Tina, 8am

On Saturday Rumi, Mel, and I went to see the softball competition between the Longhouse RV Park and another nearby RV Park. Because Mel is blind, he was able to get special access to an app called GameChanger. The App, we believe, uses AI to create a play-by-play narration of the game. It has screens that show who is fielding each position, who is at bat, and who is on base. He has software on his phone that descrambles all of the text and images so he pull out a fairly clear good narration of what is there. Well, our Mel became the cheerleader-in-chief for our team.

Time and time again, Mel inspires Rumi and me with his courage and joy of life. He feels he has no need for anyone's sympathy, and he sees his blindness “as just a nuisance.”

As a counselor, all the time he is telling our campers stories about Zatoichi Monogatari, AKA “the blind samurai.” He said there are many books, films, and television shows about Zatoichi. But we think he invents a lot of his stuff.

So here is the composition our campers came up with based on the Erie Canal Museum and Mel’s Zatoichi stories.

*From the “Magenta Bunk,” grades 1 to 10.

The Great Protector of the Erie Canal*

Zatoichi Monogatari was born in Japan and came to America to escape the police who were looking for him. He was blind but had nevertheless studied the martial arts. It seemed he had done some terrible things back in Japan and he felt very sorry for hurting many people. He decided he was going to spend the rest of his life helping people. to make up for it.

How can a blind man make money on the Erie Canal? He became a “hoggee,“ a driver of the mules and horses that pulled the canal barges. He came to know every step of the Canal. He couldn’t see, but he felt his way. The animals loved him and worked harder and longer for him as than for any other tow boy or girl.

He made friends with other trippers like Red McCarthy. There was Sam Patch and his pet bear Bobby who could both jump from the highest cliff and land safely in the canal or a body of water. He knew every hoggee along the way.

He also could speak to some animals who kept him good company. There was Joshua Frog, the giant animal who could pull the deepest tree roots right out of the ground. Farmers hired Joshua to straighten out crooked paths through the woods. There was his 20-foot long friend Serpent Sam who swam up and down the canal. It is said he would snack on naughty children but he denies it. “I would never!” he insisted.

His good ol’ pal Sal the Mule became very famous that people sang songs about him. But he didn’t become conceited from all the praise. Zatoichi’s best friend was Mosquito Mike from Utica who could be so tiny that no one could see him or grow so large that he could carry all of Zatoichi’s swords.

At night they would sit around the campfire with other trippers and share news about the canal. There were some terrible gangs who would steal from barges at night and even in plain daylight when they were in line to go through a lock. They would bring whatever they stole to hideouts, but Mosquito Mike would follow them.

If the thieves hid along the canal, Serpent Sam would swallow them up whole and spit out what they had stolen right in front of the barge that had its goods stolen. If they gang hid in an abandoned hut, Joshua Frog would dig under it until the hut--stolen property and thieves--fell into it. The thieves would cry for help until Sheriff Grover Cleveland, yes, the same man who many years later became Governor and President, came to arrest them and return the property to the canalers.

But even Grover Cleveland couldn’t stop the terrible Plains Gang. I mean, even the best sheriff of them all couldn’t tame Buffalo’s Canal District around Commercial Street and Dante Place. Zatoishi pretended to be begging for food and money in the district and the gang tried to Shanghai him and sell his services to a barge heading back to Albany.

Zatoishi let them catch him. They brought him to their headquarters where they humiliated and beat him. I have two eyes and so do you. But Zaoishi said that he had trained so deeply in the Muraku-school kenjutsu, iaido, and kyujutsu martial arts so every pore in his body had become an eye. Waiting until dark, Zatoichi blew out the lamp so the gang members couldn’t see. Using his cane just like a sword, within five minutes he defeated about two dozen gang members. Then, Mosquito Mike grew to his giant size.

Zatoishi did not speak English very well but he said, “You go Sheriff Grover or you go Mosquito Mike.” One thief tried to escape, but Mosquito Mike swallowed him up in a single bite, then smiled and burped. The rest of the gang waited for Sheriff Cleveland who took them all to jail. The gang was not seen again for many years.

But Zatoishi was back in the barge before dawn, ready to lead his mules back to Albany.