffic was very congested and cars were being blown sideways in the wind gusts. When I got home the wind had blown a pile of leaves against the garage door a couple of feet high.