CapriUni: Yep, I did it. I grew up in southern Wisconsin, and the Rock River flows right through the center of town. It flows down and joins the Mississippi at Rock Island, Illinois. "Now the Rock Island line, she run down to New Orleans.."

A few years ago, word filtered back to me from family who live in Rockford, Illinois (also on the Rock River) that the High School produced a musical titled Living On The River, based on my song, and sang my song as the centerpiece.

Many years ago, I sang this song at a folk festival in Ironwood, Michigan. Someone came up after my set and said that they really liked the song, and that they had fished off that same railroad bridge. I asked him if he grew up in Janesville (my home town) and he said, "No, I grew up in Colorado, but I fished off the same bridge." If I wrote the song right, it could be any bridge or river in the world. Roy Harris recorded a song I wrote about a river boat/floating dance floor, The Silver Queen that cruised up and down the river during the Second World War, and it sounded like a music hall song from England.

Rivers are the center of life in a small town, and I've written several songs that revolve around or at least mention the river... one about the settlement of the town, one about the last Missisippi River Steamboat to come up the river on an excursion. With the exception of mentioning the Mississippi, the river could be anywhere.

Thanks for asking...

Jerry