Thanksgiving
Gratitudes day
Every year the adults always like to ask the kids at the table what they are grateful for…and depending on the age of the children, the answers can be pretty interesting and wide ranging. This year, for the first time ever I’m the “old man” at the table…and my sister is the Matriarch of the clan. So I guess we get to ask the big question.
For me I really am grateful that we can gather like this and enjoy each others company. We are all linked by blood or marriage and the tree just keeps getting larger. We are expecting 17 today at my niece’s house…but the extended family actually spreads out to several hundred. I have 50 first cousins on my mothers side of the family. This is a lot of the group that will be gathering today…plus our granddaughter who is now almost 5.
I’ve been VERY fortunate to spend 25 years with the love of my life and to have a sister and daughter who are so special to me. I’m a lucky guy.
On this day I also want to give thanks for the relationship I had with Helen Bentley and for all of the good she did for the Port of Baltimore and the Maritime world in general. Today is also her birthday.
Helen was also a visual story teller and maybe that’s part of my affinity for her.
She came to Baltimore from a copper mining town in Nevada to be a reporter for the Baltimore Sun. Helen had never seen a large body of water before or massive cargo ships from around the world. Her fresh eyes recognized the hundreds of stories and she fell in love with the wide variety of people and their jobs. After a few years of reporting these stories in the Sun, the paper started a TV station and she turned her columns into a weekly 30 minute TV series called “The Port that Built a City”.
Helen was out on the docks weekly in heels, hats & pearls, climbing up ladders to get on ships, down in the galley with the cooks, up on the bridge with the Captains and on the piers with Union stevedores for 15 years. Because of her expertise Nixon made her the first female chair of the Federal Maritime Commission. She went on to become the Congressperson representing the district surrounding the Port of Baltimore. From there she became an Internationally recognized consultant on Maritime issues. During the 300th Anniversary celebration of the Port the Governor named the Port for her.
At that time, I started working with Helen to document her TV series from her original 16mm film footage at the Baltimore Museum of Industry. We interviewed her and produced a DVD that showed the working Port in the 50’s and 60’s. To my knowledge Baltimore is the only Port in the US…or possibly world wide, with this depth of documentation for that period of history.
She was very interested in education and mentoring young people about the value of our Maritime world. Helen always loved a parade…especially with Pirates.
She frequently was a special guest and spoke at Maritime events. At one event she reconnected with Stan Wheatley who she had interviewed in the 60’s.
Stan had been the chief engineer on the NS Savannah, Ike’s “Atoms for Peace” ship…and had saved the ship in a hurricane from a nuclear meltdown. (that story is worthy of a feature film).
My mom had passed away and Helen became sort of like an aunt to me. She was feisty and demanded a high level of performance from the people around her. But she gave her all to everything she touched.
Her 90th Birthday celebration at the BMI was a who’s who of Maryland politicos, power brokers and leaders. Congressman Elijah Cummings gave her an outstanding tribute speech. Here she is that night with Barbara Mikulski and Bev Byron. Orioles great Brooks Robinson is in the background.
Happy 101st Birthday Helen…and thanks for all you did…you were a great mentor and friend to me.
Peace