Long Time Gone » Blog Archive » Jackson, Tennessee

27/December/2004

Posted by: John McCrarey @ 9:19 pm | Filed under: General

Home of Casey Jones. You can read about the wreck that made him famous here.

But being in Jackson brings to mind the poem. As a child my father would read us poetry, and this was always among my favorites:

Come all you rounders that want to hear
The story of a brave engineer.
Casey Jones was the rounder’s name,
On a six eight wheeler, boys, he won his fame.

Casey Jones mounted to his cabin,
Casey Jones with his orders in his hand
Casey Jones mounted to his cabin,
And he took his farewell trip to that promised land.

The caller call Casey at half past four,
He kissed his wife at the station door,
He mounted to the cabin with the orders in his hand,
And he took his farewell trip to that promised land.

When he pulled up that Reno hill,
He whistled for the crossing with an awful shrill;
The switchman knew by the engine’s moan
That the man at the throttle was Casey Jones.
He looked at his water and his water was low;
He looked at his watch and his watch was slow;
He turned to his fireman and this is what he said,
“Boy, we’re going to reach Frisco, but we’ll all be dead.”

“So turn on your water and shovel in your coal,
Stick you head out the window, watch those drivers roll;
I’ll drive her till she leaves the rail,
For I’m eight hours late by that Western Mail.
When he was within six miles of the place,
There number four stared him straight in the face.
He turned to his fireman, said “Jim you’d better jump,
For there’re two locomotives that are going to bump.

Casey said just before he died,
“There’re two more roads I would like to ride.”
The fireman said, “Which ones can they be?”
“Oh the Northern Pacific and the Santa Fe.”
Mrs. Jones sat at her bed a-sighing
Just to hear the news that her Casey was dying.
“Hush up children, and quit your crying’,
For you’ve got another poppa on the Salt Lake Line.”

Authorship is often attributed to the fireman and friend of Jones, Wallace Saunders. That seems to be pretty much in dispute, but whatever the source, the story of Engineer Casey Jones is now well-established in the annals of American folklore.

Anyway, I drove 12 hours today to get here. The weather cooperated, cold but dry. Well, after Nashville there were still some slick spots in the road from the Christmas storm and the trees still had ice in the branches. But no problems. In fact I saw a beautiful southern Virginia sunrise near Charlottesville and a great sunset as I pulled into Jackson.

Several times during the drive I thought about how truly wonderful this country of ours is and how much I am going to miss it. Well, it will be here when I get back, and I am taking some beautiful memories with me. Which is all have from this trip since the one thing I forgot to pack was my digital camera. Damn.

On to Eufaula, Oklahoma tomorrow to see the parents. More from there.

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34 Comments »

Wonderful poetry, beautiful drive. May you have many more sunsets to enjoy.

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