Schoolkids hold their ears during a demonstration of a steam whistle Tuesday.

Tall Stacks whistles to life
Kids get earful with a preview

BY LEW MOORES
The Cincinnati Enquirer

The Belle of Louisville heads up river at sunset Tuesday on the eve of Tall Stacks '99. (Craig Ruttle photo)

Tall Stacks '99 kicks off today with close to 1 million people expected on both sides of the Ohio over the next five days. But the riverfront in Cincinnati was already swarming Tuesday with thousands of school children getting an educational preview and with sightseers drawn by the pleasant fall weather.

About 4,000 school children in shifts spanned the Serpentine Wall for a program about steam whistles. After that, they headed out for tours of the Belle of Louisville and the Colonel.

Sixteen of the 19 riverboats participating in Tall Stacks '99 were expected in port by today. All along the riverfront Tuesday, deckhands were sprucing up their boats — washing windows, scrubbing decks, sweeping galleys and vacuuming dining rooms.

Vendors' booths were set up along walkways stretching from the Public Landing to Yeatman's Cove to Bicentennial Commons at Sawyer Point. Characters in period costumes strolled among the school children.

A group of students surrounded Gordon Jackson, clad in deerskin, elk leggings and cowhide. They tugged at the pelts of red and gray fox, raccoon, opossum and skunk that hung by his side.

Chief Littlefoot, who is from Big Bone, Ky., and who is also known as Robert Merland, was dressed in a headdress and buckskin. He corrected school children who walked by and whooped.

“That's Hollywood Indians,” he told them.

When Capt. Doc Hawley sounded a steam whistle mounted aboard a barge docked at the Serpentine Wall, the children stuck their fingers into their ears. A giant cloud of steam billowed overhead and the throaty whistle bounced across Yeatman's Cove and off the buildings of the skyline beyond.

Captain Doc Hawley speaks to schoolkids. (Michael E. Keating photo)

The riverboat captain told the children about the language of steam whistles, how they were used aboard the boats to signal for passing one another, how each riverboat steam whistle had a distinct personality.

Capt. Hawley, 64, is semi-retired but still pilots the American Queen and Delta Queen when called on. He brought the Creole Queen to Tall Stacks '95 and came up this year from New Orleans to give programs about steam whistles and the culture of riverboating.

“My ears are still ringing,” he said when he had finished with the last of the school groups. “But it's wonderful to watch their reaction. Most had never heard steam and seen it at the same time.”

He began his life on rivers when he was just 15 years old, playing the calliope aboard what is now the Belle of Louisville. He took off from Charleston, W.Va., and earned extra money aboard the boat by popping popcorn.

He served as a watchman, mate and pilot and became a captain in 1960. He went into semi-retire ment in 1996.

Vera McVicker, a fourth-grade teacher at Indian Hill Elementary School, said the trip to the riverfront gave students a good overview of Ohio history and the steamboat era specifically.

“It gives them a pretty good insight into that era, better than just getting it out of a textbook,” Ms. McVicker said.

The large crowd expected at the event has mobilized a large contingent of Cincinnati police officers. Traffic management is a major concern, said Cincinnati Police Lt. Paul Humphries.

The demographics of the crowd attracted by Tall Stacks mean it's not bad duty, said Lt. Humphries, and officers volunteered to work the event.

“You are getting a very mature crowd,” Lt. Humphries said. “It poses challenges in managing traffic, which includes a number of charter buses and shuttles. But with construction and everything, you're putting 10 pounds in a 5-pound bag.

"“It's a very nice crowd. People actually come to you and shake your hand and say, "Hi.' Officers love interacting with people like that.”

Joggers wove through the crowd Tuesday and the riverfront buzzed with children, volunteers and busy deck hands.

Aboard the Jonathan Padelford, Terry Henry was mopping and sweeping. Hard work doesn't bother the bartender and deckhand who wore a feather in her hair.

“I love it, I love the river,” she said.