|
Memories of the railroad
Published July 31, 2008
Last week Albertville insurance man, Randy ‘The Duck’ Duckett and I left Joe Abel emerging from his home in the Blount County community of Chepultepec, now a part of the small town of Allgood.
Abel, a genial man, once he understood we weren’t a couple of kooks, shared tidbits of what he knew about Chepultepec.
He told how an old barn near the railroad crossing, gone now, had a sign identifying the place as Chepultepec.
The most important tidbit Joe was “able” – pun intended – to provide concerned the origin of the name Chepultepec.
His understanding was that one or more veterans of the 1847 Mexican-American War Battle of Chapultepec settled here and, he said, “This area so reminded them of the land around where the battle took place, they named it Chepultepec.”
Why the “a” was changed to “e,” no one seems to know – probably a pronunciation or typographical error.
Chepultepec became an officially designated U.S. Post Office in 1848.
Abel said, “The owner of Cheney Lime Company (founded in 1903) was having trouble with customers who couldn’t spell or say the name Chepultepec. So, a request was made, in 1915, that the name be changed to Allgood after the postmaster at the time, Dr. William Allgood.”
Satisfied Abel had provided the basic answers about Chepeltepec’s origins, we began our secondary quest of locating the site of a train-watering tower somewhere between Chepultepec and What Ziggity at a place called Wannanami.
Wanna-what?
We’re not sure either. We received several variant spellings from locals.
Thanking Abel, we began our exploration for Wanna … whatever.
Noticing a lady hanging wash outside a home nestled along side the train tracks, we stopped and spoke with her.
After telling us her father worked for the L&N Railroad for 45 years, and her mother would know more about the train, she began happily sharing her memories related to the passenger trains passing through:
“Right here by this house there was a little way station like a depot. And the men would get about 50 yards down the track, in the middle of the track, and begin waving. They had on overalls.”
Laughing, she added, “What was funny to me was sometimes their pants would fall down because their gallouses would slip, and there they’d just be waving for the train to stop. And the engineer would blow his whistle ‘toot-toot’ for them to get off the tracks.”
Her memories began to flow like coal from a hopper car. “The train would come a-huffin and a-puffin, and red hot cinders from the engine would fly into the air and land on our tin roof,” she said.
“The trains slowed down, blowing special ‘toots,’ signaling the children to come out, and the men threw us chewing gum, or sometimes pears -- they were a real rare treat. We didn’t think about briars or snakes in the bushes – just the goodies.”
Her mom, a delightful octogenarian, said, “I miss the train, its whistle and riding to Oneonta. My father worked for the coal mines.”
She added with a twinkle in her eye, “As children, we use to ride the coal cars and jump off just before they dumped. We heated our house with pieces of coal gathered along the tracks … I have a lot of memories.”
Alas, I don’t have enough space for them all.
We think we know where Wanna… is; not so about sure about What Ziggity.
Next destination: Taint Much Dam.
[George Jones is a staff writer for The Sand Mountain Reporter. His e-mail address is boaz(at)sandmountainreporter.com.]
Share |
Save |
Mail |
Print |
Letter
|
|
|
 |
|
Follow the Reporter on Twitter:
SMR News and
SMR Sports
|
