The S.S. Badger recently began its 2021 Car Ferry season, and the City of Manitowoc celebrated with a huge ceremony.
One of the people in attendance was Kathy Peterson, who has a very personal relationship with the 410 foot long, 59-foot-wide vessel. She was in attendance when the ship was first launched in 1952, an experience she called both exciting, and scary.
“My dad was the Personnel Director for the Christy Corporation that built the Badger. That’s how I was invited to be at the launching,” she explained. “As a little girl…I wanted to run out of there. It got kind of scary. The boat tipped so far to the side, I was sure it was going to go underwater, but then all of a sudden it tipped right back up. People were hooting and hollering and all excited.”
Now, nearly 50 years later, Kathy brought her husband and grandson with her to watch the ship come to port. “It never gets old. It’s always exciting,” she said. “Since we retired, we try to come on this initial day as often as we can. It’s always exciting, and it’s always a little emotional for me. My dad has been gone for 17 years, and I think of him every time I’m here.”
Kathy told Seehafer News that she used to have family in Michigan, so she would make the trip across Lake Michigan on the Badger to see them. “We do it now for fun because my family is not there anymore,” Kathy explained. “We try to go maybe every other year. If you time it right sometimes coming back, it looks like the sun is going into the water. It’s just phenomenal.” Kathy also said that the turnout for this year’s season kick-off is unlike any she had seen in previous years.
She said that may be due in part to the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions, saying “We are all looking for reasons to celebrate life, and this is one of them.”
