Back Stories of The South Shrewsbury

"DOT's" Gunna Kill Me

What years did the DOT run the USCG?

“The U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) was under the jurisdiction of the Department of Transportation (DOT) from April 1, 1967, until March 1, 2003”

This quote came from: THE COAST GUARD AVIATION ASSOCIATION

(Whose motto seems to be: “Flying Since The World Was Flat” )

There is a Stone in this screen play’s story. There are also ice boats, and the history of technology. Uncle Joe was sure that DOT was going to kill him, and not because the buses did not run on time.

Flying boats make for great cinema. Ice boats were the fastest crafts on earth, and the fastest of them were run on the South Shrewsbury River close to the Better Duck Inn’s future location. Netflix is coming, and I bet they know little to nothing about DOT, Stone, Uncle Joe, or mass transportation.

I have never harpooned a whale. Or sought to finance anything bigger than my 1982 F100. “Debt is a state of mind” Joe’s nephew told me when I was hustling for the mob to avoid starvation as a full-time college student in 1977.

Facts and history have always served as a respite from the skullduggery that was my day to day for half a century. I know we need a whale on board to make this screen play all it can be, but chasing whales is not my cup of tea.

My role in this chaos, at 68, is to survive and savor the idea of noodles and research vessels, not to seek funding or even worry about deadlines. We have none.

Yes, debt is a state of mind. I owe, in mine, to at least continue to try leaving this place better than I found it.

Before DOT there was Treasury. This was one of theirs. One of many, not on the South Shrewsbury River. This one, built in 1889, served what was once called Port Harford, might be the only “Prairie Victorian model lighthouse left on the West Coast.”