The Severed Cortex

Link: http://home.att.net/~johneesser/stern.html

I still run into people that cannot believe I used to work on towboats. Just last week someone at work looked at me stunned. I know I never was your typical towboater (since most referred to me as college boy), but I'm really not that much different; especially once you factor in the redneck bits. The first question that I always get asked is "What's it like out there?". I've always responded with, "It's sort of like jail except you eat a lot better". The fact that I've worked on a towboat is always a great conversation topic and I can talk about it for hours. They say once you wear out a pair of boots on the river you're hooked forever. I wore out many pairs of boots and I still think about river life a lot.

John and I used to work together for Southern Towing on the old M/V Frederick B. Wells. (Now renamed the M/V Amy Frances). He now works on the M/V Prosperity for ARTCO (American River Towing Company) which is a subsidiary of ADM. It's considered one of the premier river companies, not one of those mom and pop ones like Southern Towing.

side note: John used me as a reference when he applied at ARTCO back in 2000. Their crew dispatcher called me one afternoon when it was about 20 degrees and the wind chills were down in the single digits. After telling the dispatcher that John was one of the finest deck crew I ever had the pleasure of working with and he'd be an idiot not to hire him, we got into a conversation about why I left the river. After about 15 minutes, he asked me if I'd be willing to come back out there and go to work for ARTCO. I told him if he called me on a day when it was sunny and 70 degrees he'd have a better shot of me accepting.

In addition to the great information about towboating, John's site has some great links too. I personally like Dick's Towboat Gallery which has pictures of tons of towboats including several I've ridden:
M/V Jo Anne Stegbauer (last boat I rode)
M/V Frank Stegbauer (1st boat I rode)
M/V Frederick B. Wells (last boat I drove)
M/V Frank H. Peavey
M/V Robert Ingle
M/V Baxter Southern
M/V Larry Tilley

The site did not contain pics of boats that I rode such as:
M/V Frank T. Heffelfinger
M/V Paulina
M/V Torco Chicago (which was renamed the M/V Doyle Pickett)

I also enjoyed (from the Links page) David Estrada's site about his experience on the river. It hit home in several places especially when he talks about all the people who influenced him. For me there were a lot, and many whose names I've forgotten; Capt. Al Hicks stands out more than anyone else, but others like Andrew 'Hoot' Gibson, Byron 'Trash' Stevens, Mike Pope, Mrs. Mott Madden, Mama Turnip, Jimmy Klink, Marvin Moss, and Norman Dusto were important in their own way too. I've got great stories about every one of them and I've got great stories about others whose names I've forgotten.

I kick myself for not writing a book about my experiences working on the river.