From Steve Suffet
Old Fashioned Folksinger
Greetings:
Today is the 93rd anniversary of the Great Molasses Flood. On January 15, 1919, a huge storage tank belonging to US Industrial Alcohol Company burst, sending 8.7 million liters of molasses crashing through the North End of Boston. The flood, which reached 12 meters in height, killed 21 people and injured 150. Some claimed that anarchists blew up the tank; others said Germans or Russians were to blame. It was none of the above. The disaster happened because the tank had been poorly maintained, rarely inspected, and in this instance overfilled. Corporate greed is not a new phenomenon.
Were You in Boston in 1919? is a song I wrote about the Great Molasses Flood. You are welcome to follow this link to listen to it online and/or to download it for free:
That's me on the lead vocals and guitar, Laura Munzer on the back-up vocals, and Gina Tlamsa on the fiddle. The front page below is from The Boston Post of the following day.
Go for it!
--- Steve
1 comment:
Liked the song. My dad was in Old Boston Town in 1919. He had left his job at the Quincy shipyard as a riveter and had gone back to finish high school. My grandfather was in charge of the Boston Globe stables and called my dad to come in and work in the mailroom (where the papers are baled and thrown down chutes to the wagons or pungs) In the days before radio being widely used the papers would come out with extra editions with updates on a major event. Dad said you could smell molasses in the Haymarket area for years due to the flood.
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