[Shipyard Sam]

Clifford Pottorf, affectionately called "Crazy Clifford" by his many friends in Rabbit Hash, Kentucky and up and down the river, died today. Clifford was, at one time, the "leading Gerber baby food salesman in America" until a motorcycle accident changed his perspective on the world. In early 1970, he became one of the first white deckhands on the DELTA QUEEN. Clifford's promotion to Night Watchman ended his career on the DELTA QUEEN, as, he said before leaving the boat in New Orleans where he was last seen selling NOLA Express newspapers on a corner on Bourbon Street, 'I can't stand to wear a white shirt and tie.'

He attracted the affection of Captain Ernest Wagner, however, who let it slip that Clifford reminded him of himself at an earlier age, so the sometimes-wayward-Pottorf was welcomed aboard for a meal, always seated next to Wagner at the Skipper's table, whenever Clifford slipped aboard, unannounced, anywhere along the river.

Clifford eventually settled on Big Bone Creek in Boone County, Ky. where he built a shelter of logs he called a cabin and collected, over the years, Indian stone arrowheads and other prehistoric relics that rivaled the collection at the Big Bone State Park Museum. He intended to start his own muse on his property, someday.

Clifford starred in a leading role in Rabbit Hash The Movie where he portrayed himself. Nothing pleased the former steamboatman more than jawing with another steamboatman or woman and telling tall tales about 'the time me and ole John Hartford wuz standing on the bow of the DELTA QUEEN, and when we entered the Mississippi River from the Ohio, we started throwing silver dollars in the river, and .....'

If ole John Hartford was here, tonight, he would sing for Clifford- "Where's an Old-time Riverman Go". I'm sure he would.

Rabbit Hash The Movie