The Atlantic & Southern Saturday Report

[BandOGuy]

Can't wait for the next edition of the Report. You'll have two weeks to try and top this one.

[Judge]

Jerry,

I am sorry I have to explain the reason why Taylor called out the name "Jim."  I'm sure other readers picked up on the obvious answer.  You see, Taylor's regular fireman's name is Billy Bob Fisher.  Billy Bob is the cousin of Newt Fisher (see page 8 - The Inhabitants of Eaton's Curve), but he had the day off so Jim took his place.  You wouldn't expect Taylor to call out "Billy Bob" when Jim was there, now would you?

I feel I must comment that your analysis failed to recognize the major question in the story.  The question left unanswered is why Taylor risked his life swimming across the river when he could have climbed over the river on the wreckage of the bridge?

BTW, Billy Bob's mother, Petunia Fisher, helps supplement the family income by picking fruit from the Nit trees that grow near the river bank.  This fruit can be ordered from Petunia by the two-pound box. (It takes a lot of Nits to make two pounds.)  Or, like most of us when the occasion arises, you can pick them yourself.

Stay safe and keep the comments coming.   

[jrmueller]

Always look forward to your stories Judge.

[Zephyrus52246]

Another good one, Judge.

Jeff

[GPdemayo]

Close call for all.....great yarn Bill. 

[ReadingBob]

Great story Bill but I want to know if Jim survived unscathed after he jumped and hit the cinders.   

[jerryrbeach]

Jerry,

I am sorry I have to explain the reason why Taylor called out the name "Jim."  I'm sure other readers picked up on the obvious answer.  You see, Taylor's regular fireman's name is Billy Bob Fisher.  Billy Bob is the cousin of Newt Fisher (see page 8 - The Inhabitants of Eaton's Curve), but he had the day off so Jim took his place.  You wouldn't expect Taylor to call out "Billy Bob" when Jim was there, now would you?

I feel I must comment that your analysis failed to recognize the major question in the story.  The question left unanswered is why Taylor risked his life swimming across the river when he could have climbed over the river on the wreckage of the bridge?

BTW, Billy Bob's mother, Petunia Fisher, helps supplement the family income by picking fruit from the Nit trees that grow near the river bank.  This fruit can be ordered from Petunia by the two-pound box. (It takes a lot o Nits to make two pounds.)  Or, like most of us when the occasion arises, you can pick them yourself.

Stay safe and keep the comments coming.   

Your Honor,


No question but what I was guilty of picking a nit out of season.  It wasn't the first time and, quite honestly, may not be the last.  In my defense I would like to say that it was definitely a low hanging nit fruit and I simply couldn't resist the temptation.  I recently saw a T shirt that said, "In my defense I was unsupervised at the time".  I think that says it all and I throw myself on the mercy of the court.


Do you happen to have any idea what the shipping would be if I should be tempted to order a box of Nits from Petunia Fisher?

[Judge]

Jerry - When you order Nits from Petunia, you have to pick them (no pun intended) up from her place, which is located on the river near where the bridge was burned.  Petunia serves swamp cabbage, turtle soup, freshwater mussels, grits, blue crabs, fried catfish, and hush puppies on Sunday nights for supper to all comers at $2.00 a plate.  She doesn't have a crab trap so she catches the crabs by dangling a chicken neck on a string into the river next to the channel buoy.  The crabs latch onto the chicken neck and Petunia hauls them up and puts them in a bucket.  Most folks pick up their Nits on Sundays after supper.  It takes a pick-up truck to haul away two pounds of NIts.  Nits are like soap, they smell good but taste bad.  Just sayin'.

[deemery]

This DamnYankee asks, "What's a nit?"


dave

[postalkarl]

Hey Judge:

It's looking really great. Keep the photos coming.

Karl

[Judge]

Dave - I knew someone would have to inquire as to just what a "nit" is.  A "nit" is a small, almost weightless fruit that tends to be harvested by similarly small and weightless critics of insignificant defects in otherwise authentic replicas of model railroad construction, rolling stock, motive power, or scenery effects.  (The list is not conclusive.)  Those who participate in this abomination are referred to as "Nit-pickers."  They are shunned, despised, and rightly subject to the opprobrium of other model railroaders.  These slimy worms point out defects like the absence of nail holes on a wooden structure or the presence of a D&RGW diesel cruising through a Florida swamp when there is ample justification for such a prototypical anomaly.     

[deemery]

OK.  I'm just glad you weren't harvesting the eggs of lice and selling them to unsuspecting DamnYankees!!!     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louse


dave

[Judge]

Saturday Report - November 7, 2020

The Board of Directors met at 0830 hours.  Progress has been delayed on the completion of the country church and cemetery, mostly due to transporting more of Jim Miller's rolling stock and equipment to the A&S liquidation center.

We swapped out the E6 lash-up for an E7 lash-up to power the ACL Champion, but the speaker in the lead unit appears to have gone bad and produces static.  Fortunately, all three units are powered, so we sent the lead unit to the shop and proceeded in the A-B configuration.  Which reminds me, when I was first elected there was a club in Sanford composed of eight or ten elderly retired railroaders who called themselves the Coastliners.  They met for bar-b-que once a month and one of them, who was a bailiff at the courthouse, invited me to join them.  Some of these guys went back to the steam era and one had been an engineer on ACL's famous 4-8-4's.  They told me that when the ACL first acquired the E6's, they used to connect three units together in the hopes that two of them would run.  I guess things never change.

After the Champion made her run, we sent her to the Bottoms and fired up the K4s, powering the Jacksonian.  Then we went to lunch and called it an early day.  After all, there is the Florida-Georgia game this afternoon and we cannot risk missing that.

This week's story is another installment of the saga of Donny "Shortstack" Turner.

                                                                                                        Shortstack finds a girlfriend

    Donny "Shortstack" Turner, who is the son of Luke and Daisey Turner, grew up in one of the two "cracker shacks" on Eaton's Curve.  Our story begins after Shortstack had "growed up a bit" from his last adventure washing dishes on the Champion and signed on as a brakeman for the ACL.  He was surprised to learn that due to the illness of the regular brakie, he had drawn the job of head shack on the Southwind for its run from Tampa to Jacksonville and back. 
    Now Shortstack isn't the brightest bulb in the box, but his heart is in the right place and he was proud to be braking on a passenger run.  He reported to the Supply Shed and drew his passenger uniform and his brakeman's cap.  Shortstack had never had such a prestigious job in his life, although he had broke for the railroad briefly in freight service.  The ACL passenger crew uniform was the highest quality clothing he had ever worn and his brakeman's cap gave him both authority and prestige.
    He rode dead-head to Tampa on the Jacksonian to catch the Southwind at Tampa Union Station the next morning.  He checked into the railroader's hotel and decided he would see the action in Ybor City before turning in for the night.  after dinner at a Cuban cafe, he wandered into a watering hole, found a stool at the bar, and ordered a beer. 
    In a few minutes, he noticed a strange, but attractive young girl had taken the stool beside him.  The girl, who looked vaguely familiar, said, "Hi Shortstack, remember me?"  Sho' nuff, it was Boxcar Bonnie.  (See p. 54).
    "I been picking strawberries out of Plant City," she said, "and I'm a-heading nawth for potatoes in Hastings."  "How are y'all gonna git there," Shortstack asked?  "I''m hoping a freight around dawn," she said.  "No need to do that," said Shortstack, "I signed onto the ACL and pulled the head shack job on the Southwind.  I'll smuggle you onto the train and take you to Hastings in style." 
    The Southwind is the morning train from Miami/Tampa to Chicago, with the Tampa section leaving Tampa Union Station at 9:45 a.m. and connecting with the Miami section in Jacksonville.  Shortstack smuggled Bonnie onto the last Pullman on the train and bribed the porter to allow her to ride in a vacant compartment.  He joined her in the compartment during the thirty-minute ride from Tampa to Lakeland and they got to know each other better.
    Bonnie asked Shortstack if she could delay her trip to Hastings and make a temporary sojourn in the Bottoms with Shortstack.  He agreed and Bonnie detrained at Sanlando.  The porter defused the compartment with Air-Wick and Shortstack continued on to Jacksonville, returning to Sanlando the next day. 
    Shortstack found his way to the Bottoms in the cab of a drag and eagerly wandered over to his lean-to in search of Bonnie.  She had spent the time waiting for Shortstack to return sprucing up the place and improving its privacy aspects.  Short Stack's cousin Newt Fisher, had been in residence in the lean-to, but Bonnie would not have other roommates.  "Get the hell out," she suggested! 
    Bonnie had built a fire, made girts, and fried up a mess of catfish and hushpuppies by the time Shortstack threw down his duffle bag.  Bonnie was most pleased with her new man; after all, he was not unattractive and he had a good job with the railroad.  What more could she ask for?  She poured him a Ball jar of corn squeezins and they settled under the mosquito netting for the evening. 
    Could Shortstack have actually found a job he can keep longer than a week?
    Could it be true love between Shortstack and Bonnie?
    When Bonnie bathes in the river does it improve the smell?
    Who will win their first fist fight?
 
    To be continued.

[Zephyrus52246]

A cliffhanger.     Good story so far, Judge.

Jeff

[deemery]

Saturday Report - November 7, 2020
...
    To be continued.

Cool!  An old fashioned serial, just like they showed at the motion picture show!

dave