Folks, we are gathered here today to observe the passing of one of America’s Great Men. God knows, America doesn’t have many of these, but this guy was the Greatest, and died one hundred years ago today.
Type-setter, river-boat pilot, failed silver miner and writer Samuel Langhorne Clemens — alright — Mark Twain entered the world in 1835, accompanied by Halley’s Comet, and left the world on its next passing, April 21st 1910.
I like to think it dropped him off for a while, and picked him up later. I never met him, but I met his creations Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, when I was a kid about the same age they were, and shared their adventures.
Great Americans… it’s just Twain, I think. And maybe Bugs Bunny.
Maybe you don’t remember the slow train, if you’re a kid of… let’s say fifty. They all disappeared after a guy called Dr Beeching, chairman of British Railways, said they weren’t needed any more, back in the early ’60′s.
Your editor’s brother George was hugely into trains and still is, to this day. Every weekend he’d go off train-spotting. These days, he’d be nicked by the local constabulary as a terrorist, but back then it was a respectable hobby. And when he’d ticked off every engine number in the country, he threw his train-spotter’s books away, bought another set and began again.
Your editor — though the outdoor type and constantly doing outdoor…stuff, never saw the trains the same way. What appealed to him was the architecture of the stations, the smells echoing down the platform (yes, smells can echo! ) and the station names; strange, magical names that carried the scents and sounds and poetry of England. And Michael Flanders and Donald Swann missed them too, as they trundled off into history…
Folks, we are gathered here today to observe the passing of one of America’s Great Men. God knows, America doesn’t have many of these, but this guy was the Greatest, and died one hundred years ago today.