"peak seat" is where the engineer sat

This song has haunted me for more than 40 years.

Once I got Tom Rush's version note for note, on my National Duolian, I went back to Booker ("Bukka') Washington White's recordings "Special Streamliner" and "The Panama Limited", and added back what Tom Rush missed, and added my own stuff.

I produced a terrifying story-song about the absolute nature of lost love, fear, begging forgiveness with no chance of ever getting it, people leaving forever and the last glimpse, dark depression, an uncaring universe, and death. If I thought I had the right audience, I ended my set with it. I invariably got a standing ovation, but closer inspection revealed shocked silence and tears.

Annie, my college girlfriend, rode the Panama Limited north from Champaign IL to Chicago in 1977, before Amtrak retired the name in 1981.

I never saw her again.

As the train left the depot, an ancient Black baggage handler pushing a heavily loaded baggage cart passed me. He said over his left shoulder, "She's gone everywhere but home".

I sat down on the asphalt, and cried until I could cry no more.

A high-ball passenger train roared out of a folksong and coiled around me like a boa constrictor. The engine stared me in the eyes with an unblinking, Cyclopean headlight. I don't think it will ever release its grip.

stevesg