The Missouri River flood of 1993 swallowed-up fertile crop fields, barns, houses, and towns. The BRC founder helped sandbag a levee around the Hitching Post saloon in Hartsburg to deflect the menacing flood waters surrounding the Sunday jam session venue. After Big Muddy later reluctantly returned to its banks, he wrote a tune “The Hitching Post Song” which became a wrap-up anthem for the jamming pickers and singers. The barkeep installed a poster behind the bar to celebrate preservation of the saloon and its weekly music session.
A few years later, the jam session moved up river to a new locale in McBaine, as “Lucy`s” tavern was adjacent to the city water plant and perceived to be beyond the reach of potential river spill-over. The Flood of 2011, however, submerged Lucy`s under nearly 6 feet of Missouri River flood tide. When the tavern was refurbished and thereafter re-opened, the musicians were photographed near a window that bore a bath tub ring-mark at eye level documenting the previous height of the murky waters. When cyclists from the nearby bike trail would stop-by for a soft drink and ask about the recent flood level, they were pointed to the stained window.
The springtime Flood of 2019 again swallowed-up large tracts of the Show-Me state. A few weeks ago, the Big Muddy finally shrunk below flood stage. Bluegrass jammers convened at a yogurt shop in our capital city located on a central thoroughfare aptly named High St. because the avenue is built on the bluffs safely above the Missouri River.
During the evening song fest, a listener passed-by and recognized the BRC founder from the 1990`s Hartsburg jam sessions and requested the Hitching Post Song from yesteryear. We sang:
Back in `93 the Flood came half through town/ But the sandbaggers turned the River `round/ God bless them all for this dry ground/ I’m riding home late from the Hitching Post tonight!
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