In 1965, I was in my 12th year of work as a Bay State Milling Company sales department secretary. Our office was located immediately south across the tracks from the riverside mill.
When it became inevitable that at least the basement of our office building was going to flood, the decision was made to quickly move files and other items that were stored down there. The staff formed a chain line passing the materials from the basement, up the stairs, through the main office and out the front door where trucks were waiting to transport them to a safe, dry place. We then relocated our office operation to the Winona Hotel (now the Kensington).
Here’s an excerpt from a poem I wrote for our company newsletter at the time: “We love that Misssissippi when it wends its way down south. But when it comes right in our door, we get down in the mouth. For it can be mighty powerful and mighty muddy, too. What if all our flour’d got wet and turned to instant glue?” As I recall, the river rose to 21 feet at the Bay State site.
A very popular song that year was “What the World Needs Now is Love,” and certainly Winona was blessed with an abundance of love and dedication by people bonding together to save the city and help each other during this very difficult time.
