CALLANDER: Mother Nature's acts bring back memories

News about flooding or potential flooding along the Mississippi River in Missouri and Illinois, just as the vacation season is in full swing, reminds me of a great vacation my family and I took many years ago to that precise location.

With those pleasant memories, however, comes sadness about the devastation that Mid-Western river communities have experienced this summer.

In 1993, we were told that the rushing floodwaters were due to a 500-year flood. Here we are in 2008, 15 years later, witnessing similar floods. Clearly our governments at the local, state and national level have more work to do to prepare for the ravages of Mother Nature…or for manmade disasters, which some of these floods can be attributed to.

A number of years ago, prior to the 1993 floods, my family and I took a trip to the heartland to visit two of my old hometowns, Springfield and Quincy IL, and then we preceded to Hannibal MO, “America’s Hometown,” the boyhood home of Samuel Clemens (author Mark Twain).

On the way back, we drove south through Missouri along the Mississippi River’s scenic highway and stopped in the historic town of Clarksville.

Quincy, Hannibal and Clarksville have all been mentioned in the news recently while bracing for potential flooding or while experiencing significant damage.

The last I heard, the levees have held strong in Hannibal and the historic town and tourism spot was spared. That’s great news because the town of Hannibal depends a lot on July 4th festivities to bolster its economy and locals as well as people from around the world enjoy the yearly Tom Sawyer Festival.

Other communities in the Mississippi region have not benefited from the same technology and financial resources of Hannibal’s levee. The destruction from flooding has been devastating and brings to the forefront the need for better planning at the local, state and national level. The historic town of Clarksville is one example of a community suffering because of the floods.

Hannibal’s website promotes a new activity this year for the 53rd Tom Sawyer Festival, however. Observe the flood from the floodgates, the site promotes. It also gives visitors to the website the opportunity to look at video to see just how dry Hannibal is. That’s clearly an attempt to encourage a good turnout for the Independence Day celebrations.

Once the price of gas drops (or after purchasing a hybrid car) and in a year when flooding is not an issue along the Mississippi, I truly recommend a trip to the

Tom Sawyer Festival in Hannibal. It is a celebration of Americana at its best.

The historic town has replicas of the homes of Tom Sawyer and Becky Thatcher, characters in Mark Twain’s “Adventures of Tom Sawyer.” During the summer festival there is even a white picket fence painting contest and a Tom and Becky look-alike contest.

When we arrived at our hotel in Hannibal on July 4 years ago, placed in our room was a stand-up pamphlet telling us about the 4th of July Riverboat Dinner Cruise. Watch the fireworks from a Mississippi Riverboat and enjoy a delicious Midwestern barbecue meal, it said.

The cost wasn’t cheap, but the Visa card covered it. It turned out to be one of those impulse buys that was well worth the money spent.

That ultimate Americana experience is still fun to tell about, as is the discovery that the town across the Mississippi in Illinois - Quincy — is graced with some of the most beautiful architecture anywhere, created by European craftsman who had come over to help build the American railroad.

I had returned to Quincy for childhood nostalgia reasons and had not remembered much about the buildings.

Quincy became a city of national significance in 1993, when its bridge was flooded, causing havoc for Missouri and Illinois communities that depended on it to get to and from work.

This year, while the dollar is tanked internationally and the price of gas is out of sight, it’s a good time to plan a future vacation and to spend a little time at home exploring the pros and cons of flood insurance. Some Mississippi River dwellers wish they had done that before the waters rose.

Alane Callander is a south Stafford resident active in many local causes. Reach her at info@staffordcountysun.com.