Sun, Oct 10, 1943: river boats

“After seeing a really good musical- "Stormy weather" with Lena Horne, Bill Robinson, Fats Waller, Cab Calloway and an all Negro cast -- we dropped down to the riverfront about 11 P.M. to watch the boats.  A couple of oil barges went by and we learned a lot about river boats from a local merchant who was down to take an order for supplies from a govt. steamer.  He says the oil barges we saw -- about 100 to 150 feet long and not more than two ft. above water -- will hold as much oil as 6 trains with 80 tank cars apiece.  So that's why it's such a cheap form of transportation-- even upstream."

--Letter from my father, Cape Girardeau, Mo., to my grandmother, Bloomington, Kans., Sunday, October 10, 1943.