TELEPHONE MAN
Part One: Railroad Man
Part Two: The Telephone Man
THE TELEPHONE MAN Part III
VINEGAR BEND, THE MAKINGS OF THE TELEPHONE MAN
Capt. Harry had only been dead for a short while, when daddy found he would have to go to work, to provide for the family. Daddy wanted to work for the M &O Rail Road Company just like his papa. He tried to join, but there were so many men ahead of him; older men who had been with the company for many years, and waiting for an opening. Capt Harry had a friend in Vinegar Bend, Mr. Noel Turner. His family owned everything in and around Vinegar Bend, including the Alabama Train Company. Mr. Turner wanted to help my daddy, to be able to help himself and to get an education; so daddy could climb up in the Company and not always be operating the train physically for the rest of his life. Mr. Turner wanted to send my daddy away to school, also pay for the schooling, then have him come back and join the Company. This wasn’t a choice for daddy. The girls were grown, left home, married and were having children. Daddy was left at home, after Capt Harry’s death, to provide for Grand Maw Minnie and Uncle LaMonte, daddy’s younger brother. Daddy needed to go to work and make money to take care of his family. Daddy kept saying, "Capt. Harry would want him to take care of their family. (At this time, Grand Maw Minnie was a fifty-year-old widow, with a young teenage son, this made daddy the man of the house. Nole Turner was strong about daddy going away to school! Getting his education and then joining the Turner family and working with them.
In 1924, daddy was a well-known teenager in Vinegar Bend. He was well liked because he respected his elders. Mr. Turner recognized that trains were in daddy’s blood. The signs of daddy’s love for the trains stood out more in daddy, than it did in the Turner’s sons and grandsons. Daddy graduated from the eleventh grade. And as much as daddy wanted to attend the school, the Turners planned to provide, so he could further his education, it wasn’t to be.
Vinegar Bend had burned down not once, but twice, in the last few years. There was no work left there for daddy to stay and take care of the three of them. The M &O Rail Road didn’t have an opening for him, The Turner’s held out and insisted that daddy, with out a formal education, would never make it in their Company. Even though they were willing to pay his way to school, daddy must work or the family can’t survive. The Turner’s were good people; they just went by their own rules. Daddy would have to leave Vinegar Bend to find work!
When you leave Mobile, Alabama you go out Highway 45. You travel through several little sleepy towns just sitting there waiting for the depression to follow. A time when all would be going hungry. Loosing their homes and leaving family, neighbors, friends, and Churches behind to set out to find money and jobs in other areas, some of which would never return again.
When daddy left, he told the Turner’s he would return. Let me get Mama and Monte settled. He told them he would be back to take hold of that throttle no matter if it was the M &O or the Alabama Rail Road. Daddy had good intentions of coming back and pick up where Capt. Harry left off. The day daddy left, with uncle Monte and Grand Maw Minnie, as luck would have it; it was a beautiful day blue sky, white clouds. The people, who were left behind, after the fire, came to say good-bye to the Waldrop’s. They were walking around hugging, kissing, bringing gifts and tears; just buckets of tears. They were giving up years and years of neighbors, Church friends and relatives
When you turn off Highway 45, where the Grey Hound Bus stopped to pick up or let off passengers this was about two miles away from Vinegar Bend. You had to walk down two miles of dirt road, and then there was a bridge that crossed over the Escatawpa River. This was where daddy’s papa had taken him swimming. Daddy was walking behind Grand Maw Minnie and Uncle Monte; when he stop to look back at his friends, neighbors and relatives, scattered all over; this was his hometown. Eighteen years of his life had just been swept under the carpet, never to be seen again. The life as he had known it was over, this he knew, as he stepped on to the dirt road leading out of town.
The thing that hurt daddy the most, it still breaks my heart to even think of how he felt that day, when he planted his foot on the dirt road, was when he heard a sound that ripped his heart apart. He turned around just in time to see the M &O Train rolling into Vinegar Bend Depot. The people standing there were waiting to get on the train; some also leaving Vinegar Bend and moving to other places. As the M &O train rolled in, he could vision his papa being at the throttle and slowing her down. He could vision himself standing beside Capt Harry and seeing that big smile and seeing his papa turn around and with that big smile saying, "Well son, another day, another dollar. Lets go home and get on the girl’s nerves by tracking a little mud in." Then his papa would let out a laugh that would stay with daddy until the day daddy died. The last picture daddy carried in his mind of Vinegar Bend, was looking back at the Vinegar Bend Depot, with the M &O Train on one side and the Alabama Train on the other. Making a vow he would one day come back. He would take his place at the throttle and pull that great big old iron horse away from the Depot. He head down to Mobile, then he would be back on the rails and would carry out the dreams he had for himself, and also the dreams of Capt Harry; to have his son take over the throttle.
Daddy walked down the two-mile dirt road, at the curve of the road, it wiped out the view of Vinegar Bend. When he looked back there was nothing but trees. What was left of Vinegar was gone and now all for him to see was trees and the Escatawpa River running under the bridge. Yet, he could still hear the noise the trains were making. His memories of his past had been wiped out, but the sounds lingered with him, until the Grey Hound Bus pulled up. Then a new world open for the young man from Vinegar Bend! Daddy was the last man on the Bus, when he stepped on the Bus; it was like the doors closed, before the Rail Road Man could get on-board. When the Bus drove off to Mobile, "The Rail Road Man, was left standing by the side of the dusty road.
Every summer, till I married, our family went back to Vinegar Bend and Escatawpa! When we pulled off Highway 45, we faced down the now paved two-mile road, daddy would stop and look down that road that he ran and played on as a child. The road was the only way to get somewhere or to come from somewhere; it was the road in and the road out. As I got older, I could tell why daddy really stopped at the long two-mile road, I thought daddy was sitting there thinking about the past, but I finally learned, when daddy drove in Vinegar Bend and stop for a half of minute, he became "The Rail Road Man" again! He could hear the trains passing in the distance even though nether the trains nor the town is still there! The only thing still there, is the little gray wooden depot, with its faded sign "Vinegar Bend". It has lasted since 1848!
 To this day I get a thrill yet a sick feeling when I hear a Train pass somewhere near by. The sound of the whistle blowing still bring back memories. The train may be in an old part of town , but I still want to hear it at tho it is my Grandpapa Capt. Harry at the Throttle and my daddy at his side waiting to take over the Throttle from his
I mostly hear the train and also see it when I'm on my way to Riverdale Cemetery down by Tom Houstons. I still look for the little caboose, which has now been replaced by a little black box. So much for little kids leaning out the windows of the cars and waving at the Brakeman.
 When I''m out taking pictures of rolling trains, it is still a thrill when there is a window and the glass isn't dark , the train engineer will hang out the window smile and wave. This is a thrill some people never let go of.
A Bit of Trivia.
Capt Harry (James Harry Waldrop) worked with the Mobile &Ohio (M &O) Rail Road Company 1887 -1924. Capt. Harry worked with the same Rail Road Company the same years of Casey Jones.
Casey Jones Rail Road Engineer CASEY JONES
Come all ye rounders, if you wanna hear
A story about a brave engineer
Casey Jones was the rounder's name
On a big eight wheeler, he won his fame
Porter called Casey about half past four
Kissed his wife at the station door
Climb to the cab with his orders in his hand
As he took the final journey to the promise land
Chorus:
Casey Jones, mounted to the cabin
Casey Jones, with his orders in his hand
Casey Jones, mounted to the cabin
As he took his final journey to the promise land .
Rain was comin' down for five or six weeks
Track looked like the bed of a creek
It rated him down to a thirty mile gate
Made the southbound mail about eight hours late Fireman says, "Casey you're runnin' too fast'
"You run the block board last station you passed"
Casey says, "Yes, but I think we'll make it through"
"'Cause this engine is a steamin' better than I ever knew"
(Chorus) Casey looked at the water and the water was low
He looked at his watch and his watch was slow
He looked at the fireman and then he said
"We're gonna make it or end up dead" Now Casey said,"Fireman don't you fret"
"Keep knockin' at the fire door and don't give up yet"
"We're gonna run her 'til she leaves the rail"
"Or make it on time with the southbound mail"
(Chorus) Around the curb he spied a passenger train
Headlights shinin' in his eyes through the rain
Casey blew his whistle, a mighty blast
But the other locomotive was comin' fast Casey says "Fireman you'd better jump"
"There's two locomotives and their gonna bump"
The fireman hollered, "It's just ahead!"
"We might jump and make it, but we'll all be dead."
Many thanks to James Coffey for sharing his adaptation of these traditional lyrics.
(John Luther Jones) Casey Jones famous remark: "For I'm going to run her till she leaves the rail or make it on time with the southbound mail." 1900 Casey was killed in an accident. Casey Jones name way a symble of Dariing and Romance
Left: Case Jones
Right: ' speed-about fifty miles an hour-was more than the freight crews bargained for. But when old 638 was within a hundred feet of the end of the siding the horrified eyes of Casey Jones and Sim Webb beheld through the gloom the looming shape of several boxcars in motion, swinging across from the main line to the side-track. In a flash both knew there way no earthly way of preventing a smashup. "Jump, Sim, and save yourself!," was Casey's last order to his fireman. As for himself, Casey through his engine in reverse and applied the air-brakes-all any engineer could do, and rode roaring 638 into a holocaust of crashing wood that splintered like match boxes. Sim Webb jumped, fell into some bushes and was not injured. When they took Casey's body from the wreckage (old 638 had plowed through the cars and caboose and turned over on her side a short distance beyond) they found one hand on the whistle cord, the other on the air-brake lever."I remember," Sim Webb told Casey's widow, "that as I jumped Casey held down the whistle in a long, piercing scream. I think he must have had in mind to warn the freight conductor in the caboose so he could jump."
For more interesting stories about Casey Jone 's wreck and why it happen and how it caused his death please go to the internet.
Casey's Last Ride
by Bruce Gurner
Come all you rounders for I want you to hear
The story told of a brave engineer
Casey's initial railroad experience was as cub operator on the M &O Railroad at Columbus, Kentucky. A few months later he transferred into more active railroading as a brakeman on the line between Columbus and Jackson, Tennessee. With his long range goal of becoming an engineer in mind, Casey made another transfer; this time becoming a fireman on the M &O line between Jackson, Tennessee and Mobile, Alabama. (This could be where Capt. Harry Waldrop and Casey Jones crossed paths on the M &O Rail Road Capt. Harry ran the rails from Ohio to Mobile, Alabama..)
Even tho Casey Jones caused the wreck and loosing his own life , he did hang in there trying to warn the other trains. I cried while telling my Jan about the bits and pieces I found this time researching the story. . I've read Casey Jone's story many times thru the years but for some reason being on the heels of Capt Harry's story, it really touched me.
My Part IV is how my daddy left his dreams of being a Rail Road Man in Vinegar Bend, Alabama , Washington County and becomes a Telephone Man starting in Mobile, Alabama and retiring in Columbus, Georgia. Muscogee. Thanks again for letting me share my memories with you.
Sandra
Part One: Railroad Man
Part Two: The Telephone Man
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