Saturday, November 10, 2012

Look Out, Here She Comes . . .



These pictures put me in mind of Guy Clark's song "Texas 1947" . . .

***
Now bein' six years old, I had seen some trains before,

so it's hard to figure out what I'm at the depot for.

Trains are big and black and smokin' - steam screamin' at the wheels,

bigger than anything they is, at least that's the way she feels

Trains are big and black and smokin', louder'n July four,

but everybody's actin' like this might be somethin' more. . .

. . .than just pickin' up the mail, or the soldiers from the war.

This is somethin' that even old man Wileman never seen before. 



And it's late afternoon on a hot Texas day.
somethin' strange is goin' on, and we's all in the way.

Well there's fifty or sixty people, they're just sittin' on their cars,

and the old men left their dominos and they come down from the bars.

Everybody's checkin', old Jack Kittrel check his watch,

and us kids put our ears to the rails to hear 'em pop.


So we already knowed it, when they finally said 'train time'
you'd a-thought that Jesus Christ his-self was rollin' down the line.

'Cause things got real quiet, momma jerked me back,

But not before I'd got the chance to lay a nickel on the track.
 

Look out here she comes, she's comin',
Look out there she goes, she's gone,
screamin' straight through Texas
like a mad dog cyclone.

Big, red, and silver,

she don't make no smoke,
she's a fast-rollin' streamline
come to show the folks.

Look out here she comes, she's comin'
Look out there she goes, she's gone,
screamin' straight through Texas
like a mad dog cyclone.

. . .Lord, she never even stopped.


She left fifty or sixty people still sittin' on their cars,

and they're wonderin' what it's comin' to
and how it got this far.

Oh, but me, I got a nickel smashed flatter than a dime

by a mad dog, runaway red-silver streamline. . . train.

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7 comments:

Ms. A said...

I don't recall hearing that one, but I love your track shots.

Stella Jones said...

Interesting to see those photos. Did you stand on the tracks to take those Vicki?
One thing Larry noticed when he was over here last was how fast our trains came through the stations over here. No-one in their right mind would stand on the tracks. They'd be killed in an instant.
Lovely to see the mountains again.

Brian Miller said...

i grew up by the tracks....i love when i go home to hear it coming in the middle of the night, its part of the song for me...putting a penny on the tracks or a nickle, ha, done that...

JJ Roa Rodriguez said...

me and JC love the trains... those are wonderful shots...

JJRod'z

Barbara Rogers said...

We have freight trains regularly through Black Mountain, and I kind of love them. Not those carrying coal so much, because I'd rather we had clean energy for our elec.(but not nuclear,) and so until everyone lives on solar and wind power...the trains are haunting! I posted pics of the Smoky Mountain Railway train earlier this week, so love having the song words.

Wayfarin' Stranger said...

Neat shots, Vivki. Between downtown and the river in Marshall?

Glenda Beall said...

Vicki, I really enjoyed that poem. Reminds me of others I read years ago. Also I have train memories, too.
Thanks for the photos and for sharing the poem.