THE PUBLIC MIND: RIVER VISITOR HAS FOUND MEMORIES OF CAPE GIRARDEAU

Dear Editor:

This time last year I stopped in Cape Girardeau on my way down the Mississippi from Minnesota to New Orleans. I docked my 12-foot canoe, the "Estella Dawn," at a small launch there next to your levee wall and spent an afternoon sketching on a bench downtown.

While drawing pictures (selling a few for food money) and enjoying the charm of your fair city, I was pleasantly joined in conversation by several passersby. They offered local color - "I've met a few good Yankees; they were dead." - and genuine interest and friendliness. One lady declined to buy a drawing but did advance me the price of one and asked that I send her students something regarding my trip.

After 58 days on the river, I arrived in New Orleans and was reunited with my wife. We returned to Delaware after three days of celebrating. I remembered the lady who was so kind in Cape Girardeau, so last spring, I sent articles I had written for our local paper and a tape of a lecture about my journey to Ruth Rhodes of Jackson. She shared them with her fourth grade class there at your Franklin School. Bless their hearts, the class responded with wonderful inquisitive letters and photographs of a field trip the class took to the river. I loved it all.

This summer, looking back at my immense good fortune on your river last year, I say "Thank you!" Cape Girardeau for your hospitality and the precious memories, and "many thanks!" to Ruth Rhodes and her students. She makes me proud to be a teacher.

Best regards,

Eddy Seger

Clayton, Delaware