The Old Whitewater Canal

By: William Campbell of Muncie

This was wrote during the Great Depression
Drawing of a canal lock with boat

 
When Indiana was young and gay
Someone built a waterway,
An old canal by the river wide
Like a little fawn by it's mothers side.
 
It scampered around from town to town,
This way and the other,
And often strayed from where the river layed
That fed it like a mother.
 
Back in her days, there were no highways,
But she was always ready
To carry her load, down her winding road
For her walls were strong and steady.
 
Her boats did go though rather slow,
With produce loaded heavy.
And were pulled along by mules strong
From their path upon her levee.
 
But now she is old, her story told
Like an old book tossed away,
If you happen to ride down by her side
You may see her there today.
 
Just like a bride, full of pride
She was built a long time before up
Let us go down to old Hagerstown
Where the old canal starts on her course
 
There she does seem like a beautiful stream
With trees by her side so tall
As she runs along, she sings her song
To her ever cumbling wall.
 
She seems to say, "I have had my day,
Although I have done my duty
Now I am told that I am old
And have lost all of my beauty."
 
"I have served as a road, I have carried my load
To the market I did deliver,
I carried the goods throught hill and woods
Down to the old big river."
 
You may see her today, like a fawn at play
Though her walls are beginning to totter,
She bounds and leaps, while her mother creeps
The river, old Whitewater
 

I TYPED THIS EXACTLY AS MY FATHER WROTE IT.  AS YOU KNOW HE HAD TO QUIT SCHOOL IN THE 6TH GRADE, WHICH MAKES IT ALL THE MORE REMARKABLE.  PLEASE LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK OF IT.  I PERSONALLY LIKE SOME OF HIS OTHER POEMS BETTER, BUT THIS WAS THE ONE HE WAS MOST PROUD OF.  IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO READ SOME OF HIS OTHER INDIANA POEMS PLEASE LET ME KNOW.  THANK YOU FOR YOUR INTEREST.  I SPENT MANY HAPPY DAYS AT LAUREL, INDIANA AT THE RIVER, FISHING AND CAMPING( NOT EVEN A TENT) WITH MY FAMILY BACK IN THE 40'S AND 50'S.

PLEASE CONTACT ME: WINE2447@AOL.COM