Working on the Railroad

Lamar Perkins worked for the Oregon Short Line. (O.S.L.)

They called the man who laid the track a gandy dancer because of the rhythm the hammer made on the spike.  It took eight to ten men to lay a mile a day.

Lamar worked as a machinist for the railroad.  He worked at the back house and round house to work on the engines.  During the war years, Lamar worked as an inspector.  He disliked that.

One time Lamar’s lunch pail came up missing.  About twenty years later a foreman said, “Lamar, here’s your lunch pail, what’s it doing on that engine over there.” It still had his name on it and someone else had been using it all that time.

When working at the railroad, the round house was the worst place to work.  It was usually smoky and dirty.  Cold in the winter and hot in the summer.  When he worked up in Ashton, they kept the engines running to keep the tracks clear of snow.  To turn the engine around they had a Y in the track.  It took a lot of room and time.

(1929 Elaine and Lamar Perkins, Ashton, ID)

 

(1929 Lamar Perkins)

 

(1945 Mack's Inn, Idaho, North of Ashton, ID)

Petrified Watermelons

Edwin remembers driving through Glenns Ferry on a family trip and seeing a roadside sign pointing out large rocks that were petrified watermelons.  His son Bill told him the rocks were left behind by the glaciers.

(1937 Edwin, Evelyn, Elaine, and William Keith Perkins)

 

From www.hugefloods.com

Melon Gravels.....As the water ripped through narrow reaches of the Snake's (River) canyon, it dislodged large basalt boulders and tumbled them downstream. Within a few miles these boulders had been rounded with diameters ranging from three feet to ten feet. These remnants were given the name melon gravels after geologists observed a billboard that advertised one patch of boulders as "petrified watermelons."

 

 

 

 

Childhood Chores

Evelyn and Edwin would use the push mowers to mow the lawn.  It was a chore for the kids and there was a lot of it to do.

 

(1937 Edwin, Evelyn, Elaine, and William Keith Perkins)

A Knife For Christmas

One year at Christmastime, Edwin brought home his pay, while they were living Texas.  Denece lost the cash, she couldn't find it anywhere.  Denece wrote letters to everyone that she mailed packages to for Christmas, to see if she mailed it to them by mistake.  Elaine wrote back wondering why she had included the butcher knife.  She was concerned that Edwin and Denece wanted to sever ties with the family.  Denece found the money five years later in the big dictionary.

 

 

(1953 Edwin and Edwinna Perkins)

 

 

 

(1953 Denece and Edwinna Perkins)

 

 

(1953 Edwinna Perkins)