Recent reads

The Aldrich Saga, by Charles Dickerson. Anecdotes of a boyhood in a small Missouri town. This book came to my attention because Amazon’s “search inside the book” feature highlighted some textual references to the name of a railroad that I’m researching. The book does indeed include some information about the railroad’s operations through the town, including descriptions of the hobos that rode in and out of town on the freight cars, the author’s father’s sometime assignments as “boomer” telegrapher up and down the line, and a rare instance – in this part of the country – of a passenger train being stranded in a blizzard. (Could the events in this last instance be related to an Oct. 1952 reminiscence in Railroad Magazine stating that the line’s engines “had a hard time keeping up steam in cold weather”?)

Most of the book is an account of everyday life in this particular small town. Idyllic summer fishing, economic struggles, family tragedies both great and small are recounted alongside descriptions of the sometimes playful, sometimes raunchy, sometimes cruel tales and practical jokes with which the “loafers” of the town amused themselves.

The author’s commentary on contemporary politics, appended at the end of the book, seems out of place, although no one can dispute that since it’s his book, he certainly has the right to put it there.