PAWPAW'S MESSAGES TO MY GRANDSONS 64 - Playing On The Trolley Ruins Above The Railroad Tracks

PAWPAW'S  MESSAGES TO MY GRANDSONS

Pawpaw loves Connor, Bryson and Archer!

I miss you guys so much. I hope you find these messages some day. I want you to know that I love you. I never left you. I was no longer allowed to visit you. I hope these messages help you know your Pawpaw and your family better. All my lover forever, Pawpaw

Playing On The Trolley Ruins Above The Railroad Tracks 

   Once upon a time in my hometown which was just big enough for two traffic lights downtown, there was a trolley that brought people from the big city of Canton about nine miles away. By the time that my family moved to Louisville, the trolley was just a distant memory and giant cement ruins were all that was left standing.

   These giant cement structures stood more than two stories high. In the early 1900s, the trolley track had connected the two structures and the trolleys crossed over two railroad tracks twenty-five feet below. Strangely, no government authority thought to fence off the trolley structure behind our home on the alley named Rear West Main Street. We kids would climb the big hill attached to the trolley structure and stand or sit on the edge of the cement ledge to watch the speeding trains pass below us. Some of the older kids were brave enough to sit on the edge with their legs dangling down as trains sped under us two stories below. Other older kids rode their minibikes and motorcycles on the top of the hill and showed their bravery by seeing who could skid to a stop closest to the edge.

   It wasn’t until I was in my late fifties that I discovered a newspaper article revealing that my great, great paternal grandfather J.W. Skelley had died in this very same spot! J.W. and two friends had traveled to from Canton to Louisville by the trolley. After some furniture shopping, they decided to visit several drinking establishments. According to the newspaper, J.W. and his friends were waiting for the trolley to return so they could travel back to Canton. Somehow, J.W. fell. He didn’t seem to have been hit by the trolley but he died immediately. He left behind nine children including my great grandfather Fred Skelley.

   How strange it is that I spent most of my childhood playing at the very same spot where my great, great grandfather lost his life in 1903.