For all my life I have assumed that the St. Joseph River is just a river.
I grew up driving across the river to get somewhere else. Later, I was riding my bicycle over a bridge, again to get somewhere else.
However, it turns out a river is one of those everyday pieces of our life that should be celebrated, and their secrets explored.
That is the intent of the WNIT-TV documentary “Then, Now, and Always … The St. Joseph River Story: Celebrate the St. Joe,” a one-hour film that will air on Public Television’s Channel 34 a few times beginning at 8 p.m. Sept. 9.
It is also being premiered at various places in the area, which is why my wife Wendy dragged me to a screening in the basement of the Mishawaka-Penn-Harris Public Library. I went just to keep peace in the family and came away with a whole new understanding of how people have done some incredible things to make our life better.
Without spoiling the film, I learned that the St. Joe River first provided the indigenous population with all the things they needed to survive, and how later it provided power to a fast-growing industrial area in South Bend and Mishawaka.
The price it paid for providing that power, however, was that the river became a dangerous open sewer in the mid-1900s. At one point, there were only three species of fish remaining.
But then a human miracle occurred. People started doing things to salvage, repair and finally regrow the river. I sat in the dark of the Eisen Room in the library and marveled at how just a few individuals could correct the ills of others just by caring.
Today, I would like to thank those nameless people for doing the untold things.
And, today, I feel the need to wander down the St. Joe River with my eyes wide open.
I simply recommend that those who care about things should watch the video. And show their kids.
Parents and children alike will learn that a river is more than just a river.
For information on the documentary and a schedule of where it will be shown, go to: https://www.wnit.org/celebratethestjoe/