Local Memoirs

Memoir #1

By Arthur McKew - It is great!!  I am so proud of all the work you all have done. I never realized how bad the building was when you started rebuilding.
I spent a lot of time at the depot, a lot more then most people. When I was in the third grade and for three or four years I was at the depot to meet the first train in from Boston. That train brought the mail and more importantly the AnnPage bakery products for the A&P store. Thr bakery products came vis Railway Express. I helped the station master load the products on a small trailer behind his 1940 Chevy coupe. There was always a broken donut box so Don Messer or Bill Devine (managers of the A&P store) passed then around to the station master and good old Art McKew.  I then ran to the Post Office and the mail would be out by that time. In case you never heard the term "the mail would be out, it means the mail is in the PO box." Our Boston Globe came by mail and the post master always put it in our mail box # 3 so I could take it home to dad. Talk about trust in those days, our mail box was opened by a key and we had the key hanging around the corner from the mail box. There was an old guy, I don't rember his name, brought the mail from the train to the post office, every day, every train, rain or shine or a foot of snow. Once in a while I would send a letter (envelope) to myself in the morning. The Post Office people, as a favor to me, would put it in the out going mail. I would get the letter back on the afternoon train. I am sure you know that the mail was sorted on the train.
I will put this story in the TTN.
Congratulation on the web sight, I have read it three times and it is only 8:30 am in TN

Memoir #2

By Sharon McKew King, Pisgah Forest, NC - Congratulations on a wonderful web site and on the great job you are doing in renovating the Troy Railroad Station. I enjoyed all the articles and the great pictures. I hope more people write in with their memories of the station and the trains.
 
I have many memories of the train going through town. It also ran next to the school, so we heard the "train sounds" day&night.
 
Growing up on High Street, we were just a short way from the railroad bridge by the Post Office. When we would hear a train coming, we ( my sister and I and some of the other neighborhood kids) would run for the bridge so we would be standing on it when the train went under. The engineer would wave and sound the whistle. At that time, in the early 1950's, the bridge floor was wood, so the smoke would come up through the cracks. That was the most fun, standing there and getting covered with smoke and soot! If we could bring back the steam engines, I would do it again!!
 
I also remember riding the train to Keene on a Saturday morning to use the library when I had a project to work on and needed resources that were not available in the Troy library. I wish I could do that again!!