Thursday, May 13, 2010

Poem for the Lift Bridge: Boat unnah hum



I caught the Great Lakes' largest boat, the Paul Tregurtha, coming through Duluth's Aerial Lift Bridge yesterday afternoon. Our neighbor was there too, with her toddler Piper. "We love these boats," she said in that first-person plural parents of speechless toddlers use.

Watch out when these young boat fans start to talk for themselves. Our older son at age 2 loved to tell and retell the whole story of a boat going under the bridge, sound effects and all.

The Lift Bridge, to our toddlers who rode cars over it, was known as "the Hum Bridge" for the distinct sound of tires on metal grates. "Unnah" was "under." To ride in the stroller under a tree was to go "Unnah Doe."



Here's his recitation:

Boat unnah hum

Honk! Honk!

Ding Ding Ding.

Up up up up.

Boat unnah hum.

Man, those were the days! Now we can hardly get him to tell us anything, even with sound effects.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I never get tired of ship watching ever. Imagine what it must be like to a young child. The wonder of it all. Just wonderful. First thing I do in Duluth is check the shipping news.

Andrew Slade said...

Those 1000-footers have to be the biggest thing in North America that moves.

Anonymous said...

The draw for me is big, big ships
the big lift bridge and of course the High Bridge over the harbor.
But the biggest thing of all is Lake Superior.