the river i grew up on is the reason why we have earth day today, and this year marks earth day's 40th anniversary.
in 1969, a train on a bridge spanning the cuyahoga river made a spark on the rails. that spark fell into said cuyahoga river and the river caught on fire. the river at that time was an oily (i mean crude oil), garbage-filled mess that flowed through my town in the crook of the river. this map, from answers.com shows the river. i grew up on the crook of the river, right where akron and the cuyahoga valley national park meet.
you can also read the little tidbit from answers.com and wikipedia on the river, if you like.the full story of the disaster is here. it's interesting to note that though the fire didn't cause a lot of damage in a monetary sense--the real damage was to train trestles, etc. over the river--that people were finally outraged by the fact that RIVERS COULD CATCH FIRE if they were so polluted. they had caught fire before, but somehow no other fires--including past fires on the mighty cuyahoga--made the impact that this one did.
this video clip is from the 1967 the crooked river dies, a wkyc (nbc cleveland affiliate) documentary that illustrates just what cleveland's riverfront was like at this time. courtesy of youtube:
i would also like to share this r.e.m. song about my river. i did grow up walking here, and swimming here, and it's a sad song when you listen to it!
a side-bar here:
when i went to college, my first day of class in my comm 107 (which every newhouse student had to take), the professor wanted us to go around the room and say our name, our intended major in newhouse, and where we were from. when i said "ann, broadcast journalism, and cuyahoga falls, ohio," she answered with:
"Wow! Your river caught on fire and you're here to tell us about it."
oh, you meager mid-western, rust-belt livin', factory-workin', working-class poor white girl! how did you ever end up at syracuse?!? (that's what i felt she really wanted to say to me... sigh... it's over now, ann... it's over...)
anyhoo, the great thing to come of this disaster was that people were finally receptive of the idea of earth day as a national holiday, which then spread worldwide. then the epa was founded, and the clean water act was finally passed and enacted in 1972. whew!
i want you to know that i think northeast ohio has a long way to go. when my husband and i were young and dating, circa 1998, he came to ohio for the first time ever. i took him to cedar point (the most amazing amusement park in the world!!!!). and on our drive back to my parents' house, i wanted to hit up some of lake erie's fine beaches. we went to 4 beaches. the first three were so polluted with giant dead fish--i'm talking large, round, foot-long fishes here people--that we were afraid to walk on the sand. the fish were just bobbing in the water, floating with their terrible glassy eyes looking up at the sky. at one beach, there were so many dead fish that the beach itself was covered--almost no sand to be seen. at the last beach, right in front of my eyes, a mere 1/4 mile across from the sand, sat a very large plant (nuclear power? it was so long ago, i honestly can't remember...). so sad, i knew that's where the thousands of dead fish came from, poisoned or cooked to death, on the shore of my lake.
just two years ago, i visited my parents via amtrak. when my train arrived (late, i might add) at 5am, my dad was there to pick me up and drive me back to their house. the smell of petroleum and the fire-y smoke stacks did not bring back pleasant memories of growing up in ohio.
that's my story today, folks. it's a long one, but i'd like to end by telling you that earth day is very important to me. i do something for it every year. and this year, i'm going to collect the trash in my neighborhood on this coming sunday morning. i'm waiting until all the partiers are done with their saturday night, and i will get up and walk around with my trash bag and clean up my neighborhood and the local playground. it's the least i can do.
what will you do for earth day?
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