The riverboat captain is a storyteller. Captain Don Sanders shares the stories of his long association with the river — from discovery to a way of love and life. This a part of a long and continuing story.
By Capt. Don Sanders
Special to NKyTribune
“When Lilacs last in the dooryard bloomed.”– Walt Whitman
Lilacs, the harbingers of April, announce Spring is here. In April, river excursion boats are a-bustle with cruise options. The Middle Ohio River steamboat BELLE OF LOUISVILLE and New Orleans’ own NATCHEZ, both raised steam for the first time this year. On Chautauqua Lake, New York, though, the CHAUTAUQUA BELLE has another month before she fires her boilers.
April is also the month for personal memories. My wife Peggy and I will celebrate our wedding anniversary today — close to the half-century mark, but not quite yet. After exchanging vows at the Charles Fisk House in Covington, Peg and I boarded the Cardinal passenger train for Washington, D. C., and a week of sightseeing in the nation’s capital. Washington was quite different in those days. We walked through an open gate at the White House and casually sauntered inside for a look around. While my new bride concentrated on an attraction inside, I wandered onto the porch and waited for her return. Try doing any of that today.
Our most exciting time in D.C. was at our hotel on a Sunday, while I watched CBS’ Sunday Morning variety program for the first time, and Peggy finished getting ready so we could find breakfast. Down below on the street, I hear what sounds like a fire engine arriving at the hotel. As a boatman, I’m always alert to emergencies, with fires topping the list. After Peg hurried and got dressed, we found smoke in the hall outside our door. There was either a fire above or below us. No fire alarm had sounded a warning to evacuate. Would we head up toward the roof, or go down the stairs to escape the blazes? I chose to head down the steps.
At the mezzanine, we found a hair salon in charred ruins. The only escape lay through a door into an office, but employees attempted to prevent us from passing. With no uncertain words, we pushed through them and into fresh air outside the lodging. Later, we learned that Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was also staying at the hotel. To get her out safely and quietly, the hotel chose to sacrifice the rest if necessary.
On the fifth day of our honeymoon, we flew home in a thunderstorm. A bolt of lightning struck the plane high over the Appalachian Mountains somewhere between Washington National and Greater Cincinnati airports. Although I held a commercial pilot’s license, that harrowing experience frightened me more than it did my bride on her first flight.
The next day, Peggy and I started our aluminum can recycling business in an empty building on Pike Street in downtown Covington — Can-Do All-American All-Aluminum Recycling Company. From humble beginnings, we built the business into a sizeable metals recycling enterprise with monthly sales exceeding $200,000, measured in today’s inflated dollars. However, the river beckoned.
As I watched the televised opening of the DIAMOND LADY Casino in Bettendorf, Iowa, I knew that I wanted to be on one of the new gambling boats somewhere on the river. Soon after, we sold Can-Do. Eventually, I spent nearly 20 years on five different casino boats. Our former recycling business — now named “Can-Dew” — is still operating nearly 50 years after our humble start on Covington’s now-defunct “Old Towne Plaza.”
Since those days, a lotta water’s found its way to the sea.
This past Thursday, April 2, was the 19th anniversary of the passing of one of the river community’s most interesting personalities, Deborah Ann Fischbeck — better known as “The Fish.” Following her graduation with honors from, as she would only divulge, “a small college in Maryland,” where she attended on a full academic scholarship, now known to be Towson University, Fish thumbed a ride to New Orleans, where she became an early crew member of the recently commissioned MISSISSIPPI QUEEN steamboat. When I came aboard as First Mate, she was a maid with several rooms under her care. She could have been anything she wanted, even a pilot or captain, but she chose her position wisely to suit her lifestyle.
Of all the men and women I’d worked with on the river, none was any harder working than she. Once she finished her chores, the rest of the time aboard was her own. With her entertaining personality, the passengers occupying her rooms adored her. Her admirers usually expressed their satisfaction with the generous tips she received. She garnered more money as a maid than I did as second-in-command of the vessel.
While underway, Fish spent most of her personal time reading, “looking at the river,” or conversing with her many friends clustered about her around the first set of forward stairs on the Main Deck, starboard side. Ashore, though, she was a great adventurer and explorer. When asked what she loved doing most away from the MISSISSIPPI QUEEN, she replied with one curt word: “Travel.”
Sadly, this lovely creation, “nature’s fine art,” died of cancer on April 2, 2007, at her mother’s home in Perry Hall, Maryland, north of Baltimore. Fish was just 51. The River: In honor and memory of ‘Fish,’ a story of a great skiff race and an adventure on the FLYIN’ FISH – NKyTribune
Another memorable milestone I am passing this issue of the Northern Kentucky Tribune is that this column is the 300th I’ve cobbled together for editor Judy Clabes, despite a two-year interval while I fought cancer. I’ve said very little about my illness publicly. Most people don’t know. Fortunately, I was under the care of a talented and compassionate medical staff of St. Elizabeth Cancer Hospital in Dearborn County, Indiana, and Northern Kentucky, led by Medical Oncologist David Mosko, MD.
To Judy, I owe the opportunity to assemble 300 episodes of some of my adventures on the Mighty Mississippi River System and a few other accounts of my extended stay on our planet. During my extensive recovery, Mrs. Clabes gathered 67 of my columns and compiled them into a lovely book, which is still available. Thank you, Judy.
To Dr. Mosko and team, I owe my continued presence on the same planet mentioned in the paragraph above. Thank you, Dr. Mosko and crew.
I’ve been thinking. If I’m going to continue writing, I should get back around the river more often. Or perhaps, I need to write those stories I’ve been holding back for various reasons. I’m at a crossroads and need to choose which path to follow.
Captain Don Sanders is a river man. He has been a riverboat captain with the Delta Queen Steamboat Company and with Rising Star Casino. He learned to fly an airplane before he learned to drive a “machine” and became a captain in the USAF. He is an adventurer, a historian and a storyteller. Now, he is a columnist for the NKyTribune, sharing his stories of growing up in Covington and his stories of the river. Hang on for the ride — the river never looked so good.
Purchase Captain Don Sanders’ The River book
Capt. Don Sanders The River: River Rat to steamboatman, riding ‘magic river spell’ to 65-year adventure is now available for $29.95 plus handling and applicable taxes. This beautiful, hardback, published by the Northern Kentucky Tribune, is 264-pages of riveting storytelling, replete with hundreds of pictures from Capt. Don’s collection — and reflects his meticulous journaling, unmatched storytelling, and his appreciation for detail. This historically significant book is perfect for the collections of every devotee of the river.
You may purchase your book by mail from the Northern Kentucky Tribune — or you may find the book for sale at all Roebling Books locations and at the Behringer Crawford Museum and the St. Elizabeth Healthcare gift shops.
Click here to order your Captain Don Sanders’ ‘The River’ now.