Untold stories about the USA
By Lalit Mohan

SHORTLY before America observed the 30th anniversary of the moon landing, it was served an eerie reminder of what would have happened if the mission had failed. The Los Angeles Times dug out a memo from the National Archives about the two speeches that President Nixon had prepared. The one which he eventually delivered, welcomed the crew of Apollo 11 safely home, but another one, scripted by William Safire, was also kept ready just in case some mishap occurred, and Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin were stranded, unable to lift off from the lunar surface.

The scenario imagined that the first two men to walk on the moon would still be alive, but there would be no hope of their return. Nixon would then have said: "Fate has ordained that men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace". According to a note dated July 18, 1969 — two days prior to the actual landing — before delivering the disaster message to the nation the President would have called the two widows-to-be to offer his condolences in advance.

Then the National Aeronautics and Space Administration would cut off contact with them and a priest would perform a service appropriate for burial at sea, praying for their souls as they rested in ‘the deepest of the deep’. Happily, none of that was required.

Peyton Place recalled

Yet another event that has given America something to talk about is the birth anniversary this year of Grace Metalious. Grace, who? No one talks about her today, but to call her the mother of pulp fiction would not be an exaggeration. Her Peyton Place published in 1956, broke taboos that governed the description of female sexuality and opened the floodgates for such ‘literature’ the world over. Although her book, set in a small New Hampshire community, seems kindergarten stuff compared to the lurid descriptions one reads today, in the 1950s, even in the USA, people had closets to read it.

Peyton Place has everything — sexual abuse, incest, crime, scandal — that has become the standard recipe for bestsellers, but when she wrote it at least nine publishers in the USA refused to touch it. Finally one Kitty Messner teamed up with a little known company, Dell Publishing, and issued the book in paperback. At a time when the normal print run of such novels seldom went into five figures, Peyton Place sold 8 million copies in the first edition. Most critics thought it was ‘moral filth’.

Metalious who lived with her school principal husband, had no clue about the economics of publishing and was quite happy to get just $ 75000 for the movie rights. She never thought anyone would remember her for the book. She spent a large part of the money to buy a new house and the rest probably helped replenish her bar. She died of cirrhosis of the liver at 39, in 1964, and would have been 75 this year if she hadn’t.

Dell, of course, has not looked back, In fact Peyton Place transformed the entire paperback industry. And the road was cleared for authors like Jacqueline Susan who followed a few years later with her first novel, Valley of the Dolls.

In Chicago’s locks

This is about a river that is now flowing backwards.

Most of its life the Chicago River flowed into Lake Michigan. But even in the last century the tonnes of pollutants it carried from the big city worried the state authorities. So, they deepened the Illinois canal, which is connected with it, to take its water in the reverse direction. Through this canal it goes into the Mississippi River and thence down south to the Gulf of Mexico.

When people along the Mississippi complained about the rancid condition of the water Chicagoans took steps to disperse the muck elsewhere, but in the process the level of the Chicago River at the point where it met the lake went down by two feet. If the big lake had emptied itself into the river the entire country up to the Gulf would have been flooded.

So a system of locks was devised to keep the Chicago River and the Lake Michigan apart, while keeping the marine traffic between them going.

One has read about locks in canals such as the Panama, but the brilliance of the idea can only be appreciated by going through them. Two locks have been installed — one at the point where the river meets the lake and another about 100 metres earlier. Boats going through the river cross the first lock while it is open and queue up before the second, which is shut. Beyond that lies the lake, two feet higher.

Then the gates at the first lock, too, are shut. Once they are secure the gates at the lake end are opened. Within five minutes about one million gallons of water pours in from the lake into the river and the level within the lock rises to equal that of the lake, and the boats rise with it. Then the gates in the front are opened and the vessels sail out.

The rest of the river is still two feet lower, but insulated from the lock by the first gate. The process is reversed when the boats have to go from the lake to the river. After they are ‘locked in’ the water empties into the river and its level falls flush with it. Simple, isn’t it?

Me Indian, who Indian?

Clinton made news as the first President after Roosevelt to actually visit an Indian reservation. These are the people to whom the country really belonged and today they are among the poorest here. The Sioux settlement in South Dakota that he visited has 75 per cent unemployment and two-thirds of the population living below the poverty line. Addicted to alcohol, and other substances, theirs is a tragic story. Just because Columbus took a wrong turn as he sailed out of the Saltes harbour, an entire race lost its land and identity. Those who were true Americans came to be known as American Indians (Our people in the States are Indian Americans). And no sitting President for over 50 years found it necessary to pay them a visit.

There is a story which they will never tell you in America. It seems that when the Empire State building was completed in New York a local Yankee invited a friend, a Chief from a reservation, to visit him. He took the Indian to the top and showed him around. "Over there," he boasted as he pointed out the landmarks one by one, "is the Hudson river. Down there is Broadway. There is the Central Park. And around us is Manhattan". After he had completed the round he puffed up his chest and asked, "Well, Chief, how do you like my city?"

"Good," grunted his friend, "How you like my country?"