The Atlantic & Southern Saturday Report

[Judge]

Saturday report delayed until tomorrow morning.  Sorry.

[KentuckySouthern]

Thanks for the report, Judge.

RE: TCS.  I recently looked at the online video for one of their products, can't recall what, at all. BUT my impression was sort of surprised.  The young man in the video was obviously a computer geek like fellow and knew little if much of anything about model trains, he referred to the Chay'-Sis of a loco, I think it (chassis)is said  (chas'-see).  When basic Pronunciation is way off I wonder about anything else.  IE; they've good products, I use tons of their Keep Alive stuff, but think they're a hardware maker, not model railroaders...but, I'm an old late 70 curmudgeon with low expectations of some.  I've never used any of their sound products, trying to stay withing the ESU-Lok family and having enough challenge with that.

My nickle in the grass.

EATON's Curve? Long term Eaton County(MI) apologist here.  ~55yr s.

Looking forward to movies.

KS ECSD K9-163 retired


BTW, How do YOU say Decal? Dee'-Cal here recently heard it Deck'-ul and was    shocked.

[KentuckySouthern]

Saturday report delayed until tomorrow morning.  Sorry.

WTH?  Saw it moments ago.... All y'all messin' with my sanity...sure flumoxed the context of my message...

[jbvb]

BTW, How do YOU say Decal? Dee'-Cal here recently heard it Deck'-ul and was    shocked.

I've head it both ways, but at least among the model railroaders I've heard talk about them, "Dee'-cal" is most common.

[Judge]

The Atlantic & Southern Saturday Report for October 11, 2025.

The Board of Directors met at 0830 hours.  The main discussion was the adjustments needed on the new TCS WOW Sound decoder that features "Chuffinity."  This feature makes steam locomotive sounds more realistic.  The chuffing sound varies with the speed, track level, track conditions, and weight of the train.  Unfortunately, the default settings on the decoder were not satisfactory and TCS has not published a manual to explain how to improve them.  (Those of us who are our age, still read manuals.)  We consulted the latest TCS manual dated 2014, and decided to use it and find out if we could improve the decoder's performance.  We could and we did.  For those of you who have these excellent decoders, give us a shout and we will tell you the settings we selected.
You would think that a company like TCS would shoot a video to explain "Chuffinity."  Instead, they have a "run-by" that explains nothing.  There is a video produced by someone else, but it isn't much help either.  We are sure a 12-year-old will come up with a video explaining the settings.

Recently, your reporter began to introduce the readers to some of the inhabitants of Tahope County who live in the Midlands.  Introductions will continue over the next few weeks, and perhaps a tale or two will be told about the characters you have previously met.  Today we meander down the mainline from Sanlando Station, to Eaton's Curve, which is named after a famous Florida Circuit Judge.

The Inhabitants of Eaton's Curve

Perhaps you have heard the name "Florida Cracker." The name comes from the 1880's when Florida's version of cowpokes lived in the Central Florida area.  The sound their whips made when they herded cattle was a "crack;" hence the name.  Many of their ancestors live in Tahope.  They drive pick-up trucks with rifle racks in the back window and hunt alligators, deer and ducks.    They have Confederate Flag license plates on the front of their trucks.
There are two "cracker shacks" on Eaton's curve.  These shacks have been in place for many years and are in need of indoor plumbing and general maintenance.  There is a small cornfield located adjacent to the lot on which the shacks are located.  A good bit of the corn finds its way to Piney Woods where "idle folk" have a still and make mighty good corn squeezins. The residents of Eaton's Curve have "tied in" to electric power provided by the Tahope Power Co.  The power company does not charge them for electrical usage because they are not listed as customers.
Most "working folks" in Tahope County are related to each other some way or another.  Their family trees have very few branches.  Tallula Fisher lives with her common law husband, Luke, in one of the Cracker Shacks located on Eaton's Curve.  Luke, makes a living harvesting blue crabs from his crab traps on the St. Johns River.  The crab traps sit on the river bottom with a "float" attached to mark their location.  The traps are baited with chicken necks Luke gets from Farmer Perkins in exchange for a share of the crabs.  Florida is the only state in the union that makes it a felony to "molest a crab trap," so Luke guards his traps with a shotgun from a flat-bottomed boat to ward off would-be crab molesters.  Luke augments his crab traps by attaching a line with a chicken neck on it and dropping it to the river bottom near a channel marker.  The critters grab the chicken neck and hold on while Luke reels them in to meet their fate.
Luke works part-time for the A&S Railroad when crabs are not in season.  He "sweeps up" and "helps out" at the depot in Sanlando.

  Tallula spends her days mostly cleaning their shack and doing laundry, which she takes in from neighbors to supplement the family income.  Her washing machine is on the backt porch near the clothes line, which is located in the back yard next to  the house.  Coal dust from passing steam locomotives give her "whites" a distinctive grey color.

Luke and Tallula have a son named Newton Ray Lee, but his friends call him Newt.
Newt is tall, strong, and surprisingly verbal.  He tried to join the navy during the War, but was turned down when he flunked the psychological test.  (He has a pathological fear of accomplishment.)  He is pushing 30 years of age and has never had a job that lasted more than a week or two.  Newt lives with Luke and Talula when he is not in jail or sleeping in The Bottoms.

Vergil Turner and his wife, Daisey, live in the other shack on Eaton's curve.  (Daisey gets her name because most of the citizens in Tahope tend to name all their "wimmin young'uns" after flowers or plants.)  Vergil is Luke's half-brother.  They have a son named Donny, but his friends call him "Short Stack."  Short Stack is a few years younger than his cousin, Newt.  When Daisey, who is blond, thought she might be pregnant with Short Stack, she went to the Tahope family practitioner, Dr. Minnie Staysic, to find out.  After Dr. Staysic confirmed Daisey's condition, she asked her if she had any questions.  Her only question was "Is it mine?"  Short Stack inherited his mother's intelligence.

Virgil's main source of income is sale of moonshine.

Short Stack helps Luke harvest crabs sometimes and other times he rides in the truck with Vergil down to the Sanlando Depot to help Luke clean the place up.  Short Stack gets $.87 an hour for his labor, which he likes to spend at the pool hall in Tahope.
Recently, Newt and Short Stack "went to railroading."  They bummed around Florida looking for odd jobs in railroad yards and accumulating minor criminal charges.

  Disappointed in their career advancement, they have abandoned all full-time employment and have "taken up as homeless vagabonds" in The Bottoms of the A& S Railroad, where they subsist on odd jobs, petty thefts and the fish and other critters they can catch.  They sleep in a lean-to covered with Palmetto fronds.  They keep a fire going in front of the lean-to, with a pot of hot Mulligan stew simmering from dawn until late in the evening.
The vittles are shared with other vagabonds, hobos, and bums who pass through The Bottoms, hoping to nail a ride on a "Pullman Box Car" to parts elsewhere.  The Mulligan stew is "help yourself," provided each hungry traveler contributes something to the pot or shares a bottle of shine from Piney Woods to take the edge off.

Short Stack is in charge of "obtaining" the ingredients for the Mulligan stew when other drifters are not about.  He gets fish, crabs, and turtles from the Tahope and St. Johns Rivers and traps small gators.  The turtles and gator tails dress nicely for the stew and the fish are fried over the fire. (Gator tails taste "jus like chickin.")  The crabs are boiled in river water.  Short Stack's Aunt Betty, who owns Sweaty Betty's Diner, occasionally gives him one of her pies to take back with him for after dinner.

Luke recently learned that his aunt, Mildred Fisher, age 86, who is from Estel Springs (pronounced " Es-tell Sprangs"), Tennessee, would be paying them a visit.  She arrived by train on a Thursday and intended to stay for several weeks. 

The next day, Aunt Mildred needed to take a big number 2, so she headed to the two-holer outhouse located behind the Fisher's shack.
Florida has a lot of things that are either annoying or dangerous.  For example, Florida has a variety of insects, including wasps, sometimes called "yellow jackets" but usually called "wausses" by the locals. 

Unbeknownst to Aunt Mildred, a nest of wausses had attached themselves underneath the seat of the outhouse right next to the hole she selected for use.  When she sat for what she believed would be a leisurely sojourn, several off the wausses took offense and stung her on her most tsender spots.  In a nanosecond, Aunt Mildred was up and running.  She didn't stop until she boarded the ACL Champion and headed back to Tennessee.
Talulla heard all the commotion coming from the back yard so she asked Newt if he knew the wausses were under the outhouse seat.  "No um," said Newt.  I ain't had 'casion to use it today." 

But Newt and Short Stack had a good laugh about it before they smoked the critters out of the outhouse that afternoon.

[Vietnam Seabee]

Good story, Bill

terry

[Rick]

Bill, thanks for the interesting and funny background on some of Tahope County's notable inhabitants.

[ACL1504]

Bill,

Great story. We sure have some non-brainiacs in Tahope and surrounding areas.

Tom

[elwoodblues]

Bill, great stories, well worth the read and thanks for the chuckles.

[Judge]

Thank all of you for your kind comments. 

[KentuckySouthern]

Another fine tale from the fine folk of Tahope and Sanlando bottoms.  I can relate to some of that, as my maternal homestead when I was a "chile" while not quite like the 'cracker shacks' was rather primitive. Most hilarious, to me, was the story about the two holer.  You see my mother WAS Aunt Mildred, known to some like my cousin Herman as 'Auntie "M"'.  But the wausses, known as mud dobbers in deep S. Georgia, usually built their homes up in the joints between the side walls and the tin roof. Right above the bushel basket full of corn cobs and the Sears Catalog.  The water supply was a stainless steel bucket on a chain that Ole Henry 'slow' uncle, was tasked with keeping full from the shallow well he lowered the bucket into on the back screened in porch.  Mom wouldn't let us drink it, but many a sip was snuck using the long handled tin dipper hung on the nail by the outside screen door. 

We did eat better as we had Grandma Sweeter who had a slow and low cooking pot of gen-U-ine Grits on the back burner of the stove and a nice warm fire in the fireplace by the time us Yankee, come and visit but be sure you go back home, visitors were there for Sprang Break. 

Loved the story, Judge.  Eaton's Curve sounds like my uncle Calvin's family enclave in the swamp outside Panama..(City) in the West Bay area.  Buchanan's.  Calvin was a real wheeler dealer in the heavy equipment business, his cards were Calvin's Erection Service I kid you not.

[PRR Modeler]

Great story Bill.

[ReadingBob]

Wonderful story, Bill! Keep up the great work weaving these tales.

[friscomike]

Howdy Bill, 

The Saturday Report was fantastic and provided an informative view into the lives of the Eaton Curvonians.  Thanks for the enjoyable read.

Have fun,
mike

[Jerry]

Bill that was a great story!  So good to see you back at storytelling!

Jerry