Steam Engine Blues (from Boyhood Tales)

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jwesley
Member Rara Avis

since 2000-04-30

Posts 7563
Spring, Texas

0 posted 2012-04-01 09:49 PM

Alison

Member Rara Avis

since 2008-01-27

Posts 9318
Lumpy oatmeal makes me crazy!

1 posted 2012-04-02 01:39 AM

I am smiling. Nothing better than this poem and photograph. Nothing.

A

ice
Member Elite

since 2003-05-17

Posts 3404
Pennsylvania

2 posted 2012-04-02 05:42 AM

This is wonderful, Jimmy
I like to think you knew I would like it,
as you have made nice comments
on my "boyhood" type poems

It may be 'sixty some years after your early encounters
with the trains, but the man standing by the track,
all those years later is still that six year old boy..eyes open with wonder.

The impulses are still there...the desire to scream and wave..
and admire the man in the caboose, who is not mortal..he is the same guy.

Those impulses will never go away.

Because the past is in your soul, and you feel it as the engine flys by.

"I feel the past in my soul, as my life goes flying by."

very much enjoyed, thank you

"Poetry is an echo, asking a shadow to dance."
Carl Sandburg

Margherita
Member Seraphic

since 2003-02-08

Posts 22236
Eternity

3 posted 2012-04-02 05:49 AM

This is so vivid, dear Jimmy, that I feel like screaming along with you right now. A fantastic revival of a moment in time that can't be forgotten.

Every grown up boy (and girl) of this present time has a train memory in his/her soul, no doubt. You render this magic powerfully.

Margherita

JerryPat2
Member Laureate

since 2011-02-06

Posts 16975
South Louisiana

4 posted 2012-04-02 07:15 AM

The remembrances of youth stay with us forever I think, J, at least those that made us happy, and those that caused us the greatest pain. Love the words spilling out your remembrances . . .

~*~ If they give you lined paper, write sideways. ~*~

jwesley
Member Rara Avis

since 2000-04-30

Posts 7563
Spring, Texas

5 posted 2012-04-02 08:48 AM

Thank you so much, Alison, Ice, Margherita and Jerry,  I vividly remember, shall I say "the end", of the Steam Engine era.  In my "single-digit" years, at least the earlier ones, we lived about two blocks from the RR Tracks, and about three blocks from a RR Yard,and Steam Engines were still the primary powerhouses of the time - very few diesels.  I didn't realize how reminiscent Steam Engines were to become.  Nor how soon.

The one pictured (built in the early '40s) came through my area last year, and will return again in the fall of this year on a yearly good-will trip it makes around the country every year.  If interested,
type 'The 844' in your browser search bar; it's an awesome machine, just the Driving Wheel Diameter being eighty (80) inches - I'm 69 inches tall for reference - in diameter!

And Ice, yeah, figured you'd like it if you read it.  Age definitely brings back the years we didn't realize were moving on.

j

JL
Member Ascendant

since 2004-04-01

Posts 6128
Texas, USA

6 posted 2012-04-02 09:53 AM

What wonderful memories.
Love your "Boyhood Tales"

Enjoyed.

JL

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul,and with all your mind. Love your neighbor as yourself.
Maranatha!

jwesley
Member Rara Avis

since 2000-04-30

Posts 7563
Spring, Texas

7 posted 2012-04-02 10:44 AM

JL --- appreciated the read ....

j.

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