Try this on for Cy's

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An old schoolmate of mine, Herb Kavanaugh, lives in a Houston suburb he jokingly refers to as "Swamp City." He writes: "I Was doin' some looking around in the Swamp City Library yesterday and found some interesting items.

"Chic Young cranked up Blondie and Dagwood back on Sept 15, 1930 and FYI Blondie's maiden name was Blondie Boopadoop (really). Dagwood was a mild-mannered playboy and the son of a Railroad Tycoon. When the two got married, Dagwood's dad disinherited him.

"In the 1920 section of Chronicle of America it was learned that the Baby Ruth candy bar was named after President Grover Cleveland's daughter.

"In 1925, students at Yale University made the news by spinning tin pie plates across the dining hall with amazing accuracy. The pie plates which normally held pies baked by the Frisbe Baking Company of Bridgeport, Connecticut. became the flying objects launched by the young men.

Knowledge is a process of piling up facts; wisdom lies in their simplification. --Martin H. Fischer

""...Everyone seems to find God in Huntsville, and especially on Death Row. Well, that is wonderful; because they "found God" and "saw the light," they can enter his beautiful kingdom and, with all sincerity, apologize to those they murdered....

"I urge each of you to contact your representatives and encourage them to enact a Victims-Rights Amendment to the Constitution. It will be a small step with lasting effects." -- John P. Knight -- in a letter to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

My brother and I and another fellow were working at Methodist Hospital of Dallas back in about 1971. We used to take sack lunches and spend our lunch hour to drive around down Dallas looking at the sights. The area around the convention center was being cleared and we noticed a track that entered some steel doors which were slightly ajar.

We came back the next day with flashlights to explored the place. The tracks went back under downtown about two city blocks in a northward direction. Inside, there were several spurs into loading docks. The docks were dimly lighted and we could hear noises eminating from elevator doors that opened on to the docks.

It was a real eerie place and reminded us of the movie based on Jules Vern's book "Time Machine". The tracks were still in place, thought littered with debris from old shipping containers, and the switches all had electric lamps that hadn't been used in years. At the north end of the tunnel we could look up and see an opening in the east wall and daylight.

We later went up on the street level and at the north end, there was a large opening in the side of one of the buildings where you could look down at one of the loading docks and see the track. We figured it was a smoke hole or ventilation opening.

I have heard the bit about "fireless cookers" being used to switch the place, but I really wonder about this, since a cooker needs a source of superheated water to charge it with and the area doesn't seem vast enough to justify it (but who knows, it justified the building of a tunnel, didn't it?)

This month in 1869 at Promontory, Utah the Central Pacific and Union Pacific met at a predetermined site for the ceremonial completion of the first transcontinental railroad. Thomas Durant of the Union Pacific drove a golden spike into the last of UP's 1038 miles and Leland Stanford of the CP drove the final spike of their 742 miles.

Here is an excerpt from a letter by Jim Bassett, The Fort Worth Star-Telegram: "...The public needs to recognize, and act upon the recognition, that teachers are the foundation of a school system, and view the school board and administration as simply paint serving very little function other than public relations...." Having once been a teacher, I can attest that the system of rewards is upside down -- teachers are the most important and are paid the least.

1915 Rules for Teachers

1. You will not marry during the term of your contract.
2. You are not to keep company with men.
3. You must be home between the hours of 8 p.m. and 6 a.m. unless attending a school function.
4. You may not loiter downtown in ice cream stores.
5. You may not travel beyond city limits unless you have the permission of the chairman of the board.
6. You may not ride in a carriage or automobile with any man unless he is your father or brother.
7. You may not smoke cigarettes.
8. You may not dress in bright colors.
9. You may under no circumstances dye your hair.
10. You must wear at least two petticoats.
11. Your dresses must not be any shorter than two inches above the ankle.
12. To keep the school room neat and clean, you must: •sweep the floor at least once daily •scrub the floor at least once a week with hot, soapy water •clean the blackboards at least once a day •start the fire at 7 a.m. so the room will be warm by 8 a.m.

Cy Martin is a locomotive engineer at Centennial Yard in Fort Worth, Texas.

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