“Remembering the old steam locomotives”

I think the rail road depot was the most popular place for nearly every boy in Clinton.  The older boys would hang near where the locomotive engine stopped and the younger ones the caboose area.

I loved talking to the firemen and engineers and was amazed of the pure power of steam.  When they started moving we could see the pulling wheel slip and then catch.  They had a sand box in front of the pulling wheels and if the load was heavy they sprayed a little sand from it onto the track for traction.  I havae seen where track would be worn on top and figured this was why.

There was a siding there where they left tankers of black strap molasses for adding to feed at Clinton Star Milling, owned by Mr. L. C. Sowell.  A little north of there they would drop two or three cars of coal for Clinton Coal company.  It was next to Ringo Mill and I believe the Ringo`s owned it.  They would deliver to the homes by truck and put it in the coal shed.  It was my job to load the scuttles and carry them into the house.

My brother Tommie was probably the most frequent kid to meet the trains and would talk to the conductors.  Our grandfather, who died before we were born, was a conductor so I think this may explain our fascination of trains and especially the conductors.

He made a lasting friendship with one in particular.

He noticed Tommie missed three days in a row and had the train stop where the caboose was across from our Dad`s office.  He ran over to see if he was OK and was told he was sick.

With no radios the railroaders passed notes.  He would drop notes to Tommie if he was not there or if the train did not stop.  They were rolled into a long cone and a strip of flat lead was attached to the point.

One such note told Tommie to see if he could ride the caboose to Jackson, Tennessee and back the next day.  Amazingly our Mom said yes.

I never saw anyone as excited as him when he got home.

In the Army I rode many streamliners and while at Ft. Benning, Ga.  I rode the Seminole,  The City of New Orleans and the City of Miami regularly but they never had the personality and charisma as the old steam locomotives’.

I really did love that old depot with the big black on white letters designating Clinton where the people on the trains could see where they were.  The depot sign and the Post Office sign is a treasured community identification and are hard to let go of.

When the depot burned I think nearly every fire fighter had hung out there as a kid and it was a hard loss for us.

The telegraph with the Prince Albert tobacco can to make the clackers louder so the telegrapher could hear his call sign when out on the dock,  the old freight carts and especially the big stoves so hot they had a red spot are etched permanently in our memories.

Sometimes if conditions were right and we were in the creek through town we could hear steamboat whistles on the river,  train whistles on the GM and O between Moscow and Laketon and of courst the IC from Arlington to Fulton.  Every captain and engineer had a distinctive whistle if they were not signaling to pass or something else.  They would blow as they entered Clinton at night to say hello to all the kids they had met.

By the time we were 10 or 12 we would mow yards, hunt scrap iron to sell or maybe find drink bottles to collect the deposit then on
Saturday we could ride the local to Bardwell or Fulton to see a matinee and then ride another home.  I can imagine parents allowing that now.  The most popular local was Whiskey Dick.  Now I do not think it was called that because of shoppers or people going to the movies.  Maybe it had to do with the old men full of vigor going over and coming home staggering.

I think it was 20 cent for a round trip ticket to Fulton.  I preferred Bardwell for the theater was close to the the depot and I had family there.  Mostly though it depended on what was being shown.  Bardwell theater seemed to get some of the better movies in the area.

These memories are at least sixty five years old and I am sure I am not 100% on them but I know I am close.