(erielack) Re: (wnyhistory) Driving Park (fwd)

[Blue Moon Network Administrator <root_@_net.bluemoon.net>]

This story refers to the Erie and DL&W tracks just west of Main St. and just 
east of International Junction in North Buffalo.

Henry

J. Henry Priebe Jr.       Blue Moon President & Network Administrator
root_@_bluemoon.net         www.bluemoon.net - Blue Moon Internet Corp
V.90, X2 & K56flex        www.railfan.net  - The Railfan Network

P.S. For those not familiar with the term "pogeying" it refers to sliding
behind automobiles on slick winter streets by holding on to their bumpers.


- ---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 1 Mar 2002 16:13:22 EST
From: WDixon3797_@_aol.com
Reply-To: WNYHistory_@_lists.Buffalonian.com
To: WNYHistory_@_lists.Buffalonian.com
Subject: Re: (wnyhistory) Driving Park

And in the fifties we always hopped trains where Shoshone Park backed up to 
Tacoma and Taunton.The biggest fears we faced were from railroad dicks who 
would always chase you on those rare occasions when they saw you(and slap you 
around and warn you and let you go) and what we called "hobos",of which there 
were quite a few who lived in hobo camps in the woods in Shoshone Park.As a 
youngster in the early 50's I was scared of the hobos ,as were all my 
cohorts,because they were grown up,big,wore dirty clothes,and threw things 
and tried to catch you if they saw you "spying"on their camp in the Shoshone 
woods.

Many of those who lived on Taunton had regular visits from the men who rode 
the rails who would literally offer to wash your windows or rake your leaves 
or the like for something to eat.And we regularly saw a chalk or crayon-like 
mark on the curb in front of those houses on Taunton where the occupant was 
usually good for a sandwich in return for work.These marks on the curb by the 
men of the road in front of homes  where the missus didn't immediately call 
the police when you approached the home,of course,became the basis for the 
idiomatic term that someone was "an easy mark"

Many of us from the North Buffalo area stopped hopping trains from Shoshone 
in the middle '50's not because we discovered girls,but because there were 
two accidents in a single summer where two different train hoppers slipped 
under the wheels on the elevated grade and one had his arm amputated and the 
other a part of his leg, and for those who didn't see the accidents we all 
talked about the railroad dick walking the tracks  with the severed arm in a 
clear plastic bag looking,presumably,for other body parts.We went back to 
jumping on the back of the dozens of Hall Bakery trucks returning to the 
bakery in the afternoon via a route which made them stop at a stop sign at 
Parker and Tacoma where we jumped on,and in the winter to pogeying at "five 
corners" at Voorhees and Tacoma.To us it somehow seemed less dangerous.
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