Perry's Pen

(This post began as a reply to the Jennifer Schuessler, author of the NY Times article In the Wake of the Edmund Fitzgerald. She asked “I’m curious to hear your thoughts about this most mythologized of shipwrecks, and about Lightfoot’s song — which based on my reporting is still on the jukebox in every bar around the Great Lakes.”)

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I live in Toronto, where Gordon Lightfoot is revered as a God, on par with Wayne Gretzky before The Great One went MAGA. When local politicians decided to change the name of Yonge-Dundas Square (Toronto’s version of Times Square) to something more culturally appropriate, most people wanted the new name to be Lightfoot Square.

The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald was a monster song, and I remember my mom, uncles, and aunts talking about it a lot. Over the years the song has been covered by Canadian band Rheostatics to psychedelic freak-out legends Butthole Surfers.

Welland Canal: Fine for Jacques Cousteau, not so fine for Edmund Fitzgerald

I grew up in St. Catharines, directly across Lake Ontario from Toronto and about 14 miles west of the New York State border. The eastern boundary of St. Catharines is the Welland Canal, an engineering marvel that allows ships to avoid Niagara Falls and travel between Lakes Erie and Ontario.

As a kid, I saw Jacques Cousteau’s ship, the Calypso, docked in the Canal. I also saw tall ships glide through it, but the Edmund Fitzgerald was too large to do the same.

The Mariners Church in Detroit: where the bell rang 29 times

I lived in Windsor, ON, for a few years, directly across the river from Detroit. The first thing you see in Detroit after emerging from the international tunnel and clearing US Customs is the Mariners Church, a beautiful welcome to America.

I was walking past the Mariners Church on a nice summer day and saw someone throw a pop can on the church’s neatly manicured lawn. “Desecration!” I thought. Fuming, I took immediate action – I picked up the can and threw it in the trash!

Hart Plaza in Detroit: where the French arrived, and Black Americans escaped to freedom in Canada

One New Year’s Day one year, I was hanging out in Hart Plaza, next to the Mariners Church. I stood beside the Underground Railroad monument, on the Detroit River’s edge. French explorers led by Antoine de la Mothe, Sieur de Cadillac landed near Hart Plaza in 1701 and established Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit, now modern day Detroit.

Fun Fact: Cadillac was the Governor of Louisiana from 1710-1716, but was fashionably late, only arriving at present day Mobile in 1713.

It was an unseasonably warm 50 degrees, and foggy. Ice in the river struck the metal buoy, causing it to ding every so often. I thought of the church bell chiming 29 times. (30 times in May, 2023, one extra in memory of Gordon Lightfoot’s passing.)

The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald represents respect, friendship, and freedom.

Primordial indeed.