I'm So Confuused!!!

I am usually not one to quote Vinnie Barbarino, but the last few hours have been very unsettling. As I mentioned on Phil's Bean thread, several posts here today had me thinking about East Texas, and I decided to write a blog - my first one in a while. I was pleased, in the beginning; it came together quite well, I thought. So I tried to save it. But it seems, since my last blog, Webs has changed its format, and I couldn't figure out how to do that. Luckily, I did copy the thing, or I would be really screaming right now. Really loud screaming. It took me twice as long to figure out how to post the darn thing as it did to write it.

But I did it. and now I officially have another blog entry. It is entitled, "Wobble, bobble, Turnover and Stop," and can be read here:

http://www.annjoiner.com/myblog.htm

...should anyone be interested. It was inspired partly by Dick's thread about the VA, and partly by the wonderful pics of old railroads. Since getting it done nearly drove me bonkers, I hope someone here will read it.

Ann

Nice post. I'm glad I wasn't on the train when the story happened.

I love the pet name of the railroad. I was a rail museum collections manager for a number of years, and it was always fun seeing the local sly and humorous names of well-known lines.

Malcolm

Those of you who have read, Iowa Born and Bred, know about my solo train trip to California when I was eleven, financed by me from confirmation gift money and blessed by my mother whose mother was very possessive and protective. My mother was determined to be a different kind of mother.

It was a fantastic trip, but in the days of diesel not steam, and I have put a picture of the possible engine in my gallery since I couldn't figure out how to get it on this message.

I think perhaps my mother had someone watching over me, but I never really thought about it on the trip as I was having the time of my life, even getting off the train when it stopped in Salt Lake City. My mother never told me the details, except everyone thought she was crazy for letting me go. I went to visit my great-grandmother, a grandmother my mother had never met.

It made a big difference in my life. It reminds me of Dick saying he could do what he wanted at four.

I love trains. Nice blog Ann.

Carol

Nice story Ann. I was again taken by your writing style as with your book, "Myth in Action."
As for the train ride, I cannot relate to that. In my youth I saw trains - many of them, but didn't ride one until I was on my way home on my first furlough after basic training in the USAF, but that's another story.

Great story, Ann,

Your uncle reminds me of my brother.

My train picture mysteriously appeared. Thanks to however it got there!

I absolutely love trains. Living just outside the Chicago boundary, trains got us to the city from my very earliest childhood days until I left home. We have ridden three trains in the last month, two short rides on narrow gauge railroads and another on a single train car out of Duluth. I have also always loved train sets, and we have a train that goes around the ceiling of a room in our house.

When we took my parents to the UK in the early 1900s, we rode a narrow gauge train in Wales.

Ann, I agree with Abe. You have a beautiful writing style.

Carol

I left a comment on the blog, Ann. It named me "anonymous" so I'll repeat that Uncle Feagin was my kind of guy.
As a kid and young man I spent a lot of time on trains. Loved them. I would have enjoyed Carol's trip.
One of my saddest moments as a reporter was riding the last passenger train on the New York Central for about 20 miles and then writing a story about it. I had many happier trips over that line.

I've added a larger version of this photo of the Windham clan to my Family page on my website.

Left to right: John Clayton(the baby); Edna Earle (Mom); Feagin Waverly; Thomas Hinton III (the photographer - he would set family photos with a delay, then scramble into the picture and look totally composed);James Neal. My mother was upset with her brothers for clowning around and not taking the picture seriously. When Tom developed it, they all decided it was a great picture of all of them except her. "Good Lord, Etnie," Feagin said of the picture, "You look just like Eleanor Roosevelt!" Mom gave her typical reply: "Oh h**l, Feagin!"



Feagin, BTW, ended up having five children of his own. After Nita, the youngest was born, both my parents said, "God is good."

Ann

Yes, I like Feagin. How did they come up with that name for him?

He was named for an ancestor, several generations back. The only other character I know of with the name is Dicken's Fagin from Oliver Twist. Our Feagin had a penchant for honesty. Maybe he was trying to live down the name.

Ann

Good story Ann. I enjoyed it and left a comment.