The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #457 Message #933489
Posted By: Nancy King
14-Apr-03 - 06:59 PM
Thread Name: Origins: Baltimore Fire..a 'new' old verse....
Subject: RE: Baltimore Fire..a 'new' old verse....
Oh yeah -- I meant to add that recently I (and several others) heard Becky Kimmons of the Missing Person Soup Kitchen Gospel Quartet -- hear them if you can -- sing "Baltimore Fire," and she started out with the verse Bill cited at the beginning of this thread, but had never heard the one that starts with "Amid an awful struggle of commotion..." which also contains the line "The wind blew a gale from the ocean." She said that some of her elderly relatives told stories of being able to see and smell the smoke from that fire all the way down in central West Virginia, which seemed really remarkable until someone in the group pointed out that if the wind were indeed blowing hard from the ocean -- particularly if it was a real nor'easter -- it's likely the smoke did indeed get to W.Va. How 'bout that?!