Neil ALL THE LIVELONG DAY

THE THANKSGIVING WRECK AT WOODSTOCK
1. Auflage 2023
ISBN: 978-0-9787772-3-4
Verlag: Arboretum Publishing Company USA
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 194 Seiten

All the Livelong Day is a creative nonfiction narrative by Richard Neil detailing theThanksgiving Wreck at Woodstock,on November 25, 1951. The true account is narrated by the son of the fireman on Southern Railway's Second 47, The Crescent, southbound from Birmingham to Meridian, Mississippi to New Orleans. The story details the train wreck and the characters involved, The Greatest Generation of post-World War II. The author is a forester and describes the southern flora as well as the Klamath National Forest mountains of Northern California. The book begins with the author being stationed in Eddy Gulch Fire Tower in summer of 2021, a summer of intense wildfire. He returns home to Red Mountain in Birmingham, Alabama, on a perch below Vulcan, a cast iron statue of the god of forge and metalworking. The story is told from there, beginning on morning of the wreck. In fine detail, the narrative tells of the fireman's ride to Birmingham Terminal Station and of the train ride south, a ride onboard engine, until the trains meet head-on in Woodstock. The fireman's wife and brothers drive from Woodlawn, a community in Birmingham, to Woodstock on night of the wreck to try to find out who's alive and who isn't. National Transportation Safety Board transcripts allow the participants to tell their story in their own words using their actual testimony.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Neil, Richard

Inhaltsverzeichnis

All the Livelong Day, the Thanksgiving Wreck at Woodstock, details a head-on 1951 passenger train collision. It tells a story of a fireman onboard one engine and his wife, how their life got there, transpires, and how it changes and sometimes remains unchanged. All the Livelong Day is creative nonfiction by this fireman's son, born months after his father's wreck. A narrative account begins with author Richard Neil in a U. S. Forest Service Fire Tower on Eddy Gulch in Northern California, and his story follows him as he returns home to Birmingham, Alabama, where on another mountain, Red Mountain, a new place of perspective, below a massive cast iron statue of Vulcan, god of forge and metal working, Neil tells his and his father's and mother's story.
Chapters:

Eddy Gulch-- Author prologue description of mountains, geology, flora, wildfires of Northern California
Never Speak Harsh Words--Day of wreck, November 25, 1951 details from home, through Birmingham to now demolished Birmingham Terminal Station
Casey Jones Hand on the Throttle--Fireman Robert Gambrell arrives early at station and explores Birmingham Terminal Station as he awaits his train's departure through Woodstock to Tuscaloosa, Merdian, Hattiesburg, and New Orleans.
Birmingham to Woodstock--ride in engine with crew as they pass through Birmingham on their way to Woodstock.
Bad News Travels Like Wildfire--News of a train wreck reaches Gerry, Robert's wife, her parents, their kids in Woodlawn, a community in Birmingham.
Good News Travels Slow--Gerry and Robert's brothers ride to Woodstock, battling throngs of onlookers, to site of wreck, to find out who's alive and who isn't.
Clarity--National Transportation Safey Board transcripts and exact testimony tell a catastrophic train wreck's causes, life or death decisions and actions and outcomes. Participants tell it in their own words.
I Come to Testify--A second and final day of testimony in a packed hearing room in Birmingham.
Cottage' Neath Live Oak Tree--A chapter title as a quote from Thompson, one of many poetic allusions in All the Livelong Day--from Browning to Keats to Dickinson to Henly to Kipling. A party closes months altered by mindless error and a deadly wreck.
Caboose--Death and life go on, the 1950's and 20th Century pass away while Neil, author of All the Livelong Day, rides rails of a new millennium, around the world, across North America--Canada and the USA--before one final pass through Woodstock.

Über Autor(innen)

Neil, Richard
Richard Neil holds degrees in Political Science from the University of Alabama and Forest Management from Auburn University. He has worked with private industry, the U. S. Forest Service, the U. S. Bureau of Land Management, and as a civilian for the U. S. Air Force in Alabama, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, and California. He currently splits time between Alabama and Northern California.