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Archiver > FLDUVAL > 2001-11 > 1005154905


From: "Edgar Taylor" <>
Subject: Re: [FLDUVAL] OF HUMAN INTEREST...DO YOU REMEMBER THEM???
Date: Wed, 07 Nov 2001 13:41:45 -0400


Interesting you would mention <<Train>>. Off and on, I have been writing about my early life for my grandchildren, and <<Train>>, as you called him, recently came to mind. This was a very long time ago. I saw him just across the Ortega River in Fairfax - if I remember the area right. He had stopped in front of the grocery store which then was there. He made a few <hoots> and stopped with a <<shush>> or two. Some one said he was <taking on water> for his locomotive. The story goes that he had worked on one of the railroads and had been injuried. Thus, his life as a <train> apparently began.

As I recall he had something hanging from either his neck or clothes. I can't remember now what.

The fact that he was seen in such a wide space within in Jax is interesting.

Only thing about the zoo which sticks in my mind was the smell!
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>From: "Richard Dorman, Jr." <>
>To:
>Subject: [FLDUVAL] OF HUMAN INTEREST...DO YOU REMEMBER THEM???
>Date: Tue, 06 Nov 2001 20:38:26 -0500
>

>Now this is going back, for the 'old timers...Yvonne, this was much
>before your time...back to the 50's...but I remember...does anyone
>remember this old black man everyone called TRAIN...I remember seeing
>him especially down Golfaire Blvd. at night along the rail road
>tracks...I can remember traffic would have to stop as TRAIN would go up
>and down the rail road tracks, he would move forward...making a toot as
>a locomotive...then he would start walking backward as if he was backing
>up....he would do this over and over, having all traffic backed up...Do
>you remember him?
>We can't forget 'old PAULINE...she... (actually a he) didn't know they
>had cross dressers back then huh? Does anyone remember her with her
>umbrella...and her ruby red painted checks? I think she rode every bus
>in town, she would hang out at Hemming Park waiting for her next bus
>ride.
>Remember at the Jacksonville Zoo, a Casey Jones? I don't think I have
>seen him on any of the Jacksonville Cemetery Surveys. 'Ole Casey Jones's
>grave site was out at the Zoo, remember his boots, and conductors cap,
>etc. exposed from the grave...Well folks, I have sad news, I know from
>an excavation my class mates did in 1961...'ole Casey was never there.
>My 4th grade class went on and Easter Egg hunt there...as my class mates
>and I were riding the train, and passed Casey's grave site...a few of us
>jumped off the back of the train...and went to dig up 'ole Casey
>Jones...(now I just watched cause I was a good little boy) we were all
>saddened not finding any old bones...nothing at all but gloves, boots,
>and a cap...What a long walk back for nothing...I remember the next trip
>the train took around the track, with the other class, all the girls
>were frightened, because 'Ole Casey had risen from the grave, with all
>the sand dug away, and his boots gone...the girls started
>screaming...and the conductor had to stop the train to calm the girls
>down. The Zoo Keeper, or what ever the man in charge was called, came
>over to our teachers, and group, and wanted to know who dug up Casey
>Jones...my friend yelled, "Nobody did...he wasn't there" That was the
>best Easter Egg Hunt I ever went on...
>As far as TRAIN, that 'ole black man, do you suppose he could have been
>Casey that came back to visit?
>
>
>

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