[train whistle]
- Ella Dunbar: I was attached very much to the railroad
because it seemed to be a connection to the outside world.
If I could ever be down there in the evening
and look at that dining car, oh, I thought,
"Wouldn't that be a luxury?"
My thrill was to hear that conductor
after he threw his step up. - Conductor: All aboard!
- Ella: And while they were doing all this,
the engine was filling with water from the big water tank.
We had a group of boys.
Could they ever make a good barbershop chorus.
And they would climb up
and sit on the edge of that water tank, serenading.
The whole town could hear 'em at night.
So that's a memory that you would never get anywhere else
because the town would be quiet.
It was... Everybody listened for them.
♪ Daisy dear ♪