Finding our way to The Way one situation at a time. I don't know how great it will be, but I expect it will be interesting, and I look forward to it going on past all reason because wonder is just that way. Are you coming or not?
This is a photograph of a postcard I took in the mid-eighties when we were living in Amory, Mississippi. Amory was built as a railroad town, halfway between Memphis and Birmingham, with a wheel house for repairs on locomotives, and it had a train flair with postcards and train fare in restaurants and shops, and this image caught my eye. I bought the postcard and took a picture of the picture and stored it on a hard drive which I was working with yesterday and discovered this image. Which led me to search for the person to took the original picture, which led me to online train sites which I contacted with this story. I will let you know if my inquiries lead to the photographer. I think their name needs to be associated with the image, and hope to be able to do that. It perfectly captures my idea of how a steam locomotive needs to be pictured for posterity.
The Mississippian 77, and its companion locomotive, The Mississippian 76, were active in the sixties. 77 ran a short route between Amory, Smithville and Fulton, Mississippi, and is probably still active as a tourist attraction somewhere in the US.
I'm retired, and still finding my way--but now, I don't have to pretend that I know what I'm doing.
I retired after 40.5 years as a minister in the Presbyterian Church USA, serving churches in Louisiana, Mississippi and North Carolina. I graduated from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, in Austin, Texas, and Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Louisiana. My wife, Judy, and I have three daughters, five granddaughters, one great granddaughter, and a great grandson on the way, within about ten minutes from where we live--and are enjoying our retirement as much as we have ever enjoyed anything.
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Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy 