Railroaders' Nostalgia > My Dumb Luck: the AFT years 46

46 Columbia, SC Nov. 6-8/ Florence, SC Nov. 9-11
Sigh ... two more cities I really just don't have stories for. So, as filler, allow me ramble on a bit ...
I guess there were several things in play during late October and early November.
First off – this part of the country was (still is) a mystery to me. I grew up in the West (Arizona and California), and my family roots are in the Midwest (Chicago and Wisconsin. No one in my family had ties, or for that matter, had even been to the Southeast. It was all bewildering sea of green kudzu to me. Just the simple juxtaposition of one city to another was less than vague in my mind. Geographically: I was lost! Point being: I wasn't quite as prone to wander because I wasn't sure where I'd even wander to!

As a result, I was spending more of my time hanging closer to the train. My arrangement with the crew for engine sitting was becoming a regular thing, but it was more than that. I think it was collectively sinking in on everyone that the tour would be ending in a matter of weeks. More and more, we realized that various parts of our life of living and working with The Train and each other were becoming a series of “last times.” I think more and more we were taking less and less for granted.

Photo. Tommy in repose, aboard the Crew Car (76). I thought this photo kinda captured the mood of these early November days.

I was talking to Doug (electrician) the other day and he pointed out a little phenomenon I had not really noticed at the time: Move nights had always been hectic and physical. Pushing, lifting, gathering, packing, and bumping around in the dark racing to get everything loaded up and tied down. The deadline was usually midnight. Then the railroad took over for switching and we all scrambled aboard for pizza and beer ... a proper roustabout's finish! But somehow, towards the end, Pie Car John quietly changed all that. He tamed us with his still oven-warm pie and ice cream. How had he done it? How had he turned kegger night into decaf and desert with napkins (yeah – napkins!) without a shot fired? As I understand it, John was a minister of some sort, so maybe he just had a knack for conversion? Or maybe we were simply open to the notion, in the fall of ’76, we'd become “family,” and had come to enjoy a bit of Family Time?

SR Bush
Dutch Flat
 

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Hectic is a mild word for what went on on move nights. It was more like controlled? chaos. As the last customers boarded the entrance car at 10pm, we were poised and ready to go. As soon as the last person was off the ramp, it was dismantled. The night crew had this sort of self choreographed routine we would go through at every stop. Everyone knew what had to be done and we had 2 hours to do it in. At some point during the tour, a bunch of us went to Radio Shack, under the direction of Big Jim Dever, and purchased hard hats with a yellow gumball on top and a siren. Obviously made for kids, they barely fit. When 10pm hit, we all piled out of the bunkcar, lights and sirens wailing. We tore down the site with these things going, it was hilarious. Little things like this kept the atmosphere on board light hearted and the management wondering what we were going to do next.
As far as Pie Car John goes, he could tame anything with his cooking, even the neanderthals of car 200. After the pie and coffee, those cold beers didn't go to waste, after all it was a long night.
Back to my undisclosed bunker, blue 24, aka sp5312 out.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/07/14 20:39 by BoilingMan.

2014 reunion photo .... Jim Dever is in the scooter on the right.

Regards,
Burlington John

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My God John- why does everyone look so old in your photos?!

For anyone with an odd interest in such things, there are a few of the people I've mentioned in my AFT stories in your photo:
Wild Bill, now Mild Bill, was the AFT Curator by the end of the tour and I was his assistant. Together we were the Artifacts Dept, the smallest branch on the AFT flow-chart. Today Bill is a newspaper man, and steps in to edit all my stories because he's tortured by my use of punctuation (kneeling in front, 2nd from the left).
Frank, Head Electrician and VERY early AFT employee, was in my Roanoke story. (standing under the "T" of MILITARY)
Jim, who you pointed out, ran the Night Operations and I worked under him before I joined Artifacts with Bill. Jim was my roomie on the Pullman Car 201 towards the end of '76.
Gail was not mentioned by name, but I complained about having to sleep on the couch on the Pullman- Gail was directly involved in that story (in the blue sweater, standing behind Jim).
Lynn hasn't been in any stories yet, but will appear in my 48th "chapter" in about a week (to the left of Jim with the red scarf).
There may be others here too that I don't recognize 'cause John makes them look so old!
SR