When the Wind Pipes Up...
....Richard Gilbert remembers Pete
When winds in Iowa pipe up in the springtime, and I see windsocks whipping straight out, I often recall a funeral I attended on the last day of April in 1988. (It would have been a good day to go sailing.)
But instead, that breezy Saturday, friends and family laid to rest James P. Denato, a Polk County district court judge, former state legislator, assistant county attorney, father of two, and to me, a fellow sailor. At the funeral, as we knew him, Pete was acknowledged for his career, his family, his standing in his political party (Democrat), and his service on the court (appointed by Gov. Harold Hughes), all of which were very much worthy of mention.
But most of the eulogists, after obligatory reference to family and career, zeroed in on the sailing. He was a personal friend to all of us “trailer sailors” who regularly cruised Lake Rathbun in Appanoose county, not far from Pete’s birthplace in the old mining camp of Bucknell in Lucas County.
He was only 62 when he lost a fight with cancer. Pete had discovered sailing later in life, but soon enough to have it one of his great loves. As another sailing friend, Judge Leo Oxberger (now retired in Florida) said at the service: “Pete had three great loves in his life: His family, the law, and sailing. He loved and protected each with all his heart.”
His love of sailing drew me to a friendship with Pete. From the large inland lake in southern Iowa to the Sea of Abaco in the Bahamas, I sailed with Pete. But as fun as the sailing was, the best were those times at anchor at the end of a windy day.
Pete, relaxing in his little boat’s cockpit, enjoying the companionship of friends and family, would observe: “You know, it doesn’t get any better than this…and it needn’t!”
And it needn’t! I have remembered Pete’s words and used them often while sharing a meal with friends underway or at anchor.
From tiny Bucknell, this coal miner’s family of 12 kids moved to the Monroe County seat of Albia, just 15 miles from what is now the Rathbun Lake Marina. But as close as these locations are, they are light-years away in a timeline that went from a soft coal mining camp to the cockpit of a salty little sailing yacht. And that, for Pete, and I know for me (a former Wayne County farm kid), was what he meant by “it doesn’t get any better than this…and it needn’t.”
I recall others who have passed on who also had great times airborne on Lake Rathbun. Two were notable Des Moines Register people.
One was Walt Shotwell, long-time reporter and columnist for the Register and Tribune. He often confessed that as much as he loved sailing, he sometimes felt intimidated. I found this hard to swallow as he flew into harm’s way in two wars, flying the ‘Burma Hump” in WWII and then as a pilot in the Iowa Air National Guard when he was called back into active duty in Korea. I think flying over the Himalayas with no instruments was a tad tougher than sailing small boats. Here’s a link to Burma Hump: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hump
Another Rathbun habitue was Frank Miller, the Register’s page one cartoonist for 30 years who left us at the young age of 58. Though he is known for his cartoons that appeared on the front page of the Register, his watercolors of Iowa are treasured by many in their personal art collections. In 1963 Frank won the Pulitzer Prize for this: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Miller_(editorial_cartoonist)
Here is a Frank Miller Rathbun watercolor.
Since my days of sailing with Leo Oxberger, Pete Denato, and Walt Shotwell, my own love affair with sailing has taken me far from Rathbun Lake. Still, I shall always be loyal to those waters where in my early 30s, I first experienced life under sail. Since then, I have skippered pretty big sailboats in both the Pacific (mainly the Hawaiian Islands) and the Atlantic (Bermuda, New England, ocean crossing) and Caribbean (Virgins and the Bahamas).
New friends sometimes ask: How does a guy from the Midwest wind up so passionate about sailing? My answer. What could make more sense? Iowa is almost equidistant between the two biggest oceans!
Thinking back to the people I know who have developed a passion for moving through the water powered only by wind and wits, I think there is one thing we have in common. At some point, early in life, we had to go to work when still at an age when other kids we knew just got to play. I know life wasn’t easy for the men I mentioned above, nor was it a cakewalk for me as a kid.
And that helps explain why this is my favorite cartoon.
Speaking of sailing: Meet David Thoreson
https://www.plymouthchurch.com/david-thoreson-plymouth-gallery/
And now that I’ve raised the subject of making long ocean passages in small boats, have I got a guy you want to know! He’s David Thoreson of Okoboji, IA, and has logged some 65,000 miles under sail, including making some, if not the most, dangerous passages on earth. Under sail!
I’m looking forward to sharing sea stories with David. You also can have that opportunity. On Sunday, May 1, he will be featured at 1:30 p.m. at Plymouth Congregational Church in Des Moines. The link above tells you all about what David is up to and information on how to hear and meet him. That’s yours truly below meeting with Thoreson this past weekend at a showing of some of his beautiful photographs at the Artisan Gallery 218 in the Valley Junction section of West Des Moines.
The Okoboji Writers’ Retreat is just around the corner (September 19, 20, and 21). The speaker list is growing, and there are only 25 participant spots remaining. Check out the sessions list (still being compiled) and register so your place is reserved. Your enrollment fee is refundable until September 1: www.okobojiwritersretreat.com
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Lovely...
Really nice story. May we all live lives with such remembrances by our friends.