Wondering about wild grapes

Sunday, November 18, 2012

Wondering about paisley and colors.

I was reading a blog yesterday where a lady was replacing chair seats with a paisley pattern material.  There is something about paisley that I love.  Paisley can be in any colors but my favorite combination is blue and green.  I have been looking for a western style shirt in paisley but I guess cowboys don't wear paisley, BUT they do wear paisley vests.  Remember Maverick and other sharp dressed gamblers and dudes?  So, I have been looking for a paisley vest.

Now, as I said above, I do love paisley but sometimes it can be slightly over done.  A long time ago, I used to work for Pullman-Standard in Butler, PA and for some special occasion or a special customer request (my CRS is acting up and I cant remember) they painted a huge covered hopper rail road car blue and green paisley.  Oh heart, be still. . . what a sight!!  

Now, that wasn't the only rail road cars that we made there at Pullman-Standard that were not quite "standard" looking.  One time a customer (I think it was CARGILL) ordered a fleet of covered hoppers and wanted every one of them to be completely painted pink except for the black lettering identifying the car and the customer.  That, in my opinion, was not a pretty sight.  Pink rail road cars seems to be a sacrilege to me.  Back when I was a kid they all were black.  Maybe that is because of all the coal dust and smoke that was produced from those old coal burning steam engines.  Now, those were the days.

OK, I quit at Pullman after 17 years and moved on.  After a couple of moves to a different states, I wound up north of Fort Worth in Texas  Now, this was many years after the pink covered hoppers were made.  If you have ever been in that country you know that it is wide open and you can see for ever.  A few miles from my place there were RR tracks and one day I looked down there and saw a whole train, except for the engines and the caboose, made up of those pink rail road cars.  There was no escaping them.  They found me 2000 miles away!!!  Now, I hope I didn't ruin the last day in your weekend with pink RR cars, but try to have a great day anyway, you hear?

10 comments:

  1. But remember - it takes a real man to actually WEAR pink.

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  2. Does anyone remember....I think it was 1954 or '55.....pink and black shirts?? Yup, the old Billy Bob had one.

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  3. Bet BB had duck tails too,,,hahahaha,,,i even cut my hair in a flat top with them,,,started a new fad for girls,,
    Now, pink rail road cars,,wow. Trains came here, but it was the end of the line. No pink cars tho.

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  4. I can't imagine pink RR cars! Black seems to be a much better color!

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  5. Jill and Billy Bob, yes I remember, in fact I had a pink shirt and a pair of black pants with an inlaid stripe of pink down each leg and our class colors were pink and black.

    Trouble, I didn't ever have a flat top but did have the "duck's ass" style.

    HJ, we made at least a hundred of them, maybe more, so there should be some still around but most of them were probably repainted during maintaince.

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  6. Pink wasn't always considered a girl color. That was fairly recent.

    Love the rail car story.

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  7. I don't put a gender on any color. Of course being a male, I am partial to blue (grin).

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  8. I have never seen pink RR cars but it would be a sight to behold specially since I like pink :)

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  9. MsB, I don't know where they would be or if they are still pink. Let me know if you ever see any.

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