June is National Rivers Month, a month set aside to
celebrate our nation’s waterways. I’d like to talk about the most important one
for me, the Mississippi.
I grew up in Moline, Illinois, and could see the river from
our back porch. We occasionally swam in the sloughs, the backwaters that occurred
along the river. It probably wasn’t a particularly safe thing to do. But much
safer than swimming in the river, proper. It was well known that tunnels and
caves were at the bottom of the river and currents could suck you into them.
Whether or not that was true, I don’t know, but it was well known.
A neighboring river that fed into the Mississippi, the Rock
River, was much calmer and safer and was where people boated and water skied in
the summer.
Growing up so close to a major body of water, I’ve always
been fond of rivers and have an almost emotional attachment to the Muddy
Mississippi. That’s why, when I got the contract for the Fat Cat books and
learned they were to be set in Minneapolis, I was delighted that I could
include my old friend, the river.
Here’s a scene from the first book after Chase has ridden
her bike to the bridge over the river:
***
The sight of
the Mighty Mississippi always calmed her. She stopped, straddling her bike for
a few moments, watching the progress of the water that was near the beginning
of its two-thousand-mile journey. When she was a child, she’d floated paper
boats on its surface, then imagined their trip, picturing them making it all
the way to New Orleans. Now that she was an adult, she knew a piece of paper
would never make it that far. Still, she could imagine the voyage. She took a
deep breath of the clear, crisp-tasting air over the cool water and pedaled to
the shop, renewed and ready for another long day.
***
I never actually floated paper boats on the river, but in
books that I read, kids did. I should have, so I had Chase do it.
This is a familiar scene from my childhood, a river barge.
I included another short passage, after Chase and Julie have
biked there in the third book:
***
When they
reached the middle, they stopped to watch the river. Chase always felt
something switch on inside her soul, something that glowed with a serene light,
when she stood and gazed at the peaceful Mississippi as it flowed beneath her.
***
Now that’s something I’ve done a lot, at many rivers. Doesn’t
it seem like people have connections to water? Mine is to rivers and streams.
