Origins: Casey Jones Anniversary Apr 30

Subject: Origins: Casey Jones Anniversary Apr 30
From: Sourdough
Date: 30 Apr 04 - 11:22 PM

It's been a hundred and four years since Casey Jones took the trip "to the Promised land". For more information about the roots of the song ncluding some very interesting source documents, go to:

http://www.watervalley.net/users/caseyjones/casey.htm#cj

(I couldn't get the clicky-maker to work.)

Sourdough

Subject: RE: Origins: Casey Jones Anniversary Apr 30
From: Deckman
Date: 01 May 04 - 06:48 AM

Back in 1955, I took off from Washington state aiming for Wissconsin. I missed and ended up in Georgia. I was heading into the army that Fall and I wanted to scratch my itchy foot a little. Somewhere in that trip, I found myself standing in the living room of a small house that was the "Casey Jones Museum." I'm not sure, but it might have been in Missouri or Kentucky. (You see one state ... you've seen them all, right?).

This living room was plastered with posters, photos of Casey Jones. Much souvenir stuff was for sale: wooden train whistles, photos, broadsides of the several song versions. The one thing that I remember well was a framed newspaper article that focused on the serious controversy about the authorship of the "real" ballad.

Bob

Subject: RE: Origins: Casey Jones Anniversary Apr 30
From: Sourdough
Date: 01 May 04 - 10:48 AM

Hi, Deckman -

Good to be in touch again.

The story of that museum is on those pages. Mrs. Jones used to live there. Towards the end of her long life (she got to be 92), she was "discovered" by the popular media and by folklorists. She appeared on network radio shows, spoke to songhunters and to pretty much anyone who went to the trouble to seek her, but seems to have remained a sensible and down-to-earth type.

One article mentions that a highway runs near the crash site and there is a historical marker there.

Another mentions that she liked the song but she would not listen to it because of the last verse.

Sourdough

Subject: RE: Origins: Casey Jones Anniversary Apr 30
From: Deckman
Date: 01 May 04 - 09:46 PM

Yes, I do remember that the last verse troubled her. CHEERS, Bob

Subject: RE: Origins: Casey Jones Anniversary Apr 30
From: Haruo
Date: 06 May 06 - 08:43 PM

Yesterday a friend of mine who goes by alkyangel1 posted this snippet to the Yahoo Group "FremontHall", an AA-related group that I moderate. I thought it worth passing on here even though its musical connection is minimal:

   Sunday the 30th ws the 106th anniversary of the train wreck of Casey Jones. Was it a conspiracy? We'll never know. Perhaps the switchman was a secret agent and didn't do his job. Or was it Casey who changed his mind about being a railrod terrorist and decided to hold the train's brake until the bitter end thus saving the lives of the passengers.
    I will not let the conspiracy paranoids or the terrorists run my
life.

   CW

I don't know what "CW" means. It's not his real initials. A Google search didn't reveal any previous appearance of this item.

Haruo