"The Gales of November Came Early"

I called my Miami mum, yesterday, and we both recalled - fondly - celebrating a past Thanksgiving at the St. Joseph, Michigan home of Harold and Florence Bentsen (along with their two sons, Tommy and Bruce). At the time, Mr. Bentsen was my dad's boss at Whirlpool Corp. located in Benton Harbor. Very hospitable folks!

Sadly, Thomas Bentsen, whom we also remembered as a polite teenager, died, in 1975, at the young age of 23. He was an oiler on the SS Edmund Fitzgerald.

Here's a well-written article about that terrible shipwreck. Twenty-nine lives were lost, in Lake Superior, on the tanker that was carrying iron ore.

Listen to Gordon Lightfoot's moving rendition about the men of the Fitz.