You hear a few tales out here in the Spanish Moss. Too many to remember and one more fanciful than the other. Some ring true, though. This one really rings true.
Out past Honey Island on a sandy plot of real earth there was built a church, so they say. It was a small church. Maybe room for ten souls. Maybe less. Building something on a small island in the Okefenokee is a fool's business. Nothing here is permanent, not even the every-flowing St. Lawrence.
The church was built by the hands of Brother Michael. He was a simple man from the upper east, a man with calloused hands and rugged determination. Brother Michael knew of the unwashed and unsaved in this desolate place and came to give them their chance at the Lord's grace.
He built the church with the help of a few Swampers and traded them goods and shootin' irons for their trouble. Coffee went a long way here. So did ammunition. The church was drafty and drippy but served its purpose. When it wasn't housing a local 'possum it was used for hymn singin' along with hell-fire and brimstone.
It had no chairs, just logs with legs bored into the wood. There was no pulpit. The only window was from an old shed and it was chopped into the back where a slight draft could come through from the door, should there ever be a draft. But Brother Michael knew it wouldn't be a church if no one knew it was there.
So Brother Michael brung a bell. Yes sir, a real brass bell. The bell, they say was from an old steamship or locomotive. He bought the bell with his own savings. Two men and three pole boats carried it out and with great trepidation they hung it in the make-shift steeple. It was a proud day when they rang the bell.
The Lord saw fit for Michael to come home by the aid of skeeter that just happened to light on him one evening after supper. He took the fever and was gone home in only a few days. With no preacher the swamp took back what was rightfully hers in short order and the bell lays silently in the march grass under water.
You can still see it if you like. Just make sure the old gators don't mind you lookin'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqOBGvp6ycE
Showing posts with label swamp stories. Show all posts
Showing posts with label swamp stories. Show all posts
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Don't Go Past Gator's Shack
There's a half million square miles of swamp here in the Okefenokee, or the Oak-fen-oak as the Swampers call it. Lots of places for a man who doesn't want to found to lose hisself. Basically I tells 'em to never go past Gator's Bait Shack. That's evil enough for me but sometimes a man needs a snort and a card game.
See, here on Billy's Island life is kinda simple and easy. We've got some law here in the reality that the company owns everything and if you screw up you lose your job and your family starves. That's good kind of law. But out there the Queen of the Okefenokee, who carries a gun in her apron, will shoot you just for looking at her cows.
As you get deeper in the swamp, the more villainous of its inhabitants make their homes. Simple shacks of old cypress board and metal roofing. You can't live here without a gun and if you can't shoot straight you're liable not to eat. There's not a lot of honest ways to make money here unless you like gutting gators. Can't have a still. Can't poach on company ground. Can't grow crops and can hardly raise cattle.
Back in the deep swamp there are criminals. Wanted and desperate men. Crazy women who's husbands dragged them here and then cursed them even more by dying early. Hattie is one of those women. Town's folk says she's a witch. Others say she's just insane from not being able to sleep at night amongst the snake filled black waters. Not many have seen her. At least not seen her and come back to tell about it.
I have...
http://www.rhapsody.com/jim-stafford/the-best-of-jim-stafford/swamp-witch/lyrics.html
See, here on Billy's Island life is kinda simple and easy. We've got some law here in the reality that the company owns everything and if you screw up you lose your job and your family starves. That's good kind of law. But out there the Queen of the Okefenokee, who carries a gun in her apron, will shoot you just for looking at her cows.
As you get deeper in the swamp, the more villainous of its inhabitants make their homes. Simple shacks of old cypress board and metal roofing. You can't live here without a gun and if you can't shoot straight you're liable not to eat. There's not a lot of honest ways to make money here unless you like gutting gators. Can't have a still. Can't poach on company ground. Can't grow crops and can hardly raise cattle.
Back in the deep swamp there are criminals. Wanted and desperate men. Crazy women who's husbands dragged them here and then cursed them even more by dying early. Hattie is one of those women. Town's folk says she's a witch. Others say she's just insane from not being able to sleep at night amongst the snake filled black waters. Not many have seen her. At least not seen her and come back to tell about it.
I have...
http://www.rhapsody.com/jim-stafford/the-best-of-jim-stafford/swamp-witch/lyrics.html
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Springtime in Gator Country
Mr. Hopkins told the crew to lay off this morning. Its raining...again. It's been raining now for a week and a half. Two members of the right-o-way crew already have reported some of the track pilings floating down the prairie. Some parts of the islands are flooded and there are lots of branches on the tracks. You can see the steam coming off the rails as the warm temperatures start to bake the ties.
Spring is here in South Georgia. Just one notch below Hades on the thermometer. Skeeters are starting to lay eggs and the alligators are going to mound. You can hear the bulls bellowing all night long, making your lantern rattle in shack. Everything is green exceptin' the grey cypress trunks.
Rex and Eugene worked on one of the Porters most of the day. She needed a little TLC. Rex cursed and swore as he continually wiped raindrops from his face, thanks to the leaky tin roof. You can hear the sizzle of the drops as they land on the furnace's vent hood. Eugene had to shoo away a little corn snake that had decided he'd had enough swimming for the day.
Outside its as dark as night as the thick clouds roll over the Okefenokee. Lightning reflects off the black water followed by the low, rolling thunder clap. Water is pooling up in the shop floor.
Coffee is hot, so help yourself.
Spring is here in South Georgia. Just one notch below Hades on the thermometer. Skeeters are starting to lay eggs and the alligators are going to mound. You can hear the bulls bellowing all night long, making your lantern rattle in shack. Everything is green exceptin' the grey cypress trunks.
Rex and Eugene worked on one of the Porters most of the day. She needed a little TLC. Rex cursed and swore as he continually wiped raindrops from his face, thanks to the leaky tin roof. You can hear the sizzle of the drops as they land on the furnace's vent hood. Eugene had to shoo away a little corn snake that had decided he'd had enough swimming for the day.
Outside its as dark as night as the thick clouds roll over the Okefenokee. Lightning reflects off the black water followed by the low, rolling thunder clap. Water is pooling up in the shop floor.
Coffee is hot, so help yourself.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
The Midnight Special
Our spring break plans were trashed yesterday so my wife gave me the night off! Hooray! So at 6:00 in the evening and during dinner, I start calling the crew to see who can come over. Bob and Paul were available so we started working on the benchwork again.
I put the coffee pot on, baked some cookies and headed to my sawdust covered paradise. Paul came in and we immediately started talking about his really cool layout under construction. He was telling me how the East Broad Top might be loaning his railroad some hoppers. Being an EBT fan I was all ears.
Bob came over shortly after and we began on the right hand side of the layout. We finished the cantilevers (two of them) and the joist, which were already cut by Steve and Ken the worknight before. We decided to put the first cantilever at the weak point which is also the narrow point of the layout, then the second one in the middle of the nine foot L-girder.
These both require cutting an angle that is steeper than the 50 degree limit of my chop saw. I'm not aware of a better way to do it so we were unsafely holding it and cutting by using teamwork. Later in the evening Bob was cutting a short piece by himself as Paul and I looked on. Little did we know that this 2x2 piece has a serious knot inside that was invisible to the naked eye. It went off like a gun shot and the saw through the piece at me like a bullet. It crashed about a foot away from my face and into the sheetrock. I staggered and caught my fall as I landed in the next room. I kindly excused myself, changed my underwear, and went back to work. I do wear safety glasses for just such projectiles. Needless to say it made me jumpy the rest of the night. Later in the evening the guys broke a small profile board and I hit the dirt, much to their delight.
Since the L-girders were pitched at an angle and not parrellel to the wall, we had to notch the 2x2 uprights to make them fit. We carefully measured, cut way the excess with a chiesel, test fit the piece, noticed it was upside down, and began the process again. I laughed way to much last night, amidst dodging flying lumber.
After finishing the left side, we grabbed a cookie and a fresh cup of Joe and headed to the left side. We completed another six feet of bench and then retired to the talking table.
The rolling table module which we are now calling "the gurney" has still not been finalized. The guys brought up some great ideas and I had a few as well. Still, nothing struck my fancy. Paul came up with an excellent idea of making a mock up so I grabbed to eight foot boards and Bob dropped in a 34" cross piece and we pretended we had the module. Paul and I moved it around and we really began to understand that it was huge! Nine feet won't work and neither will 34" wide, so it either has to be 8' x 32" or two pieces. I'm really not liking the option, so I'll think about it more this evening. I might need to change the trackwork, but the track is EXACTLY like the Billy's Island trackage and it will break my heart to move it around.
At midnight we decided to pack it up and walked back into the train room to gather our jackets when Bob got the itch to put up a simulated fascia board just to see how the layout would look. I had some 4" pieces of luan plywood scrap, so we screwed them in place and the layout is going to look GREAT!
It's great to have good friends that will drop what they are doing and come play. Steve, we missed you but we know you work long hours.
I've gotten a lot of requests to start the Swamp Stories again. These are coming from the guys on the On30 Conspiracy from several years ago when the swamp modules were being constructed. I think I'll crank them up or at least post some old ones. At the time I was constructing some scenic test modules for the swamp. Here is a picture of one section with a crossing and piling bridge. It was destroyed when the "water" I poured reacted with the sealing paint on the foam and devoured the module.
I put the coffee pot on, baked some cookies and headed to my sawdust covered paradise. Paul came in and we immediately started talking about his really cool layout under construction. He was telling me how the East Broad Top might be loaning his railroad some hoppers. Being an EBT fan I was all ears.
Bob came over shortly after and we began on the right hand side of the layout. We finished the cantilevers (two of them) and the joist, which were already cut by Steve and Ken the worknight before. We decided to put the first cantilever at the weak point which is also the narrow point of the layout, then the second one in the middle of the nine foot L-girder.
These both require cutting an angle that is steeper than the 50 degree limit of my chop saw. I'm not aware of a better way to do it so we were unsafely holding it and cutting by using teamwork. Later in the evening Bob was cutting a short piece by himself as Paul and I looked on. Little did we know that this 2x2 piece has a serious knot inside that was invisible to the naked eye. It went off like a gun shot and the saw through the piece at me like a bullet. It crashed about a foot away from my face and into the sheetrock. I staggered and caught my fall as I landed in the next room. I kindly excused myself, changed my underwear, and went back to work. I do wear safety glasses for just such projectiles. Needless to say it made me jumpy the rest of the night. Later in the evening the guys broke a small profile board and I hit the dirt, much to their delight.
Since the L-girders were pitched at an angle and not parrellel to the wall, we had to notch the 2x2 uprights to make them fit. We carefully measured, cut way the excess with a chiesel, test fit the piece, noticed it was upside down, and began the process again. I laughed way to much last night, amidst dodging flying lumber.
After finishing the left side, we grabbed a cookie and a fresh cup of Joe and headed to the left side. We completed another six feet of bench and then retired to the talking table.
The rolling table module which we are now calling "the gurney" has still not been finalized. The guys brought up some great ideas and I had a few as well. Still, nothing struck my fancy. Paul came up with an excellent idea of making a mock up so I grabbed to eight foot boards and Bob dropped in a 34" cross piece and we pretended we had the module. Paul and I moved it around and we really began to understand that it was huge! Nine feet won't work and neither will 34" wide, so it either has to be 8' x 32" or two pieces. I'm really not liking the option, so I'll think about it more this evening. I might need to change the trackwork, but the track is EXACTLY like the Billy's Island trackage and it will break my heart to move it around.
At midnight we decided to pack it up and walked back into the train room to gather our jackets when Bob got the itch to put up a simulated fascia board just to see how the layout would look. I had some 4" pieces of luan plywood scrap, so we screwed them in place and the layout is going to look GREAT!
It's great to have good friends that will drop what they are doing and come play. Steve, we missed you but we know you work long hours.
I've gotten a lot of requests to start the Swamp Stories again. These are coming from the guys on the On30 Conspiracy from several years ago when the swamp modules were being constructed. I think I'll crank them up or at least post some old ones. At the time I was constructing some scenic test modules for the swamp. Here is a picture of one section with a crossing and piling bridge. It was destroyed when the "water" I poured reacted with the sealing paint on the foam and devoured the module.
Sunday, December 24, 2006
Merry Christmas
Merry Christmas, you'uns!
Down here in the Okefenokee things is a kinda quiet. We finally got
the snakes out of Old No. 1's cab and the Alligator Catcher on No. 6
has been fixed. Gladys and Gertrude, the logging alligators have
been given a pig a' piece and are sleeping comfortable near the shop
stove. We hope Santa doesn't come down the flue again. I had to
pay him for his pants last time.
We ain't got none of them fancy signal lights for Santa, but Gator
down at Gator's Bait Shack said he'd leave the light on for the Big
Guy. He's kinda worried about the Reindeer as it is huntin' season
down here in South Georgia. Gator says he's leaving out Shine n'
Cookies for Mr. Kringle.
Appears that Wild Mabel left her red light on, too.
Ya'll have a merry one, ya hear?
Scott Perry
Woods Foreman
Waycross & Southern RR Co.
Down here in the Okefenokee things is a kinda quiet. We finally got
the snakes out of Old No. 1's cab and the Alligator Catcher on No. 6
has been fixed. Gladys and Gertrude, the logging alligators have
been given a pig a' piece and are sleeping comfortable near the shop
stove. We hope Santa doesn't come down the flue again. I had to
pay him for his pants last time.
We ain't got none of them fancy signal lights for Santa, but Gator
down at Gator's Bait Shack said he'd leave the light on for the Big
Guy. He's kinda worried about the Reindeer as it is huntin' season
down here in South Georgia. Gator says he's leaving out Shine n'
Cookies for Mr. Kringle.
Appears that Wild Mabel left her red light on, too.
Ya'll have a merry one, ya hear?
Scott Perry
Woods Foreman
Waycross & Southern RR Co.
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